Dodgers Streaking and Haydens Comeback

Dodgers Streaking

- The LA Dodgers were 30-42 on June 22^nd, since then they have been the hottest team in baseball, snapping out of the basement in their division catapulting to the top of their division, with a 7.5 game lead over the Arizona Diamondbacks.

- Since that Saturday in June, the Dodgers have won 43 games and only lost 10, one of the best 53 game stretches in MLB history. They are doing this behind an insane 1-2-3 pitching rotation of Clayton Kershaw, Zach Greinke and Ryu.

- The Dodgers’ manager Don Mattingly said that his job was in jeopardy prior to this streak. This streak is in line with the call up of Cuban defector outfielder Yasiel Puig. Puig’s offensive power and rocket arm in the outfield has been a jolt, while the rest of the Dodgers massive payroll is starting to perform.

Hayden back on field

- The Oakland Raiders may not win many games or make many headlines this year but they do have the feel-good story of the NFL season in the return of rookie CB D.J. Hayden. For those of you who don't know the story, Hayden was practicing last November at the University of Houston when a teammate hit him in the chest, a hit that looked fairly routine and innocuous. What nobody realized at the time though, was that he had suffered a freak injury, a vein tear in his heart, which usually only happens in car accident victims. - Here's where you start to realize how lucky Hayden is not just to be playing football still but to be alive. 95% of the people who suffer this injury die from it. Add to that the fact that no one could have guessed that he needed immediate emergency medical care and it looks even worse in retrospect. As put by Yahoo Sport's Frank Schwab:

1. If the training staff didn't make the decision to have him ride the cart into the football building, and had him walk in instead, he would probably be dead.

2. If athletic trainer Mike O'Shea had Hayden rest for a bit or take a shower, which isn't unusual, he would probably be dead.

3. If O'Shea hadn't seen the play because he was tending to another player or looking at another part of the field, when Hayden started talking about losing vision in his left eye on the training table, he couldn't immediately rule out a head injury and Hayden would probably be dead.

4. If O'Shea, without having any way of knowing that Hayden was suffering a life-and-death heart injury in his training room, not followed his instincts and called 9-1-1 immediately, Hayden would probably be dead.

5. If the first responders in the ambulance hadn't changed their minds once they got Hayden in the ambulance and took his vital signs, and decided to go right to the trauma center instead of another hospital, Hayden would probably be dead.

6. If Hayden had gone to another school after junior college, and not one in Houston with one of the world's best trauma center about four miles away, he would probably be dead.

7. If his thoracic diaphragm hadn't also torn, which caused blood to drain into his stomach, Hayden's heart would have suffocated and he would probably be dead.

- The Raiders may be unwatchable at times but even if the team is losing games they will have someone on the field who won his life back against stacked odds.