Stay Classy

Upon losing to Manny Mayers at Saturday's Shore Conference triple jump, Freehold Township jumper Marcus Goode's reaction could be summed up by Ron Burgandy's words to his dog Baxter after Baxter ate the entire wheel of cheese in Anchorman: "I'm not even mad. I'm impressed."

Goode appeared more honored than discouraged about losing to Mayers (you can't be too mad if you jump 44-2), exchanging pleasantries with Mayers after the event while looking as if he just won it.

Such has been the overall take on the Lakewood standout throughout the Shore Conferece. Mayers has been, unequivocally, the best athelte at the Shore Conference gatherings, and if not for Craig Forys' record-setting season, my choice for APP Athlete of the Year would already be made.

But with Forys running near four-minute miles and Charles Cox getting pissed off (more on that in Saturday's notebook), Mayers has not locked up anything. But as of right now, Mayers has ran, hurdled, and leaped his way to the front of the athlete of the year discussion, and his performance over the last two weekends has had me looking for a way to avoid giving him athlete of the week. I may have no choice but to give it to him this week, even though I already gave it to him for his Penn Relays win and could still be forced to consider him for one of his State performances.

It's a dilemma of sorts, but then again, how do I not give it to him this week? Mayers broke two meet records on Saturday, while no one else even won two events. While many athletes were resting by running one (i.e. Kerone Rhoden, the Jackson distance runners) or no events (Forys, Ashley Higginson), Mayers "rested" by competing in three (he was signed up for five and deciding not do do a fourth in order to save his legs). We usually try to spread the wealth when it comes to athletes of the week in all sports, but when you're good you're good.

This weekend should be interesting, especially in Central Jersey Group III, where Charles Cox and Kerone Rhoden will meet in the 200-meter dash again. The two have developed a pretty intense rivalry over the last couple of weeks, and it continues at Monmouth High School on Friday and Saturday.

Mayers will attempt his third straight weekend triple, this time at the state level. Piners coach Skip Edwards said Mayers would be entered in five events again this weekend, and would decide what he wanted to do on the day of the meet, as he did this past Saturday.

In Central Group IV at Hillsborough High School, Jackson should do well in the 800-3200, and Craig Forys will win what he feels like running.

I'll preview the five sectional meets that will feature Shore Conference athletes in this Saturday's notebook. Keep an eye out for that and more as the week progresses.

Shore Meet Postponed

Friday's Shore Conference events have been postponed to Saturday, and will start at 10 a.m. Tournament officials are hoping to complete the entire meet tomorrow, but that's up the weather more than anything. Sunday track is a possibility, and judging by the weather report, a probability.

Shore Conference Seeds

The seeds for this weekend's Shore Conference Championship Meet are out. Here's the link.

http://www.sctnf.com/index.php?f=MeetResults/Out/07/shore/seedsboys

After glancing through the seeds, my first question is this: On what planet did those Asbury Park kids get those seed jumps? A 124-foot triple jump? A 55-foot long jump? Are their home meets on the moon? I've printed some strange things myself, but I'd probably hold off on printing a jump that was three times better than the next best jump.

That next-best jump happens to be Emanuel Mayers, who before the seeding meeting, looked to have a good shot at winning four events this weekend. Well, add one onto that possibility, because the Lakewood senior is entered five indivdual events this weekend. On top of the two hurdles events, the triple, and the long jump, Mayers will take on the Cox brothers in the 400-meter dash. Logic suggests he will scratch from something, but if anyone can give five first-place-quality performances at a meet like this, it's Mayers.

No Kerone Rhoden in the 100? I'll need to look into that one.

Middletown South has some serious speed in the 3,200. I'm going to go out on a limb and guess those are typos.

As expected, Craig Forys has the meet off. The mile is wide open, and the 800 and 3,200 should be close races too.

The weather is supposed to be crummy this weekend, and there's a chance this meet could be a one-day affair. We're supposed to have a decision on that front by noon on Friday.

He Has Returned

One of the major benefits of working in a sports department of a newspaper is that your superiors will generally tolerate sports-related distractions. The reason everyone in this office is in this business is that we can't get enough sports, to the point that we're all pretty meniachal about our teams. We all have our moments when we have to stop and watch the next pitch, possession, down, power play, etc.

Tonight is my night to be distracted, for the King has returned! Felix Hernandez toes the rubber tonight for the first time since April 18th, when he left a start against Minnesota in the first inning with tightness in his pitchin elbow.

Ever since he came up in the summer of 2005, Felix has gererated a buzz for his games, a buzz that not only dwarfs anything his mates in the staring rotation can conjur up, but dwarfs everthing else in that particular game. If you saw his one-hit gem against Boston earlier this year, you know what I'm talking about. Since he got hurt, the M's have played hard and stayed in the hunt, but the games don't have the same feeling when you don't have a sure-fire, shutdown performace every fifth day.

After watching the big fella take his warm ups, that feeling that's been missing for the past four weeks returned. He's only going to throw 70-80 pitches tonight, which will only get him through about five innings, but I'm expecting five of the best innings I'll watch all year. (Then again, with Orlando Cabrera hitting third and Gary Matthews, Jr. hitting clean-up, why can't Felix go 7-8 innings?)

Felix Hernandez is back and the AL is back on notice.

Long live the King.

