Sports II: scores, events, trivia, nostalgia, banter, etc.

This has been a handy thread, begun in April during a golf tournament and basketball playoffs that some people hated (though they subsequently had something to say about baseball and football) ... soccer even made an appearance during the Champions League and then the World Cup tournament ... nostalgia too, about the Chicago Blackhawks (and this year's Stanley Cup), old-time ballplayers and ball parks, hoopsters and arenas ...

Photos welcome. Music also. Though if I hear "We Are the Champions" one more time, I might jump off a roof.

Did you say music? Does the Indiana Jones theme song count?

Well, of course it counts, Jane, but I should tell you that your last two YouTube musical offerings never actually made it to my speakers.

Hmm...is it a computer thing? I'm not so good with the technology. What about this one...Thriller?

That one's okay.

Oregon is BCS #1! OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! We gonna kick some U Dub Doggie butt today! "One of the most hostile rivalries in the PNW" says former Huskie QB.

GO Duckies! OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Oy.

After we put these pups back in the dog house, I'll be shaking my tail feathers. OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

#1 Oregon takes down the U Dub Dogs 53-16. OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

And in lieu of my finding a duck tail dance video I will leave you with this; our Ducky, gettin' buff.



This season, to date, he has done 2,294 push-ups.

This was my view Saturday:



Great game!!

What do they cook up at the concession stands of those southern stadiums? The same crapola you get everywhere else, or something, perhaps, unique?

Mostly the same old stuff (though they call them Tiger dogs, sausages, burgers etc.), though they do have jambalaya. The real food is outside the stadium. You can drop in on almost any tailgate starting Friday midday and going the whole weekend and get fed.

Did some California Bears give you quite a scare yesterday, Tani?

A missed 29 yard field goal that kicker makes 99% of the time.

Did you see your National Championship flash before your eyes?

Berserkley, we used to call it.

Well, if Versus had anticipated the multitude of Dish Network subscribers adding their station it would have been a nail biter, fer sure. We did not get a signal until almost 7pm. I was soooo pissed! Coach Kelly had the right of it though when that dumb ass reporter started in on the 2 point lead... "We won, that's all that matters."

Wasn't that kicker also the one who stepped out before the snap? hmmm... "Big mistake... HUGE! I have to go shopping now..."

;p

Bring on Arizona! OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

So full of bravado, sticking your virtual tongue out, shouting your:

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOs.

Don't you get nervous, as the next contest approaches, and the one after that? Don't you ever wonder if you're living on borrowed time?

My guts scramble and my blood pressure goes up every Saturday morning. Are you kidding me? You know how many times we've been close to the dance but not let in?

I asked because I have to admit (don't tell any of the macho types around here), being a fan, actually rooting for a team, makes me so nervous that I wonder why I bother. It seems masochistic.

rooting for a team, makes me so nervous

for that very reason, I don't watch Laker games until the 4th quarter.

That's how I feel about the Falcons. Every Sunday afternoon (figuratively speaking) I look for the Falcons I used to know. You knew they were going to lose so you just sat back and enjoyed the game and if they did win, it was bonus. But when you watch a winning team that really doesn't have a track record of winning it just leaves me a nervous wreck. However, I will say, they remind me a lot of the Cowboys right before they went on their three Super Bowls in four years run in the early nineties. They are below the national sports network's radar, and I like it that way. The other night when they beat the Ravens in one of the best football games I've seen in years, the media didn't talk about how good the Falcons were, but what mistakes the Ravens made. The Ravens didn't beat themselves, they were beaten by an evenly matched team.

Did it hurt, Gene, seeing Michael Vick GO OFF last night? Good gracious, that was one of the best quarterback game performances ever.

I was in Dallas when he played for the Falcons, so no, not really. In fact I was quite proud of his performance. If anyone deserves a touch of redemption I think it is him. I did not see the game, but I heard he passed for four and rushed for two. When was the last time a QB scored six TDs in one game?

I was a die hard blazer fan, back in the early 90s (when we had Drexler, Porter, Kersey, Williams and Duckworth) it was fun. But during the playoffs... well, lets put it this way, I was 20 years younger and my heart could take it. Now, not so much.

I noticed mention of The Stanley Cup in message 1.
I think I can recall what it is. I'm a Leaf fan. I wasn't even born the last time they won.

Okay, Trojan boy... Chili's in the crockpot and the cornbread is in the oven... Let's see what my Beav's can do!

Oregon, Oregon State: any other teams you're passionate about? The Reed College Snobs? The Coos Bay H.S. Loggers?

Reed? C'mon, Wilson... Reed?

Have you seen the Rodgers bros play?

FIGHT ON MIGHTY TROJAN CONDOMS!!!!

Out of curiosity, I tuned in to a couple of games. But I gotta tell you, college football ain't my thing. Nothing personal, Tani, Gene, Jane, et al.

Awww, c'mon Wilson! Where'd you think them NFL players came from?

Our Rodgers bros:

This boy can slip through just about any defense you can throw at him. Oh, and Trojan boy? 20-0 at the half!

Jacquizz

Oh man... Barkley just took a really nasty sack. The replay made my back hurt. Hope he's not hurt.

Our Golden Boys:

James and Jacquizz

That's alright, Peter. You know how I feel about basketball and hockey. Just not my thing. College football is okay, but it's the NFL that toots my horn.

Oy! I am so ashamed... *hangs head* You see, I live in a house divided. (see message #31) Of my four nieces, all went to Oregon and one went to both Oregon and Oregon State Veterinary School. I have been so focused on my Duckies that I totally neglected the Beavs. I kept looking for James Rodgers all night and then saw him coming out of the tunnel with Barkley on crutches. Gah! With any good luck applied, James will be back with us next season since he played at least 30% of our games this year.

This is the Sound!

GO BEAVS! 36-7



Sorry, Trojan boy...

No worries, Tani. I like Beavers.

♥ u, Rique!

and when I said "I like Beavers," I wasn't kidding, Tani.

Because I love me some beavers ... with their webbed hind feet and pancake-like ping pong paddles attached to their tails!



Aren't beavers soooooooooooooooooo cute?!

Especially this one:

The Beave! What a cutie.

Coupla New York teams (even if they play in New Joizey) involved in entertaining football games yesterday. The Colts-Pats weren't bad neither.

I was hoping to watch the Seahawks/Saints game yesterday but was overruled by da Mama. She says that Saturdays are enough in our house. ;-)

46 - I saw it and let me just say:



Going back upthread a bit, I'm the opposite of gene. College football is definitely my first and largest love, followed by the NFL, college baseball, basketball, NBA, and then I'm pretty much done.

LSU won a tight one against the RebBears of Ole Miss - one more win and we might be able to squeak into the Sugar Bowl. Saints look to be back on track after a rough start. Hornets doing very well - only one loss and wins over Miami, Denver, Spurs, and a split with Dallas. LSU basketball is henceforth 'that which shall not be named'.

Hahaha! 'Sall good, Jane... I would have cheered for the Saints anyway.

Hope them Wildcats ate oatmeal this morning! It's gonna be a cold day @ Autzen!

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Oy.

Oregon takes Arizona 48-29. OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Civil war next week... Ducks! Beavers! Ducks! Beavers! Ducks! Beavers! Ducks! Oy, I'm feelin' a tad dizzy.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Check this out, duckie:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101201/ap_on_sp_co_ne/fbc_t25_college_fb_picks

One game at a time, Wilson. Goin' after the Beavs at Corvallis. It's bad enough that the stupid BCS dropped us to #2 for a two-onethousandth point difference with Auburn.

Ah yes the annual Civil War game. Everyone at work breaks out their colors. The City bureau I used to work at was about 50/50 but the one I am at now has more Ducks than Beavers. Seems the Beavs definitely the underdogs this year. I don't really care either way (I went to uni on the east coast, and I have friends from both) but can't avoid it, what with living in PDX and all....

*snort* ;-)

Nevermind.

