BASEBALL

There was quite a blowout in Philadelphia.  The Phillies have been struggling as of late, but they sure made up for those woes last night against the Cincinnati Reds.  To start things off, in the first inning alone they put up 10 runs.  That, in itself, would be considered a blowout.  But the Phillies weren’t done.  They put up 6 more runs in the next 3 innings to make it a 16-1 lead.  You would think they would calm down, but nope… because in the bottom of the 8th inning, Jayson Werth hit a GRAND SLAM!!  That, plus 2 additional runs, handed the Reds their worst loss in franchise history.  Philadelphia 22, Cincinnati 1.

BASKETBALL

In the NBA, some fun free agent news.  The Lakers Trevor Ariza, who was absolutely instrumental for the Lakers championship run, had decided he would explore the free-agent waters.  Well, he chose the Houston Rockets, but in a last ditch effort to sign him, the Cleveland Cavaliers sent out their big guns to recruit him.  And even though they lost, they got some great news.

Here’s what happened.  LeBron James called Trevor Ariza, and pleaded for him to come and join the Cavs.  But more notably was LeBron’s logic, which was “I’m staying in Cleveland past 2010.”  This would send the signal to Ariza that they could become a dynasty, but more notably was the first verbal signal that the Cavs would keep James, and also that big markets like New York and New Jersey (soon to be Brooklyn) wouldn’t be getting him.  Sure, they are just words, and words to persuade at that, but at least some Cavs fans will be able to sleep well tonight.  Even if that is the only night of good sleep they get.

Finally, a little more NBA news.  As stated before, the summer of 2010 is going to be a very interesting off-season for the NBA, because many of their big names are free agents.  One of them… Dwayne Wade.  And yesterday he publicly stated that he will stay in Miami for his career, but wants to see that the Heat are taking steps to make them a contender.  Clearly the pieces aren’t in place for the Heat to compete with the likes of the Cavs, Celtics, or Magic, but at the same time Dwayne Wade is among the top 5 players in the league.  He’s a valuable asset and the Heat organization should take advantage of that.  We’ll have to see what moves the Miami front office makes this summer to keep Wade happy.