Tuesday Round Up

The division races officially ended Tuesday, with Rumson and Monsignor Donovan capping undefeated seasons to win their respective divisions.

Mon Don beat Lakewood 115-25 to win its first ever division title. Outside of Manny Mayers and two ties (in the 100 and 1600), the Griffins won every event.

Rumson won twice in a tri-meet with Asbury Park and Point Beach, beating the Bishops 104-27 and the Gulls 100-31. Alex Smith won the high jump, javelin, and discus for the Dogs, and Christian Pittineo (hurdles) and John Brodsky (100, long jump) each won two events.

There was some dispute as to whether Asbury Park beat Beach or if the two tied. Instead of running a result, the two sides will sort it out and the result will run this weekend. Asbury could finish 4-3 and 3-3 in the division with a win, which would cap a nice year for them.

With all six division races in the books, this is the first time since 2003 that the Shore Conference has had six undefeated division champs.

Monday Results

Colts Neck beat Middletown South 84-56 to officially win Class A North. Both teams got a lot of their younger talent some action today, with a lot of regulars either working minimally, or not working at all.

Southern picked up two division wins against Toms River East and Brick Memorial. Southern assistant Ryan Maher didn't have an exact score of the TRE-Southern meet, and I haven't heard back from East coach Rob Roma yet, but Maher said it was 80-something to 50-something. Southern wraps up its year at 6-1 and the Raiders capped a 4-3 season with the loss and win over Brick Memorial.

Monsignor Donovan can win B South tomorrow with a win over Lakewood.

Ocean County Notes

Even in a year that Monmouth County has the better times on the whole, the Ocean County Championships turned out to be the more compelling meet.

Monmouth's champions posted better times than their Ocean counterparts in 11 of the 16 contested events, with Vinnie Elardo (discus and the shot put) and Emanuel Mayers (both hurdles and the triple jump) accounting for the five Ocean County advantages.

But with the exception of the 100 and 200, the eye-popping times in Monmouth came at the expense of any kind of drama. Craig Forys won his races handily, but wasn't pushing for any state records like he has already done on several occasions this year. Charles Cox and Kerone Rhoden of RBR but on a great show in the 100, but despite a close rematch there was little doubt that Cox was going to get his revenge on Rhoden in the 200. Cox is too good to lose twice in the same day, and in defense of Rhoden, he's probably would have won the 200 if Cox beat him in the 100.

Meanwhile, in Ocean County, the meet's most oustanding athlete displayed a degree of showmanship to go with his athleticism. Granted, that showmanship was derived from a shoddy job of spotting the high hurdles, which led to Emanuel Mayers falling on his face halfway through the race, it still added some drama to the second running of the event.

As soon as he went down, visions of the Penn Relays had to be dashing through Mayers' mind. He won thanks in part to a stumble by the leader (Johnny Dutch) and when he nearly suffered the same fate as Dutch, it seemed karma had come back to bite Mayers.

"I guess it was kind of like Penn," Mayers said after the race. "I figured I lost so I just wanted to go ice my calf and get ready for the next race (the 400 hurdles). Johnny Dutch seemed like he was more affected by it (when it happened at Penn), but I was already over it. I'm still glad they let us do it again, but I was okay either way."

After breezing through the 400 hurldes, Mayers won the long jump in surprising fashion by passing Toms River North's Dave Stone on the final jump. Lakewood's senior will likely be the favorite in the two hurdles events and the triple jump at the Shore Conference Championships this week, and will have a good chance to win the long jump as well. If he can manage four wins next week, he would be the first person to win four individual events at the Shore Conference Meet in the last decade. (After some preliminary research, I haven't found anyone that's done it yet, but I'd imagine there has to be some precedent, I'll keep looking, but does anyone know the last time someone won four events?)

Rounding out the Ocean County Meet, Andrew Dunbar was king of the sprints and beat A.J. Gilman in the 200 after each had already had a victory under his belt. Dunbar comfortably won the 100 in 11.02 and Gilman ran a personal best 49.32 to edge out John Gray in the 400, setting up a showdown for sprint supremecy in th 200. Dunbar came through with a time of 22.37, slightly better than his prelim time of 22.44. Gilman on the other hand, ran a 22.43 finals time after a 21.82 prelim.

"I'd say fatigue was probably an issue,'' said Gilman, who ran the 100 and 400 earlier in the meet. "I really went all out to break 50 in the 400. I was pretty pumped about that, and I had some trouble turning back around and running another good 200."

For his part, Dunbar responded well to the challenge Saturday, but it would have been interesting to see if he could have knocked more off his time had Gilman run faster. Still, a two-event win and a successful defense of his 2006 100-meter dash championship is reason to be proud.

"I feel very satisfied right now," Dunbar said. "It's something I can go home to Manchester and tell my friends and family about. I'm happy to win and I'm looking forward to next week (Shore Conference)."

Andrew Brodeur avenged his loss to Kris Carle in the 1,600 by beating Jackson's distance specialist in the 3,200. Brodeur trailed by a significant margin after the first mile, but like any experienced distance runner in the area will tell you, Brodeur has an exceptional kick down the stretch and he showed it Saturday. He has had some injury problems since his freshman year, so winning at the county meet was a big accomplishment for Brodeur.