Well, look at it this way, a team from Oregon is going to win, unless it's a tie.

#57 - LOL... Last year was awesome, either way, an Oregon team was going to the Rose Bowl.

This year, yikes. Between the computer issues this week and the civil war, my blood pressure is already rising.

Nevermind? Not fair, Wilson...

Well, okay. My entry pointed out that I lived in Corvallis for a month and had both a roommate and a personal connection to Eugene (you know it was in the epilogue of my psychedelic book), so the civil war stuff seemed overheated to me, to which I added: "but then, I'm not into college football."

Thank you, Mr. Author Man. (I hate it when that happens)

And what did you think of Corvallis, back in the day? (not that it's changed much)

OSU sure has a delightfully pretty campus. Corvallis, well, small town, but not so very bad at that. At least, it's not far from either Eugene or Portland.

My son is applying to schools right now and I am hoping he will go to Southern OR University but he is also applying to both UofO and OSU.

A sleepy town, but then, every day I was there that summer, it was 90 degrees or more. Seemed sort of conservative, quiet. I got into being bored and kind of wallowed in that.

Tani, your duck friend is cracking me up on College Gameday this morning.

Hehe! Damn, I missed that.

Go Ducks! OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Sorry, Quizz and company... gotta go with the Ducks.

My old Brooklyn roommate, Pat Mazzeo, a former Duck, told me he was approached by friends to be a partner in an Italian restaurant, since he was the only Italian they knew. He declined. But there was, and perhaps still is, a restaurant in Eugene (and perhaps in other places) called Mazzeo's. Maybe they used his name, seeing how Italian it sounds and all.

Nope, it's Mazzi's. An absolute fav when I lived in the Mid Valley.

Arizona bound, baby! OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

My poor team, though not as execrable as last year, is only 8-20 this year, though we did give your Lakers a brief tussle a while ago, Henri, and even taxed the Celtics for three-quarters. But what a revelation, now that we have two of your former guys--Farmar and Vujavic (?)--who played only sparingly. Now they're running and gunning to beat the band. Vujavic (?) looked like he'd just escaped from prison. I mean, I've seen him brought in to take three-pointers, but last night against the Hawks he was driving to the hoop, defending like a fiend (made three steals), rebounding, assisting, just having grand time. He was a joyous presence. Didn't glower once, at anyone. Being released from Phil Jackson's gulag will do that, I guess.

Hey don't give up on your poor Nets just yet, Sasha "The Machine" (as he was known in '08-'09 when he was a vital component for us off the bench) Vujacic (with a "c"; pronounced, "Vu-yuh-chick") can be a mighty spark. And even at 8-20, you're only 3 1/2 games out of the last playoff spot, in the weak East once you get past the elite teams over there.

Sasha's a clutch performer, little used or not. Remember those two clutch free throws he hit in game 7 last finals, cold off the bench? Hadn't played all game, but Phil trusted him, and he came through. Ice water in his veins, as they say, that Sasha. I'm very sorry to see him go. I liked him a lot, played with passion and fire. He just got lost on the deepest bench the Lakers have had in, probably since the Showtime days. You guys definitely got the better end of that deal. He will make the Nets better not just because he's a champion sharp shooter, but he'll make Farmar play better too: those two egged each other on as Lakers, a rivalry that often got heated and acrimonious between them, which is what you want on your team. The Laker's'll miss him, especially should an aging Fisher break down during the season. I'll definitely be keeping a closer eye on the Nets this season, to see how he does. Yeah, in 29 minutes last night -- 10-6-3 -- he's already helping you guys win.

Had Joe Smith done much for you guys?

Jo Smith never played in the regular season. But he's a smart guy, knows what to do, can be brought in for five or ten minutes and won't make mistakes. I saw that in the exhibition season. He knows where to be, how to rotate, can defend and nab a rebound or two.

You hit on the head about Sasha and Farmar. They were like kids in a schoolyard together, with Harris coming in to pair with one or the other. The three of them displayed a quickness that's been missing. It amazes me that all the sport-talk guys missed that. None of them ever mentioned it, though the very first week of the season it was clear to me how much quicker other teams were than mine. But then, nothing is more significant and overlooked in the modern game than quickness. Not that the Nets shoot well, but that's another story, and Sasha should help there.

Nets update: 9-20 (only 3 games out of the final playoff spot now)

Sasha goes 6 for 8, two from downtown, 16 pts in only 24 min. Meanwhile, the Lakers get blown out at home by 21 by a team going nowhere.

EF's beloved Lakers have been looking a little long in the tooth lately. The Bucks had their way with them, and the Heat wiped the floor with them. I sometimes wonder if we would remember P. Jackson as anything other than a clumsy reserve for the Knicks of the early 70's if he would have coached the Bucks, or the Jazz, for that matter, all this while. He's always had the deck stacked in his favor. He sits in his silly high chair and troubles over where he might take his nightly post-game repast. The zen master my foot.
I know Luke has two rings, but at what price. Jackson has pfucked with his head from the very first. I hate the prick, and cannot bring myself to admit that he is anything but a bounder who just happened to get lucky. I know he paid some dues in the CBA. So what.
I could be wrong but I think the Lakers have had it. They looked like they had their feet in cement Sunday last. I really don't know what they can do at this point. We'll see.

Sports updates:

#1 - Where is Tani? We fast approach the day she has been waiting for.

#2 - LSU facing Texas A&M in the Cotton Bowl on Friday which should be fun since (1) the Cotton Bowl is pretty cool even if it's in Jerry's World and (2) LSU/A&M is an old, old rivalry.

#3 - NFL playoffs. Saints on Sat at Seattle.

#4 - The New Orleans Hornets are now owned by the NBA. So much for that experiment of basketball in LA. I am always curious why they don't try to get a MLB team there. Baseball is huge in LA - LSU consistently tops the NCAA in college baseball attendance; the N.O. Zephyrs minor league team is very popular there. Curious.

73: My stepfather went to Texas A&M and was ecstatic about their recent win. Of course since we are OR residents and my current flame went to UO (he is an extra in the Toga scene in "Animal House") I am also happy and looking forward to #1. Regardless of who wins I am happy UO made it that far.

Tani is always talking, in her shorthand way, of heading into this valley or that pass, like a citizen of the Wild West. I suppose we must all play the part of frontier wife and wait for her to round the bend. But I would guess that wherever she is, she won't miss the big game.

Tani! Come back! We need you!

Shouldn't the New Jersey Nets have a fellow named Carmelo Anthony in their starting lineup right about now? Get him and they've got a legit shot at the 8th seed in the East. They're only six games behind Indiana for the final slot. Not too late.

I've heard from Tani, who's having computer problems but like whatsisname, says she will return.

I admit to relief that the trade didn't happen, Henri. Call me old-fashioned (and you'd be right), but I don't like this build-a-team-with-money stuff, though I won't argue that it doesn't work. I'd like to see them let Favors develop in his time (he's only nineteen!), pick a good high draft choice next year (which they'll surely get), and add a solid multidimensional free agent who can play small forward, shoot threes, and handle the ball a bit. This, to go with the rookie, Lopez, Devin, the two L.A. guys (I love Sasha), and Humphries, who gets his ten-plus rebounds a game and always hustles.

Problem is, I can already see that despite the hype, Avery Johnson is not the coach they need. What they need is Mike Fratello, who's a genius taking it easy as one of the Nets announcers (along with part-timer Marv Albert) and can relate to players better than Avery. Also, Billy King ain't much of a GM; what a loss when Rod Thorn left. Which is to say that even with the way I'd like to see them go with players and player development, I think they'll fuck it up with the present crew.

