Tribe routs Yankees,Devils struck by Lightning

The Cleveland Indians overcame a slow start by an unusually wild C.C Sabathia to pound the New York Yankees and take a 1-0 series lead with a 12-3 blasting.
Sabathia picked up the win despite only pitching 5 innings and walking 6 Yankees over the course of his innings.
The Tribe smacked 4 long balls off New York pitching and Kenny Lofton had 4 RBI without a homer.
Asdrubal Cabrera,Ryan Garko,Travis Hafner and Victor Martinez were the Indians that hit homers.
Sabathia seemed to be overtaken with nerves and was overthrowing,which happens when you are overly psyched for a game.
In any event,the Indians bats more than made up for it in the win.
Game 2 is today in Cleveland with Andy Pettite for the Yankees against Fausto Carmona for Cleveland.

The New Jersey Devils and the new style of Brent Sutter looked great for 30 mins,but after a 2nd period goal by Vincent LeCavalier tied the game for Tampa,the Devils looked confused and less confident.
That meant it was just a matter of time before the roof caved in and with 3:52 to go-it did just that.
LeCavalier scored his 2nd goal to give Tampa the 2-1 lead and the Lightning added an empty netter to make the final 3-1.
The Devil goal came on a first period power play with Brian Gionta redirecting a Zach Parise shot.
Martin Brodeur played well in goal,as neither of the 2 allowed goals were bad goals that you could fault him on.
Sutter certainly was not bluffing on his mixing up lines as none of the four were together last year.
One question that I have is why veteran Richard Mativicuk was a healthy scratch?
One would think that with Colin White out with an eye injury,this would be a good place for some veteran leadership,but instead Mike Mottau played on the 3rd defense unit.
Two guys that I thought not only played well,but impressed with their grit was Arron Asham and rookie David Clarkson.
Trust me-Devil fans are going to fall in love with Clarkson very quickly,
A high motor and toughness too,as he pounded the much larger Chris Gratton in a late game fight.
The Devils stay in Florida and battle the Florida Panthers in Miami Saturday night.

Bullpen Notes

I know a lot of Indian fans are hot at LeBron James wearing a Yankee hat,but to me it isn't a big deal.
He has been a Yankee fan since he was a kid.
If I was in that spot,I would root for my team too.

TBS is going through some growing pains in its first baseball postseason.
First,I give them credit and then some blame on the same topic.
The Rockies-Phillies game ran long,so they started the Tribe on TNT.
Credit for them on that.
Most of the time,the later game gets joined in progress,so smart move.
But,then they moved the game back to TBS,but in the middle of the inning!
Law and Order re-runs could not waited until the 3rd out?
The other is this-please give the animated leadoff mark a rest.
It cluttered the screen and was not all that interesting.

I was watching a preview show for this Saturday's Oklahoma-Texas and saw something that OU does to honor their Heisman winners.
Huge statues of all 4 of their Heisman winners located inside a beautiful park near the Sooners stadium.
It looked terrific and I would be wholeheartedly behind a similar idea for Ohio State.

Finally the Ashland Arrows attempt to hold onto 1st place in the OCC continues tonight as the Arrows travel to Orrville to battle the Red Riders.
Tough game as always for the Arrows.

Photo Credit
Lofton:Gregory Shamus-Getty Images
Clarkson-Gratton-Chris O'Meara-AP Photo
Helmets-Ohio Helmet Project