Monroe Kearns ran the same time in his county win that he did during his Penn Relays split (1:55.1). John Gray looked like he was going to pass him, but Kearns showed he could run with Gray by shifting to another gear to close the race. The win wasn't a surprise, but I found it to be one of the more impressive performances of the meet.

The Ocean shot and discus were much better than that of Monmouth County, and Vinnie Elardo was head and shoulders above the Ocean field. Elardo seems to be the only weightman who has found his groove, and even he'll tell you he hasn't hit his peak performance yet. If that's true, he should take home two more gold medals this weekend as well.

Brian Doran of Toms River South scratched from the javelin, opening the door for Greg Huneke to win with a personal best throw of 169-2.

Rick Villanova won the polevault at 13-0 without much of a challenge. I'm looking forward to catching some of the Shore Conference pole vault with Mike Goldwasser of Manalapan and Chris Favaloro of St. John Vianney all going at it. All three have cleared 14 feet, and if the conditions allow for it, they could all do it this weekend.

Keep an eye out for more coverage of the Shore Conference Meet this week, as well as the Late Mothers Day edition of Sunday Sports.

Ocean County Results

Here are the reults from the Ocean County Championships, with some additional detail and thoughts.

TEAM SCORES
1. Jackson 32; 2. Lacey 20; 3. TR North 14; 4. TR South 12; 5. Central 11; 6. Lakewood 10; 7. TR East 9; 8. Brick Mem. 8; 9. Southern 4; 10. Point Beach 2; 11. (tie) Point Boro, Monsignor Donovan 1.

FINALS
1,600: 1. Carle (Jackson) 4:20.57; 2. Brodeur (Brick Mem.) 4:20.75; 3. Fenimore (Jackson) 4:22.11; 4. Kearns (Jackson) 4:23.66; 5. Bocchino (TR East) 4:25.34; 6. Coles (Donovan) 4:26.26.

High Jump: 1. Provaznik (Lacey) 6-2; 2. Stone (TR North) 6-2; 3. Rutherford (TR East) 6-0; 4. Aponte (Jackson) 6-0; 5. Caporusso (Southern) 6-0; 6. Prince (TR East) 5-10.

Triple Jump: 1. Mayers (Lakewood) 44-5; 2. Thompson (Jackson) 43-9 1/2; 3. Stone (TR North) 42-4 1/2; 4. Whitfield (TR South) 42-2•; 5. Smith (Point Beach) 41-8; 6. Colfax (Central) 41-0.

Discus: 1. Elardo (Lacey) 170-3; 2. Park (TR South) 168-0; 3. Plummer (Central) 164-5; 4. Shepard (Central) 148-10; 5. Stroffolino (Southern) 146-9; 6. Guadenzi (Point Boro) 137-8.

PRELIMINARIES
Top Eight Advance to Finals on Saturday

100: 1. (tie) Medina (Donovan), Dunbar (Manchester) 11.07; 3. Gilman (TR North) 11.09; 4. Alexander (Lakewood) 11.27; 5. Bruno (Donovan) 11.32; 6. Nurundeen (Jackson) 11:46; 7. Pagan (Jackson Liberty) 11.51; 8. Morgan (Lakewood) 11.55.

200: 1. Gilman (TR North) 21.82; 2. Dunbar (Manchester) 22.44; 3. Gray (Southern) 22.48; 4. Nurundeen (Jackson) 22.68; 5. Medina (Donovan) 22.69; 6. Alexander (Lakewood) 22.99; 7. Newman (TR North) 23.04; 8. Bruno (Donovan) 23.07.

400: 1. Gray (Southern) 50.03; 2. Brown (Pinelands); 3. Gilman (TR North) 50.62; 4. Cappello (Donovan) 51.28; 5. Pierson (Lacey) 51.56; 6. Brown (Jackson) 51.82; 7. Frye (Point Boro) 52.17; 8. Kwak (Point Beach) 52.33.

110 hurdles: 1. Mayers (Lakewood) 14.59; 2. Rutherford (TR East) 14.71; 3. Seddon (Southern) 15.19; 4. Terry (TR South) 15.60; 5. Stone (TR North) 15.67; 6. Hinetach (Jackson) 15.68; 7. Cintron (Barnegat) 15.74; 8. Ensor (Donovan) 15.76.

400 hurdles: 1. Mayers (Lakewood) 55.14; 2. Rutherford (TR East) 56.90; 3. Lucey (Central) 57.30; 4. Garay (Pinelands) 57.90; 5. Tarantino (TR North) 58.00; 6. Terry (TR South) 58.38; 7. Carney (Southern) 59.03; 8. Kelley (TR North) 59.11.

The 1,600 was the best race of the day, mostly because it was the only championship race of the day. The Jackson trio of Kris Carle, Ryan Fenimore, and Monroe Kearns were out in front for most of the race, with Fenimore leading most of the way. Brick Memorial's Andrew Brodeur came on strong in the end to break up the potential 1-2-3 finish and almost caught Carle in the final 200 meters. But Carle's last 400 was excellent, as he passed Fenimore and moved way out ahead of the pack before Brodeur made his move.

From the looks of things, the 100 and 200 should be interesting on Saturday. Andrew Dunbar of Manchester had a really nice showing in the 100, and probably would have run a little faster if he was in a more challenging heat. A.J. Gilman is going to be tough to beat in both of the short sprints. Based on his strong finish to the 100 and his 21.82 200 time, Gilman is great with head of steam, but might need to improve his start to win the 100.