Peter, your post reminds me of how baseball teams go wrong. Rather than build through the draft and smart trades for young players not yet in the majors they tend to get a .225 hitter, most of whose production comes from solo homers. It seems a lot of baseball GM's think fans want to see the long ball. I can tell you, if you put winning baseball on the field the fans don't give a shit about the long ball. I can't speak for others, but I much prefer two or three singles mixed with the occasional double or triple than the long ball. I guess that's what they call small ball. I'd much rather watch someone with a .365 b/a with 125 rbi and 0 homers to a guy who bats .220 with 53 rbi and 40 homers. I'm reminded of a story they tell about Ty Cobb. He was a singles and doubles hitter mostly, and a smart player. One season someone accused him of not being able to hit homers, so he went out and set the record for home runs at the time, then he went back to singles and doubles. The long ball, to me, is not that interesting. I'd rather they set the fences back another fifty/sixty feet and eliminate the damn thing, except for the inside the park homer, a much more interesting play.

Glitz and glammer are sorry excuses for a winning product.

Cold weather football teams rule the day. Pittsburgh v. Green Bay for all the marbles. Defenses reign supreme. Old 'smash mouth' Woodrow Wilson Hayes football. No place for the faint of heart. Three yards and a cloud of dust. Ball control. South east Ohio roughnecks. It takes leather balls to play rugby football, whatever that means. Teeth rattling tackles. Bone jarring hits. I have a feeling that old geneg enjoys watching fellas like Jack Lambert, Ted (the Mad Stork) Hendricks, Jack Hamm, and way back with Sam Huff, Dick Butkus, Joe Schmidt, Chuck Bedanarick (who ended Frank Gifford's career), Mike Singletary, Nick Buonacontti (spelling!) - I leave out some certainly, but you get the point.

New York and Chicago are cold enough, San Diego man. Thank you very much.

All 4 teams are cold weather teams. Chicago, NY, GB, and Pitts. I meant to bring attention to all four. I didn't mean to slight any one of the 4. It was a celebration first and foremost. I hardly gloat because my thermometer reads 72. I've been clear in past posts that it gets a little dull, this room temperature thing.

I'd take a bit of that now, even if it meant giving up bragging rights.

Peter, you know me so well. I liked football a lot better before they wore face masks and the single wing was the offense of choice, not this pansy-ass game of footsy they play now. How would we have gotten the expression to clean one's clock if they hadn't been allowed to clean one's clock? There hasn't been any real smash mouth football since 1976.

I am very frustrated over the existence of the play review, the red flag and the booth review. Why else do we have officials. Taking the final arbitration of a call out of the hands of the officials and placing it in an electronic contraption is wrong. One of the things about sport is they are competitions among people with other people determining what's an error and what isn't. People are fallible and that's one of the things that makes us lovable when the call goes our way and hateable when they don't. I live in fear the powers that be are going to let electronics start calling balls and strikes.

I with you all the way Gene. Half those cats can't even catch the ball. Can you imagine Fred Biletnikoff dropping a pass or Bambi? Not really.
More later.
http://assets.espn.go.com/photo/2007/0801/nfl_a_biletnikoff_195.jpg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7uS3oA9To88
As a youngster I worshipped Bambi
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EaQ2SF5VPjo&feature=related

A small dark cloud will continue to hover over my life until my Indiana Hoosiers somehow, someday return to basketball prominence. Some of my earliest lessons in aesthetic appreciation came in front of the TV, watching the last great Bobby Knight teams play, and win, the right way. I remember a quote by Coach Knight (sadly, it may be from the movie Blue Chips) saying that, even if the other team knew our entire game plan, if we went out and executed it at a high level, we would not lose. Motion offense and tenacious half court man-to-man help defense, that's the way to play basketball.

I currently enjoy watching Barcelona games on TV. That's another team that knows that if they go out and execute their game plan, they're unstoppable (and it's beautiful to watch). And Messi gives me the feeling that I'm watching one of the best ever, something I haven't felt since I watched Michael Jordan as a kid. To me:

Messi:Cristiano Ronaldo::Jordan:Lebron James

James and Ronaldo are machines, able to physically dominate the game like few ever have; but Jordan and Messi were/are transcendental. Anybody like soccer around here, in the year after a World Cup?

Yes, some of us follow it, Matt, but we usually keep it to ourselves. Not that you should. Go right ahead.

Of course, Messi and Ronaldo are on different teams, just as James and Jordan were. And just as Jordan didn't win until he had Pippen, Ronaldo needs someone (he's never won anything big, except at Man U., with Rooney et al.), as does James, who also hasn't won anything big yet. Messi of course has a great cast at Barca, and they've won big, but he was just spinning his wheels for Argentina during the World Cup; he could've used some help, and a different coach.

@86: True, Barcelona has about five Pippens right now...and oh how I wish that a mediocre Spanish/English side would pick up Maradona so that he could get back in the news with more regularity. His crazy is a lot like Ron Artest's crazy, and generally produces classic press conferences.

79,

"Defenses rule supreme"

Polamalu (sp?) wasn't stellar in the last game but just wait.

Can anyone see why I think of him as a manikan on a lek?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mf1TW5kb9S0&feature=related

85 - We sat pretty close behind the announcing desk at the Jimmy V Classic last year and Knight was announcing. During commercials he would kick his feet up on the table and hoover a bag of popcorn...pretty awesome!

LSU basketball on tv today - hide the kids and sheild your eyes. At least baseball started this weekend with Wake Forest visiting. Friday night opener had a standing ovation for Wake's coach who only a few weeks ago donated a kidney to a player.

If the Nets give up their point guard (Devin Harris), four first round draft choices, and last year's no. 3 choice, 19-year-old Derrick Favors, for Carmelo Anthony and the elderly and soon-to-retire point guard Chauncey Billups--that is, if they abandon their future for a little glitz--I'm gone. No more Nets. No more b'ball in fact. I will content myself with English Premier League soccer, and root for my team there, Arsenal (which upset mighty Barcelona in the Champions League in the first game of a home-and-home series last week).

91 - Yeah it's a tough spot. I was hoping the Hornets would pick up Melo but now that all the NBA owners have a say in our cap space it looks like we will make very few personnel moves from now on.

LSU baseball had a great weekend - swept WF, good work from some young pitchers (our biggest problem last season), and a new NCAA single game attendance record.

No worries, Piero, Carmelo Anthony just got officially traded to the Knicks ... The Knicks, now, imo, have a better shot at reaching the NBA Finals than the Miami Heat ...

With 30 games or so left in the season, Henri, you believe the Knicks, sans their point guard to this point (Felton), their best three-point shooter (Gallinari), and their best man off the bench (Chandler), will somehow get it all together and reach the Eastern Conference Finals? Or beat the Heat, who, like many, I would like to see lose, but are nevertheless somewhat formidable?

Meanwhile, the Nets surely do stink, and I might still bail on them, but they did not thoroughly embarrass themselves by trading nearly their entire team for Carmelo--thanks to the ludicrous Knicks.

Well I didn't know all that about those Knicks! They have stunk it up of late. They might make it into the second round if they don't have Boston or Chicago in the first round. Miami is very vulnerable, and no chance against Boston assuming everybody's healthy.

So, looks like the Nets did a good job holding out. DWill! Much better pickup than Melo (I think).

Yeah, getting Deron is a great pickup for the Nets. You can definitely build a team around him.

Yes, certainly a better deal than the other one. Now they need a good-shooting all-around so-called small forward (six-nine or six ten!) who can also rebound--maybe L.A. will part with Lamar Odom for, say, Travis Outlaw and Hymie Katz (the mascot in the wolf outfit)--a new coach (the little dictator is a drag), and a new general manager (I'll take the no doubt disenchanted Donnie Walsh), and then maybe we'll have something next year. (Since they're going to Brooklyn, they'll have to get used to that "next year" thing.)

Probably the best all-around point guard in the NBA you guys just got. Now can the Nets convince him that they have a plan and not see him opt out in free agency in a year-and-a-half? Hope so. Glad to see him leave the West

Speaking just for myself, of course, I would offer him the Brooklyn Bridge.

