Vol. 5, No. 1 October 12, 2012 SPORTS EXTREME Lafayette Elementary School Washington, D.C. By the Bay or by the Beltway, It’s Baseball, Baby! Orioles: ‘O’ What a Season by Kevin Oakley and Alex Wise, 5JJ It has been 15 years since the Baltimore Orioles had a winning season, and another 15 years since the Orioles made the Wear your Nats or Os’ playoffs. Almost every newspaper, magazine, colors to school every day ESPN site or season poll had one thing in that either team has a playoff game. You don’t common--they all thought the Baltimore Orioles have to choose sides until would be the worst team in the AL East. No, they play each other in the make that the worst team in the AL. World Series! The O's season got off to a great start. During the first few months, they were one of the best teams in the MLB. By June, they started to cool off and were ten games behind the Inside New York Yankees when Jim Johnson started to come up big. Jim is a Postseason Teams........2 special pitcher who only comes into the game in the last inning when the Nats’ Stats................3 Orioles are up by three or less. On Sept. 30, Johnson got his 50th save Cy Young Prediction......4 of the season. Cont’d on P.3 Awesome Mr. T..........5 Cabrera Wins Crown.....6 Washington Nats Win NL East RG3 v. Andrew Luck.....7 by Luke Schauer, 5G Ravens v. Browns.........8 The Washington Nationals won the National League East and NFL Predictions............9 have gone on to defeat the St. Louis Cardinals in game 1 of the NFL Refs Return........10 playoffs. This is the first time that Washington, DC has had a team Best Tight Ends.........10 heading to the playoffs since 1933. Wow! Seventy-nine years! That’s Arizona’s Great Start..11 a long time! Heisman Trophy.........11 Not so long ago, Nats’ starter, Gio College Rankings........12 Gonzalez, got his 21st win. He is the first pitcher on the Nats to accomplish that. In a QBs: Who’s Best.......13 controversial move, the Nats’ other superstar NHL Lockout............14 pitcher, Stephen Strasburg, was shut down Harper Deserves ROY..15 before the end of the season. It was both a Teddy Wins!.......16 management and a medical decision to rest him and to protect his futureSure! as a Nats pitching ace. Strasburg suffered an injury during his rookie year with the Nats, had Tommy Our John surgery on his arm, and came back to the rotation this season, First Edition Cont’d on P. 3 Teams Overcome Adversity To Make MLB Postseason by Zachary Kaplan, 5JB !!!!!The 2012 Major League Baseball postseason will be remembered for years to come, Most of this year's representatives overcame hardships to make it to the playoffs. Teams have made it despite losing key players and coaches to retirements, trades, suspensions, and injuries. It also includes some surprise small-market teams as well as the return to the playoffs of a team from Washington, D.C. for the first time in almost 80 years, Now here's a breakdown of the playoff representatives from both the National and American leagues. !!!!NL#EAST:#Washington#Na2onals# For the first time since 1933 a team from Washington is in the playoffs. The last time for the franchise was when the Expos made it back in 1981. It's an exciting time for the Nationals who will play the winner of the Braves vs. Cardinals wildcard game, As an added bonus the long drought for Teddy is over, as he won a thrilling presidents' race in the regular season finale. (Update: The Cardinals defeated the Braves in the wild card game, and the Nationals beat the Cards in game one of the divisional playoffs. NL#CENTRAL:#Cincinna2#Reds The Reds have overcome hardships to make it back into the playoffs this year. Star player Joey Votto was sidelined due to injuries for much of the season and manager Dusty Baker recently experienced health problems of his own. Despite these setbacks, strong pitching and the return of Votto should help them go far in the postseason. NL#WEST:#San#Francisco#Giants The 2010 World Series Champs outlasted the retooled Los Angeles Dodgers to win the West this year. Even the suspension of All Star Game MVP Melky Cabrera couldn't slow down the team from the City by the Bay. Led by Catcher Buster Posey, mid-season pick- up Hunter Pence, and a cast of veteran players, don't count out those Giants just yet. Wildcards:#Atlanta#Braves#and#St.