Sportsman of the Week Ending 6/17/2018

Winning one is nice.  Defending a championship is golden.  Especially the United States Champion.  But Brooks Koepka held back a talented field over tough (some might say impossible) conditions to defend his 2017 United States Open Championship with a second title.  And he did it without much drama, needing only a bogie on 18 of Tommy Fleetwood who had been in the clubhouse for hours.  As the field faded on the back nine where birdies were scarce at Shinnecock Hills, Koepka remained poised, driving long, hitting greens, and saving putts and par.  And is now the 2018 United States Open Championship.  Still only 28 years old, he may have several more majors in his future.  But he is our Sportsman of the Week!

Sportswoman of the Week Ending 6/10/2018

An action packed week of sports saw two of the major four North American team sports settle their titles, along with a Triple Crown winner.  But we turn to tennis for this week.  Simona Halep captured the 2018 French open and became the first Romanian to win a tennis Grand Slam final since 1978 (and is our first Romanian Sportswoman of the Week).  Halep is the World's Number 1 player and after three prior Grand Slam finals defeats, finally broke through against American Sloane Stephens after going down a set.  The only other set she lost in the tournament was to former Sportswoman of the week Angelique Kerber while dominating other prominent and ranked ladies players like Garbine Muguruza and Elise Mertens.  Halep is the next big star in ladies tennis, and is the Longhorndave Sportswoman of the Week!

Sportsman of the Week Ending 6/3/2018

The Golden State Warriors appear poised for their third title in four years (would be four in four if not for blowing a 3-1 lead).  Warriors guard Stephen Curry appears better than ever.  In the biggest game of their season in Game 7 of the Western Conference Finals, Curry slayed the top seeded Rockets in Houston with 27 points, including 7-15 from deep along with 9 boards, 10 assists, and 27 points.  The first two games of the NBA Finals against the Cleveland Cavaliers, he's thus far averaging 31 points on 14-29 shooting from 3, including a record 9 three pointers made in Game 2.  Curry continues to be the engine that can't be stopped (doesn't hurt to have Durant and the rest of the supporting cast, but he is a worthy Sportsman of the Week!

Sportsman of the Week Ending 5/27/2018

It's a tradition of this Blog to recognize a driver on Memorial Day Weekend, which is one of the top weekends in motor sports.  This year one of the greats just broke through on the biggest stage.  William Power has been one of the best drivers in Indy Car, but the Indianapolis 500 had always alluded him.  In what turned out to be the least predictable race, Power was able to outlast the few cars ahead of him that ran short on fuel, while keeping an aggressive fuel strategy himself to win the race without much challenge.  The Penske Racing Team driving Australian held off Ed Carpenter who finished second place but he was distant.  Like many athletes who achieve their pinnacle milestone later in their careers, the whispers of "greatest to never win the [big event]" are abated, and Power goes down in the annals of this Blog as Sportsman of the Week!

Sportsman of the Week Ending 5/20/2018

Not sure to call it a Miracle on "Dice" or a Cinderella story, but the Las Vegas Golden Knights have turned the National Hockey League upside down.  The expansion team (usually finish last, hope to be respectable) are now the Western Conference Champions and bidding for their first Stanley Cup Championship.  In their first year.  It's been 25 years since a team from Canada has won the Cup.  The Washington Capitals have been trying to win the Stanley Cup for over 40 years with no luck.  But the Golden Knights are four wins away.  After dropping the Western Conference Finals Game 1 to the home-standing Winnipeg Jets, the Golden Knights won four straight games behind net-minder  Marc-Andre Fleury.  Fleury stonewalled the Jets allowing only 6 goals in four games.  The three-time Pittsburgh Penguins Stanley Cup winning goalie stopped 129 out of 135 shots (96%) with just 1.5 goals per game.  The Knights are a complete team without a lot of scoring weapons, but with Fleury in goal, it may be their year.  He is the Longhorndave Sportsman of the Week!