Got into a conversation today with my Brooklyn buddy Pete, in the bread and soup shop in town. We talked about the weather awhile, the local news, then drifted back toward the womb and the Dodgers, because the Dook just died. We both knew--maybe everyone did--that Willie and Mickey were better, when there were only three teams that mattered: the Dodgers, the Giants, and the Yanks.

But the Dook wasn't bad, not by a long shot. He did make the Hall of Fame, after all, and year after year he hit 42 home runs. I mean, exactly 42. It was uncanny. He could field too.

The origin of the name: there's a street that runs through Brooklyn--it's part of the New York marathon--that bordered the right-centerfield wall of Ebbets Field, which looked somewhat like the green monster in Fenway Park: Bedford Avenue. And Snider--or Schneider, as we Jewish kids used to call him--a center fielder, was dubbed the Duke of Bedford, before my time. And then, merely, the Dook.

.295 career BA too. And he'd hit those 40 in 154 games and pre-steroid era. Wish I'd been around to see those Brooklyn Dodgers. My grandfather fondly recalls Snyder and all those pre-L.A. Dodger teams that always lost to those damn Yanks (or Giants).

I suspect Jordan Farmar's not too happy with Deron Williams' arrival in N.J., eh?

He's been injured, Henri. Sat on the bench in a suit tonight when the Nets lost to the Suns in the final 0.1 of overtime, 104-103. But tough bazookies if he's unhappy. Deron Williams is at another level. He had 13 points and 18 assists. And when he handles the ball, he's in total control. It's a beautiful thing to see.

We're going to try to go see the Hornets @ Knicks tomorrow night though we foolishly did not buy tickets before the trade so going to try to scalp. More likely we will end up watching in a bar.

I went to a game once, so long ago I can't tell you when. Which is no joke, Jane. But back in the day, NYC high schools had what they called G.O. passes, and me and my pals used to get into games for 50 cents. We'd sit up in the nosebleed section (at the old MSG on 50th Street and Eighth Avenue) and move down to courtside after the game began, because hardly anyone went to the pro game. To see a college b'ball game then, on the other hand, was a different story: NYU, St. John's, Fordham, Manhattan ... every doubleheader would be sold out.

Great weekend for LSU baseball, sweeping the #6 Cal State Fullerton in the first regular season matchup between the two teams. This is gearing up for the start of SEC play with #1 Florida first up this weekend.

Your LSU's teams always are pretty good, aren't they? And once in a while the best. The only college I went to that had a good team in any sport--Boston University, which I attended for a year of graduate school, finishing my thesis five years later, called something like "Trends Toward a New Age, and a Shorter Attention Span"--excelled in ice hockey. Once in a while they even win a national champeenship.

Yep, they've been pretty dominant in baseball since the early 90s, only missing the postseason once and racking up 6 national championships. Skip Bertman, the coach who came in the mid-80s realized how great a recruiting bed you have in LA and was able to exploit that along with the popularity of baseball in the state without having a pro team to take away eyeballs. Football was down around this time too so it ended up being a sort of perfect storm. We've led the nation in attendance (both total (just over 400,000 a season) and per game average (10,000+)) for 14 seasons and the next team isn't even close.

Well, the Jimmer show is over, along with that School with the no-bonking honor code.

But we still have Kemba. Go Huskies, beat 'zona!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfFcnQgs5V8

In dint know you were a sporting fan, Sandy.

Botany, canids, Ethnomusicology, the Grateful Dead, jogging, lepidoptera, NCAA basketball, ornithology, paleontology, Patriots, symphony, the Western Canon, West Coast rap.

I'm trying to sound like Mr. Austerlitz, here.

Me very happy 'Zona destroyed Duke. The Pac-10 is no good, eh?

Me be very happy too that Lakers have better record than every team in the East except Chicago, whom they trail by half a game with ten to go.

Thatsgonnacawsalotofconfusion Sandydawg.

pale-eon-thology?!

I despise caliparri but I love that big galoot Harrelson, I'm pulling for Ashley Judd's team.

I'm a former fan, always Chicago...now just a baseball follower, and football in Europe...except when a Chicago team gets my attention. The bulls this year are doing something amazing.

Euro 2012 Qualifying

Group C

1. Italy 4-1-0 13 points
2. Slovenia 2-1-2 7 points
3. Serbia 2-1-2 7 points
4. Estonia 2-0-2 6 points
5. Northern Ireland 1-2-1 5 points
6. Faroe Islands 0-1-4 1 point

114 - A good buddy of mine is big Chicago fan (of all sports). He's been relishing the Bulls this season.

But, oh my god!, did you see this Hornets play from the other night. Sweet.

Not sure who to root for in the tourney. I guess I have to ride Fla and Kentucky a little longer though I have luke warm feelings for both of them and do kind of dig Butler.

hornets play? i used to do that all the time when i had legs...

Don't seem quite fair. Either of the two teams that just played could easily beat the two that played this afternoon. And now on one side of the bracket, before tomorrow's games, we've got three good teams (UConn, NC, and Kentucky), and on the other side only one: Kansas.

Yeah, but Kansas is on the side of...Obama.

Go Jonathan!

http://0.tqn.com/d/collegebasketball/1/0/G/0/-/-/80364487_8.jpg

what about DePaul?

As I said earlier on I love that big galoot from Missouri, Josh Harrelson. I don't much like Caliparri but I'm pulling for big Josh. His hand-off screens are devastating. Doesn't have a 'cool' bone in his body. As old Tark would say: 'cool guys screw you EVERY time.' Ain't it the troof.

So Butler or UConn, who y'all got?

I'm pulling for that post man's son from Connorsville. Though those fucking squirrels in the black and white stripes will doubtless screw him. It'll be a nipandtucker with the huskies over the bulldogs by 2.

Seems to me in college b'ball the team with the bigger, do-it-on-his-own star usually wins. And UConn has that.

You're probably right, Piero, but if ain't USC or UCLA, I'm pulling for the underdog.

Doesn't Chino State Penitentiary have a team?

LOL

What in the name of the great Jehovah and the Continental Congress, happened to the Lady Huskies???

I don't particularly give a flying hoot, but the wife is pissed...

The Masters in Augusta Ga. on a course designed by Bobby Jones and Alister Mackenzie. A damnably difficult course. I've played Univ. Michigan GC designed by Mackenzie. The levels around the greens are almost impossible. Your perceptions, etc are being toyed with for 18 holes. The Scots designers never fail to punish a good shot. You don't want to miss the greens, especially left, and you don't want to hit the ball past the middle point of the green as it will keep rolling and rolling and rolling and you must subsequently fight like mad for a bogey.

I have no idea who'll be the NBA champ. If L.A. snaps out of its je ne sais quoi, it might be them, again. San Antone has to fire on all cylinders, for now and two more rounds; tough order. Boston is certainly vulnerable; they should've squashed the Knicks. I can't stand the idea of Miami, or maybe the reality of Lebron James, so fuck them. Chicago has been built the way a team should, but I hate watching them play in their house while the arena music plays. Bush league. Fuck them too. Dallas could do it, but I don't personally like 'em; too much Dirk. Orlando, Atlanta, Denver ... come on. Poor Portland, with Roy a shadow of what he was. Young Oke City. New Orleans and Memphis at least are having a good time.

Whomever steps forward, I would like to be surprised this year.

There's no shoe-in, certainly. I say fuck them all. I hate the refs and the NBA culture with a passion. I will have the games going without sound. I prefer the Travel Channel though, I enjoy following Zimmern & Bordain on their food travels.
Gawd I hate Melo & Nay Nay & Bron & kobe, how I loathe kobe, all that woofing, and strutting, and solipsistic nonsense. I'm more of a Jerry Lucas & a Willis Reed kind of guy.
But if I must choose I guess it must be the dreaded Lakers, if only that Luke gets a third ring to surpass his old man.

Pffft, NO is taking the Lakers down. :)

Hey, any Chicago Blackhawks fans in the house? You think that Vancouver, once bloodied, is gonna fold pathetically like they always do, but our boys have suffered and matured and this time you are mistaken/fucked. Game 5 tonite!

