ScotSports.com Blog

We don't keep up with this kind of stuff as a habit, mind you, but a Google blast popped this up on the computer here so I thought I'd share it. Matthew Stafford is living large this summer while preparing for his first training camp with the Detroit Lions. What does boating with bikini babes at the lake have to do with high-level training? He'll have to answer that.

The pics are PG-13, unless you're his mother. Then the phone starts ringing.

 Clayton HP-ex Clayton Kershaw (middle, with Manny Ramirez) continues to say and do all the right things for the LA Dodgers this season. It's paying off on the stat sheets, but score one for the rookie in the PR battle and the clubhouse.

Kershaw was yanked Wednesday night after throwing eight scoreless innings against St. Louis in a game Dodgers reliever Jonathan Broxton blew in a 3-2 loss. In an MLB.com story, LA catcher Russell Martin is quoted as saying Kershaw never showed any sign of tiring in what is now his career-long appearance. Still, Kershaw took the company line when asked if he was disappointed with not getting a chance to finish off his first complete game.

"I'll take 1-0 with Broxton in the ninth, I'll take my chances 100 percent of the time," Kershaw said. "He's been lights-out all year. If it happens again, I'd have no hesitation taking my chances with Broxton."

In Kershaw's previous nine starts, he was 5-0 with four no-decisions and an 0.79 ERA -- the best in the Major Leagues dating to June 10. Part of his improvement is the addition of a slider to his fastball, curve and changeup.

"I try to keep my confidence the same no matter if I'm pitching good or bad, but obviously in a stretch like I'm in, you get a little bit of confidence," said Kershaw, whom the Dodgers have refused to include in any trade talk. "That's one of the better lineups I've faced since I've been up here."

We devote almost all of this space to coverage of HP athletics, but occassionally we want to mix in a little college sports into the soup. And there's no better time to talk about SMU football than the preseason, especially since no one's sure what June Jones and the Mustangs will provide this fall. At least they're off to a good start - three Mustangs were selected to the preseason All-CUSA team by the conference's media crew. Here's the release from SMU:

It all starts one week from today, when the HP volleyball teams hit the court with their preseason tryouts and workouts. The Lady Scots will have two-a-day practices while conducting tryouts next Monday and Tuesday.

The first scrimmage is on Friday, Aug. 7, when HP hosts Hebron, Lovejoy and Keller in a round-robin format beginning at 5 p.m. HP goes to Allen on Saturday, Aug. 8, at scrimmage the Eagles and Coppell beginning at 10 a.m. HP's varsity regular-season-opener is Tuesday, Aug. 11, at home against Red Oak and Lake Highlands at 5 p.m. The JV is at Red Oak, and the freshmen play at Richardson Pearce.

That other fall sport, football, begins with equipment pickups next week, and the first day of full preseason workouts is on Monday, Aug. 10, two weeks from today.

Some of HP's top swimmers headed over to Mansfield over the weekend for the 2009  Southwest Senior Invitational meet, and came back with impressive results.

Allison Arnold, the Blue Wave's defending state champion in the freestyle and breaststroke, added another highlight to her busy summer last weekend. The rising senior qualified for the U.S. Open Swimming Championships in two weeks with a 8:54.41 time in the 800-meter freestyle. Arnold won the event, and could go to Federal Way, Wash. (outside Seattle) for the Open on Aug. 4.

She'll return on Aug. 10 for the U.S. Junior Nationals. Arnold qualified for that meet with two of her relay teams with the Dallas Mustangs swim club. The 800 freestyle relay team was second with a qualifying time of 8:25.97, and the 400 relay team was also second to another Mustangs relay in 4:28.58. Arnold also qualified in the 200 free in 2:05.64, placing fourth.

Bolton Harris, Hannah Ferrin and Delaney Rolfe also had top Southwest Senior finishes. Read more on this meet in our front-page story.