#Louis#Cardinals ! The Braves and Cardinals are the NL wildcards and under a new format will play a one-game playoff to determine who plays the Nationals in the National League Division series, The Cards are the defending World Series Champs and are back in the playoffs despite the loss of star player Albert Pujols to the Angels and the retirement of Manager Tony La Russa. It seems like the Braves make it into the postseason almost every year. They gave the Nationals a run for their money towards the end of the season. (Update: the Braves luck ran out in the wildcard games against the Cards, a loss that involved an ump’s controversial invoking of the infield fly rule. Cont’d on p. 5 2 AL#East:#New#York#Yankees Nats’ Stats Ignite Natitude Those Amazing ‘Os’ by Doug Cohen, 4H, and Sam Shapiro, 4S Cont’d from p. 1 The Orioles are amazing in extra inning We know the Nats are games. They have had 16 wins in a row--SIXTEEN. having a good season. And the O’s have an undefeated record when There are many ways we leading after seven innings. 72-0. When they are can tell. Most important of leading after seven, they are pitch perfect. all, the Nats have made it The O's bullpen is a great story. After three to the playoffs! starting-week pitchers struggled, they went to the Second, we can tell bullpen,where they are doing great. The O's have because of their stats. one of the best bullpens in the MLB. The O's have First the stats prove the dealt with injuries all year long. First, their long-time Nats got into the playoffs second baseman, Brian Roberts, was out until by clinching the NL East August and then out again for the rest of the season. division. When they Then Jason Hammel, the team’s ace, their best clinched the division, the pitcher, was out for a lot this season. He was injured Bryce has Natitude. Nat’s’ sprayed early and then returned to action. A few months later, Do You? champagne on each other he was hit on the elbow with a line drive and will and then on the fans to most likely be out for the rest of the season. celebrate. It was pretty funny. But remember, the Another key player for the O’s has been leadoff Nats have been great from start to finish this year. batter, Nick Markakis. He got hit in the hand in Their stats show that they have played better, and September and is probably out for the first playoff more consistently, than anyone else. Sure, it's a games at least. He was hot with a .298 batting loss that their most talented pitcher, Stephen average at the leadoff spot. Strasburg, won't be pitching in the postseason, but The best move for the Orioles this season was the stats show that the Nats’ rotation still may be when they called up phenom third baseman Manny better than any other team in baseball. Machado. The twenty year old is an amazing third baseman with a great arm. He was called up in The 2012 Baltimore Orioles August and he has blossomed ever since. With a 279 average, Machado has been a big part of the Orioles playoff run. On September 30th the Orioles clinched a playoff spot for the first time since 1997. Nats Are NL East Winners Cont’d from p. 1 The Nats’ new rookie Bryce Harper, who I actually got to meet, was the first overall pick in the 2010 Major League Baseball Draft. It was a good decision on the part of the Nats because he has the most runs of anyone on the team. Pretty good for a teenager. (Harper won’t turn 20 until Oct. 16. Maybe he’ll get a NL championship as a birthday present). The Nats have so many rookies, but they all get so little playing time. And then the Nats have the Shark, the fastest player on the team. The Shark’s real name is Roger Bernadina. And those are some interesting facts Jim Johnson, 4th row, 4th from right, about your Washington Nationals, the 2012 NL East Brian Roberts. 1st row, 3rd from right, winners. Jason Hammel, 5th row, 4th from right, Nick Markakis, 2nd row, 7th from right 3 Cy Young Award Winner Predictions by Aaron Spaeth, 4H The Cy Young award is given to the best baseball pitchers in the National League (NL) and the American League (AL). Cy Young was one of the best pitchers in baseball. He had 511 wins over his career. Nobody has more wins than Cy Young. He has held the record since 1911; that means he has held the record for 101 years. Some of the most famous pitchers to win the award include Roger Clemens, Tim Lincecum, and Randy Johnson.