Recent Sports Thoughts From Rich

Bartolo Colon continues to amaze me and people around baseball. The 38-year old veteran pitcher, now with the Oakland Athletics, threw 38 consecutive pitches for strikes Wednesday night leading his team to a 6-0 win, over the Angels. And this is the same pitcher who the New York Yankees refused to pay $2 million more for another year?

Say what you want. Colon does not resemble a Major League Baseball pitcher with the pudgy appearance on the mound. But, as seen last year with the Yankees, Colon throws consistent strikes and still manages to have some velocity on the fastball, also using a nasty changeup in between.

The streak went from the second pitch in the fifth inning until the seventh. Colon is 3-1, showing no signs of quit. Baseball is determining if the accomplishment is a record and should have an answer in the next day or so. Regardless, how many 38-year old men can be as consistent throwing a baseball?

Colon, the Dominican Republic native, always a subject of using anabolic steroids, because of a bad right arm, has always refuted those claims and there has never been a positive test to confirm the allegations. So keep throwing strikes Bartolo. This is quite an accomplishment and for your age, motivation to keep going….
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So, two weeks into the baseball season and you have to be impressed with the Los Angeles Dodgers. They are hitting the ball with authority, getting good pitching and it seems Matt Kemp, who finished second in the National League
MVP award for 2011, is on to a record breaking season. He hit his 7th home run Thursday night and Andre Eithier is also ganging the ball making this Dodgers duo a west coast Murders Row….
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New York Knicks clinch a playoff seed. Here is another thought. As a 7th or 8th seed out of the east they would get, as it appears now to be, Chicago or Miami in the first round of the playoffs. Sixth seed is out of the question with four games remaining. If you are the Knicks, do you really want Miami? Even if they draw the Bulls and advance, New York never gets by the Heat even if Carmelo Anthony is playing their best basketball of the season…
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Kobe Bryant returns to the Los Angeles Lakers lineup Friday night against the San Antonio Spurs. The bad shin, which kept him off the court for six games, is healthy and Kobe is well rested which is bad for teams in the west. Because a healthy Kobe knows what to do with the ball late in the fourth quarter Lakers will do fine in the post season because Kobe knows this is his team and his time of year…
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Impressed with the Phoenix Suns playoff run, another dramatic win over the Clippers Thursday night in Phoenix and it could come down to the Suns-Spurs game in the desert next Thursday night, the final game of this abbreviated season,
to determine if they are playoff bound as a final seed in the west. Problem is, Phoenix can’t find a way to defeat the Spurs….
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Happy 100th Birthday t Fenway Park in Boston, the old venue where watching a baseball game still has tradition… Oh, is there any doubt that Brock Lesnar and The Rock will meet at WrestleMania XXVIIII (29), I think, next April at Met Life Stadium in the Meadowlands swamp of New Jersey?...

Any doubt that Andrew Luck will be the first round pick of the Colts in the NFL draft next Thursday night? And any doubts about Floyd Mayweather Jr? There is no doubt that Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao will never meet. Or is there a
possibility they will fight, as this continues to be the only hot and continuing topic for the sport of boxing.
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E-Mail Rich Mancuso: Ring786@aol.com Watch and listen to Rich Thursday nights, 5-7pm www.Inthemixxradio,com live. Also log on the fan page: facebook.com/Keep it in the Ring and the group page for discussions.

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