Dunbar could pull off a nice little upset here. He's been running county-level times this year, but Dunbar himself was surprised to earn one- and two-seed in the two events. He even said he feels a little underrated in the grand scheme of things. Don't be surprised if he steals the 100.

In the feel-good department, Josh Pagan of Jackson Liberty cracked the finals of the 200 with a time of 11.51. The program has not yet reched official varsity status, but Pagan is officially on the Ocean County map as a sprinter.

Manny Mayers should cruise to two hurdles wins, but Chris Rutherford of TR East gave him a pretty good fight in the 110 hurdles. When Mayers runs, the look on his face looks more like that of a high school student trying to solve a math problem than an athlete pushing himself to victory. It just comes that easy to him.

I saw some of the high jump, and judging by the some of the early jumps I thought the top jump would be better than 6-2, but the wind picked up and jumps went down. Provaznik cleared 6-0 really easily, and it looked like 6-4 would not be a problem. But 6-2 presented more of a problem and he ended up clearing it on his last try before he and Stone missed on 6-4.

Vinnie Elardo out-threw Patrick Park of Toms River South and James Plummer of Central and is starting to feel a little better about his performance. A foot injury has limited him this year and while he says he doesn't feel as good as last year, the 170-3 he threw Wednesday is a season best.

Be back with more tomorrow from the Monmouth County Championships.

Ocean County Championships

I'm heading to the Ocean County Championships at Neptune. If I can get any kind of wireless connection there, I'll provide updates on the blog. If I can't, there probably won't be a blog entry until much later (around 11 p.m.).

Reflections

Here are some additional thoughts of those involved in Colts Neck's monumental 93-47 win over CBA.

"We're hoping to get to where they are, although I'm pretty sure we're not going to go undefeated for the next decade." - Colts Neck coach Jim Schlentz on his team trying to reach CBA's winning tradition.

"It's a great feeling from a team standpoint. Something like this is huge for the program and it shows everyone that it's not just me and Ashley (Higginson) here, but there are some great runners and great athletes, and Coach Schlentz is earning the reputation as somone who can coach those athletes." - Craig Forys, who won the 800, 1600, and the 3200.

"We all knew that if we were going to win today, everybody was going to have to have a big meet. We give it 110 percent event, and today some of us had to do a little more...CBA has so much tradition so you have to throw everything you can at them. It was important for us to get off to a good start and keep coming. It's a big step for the program and we're proud to be a part of it." - Matt Sullivan, who won the 400 hurdles and the 200.

"They might be the best team in the state, and there's no shame in losing to the best team in the state. I mean, when your guy (Mike Slater) runs a 1:57.9 in the 800 and finishes third, what can you do? For a dual meet to have three guys running that fast is pretty impressive." - CBA coach Karl Torchia

In the weeks and days leading up to the meet, you got the sense that Colts Neck was going to take care of business, but not even Schlentz could have foreseen this kind of drubbing. Colts Neck looked to be on track for a blowout win early, but with CBA opposing them, they continued to play it like a close meet just to make sure nothing crazy happened. Against other teams, it would have been running up the score, but against the Colts, it's just playing it safe.

Now the Colts Neck roster gets two days to recoup before taking their act to Neptune High for the Monmouth County Championships. Beating Monmouth won't be easy, and it will even be a little weird trying. Monmouth and Colts Neck have opposite strengths on the track, so you won't see them actually battling for points with each other during any single race. It will probably come down to the field events.

CBA, Shore Surrender Their Thrones

Colts Neck and Rumson-Fair Haven won their respective divisions Tuesday, but it wasn't so much that they won, but rather who they beat to do it.

Colts Neck handed CBA its first dual meet loss since 1996 and, according to Colts Neck coach Jim Schlentz, just the Colts second loss in the last 30 years. Not only did the Cougars beat the Colts, but they handled them fairly easily, winning 93-47. The win officially clinches a share of Class A North for Colts Neck, a division it joined this year.

Colts Neck took first in all but two events (100 and the 4x400 relay) and rode big performances from Craig Forys, Matt Sullivan, John Krewer, Evan Stivala, and just about everybody else. Forys won the 800, 1600, and 3200, Sullivan the 110 hurdles and the 200, Krewer shot put and discus (both school records), and Stivala the long and high jumps. Kevin Kelly added a 179-1 javelin throw, and Devin Moore broke a school record in the pole vault (12-1).

Schlentz also got a few nice surprises, going 1-2 in the 100 with Chris Jackson winning, Bill Burnham taking second in the 110 hurdles, Andrew Sobieski's school record 50.4 in the 400, Sullivan's 400 hurdles win, and sweeping the pole vault.

CBA started strong with Christian Yuskevich beating Matt Sullivan in the 400 hurdles, but Colts Neck grabbed the lead by going 1-2 in the 100 and never looked back.

Rumson, meanwhile, handed Shore its first division loss in five years, topping the Blue Devils 78-62.

Turns out Rumson's win at the Long Branch Relays was indicative of today's meet, with the Bulldogs getting in done in the hurdles and jumps, and with their overall depth in general.

More to come later and in tomorrow's paper.