I would prefer it but the Hornets haven't the size to take down the Lakers. I admire the way they play, though.

134 - The Hornets don't have a lot of things required to beat the Lakers, unfortunately, but I've been pleased with how well they've played so far. I'll keep up hope for now.

Well, I don't admire the way they play ... the Lakers.

There's two teams and two teams only who scare me this year as a Laker fan. One, the Lakers. Who will it be tonight -- Dr. Jekyll or Mr. Hyde? And the Oklahoma City Thunder. They scare me. Adding Perkins from Boston has impacted two teams mightily, it's made the Thunder championship material even despite their oft-pointed out "lack of playoff experience" and it's made Boston also-rans. Boston will not be in the finals and it's because Danny Ainge ruined their year with that trade, erroneously thinking that Shaq could fill the center vacancy. I suspect even the veteran Boston players are still not over the trade. One of the worst in NBA history. Boston would've scared me with Perkins, but now they're quite beatable, as the Knicks have almost, save for a phantom foul, shown.

It's a good Friday, in it? It's even gooder that I don't have to work and can goof.

:P

Portland is not doing so very hot but they did beat Dallas yesterday... we are keeping the faith but it is hard for Blazers fans. I gave up being a diehard a while ago (when they were still known as the Jail Blazers)...

ETA: Everyone still loves B. Roy.

Excellent game last night. Jane should be very happy, Henri less so.

:)

Today one of my friends on facebook says, "Happy Easter" (picture of B. Roy shooting) and then comments "Seeing Brandon Roy tonight I finally understood the message of Easter, no disrespect or anything." It was "liked" by three people.

I was happy for him the other night. He's likable. But I can't help but squirm while watching him play, imagining what it must be like to have no cartilage between his bones, which is what they say. Is that even possible?

:(

Yeah, and now I have to go to Disneyland. I just can't catch any breaks.

Bah! Well, the Hornets finally went down (congrats Enrique).

NFL draft started last night. Saints made some big moves that I'm not so sure about (the natural reaction of any Saints fan). We'll see.

Considering the Falcons gave away the store to get Julio Jones, he'd better be the WR they want him to be. If he is the Falcons will be unstoppable on offense, but still suspect on defense. But boy, they've basically decided not to participate in the draft again until 2013.

You listen here, janepriceestrada of New Yawk,

Your New Orleans team can hold their heads high. No one thought they'd take the Lakers six games. And I'm pissed that they did, as they exposed (thank you, Chris Paul) some glaring backcourt weaknesses. Series might've gone seven games had David West not been injured. Feisty team you've got there; their future is bright.

Geneg, I know you hate basketball, but your Atlanta Hawks just took down a team that had no business losing in the first round; a team with the best center in the league, and yet we get no comment of this great feat from you? Stop hating on basketball, learn to love it, like chewing tobacco.

Ptuey!

Last quarter last night, Spurs-Grizzlies, was electric. Like a playoff final, since a loss would've evened the series at 3-3 before returning to San Antone, where the Spurs might very well have won.

And what an interesting team the Grizz have. Zach Randolph is a monster, and always has been. I could never figure out why the Knicks, who had him briefly, got rid of him, except of course the Knicks are the Donald Trumps of the NBA; bono fide idiots. Tony Allen was hyped up, intense, passionate, did a job on Ginobli. Shane Battier, the consumate pro who does all the little things: like Zach, why anyone would ever get rid of a player like that is beyond me.

So let them talk about Boston-Miami (which I'll watch, pulling for the Celts), and Lakers-Mavs (I predict the Mavs will come apart at the seams after a few games, like they always do), but it's the Grizz vs. OKC that intrigues me. It might well be the second round game with the most intensity and true (unhyped) pizzazz.

Obviously, I'm a Spurs fan, but Memphis was the better team, and earned the right to go to the next round. Having not watched them during the regular season, I had no idea just how good they were. And I agree with your assessment: Grizzlies/Thunder matchup is going to be one helluva series!

146 - Indeed, quite a good feat for them considering they don't have a lot to work with. I mean Chris Paul is a great player, D West is solid to good, and everyone else is just a warm body. Lakers are also probably the worst matchup in the league for them. (Also could have been the SI cover jinx.) Not so sure about the bright future. Options now are the team moving, Paul getting traded next year for nothing because all the owners would have to vote on the trade, and Paul leaving after next year when his contract is up. *sigh*

Well, at least the Spurs went down. That was fun. Hitching my wagon to Chicago now.

ETA - 148/149 - Crossposted with y'all, but I agree, OKC and Memphis is going to be interesting.

145 - That was quite the power play for them. How'd the 2nd/3rd go for them? NO picked up a couple of good defensive players, one who had fallen a bit. Overall looking pretty good for them, though I'm still not sure about trading back into the 1st for Ingram.

#146 -- Hawks? Atlanta Hawks? Never heard of 'em.

Yeah, the Mavs will fold again. I think one year they lost only eleven games or something and lost in the first round of the playoffs. Of course basketball and hockey both use the regular season to de-select teams for the playoffs, while baseball and football teams have to be winners to play in the playoffs (Or at least win their division or one of two wildcard slots). Basketball and Hockey start with oh, say 30 teams (I know its way less for hockey) and 26 of them make the playoffs. Bah, Humbug!

Hawks? Atlanta Hawks? Never heard of 'em.

Blasphemy brutha!

You ain't never heard of Dominique Wilkins either I suppose?

Portland would've worried me a lot more than the Mavs. I'm superstitious about being too cocky re. my team before a series begins, but Dallas worries me about as much as the Hornets did going into their series: not that much. I'd be moderately worried if Caron Butler wasn't injured. Huge loss for Dallas.

You're witnessing a changing-of-the-guard going on in the West right now. Tim Duncan has had an outstanding career, 4 NBA Titles, automatic first round Hall of Famer, but God, did he get old and slow and impotent overnight the way that James Worthy did when Magic had to retire, or what? I felt sad for him, but that happens at the center position. Lose a step, lose your power-dominance, and it shows like a wart on a nose. I never felt sad for Shaq -- the laziest center in the history of the league who could've been greater than Bill Russel & Wilt if he'd wanted to be -- but the turd didn't.

I'm pulling for Miami against the Celts only because I fear the Celts more than the Heat (thinking ahead to a possible match up against the Lakers, should the Lakers make it that far) but I'll be really surprised if Boston doesn't handle the Heat in six. Lebron is a proven quitter. When it's late and the Cavs were down, but still in striking distance, he'd quit. He'd choke. Wade is the only proven winner that team has, but it won't be enough.

I'll be glued like everybody else to Memphis & OKC. OKC wins in six. Durant & Westbrook are Stockton and Malone monsters in the making -- they scare the shit out of me as a Laker fan (they're the future, though I'm hoping that future won't officially begin until next season) -- and collectively they're way more athletic scorers than that iconic Jazz combo, if less dominant in the post up paint game. I'm hoping Memphis can take them seven and wear them down, expose some holes. I hear you, Piero, on Shane Battier. Consummate pro's pro. One of the best Kobe-defenders of all time.

Perhaps it's just wishful thinking on my part, but it seems to me that if someone puts a body on LeBron, makes him pay for his swooping moves toward the basket, that it will screw him up but good. I'm not sure Pierce can do it at his age, but he is one tough mother. I don't think they'll get through to L.A., but I think Ron Ron could do it, if the refs don't cater to the superstar, as they're prone to do.

On Westbrook: I watched him single-handedly beat my team in triple overtime this year. Now there's a talent that most people don't know about and will shortly discover; as people discovered Zach last night.

my poor little bulls get no respect...dont yas even remember Norm Van Lier?

I remember Norm Van Brocklin. Does that count?

Some Norms count and some don't. Van Brocklin was better than the usual norm, so probably he does.

Go Bulls.

Looks like they went. I like the loss, though. They need to get their shit together after a strangely discombobulated win over Indiana. A nice hard loss maybe just what they need.

