Rotoworld: Oregon RB LaMichael James and Oklahoma State WR Justin Blackmon among top 10 players who are being overhyped for the 2012 draft.
SportsTalk: Albert Pujols signs with the Angels and Prince Fielder joins the Tigers. Which team is better now?
The Detroit Red Wings equaled an NHL record with their 20th straight win at home, beating the Philadelphia Flyers 4-3 Sunday night on the strength of Johan Franzen's tiebreaking goal early in the third period.
PBT: Boston's Rajon Rondo continues to be named in trade talks, which is madness. The Celtics guard creates offense and makes everyone around him better, which was evident in Sunday's win over the Bulls.
Arc: Syracuse is among a solid group of No. 1 seeds in our latest tournament projections, but the middle of the pack is much more murky.
Miami coach Al Golden says the worst is behind him, but his headaches figure to continue now that former booster Nevin Shapiro, now in jail, says his involvement with the Hurricanes program will result in stiff penalties.
Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods greeted their Sunday pairing at Pebble Beach with optimism. But the day would end happily only for one.
The United States completed a 5-0 rout of Switzerland in the Davis Cup on Sunday, with 19-year-old Ryan Harrison and John Isner winning closing singles matches.
Zambia has won the African Cup of Nations, beating pre-tournament favorite Ivory Coast 8-7 on penalties in a dramatic final at Stade de l'Amitie.
Tessa Worley of France fought off gusting winds to win a second consecutive World Cup giant slalom Sunday in the Andorran Pyrenees. Overall leader Lindsey Vonn was more than a second behind and finished eighth.
Robins: It’s the Year of the Dragon on the Lunar calendar, and this Chinese influence could extend to it also being the year of the Pekingese on the green carpet at the 136th Westminster Dog Show on Tuesday.
AP
FORT MYERS, Fla. - Fans flock for his autograph. Cameras record his simplest moves. Batters look for his mysterious “gyroball” — if it even exists. He’s just one of hundreds of rookies at baseball spring training camps this year, but he’s swooned over like a rock star.
Matsuzaka Mania slammed into spring training at full force and hasn’t let up.
“He’s got a whole different gig going,” Red Sox ace Curt Schilling said.
Japanese star Daisuke Matsuzaka — with the catchy “Dice-K” nickname that’s made for the spotlight — has turned small stadiums from one Florida coast to the other into meccas for the media.
“I never had a player generate this interest,” said Boston’s vice president of media relations, John Blake, who did the same job for the Texas Rangers when they had Alex Rodriguez and Nolan Ryan.
At one road game where Matsuzaka pitched, reporters had to sit on folding chairs in foul territory because the press box was too small. For his next start Friday at the Los Angeles Dodgers, a signup sheet for traveling media was posted Monday night. Within a half-hour, it had 50 names on it, 45 from Japanese outlets.
Even fans have trouble getting into Matsuzaka’s games.
“We were hoping he wouldn’t pitch so we’d have a better chance of getting tickets,” said Jeanni Trout of Orlando as she waited in a box office line last Sunday with her husband and three sons.
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Manager Terry Francona sees it all — Matsuzaka’s outstanding pitching, the hour he spends signing autographs, the respectful rapport he’s developed with teammates — and says simply, “He’s got IT.”
And everyone seems to want a piece of it.
On Feb. 12 at Tampa International Airport, 17 photographers and 10 TV cameramen — nearly all from Japanese outlets and some waiting three hours — covered Matsuzaka’s arrival in Florida. Last Sunday, his game was televised before dawn in Japan.
When a team invests more than $103 million in a pitcher — huge money even in a sport that showers riches on run-of-the-mill players — people notice. Especially if that pitcher has been a star since high school in another baseball-crazy country.
Matsuzaka pitched Yokohama High to the national championship in 1998 with a no-hitter in the final game.
The next season, he was rookie of the year in Japan’s Pacific League. After eight years with the Seibu Lions and last year’s World Baseball Classic in which he was MVP, he became a free agent.
Boston bid $51.11 million just for the right to negotiate with him. Then, after talks went down to the wire, he agreed on a $52 million, six-year contract.
Tourism officials have seen just a “sprinkling” of Japanese visitors, although two from Tokyo came specifically to see Matsuzaka pitch, said Nancy Hamilton, spokeswoman for the Lee County Visitor and Convention Bureau.
The bureau printed materials in Japanese, and she expects their numbers to grow next year.
Matsuzaka has six outstanding pitches and, perhaps, a “gyroball” that adds to his allure. It is baseball’s version of the Loch Ness Monster — it may or may not exist — but just the thought of it can be scary.
“The pitch that he throws that some might think is that pitch is his change-up,” pitching coach John Farell said. “He turns the ball over so it has some screwball action to it, but I think the gyroball is still somewhat of a legend.”
Matsuzaka is very coy about it.
Asked if two homers he allowed in Sunday’s 5-3 loss to the Baltimore Orioles came on gyroballs, Matsuzaka thought, grinned and replied through an interpreter, “Ask the batters.”
About a month earlier, nine TV satellite trucks were parked in front of City of Palms Park where the Red Sox play — blocking the view of a Ted Williams statue — when the 26-year-old right-hander held his first formal news conference in Florida.
“The first year when I played professionally in Japan, the first spring training, many members of the media showed up,” he said. “So I’m not surprised.”
And, he said, “I honestly apologize” if teammates become disturbed by the media crush.
“There’s 200 (media) people here just for him,” Schilling said, “and he gives off the impression that he doesn’t want to be an inconvenience to other people.”
SportsTalk: Albert Pujols signs with the Angels and Prince Fielder joins the Tigers. Which team is better now?
HBT: Prince Fielder is gone and Ryan Braun will likely miss a third of the season because of a failed PED test. Can Milwaukee stay in contention until he gets back?
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It's Dice-K fever among Red Sox fans March 13: NBC's Kerry Sanders checks out the Dice-K fan craze taking hold among Boston Red Sox fans. |
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Zambia has won the African Cup of Nations, beating pre-tournament favorite Ivory Coast 8-7 on penalties in a dramatic final at Stade de l'Amitie.
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The Red Wings have finally started to embrace a record they've been chasing.