Tim Lincecum

There's nothing I like more than watching a big pitching prospect debut, and Tim Lincecum of the Giants is a big pitching prospect, although not literally speaking. The pipsqueak, as radio personality Mike Francesca refers to Lincecum as, struck out 104 in 61 2/3 minor league innings and even more intriguing is his stature. He is generously listed at 5'11'', and at 22 years old, he doesn't look a day over 18. He has a funky delivery, violent motion, and consistently works in the mid-90s with his fastball. He also mixes a plus curve with a changeup that according to some scouts, can be his best pitch on some days.

Sunday against the Phillies, Lincecum takes the big league mound for the first time and a debut like this deserves running commentary, and might be intriguing enough to make be hold off on watching the Sopranos until it comes on HBO West at midnight. We shall see.

Top 1st Inning

-Lincy had a 0.29 ERA in 31 innings at AAA Fresno, and two batters into the game, his ERA is infinity. Jimmy Rollins taps one up the middle, and Shane Victorino hits an 0-2 breaking ball in the standing room crowd in right field. Hung that one.

-Lincecum stops messing around and pumps in fastball after fastball, consistently at 96 mph. He strikes out Chase Utley, Ryan Howard, and Aaron Roward, all swinging with the fastball. At this point, they could all be thrown off by his funky delivery, but the swings against Lincecum were not good. After a mistake to Victorino, Lincy settles in and makes it out of the first with 27 pitches and already three Ks. So far, I'm impressed.

Bottom 1st

-As if Lincecum wasn't enough, one of my favorite pitchers opposes him. Cole Hamels is a frail-looking lefty, with the nastiest changeup you'll ever see. I'm fairly young, but Hamels' changeup is the best pitch I've ever seen. That's just based on the look of it, but by the time his career is over, I'm betting his numbers will show it.

-Randy Winn is a weird player. He played for the Mariners and was an okay player, and after being traded to the Giants, he slugged .680 for SF in 231 at bats in 2005, and then was terrible again last year. A switch hitter, this year he is hitting .480 against left-handers and improves upon that but taking Hamels the other way for a double. I'm scratching my hair out right now thinking about Randy Winn.

- Hamels gets a couple grounders, a walk, and then Wes Helms boots a ball at third base to give San Fran a run. As my co-workers Tony Graham and Steve Falk, both Phillies fans, are finding out, he is a dreadful third-baseman.

-After getting squeezed on a changeup, Hamels blows a fastball by Pedro Feliz to end the inning. The Phillies are already looking like their normal selves by giving away runs.
After One: Philly 2, SF 1.

Top 2nd

-Two easy outs in play for Lincecum, followed by a strikeout of Hamels. During the Hamels at-bat, John Miller and Joe Morgan (tonight's announcing team), decide to forget where they are and talk about Roger Clemens with Peter Gammons. Then again, I don't blame them for ignoring a pitcher facing another pitcher. This is why I can't understand why anyone would want to get rid of the DH.

Bottom 2nd

-Jeez, even more with Roger Clemens! Save it for Sportscenter. This is like talking about baseball on a track blog!

- Todd Linden walks on four pitches, and Kevin Frandsen dunks in a bloop double, bringing up Lincecum with his first career RBI opportunity. Jon Miller informs us that in high school, Lincecum hurt his back while trying to hit and never picked up a bat again until spring training this year. Another reason pitchers should never hit. Lincecum strikes ot swinging.

-Hamels gives up a run on a groundout by Winn, and Omar Vizquel hits one over Rowand's head in centerfield to score another. Shaky start for Hamels, although he's not getting much help on defense.

-Hamels breaks off a nasty change for the K, making Rich Aurilia look like...well, Rich Aurilia. Mariners GM Bill Bavasi chose a more expensive Aurillia over future MVP candidate Carlos Guillien as one of the first orders of business in 2004. It's moves like this that would explain the hint of bitterness in these posts.
Score: SF 3, Philly 2.

Top 3rd

-Lincy hums a 94 mph fastball by J-Roll for K #5. He's starting to show some movement on those fastballs too.

-Victorino hits a frozen rope to Vizquel, who makes a nice play, despite it looking really ugly. Joe Morgan gushes over it for a while, which is fine by me, considering it gets him talking about something else other than Barry Bonds or Roger Clemens. ESPN has to work in something on those two in EVERY BROADCAST. Even my Track Notebooks are more diverse than ESPN's discussion topics.

-After a walk to Utley, Howard hits the ball about 430 feet to dead center for a two-run homer. Early on, Lincecum is actually looking a lot like Hamels did when he got called up last year. A lot of Ks, but a lot of home runs. Hamels got called up right around the same time, making his Major League debut on May 12 of last year. At this rate, neither are going to make it out of the fifth inning.

-Lincecum has a little trouble getting himself straight after the Howard homer, but makes a good 3-2 pitch to Rowand to tie him up and get a groundball to third. Morgan seems impressed, saying righthanders can't touch his fastball inside. I'll get more into this in my final assessment, which may be hindered by trying to watch the Sopranos.

Bottom 3rd

-Thanks to HBO West, I'm going with baseball over the Sopranos. Joe Morgan is trying to defend Barry Bonds, which he does poorly. There is a defense, but it's hard to do by denying he used steroids. As I've said before, I am pro-Bonds, so I have no problem with the thought of defending him. But Morgan can't do it.