Or they stink, as they are a Chicago team at playoff time.

That's a Chicago statement. Eternal optimism when pressed.

Freeque, I remember a guy named Drew, don't remember if that's his first name or his last name. I remember he was supposed to be the NEXT BIG THING, but sucked his career and his life up his nose in about two years. To be honest with you, I have seen Dominique Wilkins play (I think). A friend of mine would occasionally give me one of his season tickets and take me to the game. That's when I discovered basketball has to be the most subjectively ordered game ever. Travelling has been replaced with the slam dunk, charging is almost always called against the defense, if it gets called at all, double dribbling is endemic, and it depends on which ref you get as to which way certain other fouls are called. I have no respect for pro and by extension college basketball. It has sold its soul for the flash. However, I do like the moxy of the 5'6" guard. I have seen Spud Webb play.

Jeebus, I know more about basketball and the Hawks than I ever wanted to know, and it ain't much.

You know enough G. I would pay to see Mark Price (a Ga. Tech guy I think) or John Stockton play. 6 ft. guards both. Talk about marvels what about Mugsy Bogues?!
M.B. is 5'4"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcMlnp5O2Ls&feature=related
http://www.toptenz.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/mugsy-bogues.jpg
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_1p20WdeXKKs/TB1Aso3p1fI/AAAAAAAAJF4/jLUMWEMMeAk/s1600/...

Austin Carr!

As a longtime Laker fan, I'm hoping for a Boston RedSox miracle of '04 for them.

In lieu of that statistical improbability (no such 0-3 comeback in NBA playoff history) I'm not down on my team, despite their impending demise. They're old and tired and attempting to go to four consecutive NBA Finals and win their third straight crown and that's a damn difficult feat. Not since the '80s, when both the Celts and Lakers did it during their glorious rivalry, has it been done.

We underestimated the Mavs, plain and simple. We were wrong. But the announcers are wrong in saying repeatedly that Pau Gasol is soft -- they weren't saying that last year when he took it hard to Kevin Garnet and Perkins; and notice now how Dirk Nowitzki is suddenly not soft, even though he's been soft in their eyes for a decade previously, easy for them to say in their suits on the sidelines, when they've never had to defend the likes of Shaq or Garnet or Malone over the years, like Nowitzki has. Gasol's just having a really bad series, like Nowitzki used to.

I think Cuban is great for the NBA. I enjoy his sideline antics, and look forward to watching him against, I'm betting, Oklahoma City, whom I'll be pulling for the rest of the way, barring the miracle comeback. Brian Westbrook is, after all, UCLA born and bred to the max. So, go Thunder!

In the east, please, anybody but the Heat! The Bulls must beat them if they get past Boston.

I really didn't think the Mavs had a chance against the Lakers. Unbelievable how well Dallas is playing. And it's good to see Stojakovic contributing, I've always been a fan.

And yes, anybody but the Heat! But I don't think Chicago can beat them, nor whoever gets in from the west. So...

As I've said before, the year we left Atlanta for Dallas the Braves went from worst to first and for the next decade never looked back. Now that we've left Dallas to come back to Atlanta the Rangers go to the World Series and the Mavs, judging from you comments, are finally getting what they need from Nowitzki.

I'll move to your town, live a couple of years and then leave, assuring you at least a chance at a championship. But the price has to be right. Chicago, are you listening?

I'm very torn about this Lakers/Dallas series. I really dislike both teams - the Lakers for beating the Hornets and Dallas for being Dallas and the fact that they're doing it with 2 former Hornets...GAA!

Still on the Bulls bandwagon for now with my boy. Looked great yesterday.

I'm almost to the point of watching games on mute. Between the swings from this player is a genius to a goat and really ridiculous metaphors, I can't stand the announcers.

Kentucky Derby tonight. Anyone making mint juleps? I am. I even have a cool hat.

164 - Crossposted. LSU basketball could use a lift, but I would not subject you to Baton Rouge. That would be cruel and unusal punishment.

That would even be most worserest than Dallas.

Gene, please, move to Los Angeles today (there's still time), and then tomorrow morning move out of L.A., okay?

**bows head in prayer**

"Oh please, thou lofty Lord of Hosts
cause Geneg to heed this here post!
Your Chosen Team's about to lose
they need a miracle, Man -- make him move!
Let not them die like a dozen fresh cut tulips
or I'll get drunk as a devil off Jane's mint juleps!"

Desperate times
demand desperate rhymes

What's the offer, Rique?

Great poem. I'm always kin to the guy who can throw a decent rhyme together in a short time.

Mint juleps all around tonight, eh. What time is the call to the post? After all today is the first Saturday in May and on that day the 7th race at Churchill Downs is a special one. Pietro, I expect you'll be spending the evening at the local OTB establishment. Who you puttin' it down on? Are there any prospects for a Triple Crown this year? Macho Macho Man seems to be the favorite. (See what you can learn when looking for Braves/Falcons news in the sports pages).

I do love me some mint juleps--one of the finest cocktails ever invented. But I've never understood the appeal of horse racing. Now, if the jockeys were allowed to whip or throttle each other, it might make it a little more interesting.

I looked at the entries, hoping something with high odds would pop out, but I couldn't see anything other than Zito's horse, who will probably go off as the favorite. In fact I was at Belmont Park yesterday, where the missus hit an exacta on the 8th Race, so we were entitled to eat out over our heads.

Gene, Chicago doesn't deserve you. And you're luck up against the goat curse? Stay where you're happy, even if the teams don't support you.

Praise the lord or somebody that I won't have to see phil jackson in his silly highchair anymore. He and the Lakers bowed out like chumps instead of champs. Those cheapshots on the tiny Barraea spoke volumes. They had a nice run, they have nothing to be ashamed of, they simply ran out of gas. How Bryant can play through those injuries is nothing short of miraculous. jackson actually had to pull some rabbits out of his hat and he didn't find any. He got taken to the woodshed by the Mav's coach.

Was anyone else awe-struck by the recent one-armed Rondo effort? The reports as of Sunday indicated that the Celtic guard was "in pain". Ya think?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0Uz_VZSaok

Gene cursed the Bulls.

College baseball rain delay jousting. That is all.

Them Bulls looked pretty good last night,

If defense wins championships (and it does,) those young Bulls are a shoo-in.

#176 - Thanks Radar! A much needed smile just appeared on my face. ;-)

(okay, so maybe Radar doesn't do the announcements, but it sounds good!) ;p

I say Dallas in six. Is that because I prefer them on the merits or the emotions? I'm not sure ...

Gawd let it be Dallas in six!

If the big German shoots well Dallas can do it. Miami is ultra quick on defense. It's hard for me to look at that ridiculous Miami coach. He looks like he just pilfered a bottle of pop. A rube. Green behind the ears. A merionette for Riley, really. I don't really care who wins. The Dallas coach is a jerk, we had him in Detroit for a spell before Larry Brown. If the Miami coach is a rook, he's an arrogant bastard. About the only guy I like in the series is Brian Cardinal, and he doesn't get off the bench. Did I mention the Dallas owner?

Hey, if you mean to say something negative about that lunatic Cuban, consider that he's financed some, or at least one interesting movie, about the Arab-Israeli thing, told from a Palestinian viewpoint. On such info do I make my rooting cherces.

And while I'm on this sterling thread I should mention that I might be the only guy in the world who noticed how Jason Kidd could do absolutely nothing to calm his jittery young team down in the third quarter of the sixth game of the Nets 2003 (I think it was) championship series against the Spurs, when my young team surrendered a 15-point lead, not unlike those other deer in the headlights, OKC and Chicago. So I don't want to hear about how great he is; that was the pivotal game of the seriies, with the Spurs up three games to two, and he looked like Barney Lem out there.

Kidd's got to win one before the great label can really apply. Cuban is an attention seeking idiot, why he's on camera so much is anybodies guess. I watch out of the corner of my eye with the sound off, I can't bear to listen to the nitwit announcers and color guys.

