The Rain Maker Sports: Sports Bytes - June 1, 2010

Raise your hand if you were surprised that Vitali Klitschko stopped Albert Sosnowski on Saturday in Germany. Now raise your hand if you knew who Sosnowski was prior to the fight . . .

I don't know about you, but I'm relieved to hear that Randy Moss is not retiring. The rumor nearly destroyed my Memorial Day Weekend . . . Moss is apparently looking for a new agent to increase his off-the-gridiron marketability. Somehow I can't picture Moss smiling his way through a Viagra commercial . . .

I'm guessing that Memorial Day is now one of Alex Rodriguez's favorite holidays. Yesterday he hit a grand slam and drove in a total of six runs in the Yanks 11-2 rout of the Indians . . . Even with an 8-1 lead Chan Ho-Park was still incapable of pitching a scoreless outing. He threw two innings yesterday and gave up two hits and a run . . . I guess Joe Girardi felt that an 8-1 lead wasn't a big enough margin to trust Joba Chamberlain. . .

The Rays unforeseen swoon continues. They have now lost six of their last eight. Yesterday they were beaten by the Toronto Blue Jays 3-2 . . .

The Atlanta Braves have won eight of their last 10 games and are now in first place in the NL East after crushing the Phillies yesterday 9-3. It was the Phillies seventh loss in their last 10 games . . . I could be wrong, but wasn't George Bush president the last time the Phillies were not in first place in the NL East? . . .

Colorado Rockies phenom Ubaldo Jiminez shutout the San Francisco Giants and outdueled two-time CY Young Tim Linecum to earn his 10th win of the season. His exceptional performance also lowered his ERA to 0.78. Soon MLB will need to use negative integers to calculate his ERA . . .

One observation about Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Finals. Having lost Game 1 of the series it was important that Philadelphia come out strong and set the tempo. Instead, they committed three penalties in the first period and spent six minutes playing shorthanded. Rather than seizing the momentum, they were forced to play on their heels--so much so that they were limited to only three shots on goal in the opening period. Although their shot production increased in both the second and third periods, the Flyers never seemed to recover from that sloppy first period. They seemed out of sync. Now they are down 2-0 in games . . .

It's not often that a player asks to be cut, but that is the case with Dallas Cowboys WR Patrick Crayton who says he feels "betrayed" after learning that the club tried to trade him last month during the draft. The Cowboys say they have no intention of letting him go . . .

Anyone else believe that former Dallas Cowboy OL Flozell Adams belongs on Daniel Snyder's Washington Redskins team? . . .

New York Yankees P Andy Pettitte continues to glide along at the age of 37. Yesterday he won his seventh game, tying him with Tampa Bay's David Price for the American League lead . . . Oh, and he also has the third lowest ERA in the American League at 2.48 . . .

How bad are things right now for the Arizona Diamondbacks? Not only have they lost eight in a row and occupy the cellar of the NL West division, but yesterday they lost to the Dodgers on a walk-off balk . . .

Streetlevel.com has an interesting list of "11 Athletes Who Threw Away Their Million-Dollar Fortunes". Among the athletes mentioned: Evander Holyfield, Mike Tyson, Scottie Pippen, Latrell Sprewell, and Jack Clark . . .

Former NY Giants LB Antonio Pierce believes Giants head coach Tom Coughlin and his staff will be on the hot seat this season. He's probably right. If you spend hundreds of millions of dollars on a new stadium and charge fans obscene amounts for PSLs, you'd better win . . .