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legacy and the perception of a dominant
Topic Started: Oct 24 2012, 08:11 AM (55 Views)
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BALTIMORE -- The Boston Red Sox, and Clay Buccholz in particular, put on a good show for three members of the team ownership committee who ventured to Camden Yards to get a firsthand look at their struggling ballclub. Marcedes Lewis Jersey . Buchholz shook off a rocky start to earn his 11th win, Dustin Pedroia singled in the tiebreaking run in the sixth inning and the Red Sox beat the Baltimore Orioles 6-3 Thursday night to avoid a three-game sweep. Principal owner John Henry, chairman Thomas Werner and president and CEO Larry Lucchino were all in attendance following a rough stretch in which Boston lost six of eight to bring up questions surrounding the job security of first-year manager Bobby Valentine. The trio visited the clubhouse before the game and showed up again afterward. "They said they were bringing us luck," Valentine said. "After we started (behind) 2-0, I was looking for an early flight home." After giving up three runs and six hits over the first two innings, Buchholz (11-3) kept the Orioles at bay while the Red Sox rebounded from a 3-1 deficit. The right-hander ended up allowing three runs, eight hits and three walks over eight innings. He struck out seven. "He brought the competitive spirit to a new level tonight," Valentine said. "They were jumping on his early pitches, he got down early. But when he saw we had some resiliency in our offence, he shut the door. He shut it quick." Buchholz was delighted to perform so well for the men who sign his paycheque. "They are the ones that put the team together," he said. "It was good to see those guys here. It added motivation. Theyve got busy lives, so they could have been somewhere else. Instead, they were here showing us they were behind us and supporting us." Alfredo Aceves worked a perfect ninth for his 24th save. Adrian Gonzalez had two RBIs and Cody Ross chipped in with three hits for Boston. Serving as designated hitter for the first time this season, Jacoby Ellsbury went 0 for 4 to end his 38-game hitting streak against Baltimore. Mark Reynolds homered and Adam Jones had two RBIs for the Orioles, now 8-4 against Boston this season. Reynolds has four homers in his last six games after going 20 straight without one. Despite the loss, Baltimore finished 7-3 on a homestand against Seattle, Kansas City and the Red Sox. "Our guys wanted to win all 10. Thats the way we approached it," manager Buck Showalter said. "Tonight they took advantage of some of our pitching struggles." The Red Sox took a 6-3 lead with a three-run sixth against Luis Ayala (4-4). With runners at the corners and two outs, Pedroia hit a short chopper toward third that a charging Manny Machado couldnt handle. Gonzalez and Ross followed with run-scoring singles. Before the game, talk in the Boston clubhouse centred around Ellsbury, a fixture in the Boston outfield playing DH for the first time since July 18, 2011. Valentine said, "The last couple days we have been concerned about a leg situation. This is just being overcautious and aware of the situation." Ellsbury, however, said, "My leg feels good. I played the last two nights on it." Coming in, Orioles starter Chris Tillman had allowed 24 runs this season -- 14 in the first inning. After striking out Ellsbury to begin the game, Tillman gave up a one-out double to Carl Crawford before retiring Pedroia and Gonzalez. Baltimore went up 2-0 in the bottom half. Nick Markakis and J.J. Hardy singled before Jones hit an opposite-field, two-run double inside the first base line. Boston got a run in the second on a two-out RBI single by Scott Podsednik. Reynolds homered on the first pitch in the Orioles half with a drive to centre. It was an uncharacteristic start for Buchholz, who didnt allow more than two runs in any of his previous five outings and had a 1.15 ERA over that span. "Clay had a rough time early, then after that he threw a gem," Ross said. The Red Sox pulled even in the fifth. Crawford singled, took third on a double by Pedroia and scored on a wild pitch. Gonzalez followed with a sacrifice fly to chase Tillman, who threw 110 pitches in 4 2-3 innings. "Youve got to tip your hat a little bit to Boston; they really made (Tillman) work for everything," Showalter said. "They had a lot of foul balls. He had a lot of counts in his favour but he couldnt finish hitters off." NOTES: Boston received RHP Pedro Beato from the Mets as the player to be named in the trade Tuesday that sent C Kelly Shoppach to New York. Beato, a former first-round draft pick of the Orioles, will report to Triple-A Pawtucket. ... Baltimore placed INF Wilson Betemit (wrist) on the 15-day DL and recalled Joe Mahoney from Triple-A Norfolk. ... Pedroia stretched his hitting streak to 11 games, three short of his season high. ... In 12 games against Boston this year, Reynolds is 13 for 30 (.433) with five homers, four doubles and 14 RBIs. Andre Branch Jersey . -- Gavin Schmitt of Saskatoon and Fred Winters of Victoria were the offensive stars for Canada on Wednesday in a three-set victory over world No. Game Blaine Gabbert Jersey . Needing to finish in the top four of the eight teams competing in the 02 Arena, Canada wound up fifth by 0. http://www.cheapjacksonvillejaguarsjerseys.com/blaine-gabbert-jersey . The Texas Rangers are sure glad he hung in there. Chavez, who spent nearly two years recovering from knee surgery, had four hits to help Texas overcome a three-run deficit