And let's not forget, Piero, Jason Kidd getting crushed (steamrolled really) the year prior to their devastating Spurs debacle by the once-mighty Los Angeles Lakers, four games to zip.

But! With that said, I am soooooo pulling for Jason Kidd today. Who did he have in New Lousy (I mean Joizy) back in the day anyway? Nobody. Richard Jefferson? Oooh. There was a superstar. Kidd has plenty today. Dallas' depth will prevail. Tyson Chandler will intimidate Bosh and push his skinny frame around some. If Miami wins, it will be because LeFraud (I'll call him LeBron if and only if he wins a championship) was able to use his length to neutralize Dirk's shot. If Dirk suddenly has to think that hey, even though I'm seven foot, this guy LeFraud is capable of blocking me, and LeFraud gets in Dirk's head like that, Dirk is well known for pulling OKCs: coming from ahead to lose. Did you see what LeFraud was able to do to the league's MVP down the stretch of those last three games, blocking shots every which way? I was momentarily impressed by LeFraud. If he's able to do that to Dirk, Dallas is sunk.

I love Marc Cuban. Used to loathe him, because he opened his mouth too much. But he's learned to shut up and not give opposing teams motivation to kick his arrogant ass. His humility this year just may finally get him a ring.

Dirk is phenomenal. I gotta root for him, but I'm not sold yet on Chandler. Maybe they should bring in Dampier to just flat out clobber LeFraud; I can't stand 'im either. Terry's a Fisher type pro, and I like Rene Beaubois, though he's not playing. The other little guy is pretty good, though. On the other team, you can't dislike Wade. On Chicago, Boozer was a colossal disappointment, and they needed him to be good. Rose was merely overwhelmed.

As for the announcers, I agree, Peter, except for Mike Fratello, who sees just about everything that's happening and can explain it too. It's revealing that he's been assigned to the second string, not doing the biggest games.

Yes, Fratello is worth turning sound on for. Hubie Brown sometimes overdoes it but his knowledge is vast.

It must at least be noted, since we're not all Amurican, that Barcelona won this year's Champions League championship over Manchester United, 3-1, with a masterly display of football that marks them as one of the greatest teams ever.

Yeah, my father, who is a big supporter of MU, was heart-broken after their woeful performance.

My Egyptian relatives are all Barca fans and were all happy on Facebook today. :)

How're Smartini's Canucks doing tonight, game one of the Stanley Cup Finals? Ain't turned on the tube yet to check it out.

@188: It was quite a game, I enjoyed the press leading up to it: lots of articles about "5 ways Man U can beat Barça," a handful of articles about how Barça's reputation had been marred by their ugly four-game series with Real Madrid...then, 90 minutes later, everyone realizes once again that yes, this is one of the greatest professional teams of all time.

It's amazing, Iniesta, Xavi and Puyol, they've now won a World Cup, a European Championship and two Champions League titles in less than four years. I don't imagine anyone has ever done that before. And Messi...I'll just proudly say that I once saw him play live...in his first game on Argentine soil wearing the Albiceleste for the Selección, no less, in an otherwise forgettable World Cup qualifier against Peru. When he took the field, a wave of excitement went through the stadium.

BTW What is going on Federer 7-5 5-3 over the Djoker at this juncture!!?!

Bored at work looking at soccer highlights on youtube...here's two of the better assists you'll see:

Dimitar Berbatov
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxJ9wdXXbwY

Guti, well past his prime, delivers a nasty no-look backheel pass
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upE7tJIbx6U

And, because it's nearly Gold Cup time and USA better hope Deuce shows up because we have nobody as good as Chicharito, here's one of the greatest goals ever scored by an American in Europe (I'll prefer to believe he meant to do this):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VeL1DXp-PuU

Go Roger, yeah! His mother's South African, dontcha know?

>191 absurdeist: they won! One nil on a goal in the third. I don't know anything else because I am in Turkey, an entirely hockeyless land, and I refuse to make a mockery of actually being able to see the games by reading the fucking writeups in the fucking Globe and Mail, Canada's national joke of a paper. Does anyone know how to watch online? I gotta find that out before the final.

And my Barça also won! That game I saw (the end of), in a freaky foosball club in Muri, Switzerland. >192 msjohns615:, watching Messi play live must have been like ... I dunno, catching the wind.

Mavs had a nice LONNNG comeback in Game 2.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Y_SHyVpS-k

Dirk!

I was wondering where Martini was while his Canucks won the first game, 1-0. In Turkey, of all places ... Looking forward to a Miami folderoo. Is it possible? ... All priaise to Barca. Magnificent team. Magnificent Messi.

So, the Loungers beat Real Madrid. I'll bet they would have had their hands full with Virtual Madrid.

Once again, the year after leaving Dallas, a Dallas team is in the Championship series. A half a mil and I'll go to Chicago for a while. If I did that the Falcons would be guaranteed to win the Super Bowl. Then, when I came back, the Cubbies would be in the World Series.

Here's to LeFraud remaining LeFraud for one more game. May LeFraud stay true to his character and miss those wide open three's when they matter most in the fourth quarter! Here's to LeFraud making multiple offensive fouls in the fourth quarter! Here's to LeFraud digging deep on Sunday, and finding just one more way to lose when it matters most!

LeFraud is the King! The greatest, most clutch basketballer who's ever been!

Bosh disappeared like the, well you know what, he is. And that silly looking coach. He's such a greenhorn. About all he can muster is that imitation Pat Riley stance. Please god don't let that hambone's team win.

Hard to say who will win, I think. If Dallas had a strong (and scoring) presence in the middle, they'd be superior, but Chandler, though improved, and better than their other (lousy) big men over the years, is not that guy. (My own Brook Lopez would be a perennial all-star on the Mavs.) And I don't get the Bosh putdowns. It's not as if he wouldn't be a starter on every other team in the NBA; he would be. If Wade is okay, he's phenomenal. No one else can take over a game like he does, with the exception of Kobe, though I think Wade might have edged in front of Kobe this year in that department.

LeBron needs his own paragraph: here's a guy with superior physical gifts. A freak of nature, as it's said. But because everyone fawned over him for so long, and his hubris has blossomed faster than his raw talent (why does he persist in throwing passes while in the air; why didn't someone tell him it's bush league?), his arrogance is undoing him. It's a karmic thing. Every close-up on TV shows it. He is not a Jordan, a miserable human being whose arrogance burned like a flame, but still a youngster who needs approval and whose behavior has undone him.

Still, Miami can very well win. If they play Chalmers instead of Eddie House (!)--what a stupid decision--rely on Wade, get someone to guard Terry (Jason Kidd is not that guy), and manage to cover Dirk without putting him on the foul line, they could do it.

What are you, jumpin' ship to the evil Heat, Piero? How bout that 5" 8' Puerto Rican stickin' it to the Heat like he did my damn Lakers?! Mavericks in 6. And I don't buy that crap that they have to win in 6, because there's no way they can win a game 7 on the road blahblahblah. As long as the Miami Heat have LeFraud on their side, and if its close in the 4th quarter, and LeFraud chuckin' up his choke jobs or choke lobs, the Mavs can win in 7 on the road.

You said Mavs in 6 anyway Piero, so they damn well better win on Sunday.

and Jason Kidd is more clutch so far than LeFraud any day. Clutch three, clutch 'throws. Bite me Kidd haters!

You're too committed, Henri, to see the forest through the trees ... or something. I'm just calling it like I see it at the moment. In fact, I would prefer to see the Mavs win, and I think, with them up 3-2, they probably will. But I can see the other team winning too, and I'd be surprised if Miami didn't win the next game.

Also, I'm not a Kidd hater, but I can see his limitations. He can't cover the quicker guards.

Goddamn, who'da thunk it? With everyone pounding on LeBron James--in newpapers, on radio and TV-- for his fourth quarter performances, I'm actually beginning to feel sorry for the guy. (I suspect Henri will attack me for this admission.)