-Jimmy Rollins catches Bengie Molina's groundball, has a cup of tea, then throws Molina out. My friend passionately argued that Jason Giambi is the slowest player in the Majors, which means he hasn't watched Bengie since he was killing the Yankees in the playoffs two years ago.

-Hamels an tidey 1-2-3 inning.
Score: Philly 4, SF 3.

Top 4th

- Single by Helms to start the inning as Morgan continues on about Bonds, who by the way, isn't even playing today. Morgan says he thinks just as many people were rooting against Hank Aaron as are rooting against Bonds and wishes he could see public polls on Aaron's record breaking season at the time it happened. I'm pretty sure they did have those polls, and the slight majority wanted Aaron to break it. Morgan is basing that purely on the small number of people that did not want Aaron to do it based on the color of his skin and made it known through hate mail and taunting. So because a small number of people yelled and screamed, a majorityof the country disapproved of Aaron. That's Joe Morgan's science.

-Lincecum is still humming, ending the inning on a Rollins pop out to short left. Lincy rolled up a lot of ground balls in the minors, but judging by his stuff, I think he'll be a pretty neutral pitcher in the majors, and may even be more of a flyball pitcher. Fastballs that explode like his are hard to get on top of, and have caused a lot of flyballs so far today. With that said, his groundball outs to flyball outs are 4-3 so far. Too early to tell.

-Hamels gets strikeout number five on a changeup to Linden, which Linden took for strike three. You don't see too many looking strikeouts on changeups, which tells me it must have good movement on it.

-Lincecum is currently trying to bunt, which means he's staying in the game. The fact that he's still trying as I type also means he can't bunt. If I'm part of the Giants organization, I'd hold my breath every time he steps in the batters box.

-Pipsqueak bunts the ball right back to Hamels, who throws it in the dirt to Rollins at second, and everyone is safe. That play typified the Phillies. A bunt back to the mound, which looks good on paper and sounds like an out, but when it's put into action, it blows up in Philly's face. The Phillies look great on paper, look like a contender, and once they're on the field, can't find their back pocket with both hands.

-Hamels rings up another K, freezing Winn with a changeup, and retires Vizquel to end the inning. Stranding the runners after an error is certainly a step in the right direction for this team.

Score: Philly 4, SF 3.

Top 5th

-Lincecum goes 3-2 on Victorino, who singles up the middle. With three hard-hit balls, Victorino must be more excited about the Lincecum era than I am.

-First major problem: the pitch count is up over 80 and he is only throwing 90 mph now after throwing 96 early on. Keep an eye on this in his next few starts.

-Horrible call on a pickoff attempt. Victorino left early and Lincecum threw over to first to start a run-down. Victorino runs into Vizquel waaaaay out of the baseline, but the umpire calls interference on Vizquel, giving Victorino second base. It's just been Victorino's lucky day today. He must have gone to church or something.

-Lincecum throws his 100th pitch high to Burrell for ball four, which spells the end of his day. Since striking out Rollins for the first out of the third inning, Lincecum had no strikeouts and four walks over the next 13 batters while losing 5 mph on his fastball. Something else to note: After Victorino's homer, Lincecum put his curve in his back pocket for pretty much the rest of the game, only using it early in the count.

Some of the things that made Lincecum slip to the 11th pick of the 2006 draft showed. He is physically immature, and he's already 22, so the room for physical development is uncertain. He also puts so much into every pitch (accoding to Miller, Lincecum's father, Chris, said he puts every muscle and every bone from head to toe into his pitches) that stamina becomes a concern at about the 75-80 pitch mark. Couple that with the fact that Lincecum uses a lot of pitches to get his outs, and he will be hard pressed to go six innings on a consistent basis.

There is plenty to like though. His stuff is legit, and despite the Victorino home run, his curveball does look good. The most impressive thing to me was that when he got into hitters counts and the Phillies geared up for his fastball - which he was throwing almost exclusively by that point - they still had trouble hitting it. He is going to miss a lot of bats, but the stamina remains a concern, and Sunday showed why.

Lincecum's final line: 4.1 IP, 5 H, 5 R, 4 ER, 5 BB, 5 K, 2 HR, 8.31 ERA, 4-4 groundout-to-flyout.

Bottom 5th


-I always get a kick out of Joe Morgan introducing "K Zone" to the audience with accompanying sponsor, which varies most weeks. This week it is the "Nationwide K Zone." I think that's what the Braves called Home Plate Umpire Eric Gregg's strike zone in the 1997 NLCS.


-The Giants dink and dunk Hamels for two more runs. Despite all of the puzzling lines that Joe Morgan comes up with, he makes a point that is right on the money: Hamels is a chaneup pitcher, and changeup pitchers tend to fall in love with it, which makes them very predictable. I was thinking this for most of the game and it makes perfect sense. You saw this with Tom Glavine in his first few years with the Mets, when he had to rely on his changeup because his fastball was only about 84 mph and he didn't really throw a curve. Like Glavine, Hamels pitches backwards a lot, meaning he throws his change to set up his fasball. The difference is Hamels can hit 92 on the gun which freezes hitters, and his curve is already nasty. But he throws the change so much, that hitters can safely sit back and just flip the ball out to the opposite field all day. Anyway, the Giants get two runs to tie the game.

Score: Philly 5, SF 5.



Top 6th


-Today's trivia question is presented by Excedrin. Miller asks us to go to excedrin.com for more trivia details. Funny. After two hours of these guys, I just happened to be at excedrin.com anyway. How about that?


