Tuesday Special: Walk-Off Slams & Links Galore

Walk-off grand slam against the Yankees:
By far the biggest (and strangest) win the Rangers had this season happened Monday night versus a team that the Rangers seem to never have luck on their side against, the New York Yankees. With the bases loaded and the score tied in the bottom of the 9th, Marlon Byrd hit the first pitch he saw over the right-center-field wall to give the Rangers a 9-5 victory in walk-off fashion. It was also a very strange game. Vicente Padilla appeared to throw a fastball right down the middle on Alex Rodriquez with 2 outs and 2 men on base in the top of the 1st. The umpire thought differently however, and called the pitch a ball. Rodriquez ended up walking amongst the boos from the fans. Jason Giambi then came up and knocked in a run. In the 5th inning Padilla was called for two balks, causing a run. The usually calm Rangers manager Ron Washington immediately ran out to argue and was ejected. There was also many acrobatic catches and home runs, but none as exciting as Byrd's shot to send the fans into a frenzy. The much-needed win came on a great night, where all teams ahead of Texas in the wild card standings lost. Texas is just now 5 games back from first, and we here at DallasDedicated are gearing up for an exciting playoff run!

Dallas sports links around the web:
-Here's the video of Byrd's walk-off slam. There is nothing like baseball's tradition of a dog pile at home plate after a walk-off home run.

-Terrell Owens and Adam Jones have been getting into a fierce battle day in and day out in training camp. The NFL compiled a short video of some of those battles in practice.

-Kelly Dwyer of Yahoo Sports reports that Andre Iguodala and the Sixers are in a stalemate regarding contract talks, and Kelly comes up with trading Iguodala and Willie Green to the Mavs for Josh Howard.

-With the controversy surrounding the Rangers over if CJ Wilson is still the closer or not, Dallas Morning News blogger Jean-Jacques Taylor wants the closer to be Eddie Guardado.
Quick Note: Guardado was sent to the bullpen in the bottom of the 8th to close out the game for the second night in a row. Does Washington have a trick up his sleeve after all?

-ESPN's Chris Sheridan is making something out of Jason Kidd being benched the second half of Team USA's exhibition game over Russia.

-Not only is Mark Cuban still in the running to buy the Chicago Cubs, but the Chicago Tribune reports that Cuban is actually the front runner in the bidding war.

-How does Jessica Simpson let Tony Romo know that she misses her man while he is gone to training camp? She strips for him on a webcam.

-Google thinks Avery Johnson is a sucky coach too, I guess.

-I hate to even link this idiocy, but ESPN's Chad Ford has the Mavs as one of the biggest losers of the NBA offseason so far.

-HBO's Hard Knocks featuring the Dallas Cowboys kicks off tomorrow, and you can see the trailer right here.

-After Josh Howard's arrest, freedarko.com lets us know why it is becoming hard to root for the guy.

-At one point during this summer, the Stars considered bringing back Jaroslav Modry to replace the veteran leadership lost by the retirement of Mattias Norstrom. Now, it looks as if Modry has signed to play in the Czech Republic.

-Ladies and gentlemen (or just gentlemen), meet the new Dallas Mavs dancers.

-Power rankings are stupid, that is until the Cowboys are ranked first.

-What Josh Howard's website should look like.

-T.O. talks about his favorite player nicknames on the Cowboys and what type of sportscaster he would be.

-Newest Dallas Star Sean Avery has a new girlfriend, and the 28 year old is dating someone 51. The fact that he spent the off-season interning for Vogue is making me like him a little less...

-Our friends at mvn.com give the case for Shaun Livingston in a Mavs jersey.

-ESPN Hashmarks creator and Dallas native Matt Mosley gives his theory that Jerry Jones could be trying to make a trade for Carolina star receiver Steve Smith.

-This isn't really Dallas related, but too funny to pass up. Steve Nash and Baron Davis make a movie trailer spoof together on a video competition on ibeatyou.com. They chose the movie "Step Brothers"....


Next time: DallasDedicated is gaining popularity, and other sites are starting to take notice. We have been asked for an exclusive interview with Most Valuable Network's website. They asked our opinions on multiple Mavs-related questions and we will give you our answers.

--ND