The Dallas Texans lost their bid for the Under-15 Girls Division national title today, falling 6-5 in a penalty-kick shootout to the San Diego Surf 93-94 White. The teams tied in regulation, 0-0, and had to go into extra PK's to determine a winner.

No other information on the match was available from the US Youth Soccer Association website. Kelsey Bass, a defender for the Texas, is an incoming freshman at HP this fall.

Two months ago Clayton Kershaw had a no-hitter working at Florida through seven innings. That remains the best performance of the season for one of the National League's hottest pitchers. 

Facing the Marlins for the first time since that May 17 outing, the HP-ex had another quality start Friday night giving up only two earned runs. Kershaw struck out six and walked only three but got into a high pitch count early on. He gave up nine hits in a six-inning appearance and left the game tied at 3-3. LA's bullpen struggled as Florida won, 6-3.

Kershaw's post-game quotes from Ken Gurnick's story on MLB.com:
"When you're going good like I have been, hits that aren't supposed to fall in, don't," said Kershaw. "Tonight, those balls found holes all night. It's kind of frustrating, you know? They got a lot of runs with two outs and a lot of the hits were with two strikes. I wasn't able to put hitters away. A lot of those hits tonight were outs in Florida. Give them a lot of credit, but they didn't necessarily tear the cover off the ball."

The Dallas Texans 94 Red team fell to FC Pennsylvania Strikers 1-0 on Friday, but can still look forward to Saturday's national title match in the Under-15 Division of the US Youth Soccer National Championship Series in Lancaster, Mass.

The Texans (2-1 in the tournament), with HP freshman Kelsey Bass on the roster, had already clinched a spot in the title match along with the San Diego Surf 93-94 White, which tied the So Cal Blues 0-0 on Friday to place first in the round-robin pool with seven points. The Texans were second with six.

The Texans and Surf kickoff at 3 p.m. (CST). The Surf, the USYSA's defending National League champions, have yet to give up a goal in the national tournament.

The Dodgers aren't giving up Clayton Kershaw for anyone. So says MLB.com's David Bly in a recent feature story. Here's how Bly ends it:

And the Dodgers have good cause to protect Kershaw's left arm, considering how delicately it's intertwined into the Dodgers' World Series hopes.
After all, this is a player deemed untouchable in trade discussions for Toronto ace Roy Halladay.
Acquiring Halladay would give Los Angeles the type of front-line starter that could lead a team to the World Series. But the prospect of losing Kershaw appears to be too much for the Dodgers.
"It's a compliment," said Kershaw about the trade rumors. "I'm glad that another team wants me to begin with, and I'm glad this team cares enough about me to protect me."
This isn't the first time Kershaw says that his name has appeared in trade talks. It's been an annual occurrence for him since becoming part of the organization in 2006.
But at the rate in which Kershaw is evolving on the mound, there's a decent chance that this year could be the last time his name pops up in trade talks with the Dodgers.
He isn't going anywhere.

I'm convinced.

 HP-ex and LA Dodgers lefty Clayton Kershaw is back on the mound tonight working to continue his torrid summer. In his last seven starts, he's 5-0 with a 0.63 ERA, and the Dodgers have won each game. That's three earned runs given up in his last 42 2/3 innings, which has cut his season ERA by more than a third from 4.50 to 2.95, while pushing his record to 8-5.

Those are almost the same numbers HP fans saw when Kershaw wore the blue and gold. In his last start last Saturday against Houston, Kershaw pitched a two-hitter in seven scoreless innings.

The difference is in Kershaw's developing his off-speed pitches, as he told David Ely of MLB.com in a recent feature story entitled "Kershaw's acceleration a marvel." Kershaw's quote:
"That's been a big part of it for me," Kershaw said. "Last year when I got into trouble I wanted to throw hard, hard and harder, and just get out of the inning. I've kind of found out that when I do get into trouble, that when I do have people on base, sometimes the best thing is to throw a little bit more off-speed, back off a little bit."

The story link also includes some great video of Kershaw pitching against Houston last Saturday.