-Hamels doubles to the gap, followed by a triple by Rollins that would have been about 10 rows deep in the right-centerfield seats if this game was in Philly. Actually, it might have been in the bullpen, but you get the point.


-Utley ropes a double to right, and it looks like Lincecum's performance wasn't all that bad afterall. He gave up two ropes to Victorino and Howard, but there wasn't much solid contact otherwise. The Phillies have been smoking the ball since Lincecum left.


-Howard just misses another homer, hitting a sky-high fly to Linden in center to end the inning. It looks like he's heating up.

Score: Philly 7, SF 5.


Well I came to see Tim Lincecum and I saw. I'm going to sit back and enjoy the rest of the game and give my fingers a rest. Much like Tim Lincecum, I can't make it past the sixth inning. But me and Timmy are working on that.

Sunday Sports

Most every Sunday, my wonderful employers at the Asbury Park Press give me the day off to regroup and recharge for the upcoming week. And I make sure the recharging time well.

After, uh, exerting my energy on a Saturday night, I like to spend my Sunday watching whatever game catches my eye, mixed in with some random ventures outside if its nice (which it kinda was today, although a little cold). It's pretty crazy how much noteworthy stuff happens in a heavy day of sports, and today was that to the extreme.

So without further ado, here is the first installment of Man-to-Man "Sunday Sports."

As I've stated before in this spot, I am a Seattle Mariners fan and that being the case, I was looking forward to the final two games of the four-games with the Yankees, starting with today's affair. And with Darrell Rasner and Matt DeSalvo starting for the Yanks, I was especially excited. But with Jarrod Washburn, Miguel Batista and the M's offense involved, I wasn't that excited.

The game starts off a mixed bag. Washburn came in with an ERA of 2.88 and has done an admirable job limiting damage. He's an odd player for a fan, because he's clearly overpaid at about $9 mil per year, but he gives you a good, honest effort. He's nothing special, but at least you can appreciate his professionalism (nice to know $36 million buys you "professionalism").

Washburn gets through four scoreless innings, by making the Yankees look impatient - not an easy task. He stumbles a bit in the fifth, giving up the first run on a single by Derek Jeter, which scored Public Enemy #2, Josh Phelps. Phelps scored after barrelling over cathcher Kenji Johjima, who never came close to getting the ball. Notice I say "after." Phelps, a former cathcher mind you, missed the plate to run over Johjima, then went back to tag home after trying to kill Joh.

Phelps is only Public Enemy #2, because Scott Proctor stole #1 from him. After Phelps justifiably got hit in the bicep by Washburn as retaliation (to Phelps credit he took it like a man and in so many words admitted after the game he probably should have slid into home), Scott Proctor threw behind M's shortstop Yuniesky Betancourt, as some sort of extra retaliation.

This is wrong on so many levels. First of all, Phelps got hit as retaliation, both benches were warned, that should be the end of it. Proctor throwing at Yu-Bet is not settling any score, it's starting a new one. Secondly, Betancourt had nothing to do with anything that happened earlier.

Third is that we are talking about a pitcher, and a team as a whole, who didn't have the stones to dust off Manny Ramirez for totally showing him up last year. After hitting a bomb off Proctor and standing at home plate to admire it as Manny tends to do, it was assumed that Proctor had the green light to let Manny know what he thought about it by knocking him on his rear.

And what did Proctor do the night after the first bomb? He served the ball up on a tee, and Manny homered again. I was embarassed for him, because he got totally punked out by Manny.

Fast forward to Sunday, and all of a sudden, Proctor is a tough guy. He won't throw at Manny for showing him up, but he has no problem throwing at 5'7" Betancourt for no good reason, then dares him to come see him at the mound. Just a totally transparent, classless act by an organization that thinks it exudes class just because they don't wear last names on the back of their jerseys.

Speaking of showing up the opposition, the Yankees decided to turn their baseball game into a Roger Clemens press conference. If I was a Yankee fan, I would be ashamed of my team today. They played the role of bully during the game, then effectively turned that game into a circus. I'm still fighting off my nausea.

The only thing more nauseating were the M's at bats coupled with their defense. They swung early in the count against a quadruple-A pitcher and made him look like an all star. Hopefully, the bench-clearing altercation with Proctor lights a fire under them.

With the Mariners doing their thing at the plate, I figured I'd catch the end of the Cavs-Nets Game 1. The ending wasn't bad, but judging by the score and some of the numbers, it looked like an ugly game. The Cavs are an interesting team in that they probably have the most broad range of performance of any team left in the playoffs. They did nothing to impress against Washington in the first round, but they got their sweep. They shot poorly against an average defensive team playing on short rest, but they still won game one. They've been my pick to come out of the East from day one, and while they have raised some doubts about their ability to do that, the Cavs seem like a team that is learning how to win and if they start shooting well, could be dangerous.

The Phoenix-San Antonio series was originally interesting to me, and after watching game one, it's looking like a classic. The Spurs were impressive in winning, especially Tim Duncan, but they will win games on Tony Parker's jumpshot. Parker said it himself after the game. Parker got his 32 points because he forced the Suns to respect his jumper. Once they had to put a hand up, Parker had free reign to get to the basket and distribute (eight assists). The Suns will get their wins when Parkers' shot doesn't fall, which happens from time to time. If Game 2 is not one of those games, though, Phoenix will be in trouble.