Sportsman of the Week Ending 5/13/2018

As the weather heats up, so is major league baseball.  And no pitcher was hotter for nine innings than the Seattle Mariners James Paxton who threw the 2018 baseball season's second no hitter in a 99 pitch gem to shut down the potent Toronto Blue Jays.  Toronto as in Canada, and Paxton is Canadian, born in British Columbia.  Paxton has always shown dominant stuff, but has seemingly had to navigate injuries and inconsistency which has kept him from being elite.  But no longer.  Paxton retired the last 16 hitters (17 outs including a double play) and it looked like the Jays could have played 18 innings without getting to him.  He joins the elite no hitter fraternity and only the second Canadian to do so.  He's the Longhorndave Sportsman of the Week!

Sportsman of the Week Ending 5/6/2018

The first weekend in May is one of the highlights of the American sports calendar.  The Kentucky Derby.  The iconic twin spires of Churchill Downs set against the blue sky and sun splashed hats in the grandstand.  Okay, it was really really rainy, but the race went off just the same.  And appropriate a veteran was able to pull off the victory.  Mike Smith rode favorite Justify to an easy victory to capture the rose garland.  Any time you navigate a 20 horse field the jockey had to have had a good day, and compound that with the fact that running in the back of the pack means mud splatter which could discourage a horse.  Not so with Justify.  "Money" Mike Smith finished with his white silks barely splattered and took a big first step for what could be a second horse racing triple crown in four years.

Sportsman of the Week Ending 4/29/2018

By pure volume of sporting events, late April and early May are one of the best times of the year with 3 or 4 NBA/NHL playoff games to go with a full slate of MLB action plus the usual other spring college sports.  This week we turn to the NHL playoffs where every series is a battle and it's a grind to rise to the top.  One of the best first round matchups were Original Six members Boston Bruins vs. Toronto Maple Leafs, and it was the Bruins who came out on top thanks to our Sportsman of the Week.  The Bruins LW Brad Marchand took control of Game 7 with a goal and assist (+2 +/-) to seal the Leafs fate and advance the Bruins.  He followed it up with a road performance of 1 goal and 3 assists (+4) to enable the Bruins to take a 1-0 series lead on the favored Tampa Bay Lightning in Game 1 of the second round.  Nobody getting by easy, and if the Bruins are to make a Stanley Cup run, it'll be Marchand in the middle of it, our Sportsman of the Week!

Sportsman of the Week Ending 4/22/2018

The weather is warming up, and so is the baseball action.  But no pitcher has been hotter in a game this season than Sean Manaea of the Oakland Athletics, who scored the first no-hitter of 2018.  The feat is more impressive in that it was against the team with the best record, and best offense in baseball, the Boston Red Sox.  Manaea got the 9 inning complete game with 2 walks and 10 strikeouts in an efficient 108 pitches.  He has long been considered a work in progress, in that his stuff was dominant, but seemed like he could not harness it.  Well through five starts this season, he leads the American League in innings pitched and has allowed only 22 baserunners in 36.2 innings.  And of the 5 runs he's allowed, 4 were solo home runs.  He's not giving up much, but on Saturday night, he gave up nothing hit wise.  And is a worthy Sportsman of the Week!

Sportswoman of the Week Ending 4/16/2018

The Boston Marathon is one of the most iconic American sports events as it occurs in one of the oldest cities and features elite athletes from around the world.  Moreover, unlike other marathons held on a weekend, it is held on the third Monday of April, which is Patriots Day.  Patriots Day commemorates the anniversary Revolutionary War battles of Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775.  But this is not a history blog, it is a sports blog.  As the Boston Marathon got more elite, it became more and more rare that an American woman would win the race.  But this year produced the first American winner since 1985, as American Desi (Davila) Lindon broke the streak.  In downright miserable (and slow) conditions, the 2012 and 2016 Olympian Lindon crossed the line at 2 hours, 39 minutes, and 54 seconds.  Far from a record or even her best time in Boston, the 34 year-old Michigander will be an inspiration to young American runners for years to come, and is our Sportswoman of the Week!