It’s been an interesting week in the sports world. Two huge events going on with the NHL Stanley Cup finals and the NBA finals set to start on Thursday. Oh, and the World Cup is just around the corner. Here’s a look at this week’s grade card. Josh Houchins and I will break these down on Wednesday’s WGEM SportsCenter on ESPN 1440. Feel free to send in your own grades via tex (217-617-9437) or email (sportscenter@wgem.com):
A — Quincy Notre Dame girls soccer team. The Lady Raiders lived up their preseason billing as state favorites by whipping the Class 1A field. QND (24-2) dominated the play all weekend long at the state tourney in Naperville and didn’t allow a goal in capturing their first state title. Mark Longo’s crew looks to be well equipped for another run next May.
B — Roy Halladay/Ubaldo Jimenez. Rare to give two people the same grade, but it’s appropriate here. The National League Cy Young race is going to be a good one considering how these two have started. Halladay strengthened his credentials with a perfect game on Saturday night at Florida. He’s 7-3 with a 1.99 ERA. As good as those numbers are, Jimenez’s are even better. After winning a matchup Monday with reigning Cy Young winner Tim Lincecum, the Colorado Rockies ace is 10-1 with a 0.78 ERA. He threw a no-hitter earlier in the season.
C — Florida Marlins. The team is trying to make the most of out having that perfect game thrown against it. The team is selling tickets to the game — at face value — for anyone who couldn’t make it to Halladay’s perfect game. Some in Miami aren’t too happy about the team’s venture. They say the team is trying to profit from failure. If they think that’s a sin, then they haven’t been paying attention to what’s been going at Wrigley Field for the last 102 years.
D — Kendry Morales. The good news for Morales Saturday that he had hit a game-winning grand slam to give his Los Angeles Angles a 5-1 victory over the Seattle Mariners in the 10th inning. The bad news for Morales Saturday was that he broke a bone in his left leg and may be lost for the season. Which team will be the first to ban postgame celebrations? You know it’s going to happen.
F — Illinois High School Association. The IHSA decided to broadcast the Class 1A girls soccer state tournament for the first time on its ihsa.tv website. A nice gesture for sure. It allowed people from all over the world watch the games. Many people in Quincy who couldn’t make the trek to Naperville were able to watch the Lady Raiders. Too bad their ears hurt by the end of it. Neither one of the announcers for the games made any effort to do any prep work for the games. Instead of names, all of the players for both games just had numbers for each game. It’s as if the IHSA put its interns on the mike . If you dare to go back and watch, you can see the semifinal and final and decide which is worse.
[...] — Florida Marlins. From the team that brought you ticket sales from a game that had already been played, the Marlins tried to catch World Cup fever over the weekend by offering up air horns — a [...]