When Parker and Steve Nash colided, it looked like the Spurs were in trouble. The whole team ran out to attend to Parker and there was immediate specualtion about his arm and then his head. Two minutes later, Parker was on the floor, and Nash couldn't stop the cut on his nose from bleeding. The Suns were still playing from behind even with Nash, but I'd say playing from behind without the best point guard in the game on the floor is quite a handicap.

I had Phoenix winning this series in seven, and I'm going to stick with the pick, but this isn't a good start. Duncan is going to whatever he wants, but the good news for the Suns is, they can do what they want on offense as well. Again, it comes down to Parker. If his shot is on, that's too much for a pedestrian Suns defense to handle.

I have the night off Tuesday, so I'll get a chance to watch game two, and perhaps do a game log similar to the Tim Lincecum log. But for now, attention shifts to Colts Neck High School Monday, where the Cougars Boys Track Team will attempt to hand CBA its first dual meet loss since 1996. I'll be there for the virtual Class A North championship, while keeping an eye on the Rumson at Shore meet that will decide B Central. You'll all that as it happens.

Forys Breaks State Record

Craig Forys ran the two-mile in 8:48.99 at the Henderson Track and Field Invitational in West Chester, Penn., breaking Charles Logan's (Bernards) 28 year-old New Jersey record by three seconds. He ran a 4:21 second mile and a 1:01.5 last 400 meters.

Rob Ziegler, softball writer for the Asbury Park Press, argues that this is not an NJ state record because Forys broke it in Pennsylvania. Compelling argument. That being the case, Rob, a Penn State grad, is not a college graduate in the state of New Jersey.

Congrats to Craig Forys.

Freehold District Confusion

There seems to be some debate over who won the Freehold District meet. The score as of Friday night was 137-136 with Colts Neck beating Manalapan, already different than the 137-134 score at meets' end. According to Manalapan coach Jim Tweed, there are still some matters to contest in some of the scoring, as well as some of the throw measurements. I wasn't able to get in touch with Jim Schlentz of Colts Neck yet, but I find it hard to believe that this is going to get overturned. We'll keep you posted though.

Freehold District Meet

Colts Neck edged Manalapan in the Freehold District meet Thursday, topping the Braves by a point in the team scoring. We may not be able to run all the scores and results in Friday's paper, but meet did go down. On the boys side, Howell sophomore Matt Borzomati and Colts Neck senior Matt Sullivan shared athlete of the meet honors, while Jack Gilburn of Manalapan won the field athlete of the meet. Borzomati won the 100 and 200, and Sullivan won both hurdles events.

I'll give you more details on the meet as I get them, and keep an eye out for official results in the paper hopefully Friday, definitely by Saturday. I'll go into some more detail in the boys track notebook as well.

TR North Wins A South

Wednesday's APP will have a little blurb on the tri-meet but for anyone that misses it or is up late tonight, Toms River North beat Jackson and Southern Tuesday to clinch sole possession of a division title. The M's got their usual contributions from A.J. Gilman and Anthony Matos in the sprints and Dave Stone in the jumps, but they also got nice contributions from their field and distance guys.

Rick Villanova jumped 14 feet in the pole vault, which is the best dual meet jump this year. Chris Favoloro of St. John Vianney jumped 14-3 at the Lion Relays on Saturday and those are the best two jumps from the area that I've seen. The Villanova Wildcat was big against East in the vault in the beginning of the year and is getting healthier as well. He could be a factor in the state meets.

Evan Regas threw 48-4 in the shot put, which gave North a big second place. Chase Petrucci of Southern won the event with a 49-6 3/4 toss, but like North coach Matt Jelley said, The M's were just looking to hold their own in the throws and distance events. North also got a nice pick-me-up in the 3200, when Kiel O'Donnell and Joe Kotran finished 1-2 against Southern (Cris Karle and Ryan Fenimore of Jackson finished wat ahead of everyone).

It was kind of disappointing to see Jackson coach Steve Theobald reign in some of his athletes instead of letting them go all out for the division, but it was the right move. He admitted he didn't go hard after the win, and believe me, it wasn't sour grapes or anything like that. He even said he thought North was stronger on paper and elected no to overextend some of his athletes. Plus, Tito Nurendeen, Jackson's fastest sprinter wasn't there today.

Some times to note: Carle and Monroe Kearns ran good races Tuesday to follow up their Penn Relays performance. They each only competed in one event (Kearns gave the 200 a shot, but that was more for kicks), but Carle's 9:24.6 in the 3200 and Kearns' 4:26.7 1600 were two of the more impressive performances; John Gray won the 200 in 22.8 and the 400 in 49.5; Dave Stone jumped 6-4 in the high jump, which is second in the area to John Provaznik of Lacey; Gil Tarantino brok 58 in the 400 hurdles with a 57.9; and North's 4x400 relay ran faster Tuesday (3:26.4) than it did at the Penn Relays (3:27.68), although it's hard to get going at Penn with the crowded track.

Congrats to TR North, the second Shore Conference team to clinch a division title. Red Bank took care of business last week, and Monsignor Donovan and Monmouth have pretty much done the same. Colts Neck and CBA will come down to their May 7 meeting and Rumson and Shore still have to meet in B Central. Stay tuned...