Wichtig » urns buckled down but the wickets kept falling. S

We can all agree that the Chicago Cubs are pretty good, yes? Theres really no argument against it. They have one of baseballs best records. They have baseballs strongest run differential. And its not like it came out of nowhere; they were good last year, then they improved. Its hard to imagine any team having a better chance of winning the World Series. I want to make this point clear: The Cubs are terrific.All right then.But lets take a closer look. The Cubs have been good because theyve performed well. Couldnt be simpler, right? Theres another, more hidden contributor, though. Have you happened to look at the Cubs schedule so far?I must admit, I didnt expect this post to focus on the Cubs. That wasnt my intent going in, but a trend emerged that is worth our attention. Schedule strength doesnt get talked about in baseball the way it gets talked about in football. The samples are bigger, and the opponents tend to be more uniform. Yet baseball schedules definitely are not balanced, and its possible to look at who has benefited and who has been hurt by it. And the Cubs, so far, have had it relatively easy, while the AL West-leading Texas Rangers have not.So I set out to examine individual players, looking for the hitters and pitchers who have faced the easiest and toughest individual opponents. Which hitters have faced aces with regularity, and which hitters have faced call-ups? Which pitchers have faced sluggers, and which pitchers have faced a ton of backups? The results of my findings are fascinating enough, but youll quickly see why the Cubs became the focus.China Shoes .ca looks back at the stories and moments that made the year memorable. Cheap Authentic Shoes .com) - The Chicago Blackhawks aim for their third three-game winning streak of the season when they host the struggling Edmonton Oilers in Sundays battle at the United Center. http://www.cheapshoeschina.us/ . Speaking to the Chicago Tribune at baseballs Winter Meetings in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, Boras called the former home of the Expos a "tremendous environment" for baseball. Cheap Shoes From China . 8 Iowa State on Saturday, sending the Cyclones to their third consecutive loss. The Longhorns (14-4, 3-2) got their biggest win of the season with their third in the row in the Big 12. Wholesale Fashion Shoes China .In my heart and mind Im competing for India, luge competitor Shiva Keshavan told The Associated Press in an email interview. Every day Im flooded with messages from Indians all over the world telling me they are supporting me.Warwickshire 137 for 2 (Trott 82*) beat Surrey 136 (Burns 40) by eight wicketsScorecardMuch emphasis had been placed at Lords during the week of the gathering crisis that besets English professional cricket on the fact that Alastair Cook is now supposedly less recognisable than the biggest names in WWE wrestling. So for the benefit of any new readers who may have accidentally alighted on this page perhaps it should be observed from the start that the Royal London final was such a mismatch that Big Show versus Mayweather felt close by comparison.In a week when English professional cricket was beset by division over its future, the game sorely needed a Royal London Cup final to reassure it that, however impassioned the debate, it was still capable of providing high-class entertainment. Instead, Warwickshire waltzed the Lords final by eight wickets with a whopping 19.4 overs to spare, much to the disappointment no doubt of one of the biggest crowds for the 50-over final for years.Jonathan Trott has rarely regarded himself as one of crickets Big Shows. His approach is far too conservative for that, his character far too reserved. But after Warwickshire had dismissed Surrey for 136 - almost ten overs unused as they lost their last eight wickets for 37 in 15.2 overs - Trott compiled an unbeaten 82 in a phlegmatic manner to put batting conditions into perspective. He averaged 72 to get Warwickshire into the final and was their mainstay once more.In the Lords committee rooms, with the ECB chairman Colin Graves robust enough to have donned wrestlers garb, metaphorically at least, they have been obsessing - as they must - about the future of T20. But out on the field, in the 50-over final, Trott was playing in a composed, old-fashioned manner that suggested that nothing had changed, that the game was the same as it ever was, that a methodical approach and sound selection could still win trophies. There had been only three lower scores in a Lords final. He could have blocked his way to victory.Surrey managed only two wickets. Sam Hain, unnecessarily, reverse swept Zafar Ansari to Sam Curran at what was then short fine leg - Trott had played the shot more delicately earlier in the over - and Ian Bell gloved a bouncer from Stuart Meaker to the wicketkeeper. Life is not about to become easy for Bell, not while relegation from the Championship remains a possibility as ther last week of the season looms. But Trott proceeded with equanimity, a cover drive off Sam Curran settling the match. Curran looked morose, although it is best not to feel too sorry for an 18-year-old with two Lords runners-up medals to his name. Trott, idiosyncratically, scratched his guard with the match won, maybe an indication that he plans to be back again next year.Surrey were also outdone by Gloucestershire in the final a year ago, but this time they suffered a more overwhelming defeat on a used Lords pitch that encouraged Warwickshires seam bowlers and also turned progressively for Jeetan Patel. It was not a pristine surface - it is mid-September at Lords after all and traffic has been heavy - but Surrey should have managed top-side of 220 to make it a contest.The story of the September one-day final has long been one of griim, grey skies and naggy surfaces.dddddddddddd It was surprising for some therefore that Surreys captain, Gareth Batty, chose to bat after winning the toss. Battys hope was that a used pitch would continue to deteriorate but, with only 136 to defend, Surrey never found the purchase that Warwickshires bowlers had earlier in the day. It was Oliver Hannon-Dalby, in particular, who made it seam and Patel again who proclaimed himself the best spin bowler in the county game. Better, on this day certainly than the respectable Surrey duo who are heading with India to Bangladesh.Surreys batting disarray was a world away from the early overs, in which Jason Roy and Steven Davies gave Surrey a confident start. Davies, who is on his way to Somerset, must have yearned for a trophy-winning farewell as he drove crisply through the covers. Roy abounded with promise as he worked the leg side gaps. Rikki Clarke, who bowled only three new-ball overs, was left with figures of 3-0-24-0 which were out of sync with what followed.It took a quite wonderful catch by Laurie Evans to silence Roy. When Roy rose to his full height - relatively speaking - to pull Chris Wright through midwicket, he did so with a flourish which proclaimed Im The Man, only for Evans to intercept with a diving, one-handed catch to his right. Davies careless demise against the offbreaks of Ateeq Javid was a quieter affair as Tim Ambrose stole a neat leg-side stumping. At 99 for 2, though, Battys decision was sound enough.Kumar Sangakkara is the pivotal figure in a Surrey middle-order that seems more suited to the rhythms of Championship cricket. That Sangakkara was so cagey, as was his fellow left-hander, Rory Burns, soon told that a run spree was out of the question. Hannon-Dalby then indicated that the situation was a whole lot worse than that.Hannon-Dalby is an unprepossessing figure, a spindly, square-on seamer, with a front-arm that has a bit part role, entering his action without acclaim. But he persistently belies his unthreatening appearance in limited-overs cricket. When he had Sangakkara caught at the wicket, it was in an excellent over when he had passed the edge of Burns bat more than once. A nip-backer accounted for Ben Foakes for a duck in his next over and when Ansari also fell without scoring, this time against Patel as a suspicious leading edge was well caught by the diving Evans at short extra, Surrey had lost 3 for 3 in 17 balls.Burns buckled down but the wickets kept falling. Sam Curran tried to hit a long hop from Javed from Lords to The Oval and was bowled as a consequence, Hannon-Dalby ran out his brother, Tom, from short third man after he sought an unlikely single and was sent back, and Burns, running out of partners, came down the pitch to Patel, missed one that turned and was bowled.Chris Woakes, a bowler of England stature these days, ensured no monkey business from the tail, demolishing the stumps of Batty and Jade Dernbach in successive overs to leave Warwickshire in a strong position at the interval. All that was left was for Trott to strap on the pads and do what he does best. ' ' '