to beat the Cleveland Indians 7-4 Thursday night. Blaine Gabbert Youth Jersey .8 million contract. The 32-year-old Ukrainian-born forward scored 14 goals and 19 assists in 82 games split between the New Jersey Devils and Carolina Hurricanes in 2011-12. Paul Posluszny Jersey . Richardson went 7-of-13 from three-point range for the Knicks, who played with the minimum of eight players for a second straight game because of a pair of trades they made on Friday.It was one of the greatest achievements in the history of Canadian sports. On September 24, 1988, Ben Johnson thrilled the country by winning gold in the mens 100 metre sprint at the Olympic Games in Seoul. Not only did he win the race but he shattered the world record, taking the gold in a jaw-dropping 9.79 seconds. He became just the second Canadian to win Olympic gold in the event, flying past arch-rival Carl Lewis right out of the blocks en route to the historic gold. Of course - in the end - the moment proved too good to be true. Three days later, Johnson tested positive for steroids - surrendering the gold to Lewis and forever erasing his name from the record books. Johnson initially pled his innocence, but later admitted to steroid use in 1989 as his coach Charlie Francis claimed that the sprinter was doping for years prior. He entered the race in Seoul as the world record-holder with time of 9.83 at the 1987 World Championships in Rome. And the International Association of Athletics Federations wiped out that record as a result of Johnsons admission that we was also doping at that meet. The race in Seoul is seeing a renaissance of sorts thanks to 9.79*. The film takes a look at the Final 24 years later in the context of information released since that changes the narrative that was once perceived as a cheating Johnson blowing away a clean field. Carl Lewis finished the race second with a time of 9.97, but was awarded gold after Johnsons disqualification. However, a 2003 Sports Illustrated report revealed that Lewis had tested positive for banned substances in Olympic qualifying. He was excused on the basis of "inadvertent use" and allowed to compete in the Games. Lewis has since admitted to failing the tests, but in a 2003 Guardian interview quipped that everyone else was doing it. Linford Christie - who won silver in Seoul and later won gold at Barcelona in 1992 - also tested positive for banned stimulants after the 1988 final, but was let off the hook by the International Olympic Committee, according to a BBC report in 2009. He later received a two-year ban in 1999 for use of performance enhancing drugs. Others were linked to doping in the months and years following the Seoul Olympics as well. Eventual fourth-place finisher Dennis Mitchell got a two-year doping ban from the IAAF in 1998. Desai Williams - who was awarded sixth - was implicated, though never proven guilty of doping alongside fellow countryman Johnson in the famed Dubin Inquiry. Of the top five finishers in the Seoul race, only one sprinter emerged wiith a clean record in the end: eventual bronze medalist Calvin Smith. Daryl Smith Jersey. And it was Smiths record of 9.93 that Johnson had broken in Rome. Smith has since gone on record that he should have won the gold medal in light of information released in the following years. In a 1996 interview with South Africas Mail & Guardian, Johnson shed light on what he perceived to be one of the dirtiest races in Olympic history. "Yes, I was taking steroids," he said in the interview, "but so were others on the starting line that day." Twenty-four years after that infamous race, how does history - or, more importantly, Canada - see Ben Johnson? Wiped out alongside the gold and world record in Seoul was the legacy of one of the most successful Canadian athletes of the 1980s. And Johnson was not entirely stripped of an otherwise-impressive trophy case: The Lou Marsh Trophy and Lionel Conacher Award, Associated Press Athlete of the Year, the Order of Canada, bronze medals in the Olympic 100 metres and 4x100 relay at the 1984 Olympics, five Commonwealth Games medals from 1982 and 1986 (including two gold from the latter) and more. In Seoul, Johnson shattered his previous record by four-tenths of a second and won the race by a staggering 0.18 seconds. To put that result into perspective, the 100m world record would not reach 9.79 until 1999 when American sprinter Maurice Greene broke Donovan Baileys Atlanta mark of 9.84. Usain Bolts dominant Olympic performances in Beijing and London were by victory margins of 0.20 and 0.12 respectively. In the end, Johnson - the fastest man in a field of mostly unclean sprinters - could simply have been made an example of for an unbelievable performance. History has proven that Johnson was not the only sprinter in that race getting an added boost but what that means to Johnsons legacy and the perception of a dominant performer in a historically unclean era is a question that will always be tempered by the disappointment of Canadian fans at the time and the subsequent embarrassment caused by the scandal. Johnson has been considered many things over the years: A hero, a cheat, a scapegoat, a product of his sport and more. And all of those images will be stirred in 9.79* - for better or for worse. TSN wants your views on how the 1988 scandal is viewed today. In light of the revelations of widespread drug use in sports since 1988, how would you describe Johnson now? Do you think performance enhancing drugs should be accepted as part of competitive sports? ' ' '
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