St.Claire Basketball

My second season in the St.Claire Basketball League wasn't a big success. I was in the 7th grade and I was hoping that my second season in this league would be better then my first. I was on the Toronto Raptors and I got plenty of playing time but are team got destroyed almost every game. We were one of the worst teams in the league and we finished in second to last place. I was not happy with the performance level of are team. This team had many great players but it could not play well together as a team. It was ashame to see so many players who were capable of doing a lot of great things not work out at all. We were the laughing stock of the league and this entire second season was a complete letdown. This season went so bad that I was skeptical about returning another year for this team and at the end of the season I demamded a trade. I was not traded to another team until the end of the offseason and I look back at this Raptors team as a bad decision.

Major League Baseball : Spring Training

On February 27,2008, Major League Baseball's Spring Training started. A total of ten teams started playing baseball on that date and it kicked off the new baseball season. I am a big baseball fan and I am happy that it is about to start. I can't wait to go to Shea Stadium to see the New York Mets play this year. They are expected to win a lot of games and go deep into the playoffs. This year should be a very exciting year in baseball and every game that I watch should be a great experience. The only problem for this season is that it is the last year of Shea Stadium so tickets are going to be hard to get. The Mets open up Citi Field next year which is also very exciting but I am going to miss going to Shea like I do every year.

The Mets lost their first two spring training games but their are many more to go. These games are only practice and not all of their players are even playing in these games so it doesn't really matter if they win them or not. Spring Training is all about developing young players and realizing what players are everyday and bench players for your team to start the regular season. They lost the first game of Sping Training to the Detroit Tigers. The final score was 4 to 2 but it was still a good game since a lot of their young players got a chance to play and display thier skills. The New York Mets also lost their second game, which was today, to the St.Louis Cardinals. The final score of this game was 7 to 0 and the Mets didn't look that good at all in this one. Even though they lost two games in a row it is only practice and it is not a big deal. Spring Training has got me excited and ready for the start of the regular MLB season. The New York Mets first game of the regular season is on March 31 at 4:15 against the Florida Marlins. I can't wait for the season to start because it should be exciting and a fun experience.

Flashback: St. Claire Basketball

Basketball has always been my favorite sport to play. I enjoyed playing it when I was younger and in the 6th grade I was on my first team. My team name was the Miami Heat and I played very few minutes at first since I was not that tall and not well known by the coach. In the first half of the season, I averaged about 4 points in about 10 minutes a game. Then our best player got hurt and he played my position which was shooting guard. I got to play about 20 minutes a game for the second half of the season and I played very well. I scored about 12 points a game in the second half of the season and we were a good team even without our best player. We finished in 4 place out of 8 teams and we made the last spot of the playoffs. My team ended up losing in the first round but we played a good game against a much better team. I scored about 8 points in that playoff game and we lost the game by 4 points. I remember my first basketball season because I enjoyed playing in it so much and it was an unforgetable experience. The St. Claire Basketball league I joined was very fun and competitive. I am glad that I played in this league and my first season in this league was a big success since I got my name noticed by other coaches. It was to bad that our best player got hurt but that actaully gave me an opportunity to step up and get noticed. My first season was full of up's and down's but in the end it was very fun and I am glad I was a part of the league and a part of my Miami Heat team.

MLB and Steroids: The Aftermath of the Mitchell Report

Major League Baseball has always been a big time sport in the United States. Baseball is considered our nation's greatest pastime but it has taken a big hit since the steroid issue has came into play. Big star athletes has been caught or admitted using steriods or other illegal drugs and it has hurt the public eye on the game of baseball. The biggest star to get caught so far was Barry Bonds and it has hurt his fan base and his market value. The new biggest name that has came out of the Mitchell Report (which has been released for a few months now) is Yankees star pitcher Roger Clemens. He is now on trial with Mr. McNamee (who was his trainer and has said that he injected Clemens with human growth hormones). This Mitchell Report was supposed to try and help end steroid use in the MLB but it has now caused more drama for baseball. It seems that baseball always survives even with big distaractions because so many fans have a passion for baseball that they don't mind a few distractions.


I believe that Clemens took steroids and I believe he won't admit it because he does not want to ruin his image in the public eye and his chances on making the Hall of Fame. All of his records and great achievements would take a huge hit if he gets caught lieing about the use of steroids. I always had a gut feeling that he used steroids and now that he is accussed I believe he is definitly guilty. The hearing is in progress right now and it just seems that he is lieing since he seems to stumble on all of his words. Another event that happened that made this case more dramatic is that his long good friend Andy Pettitte said that Roger did use steroids and that they used to talk about it together a few years ago. This statement by Andy made everything more dramatic and the case got even more crazier. I just can't wait for this case and trial to end and I hope that Major League Baseball can get rid of all the steroid and illegal drug use for good.

New York Mets - Deal for Johan Santana Is Finalized

On February 2, 2008, the New York Mets finalized the deal for Johan Santana. The original deadline for the trade to go through was Friday February 1, 2008 at 5 P.M but they got an extension which was very important. At 5 P.M, the Mets were about 5 million dollars off from what Santana wanted but they got a 2 hour extension and they were able to finalize the trade. Johan got a 6 year 137.5 million dollar contract extension with the Mets and has an option for the 7th year which can total 157 million dollars. This contract broke all the money records for a pitcher but I still believe that Santana will be worth every penny. I got very worried when the Mets did not sign him right away and I am sure many other Met fans were nervous as well. The New York Mets almost let a big time pitcher walk away and that could have been a huge mistake. All I can say is that I am glad they got everything under control and I am really looking forward to see Johan pitch as a Met for the next 6 or 7 years. The Mets have now turned into the team to beat in the National League and I believe they will at least make the World Series.

Super Bowl - Post Game Report

On February 3, 2008 the New York Giants defeated the New England Patriots by the final score of 17-14. The New England Patriots were going for perfection but they came up 35 seconds short as the Giants, behind Eli Manning, took the lead and scored the go ahead touchdown with only 35 seconds left. Not many people believed that the Giants had a chance to beat the "Perfect Pats" (including myself), but the whole Giant team and coaching staff did and that was all that mattered in the end. It just seemed that the Patriots were over confident and did not make the plays when the really needed to. I am not taking anything away from the Patriots team that I idolized and grew too like very much, but I believe that any head coach would trade a perfect regular season for a Super Bowl victory. Eli Manning ended up winning the Super Bowl MVP award and I believe he deserved it. Just like everyone in New York, I questioned Eli's leadership and ability to lead a team to a Super Bowl but he proved all of the critics wrong last night. This has been a great and very surprising NFL season and it's too bad it's over. I can't wait for next season and I hope that it will be as good and exciting as this one was.