All LeFraud has to do is show up for game 6 and 7 when it counts and he can be redeemed. Let us pray, however, that he remains damned.

You see these sporting events, all hyped up, on TV, and you think how great it must be to be there. Let me tell you, to be at a racetrack on a damp, rainy, dreary day, when it's a total crapshoot picking winners, is no great shakes. My guess is it was a miserable Belmont day for those 60,000 people, most of whom didn't cash a winning ticket, what with the winner at 24-1..

I went to the Belmont twice. There is indeed a hum that goes through the place, permeates it, for about two seconds when the race takes off. and it gives you chills, like you're a part of something much greater than yourself; somehwat standing the crowd as the space ship in Close Encounters of the Third or Fourth Time lands.

Last time I went, I doped out the race, the owners, the jockeys, the conditions, checked the tote board, did all the things I did in "Racetrack Meditation," and then bet on the wrong horse, of course. My daughter, who knew none of the arcane stuff I did, looked at the program, saw a horse called Editor's Note, and because her father edited books, bet on it. Editor's Note, an 8-1 shot, won going away.

Lady Luck. Sometimes a good horse gets a bad ride. Maybe those thieving little jockeys have more to say than we think. I learned from my Dad. He didn't go out there to win. He knew he had to work 7 days a week to pay for his families keep. He simply loved to go to the track to curse and swear and pretend that he was free.

The Heat went down like dogs. No reason one way or another, the Mavs hit their shots and they didn't. That's how the cookie crumbles in BBall. I was pleased that the Heat coach looked foolish in the end. A deer caught in the headlights. If there WAS a difference in the 2 teams it had to do with TEAM. The Mavs had a team and team leaders. The Heat 'coach' was 'coaching' while the Mav's coach was hand-riding em like a good jockey. The situation was much too much for the Heat greenhorn, and bidness as usual for the Mav's coach who played for the Celtics in days gone by. As to the players, Bosh is a fucking waste of space, LeBron will have his day, and Wade is Wade, a great player, whose got his ring.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVHEoy1o_BY

So this has nothing to do with your guys' topic at hand. But I just wanted to say I am not much of a sports person and I have not gone to hardly any games of any type ever since I was in college and we had a pretty good basketball team. Well our town has a brand new major league soccer team the Timbers and yesterday I went with my son Osama because those of our family who were SUPPOSED to go did not. We had a good time although our team lost to the Colorado Rapids in the very last minute of the game. I think soccer is a fun spectator sport and plan to go to more! That's all. Carry on with the smack.

That SUPPOSED sounds like a smack to me, anna. But I know what you mean about soccer. As for basketball, I have to admit I'm in a quandary about LeBron James, perhaps because I've been among those who put him down.

These pressurized playoffs create actual drama, of the psychological kind. Years ago we had a situation concerning Cliff Robinson, formerly one of your own "Jail Blazers," who finished his career with the Nets, my team, by being suspended for a playoff game for using marijuana just before the playoffs began. But it also wrought havoc with a young team: the old vet letting down the youngsters (mainly Richard Jefferson and Kenyon Martin).

In this latest psychodrama, yes, LeBron is a victim of his own hubrisitic karma, but also, as with Zidane headbutting an Italian who insulted his sister in the World Cup final and got tossed, LeBron is also a relatively young man who, rich and famous as he is, finds himself in a cul-de-sac. Clearly, he's not the great player many thought, not because he doesn't have the skills, but because he hasn't learned enough about life fast enough.

What happens to him now? Today, he lashed out at his critics. I thought, Oh no. But other than rewriting the immediate past, and his subpar performance (for a "superstar"), which is of course fiction, what can he do? Roll over and die? And what's his support network? And would he know it if he bumped into it, or is he so tied up in commerical considerations, predatory agents, and the opinion of the fickle public, that he has no idea to whom he can turn?

Not enough balls on the court for the Heat trio. They can manage to share the ball here and there but in the waning moments of a big contest if the team doesn't move the ball to the open man they will go down unless there is one major scorer who takes over the game. Not easy with James and Wade. It's like having two Supermen on the job, when clearly only one is necessary. This is when a strong coach is needed and the Heat had merely a side-kick, and not a very good one at that.

Perhaps you caught the postgame chitchat, Peter, or maybe the chat when the game was no longer in doubt, where Van Gundy opined that the Heat would need someone who blended better with their talents than the three they have, suggesting the unhappy Dwight at Orlando for what had to be LeBron. A statement that was, for all its subtlety, a reassessment of what LeBron can and can't do now that this test-of-a-series is over.

That makes sense. But I still maintain that the greenhorn at the helm is the problem. They need an experienced coach who can put labron in his place. There's too much chaos out there on the offensive side of the ball, and they overhelp on defense and Dallas was almost always able to make the extra pass, and the extra extra pass to defeat the overhelping. As quick as they are they can't recover in time. And Dallas had the good fortune to make those shots late, for the most part. This said, I don't think you can over-analyze. I've been in too many games to think there's a reason why a team wins or loses close games, etc. I blame it on the Heat coach but I am also of the opinion that they could have won despite him. It's a fickle game. Sometimes the ball just doesn't bounce your way. Like life, isn't it?

Did anybody catch LeFraud's act in the postgame interview? No one is finer at alienating himself from us nobody's with our "real life problems" than the 4th quarter phantom, LeFraud.

You'd think he'd have a wiser head around who'd pull him aside by the elbow and tell him, "LeBron, boychickle, count to ten and then don't say anything at all except, maybe, 'I wish it would've turned out different.'"

HEY LET'S ALL TALK ABOUT HOCKEY. Are any of you guys watching this travesty? I finally found an online radio station that wasn't blocked in Turkey, ten minutes into the game, and Vancouver's already down 4-0. I mean, what is that?

Bahstin is up against it. Down 3-2 dey win or go home, eh? It's at the gahdin so it'll probably hold and fowce a 7th game. Maybe the ghost of the great Cyclone can turn the trick for the Canucks. It's been a mighty long time, eh? Their ouut in full force on Georgia & Hamilton Street. But the Beantowners are makin a lot of noise, and the Bruins are playin hahhd. Does it matter that they're mostly Swedes & a fella or two from Medicine Hat or Floral.

Smartini, how come your fellow Canadians outside of Vancouver aren't pulling for the Canucks? Oh the atrocious things I've heard Albertans and Quebecois and Nova Scotians and even Prince Edward Islanders say about the Canucks (and Vancouver) on sports talk radio. Frankly, I find their impoliteness and hatred appalling, especially considering Canadians are Canadians, one and all, no matter what province they're from, right? Seems they'd rather see the cup in the States than in Canada! It's like the Canucks, outside of British Columbia, are the Lebron James' of the NHL!

It's like the Canucks, outside of British Columbia, are the Lebron James' of the NHL!

It's true! Which is why it's so complicatedly bittersweet seeing them be the best team in the league and still fail again and again. As for those other people, they're just jealous because they live in a frozen hellhole and BC is wonderful.

No, but actually, I think that's the issue--the sense of entitlement and the overdog thing and the propensity to choke. There's something hateable about Luongo, the goalie who's perfect except when it counts. And the goofy old Sedins (hateable but loveable too--they're kind of a litmus test for whether you have hate in your soul!). And Kesler, who I can only picture kissing his own bicep under a waterfall. Especially up against the Bruins, which are sort of the definition of east-coast hockey authenticity, right? And they've got their Nathan Horton and whatever, and I think a lot of Eastern Canadians can relate to that more than a Vancouver that they've always thought is much flash and little substance, the team and the city, where the ponds don't even freeze for chrissakes.

But like, we riot when we win and we riot when we lose! How much more authentic can you be?

(Fuck Alberta though, those people are worse than Texans. I don't give a crap what they think, although some of my best friends etc.)

>217 Porius: seriously. If Cyclone won't make an appearance, maybe the ghost of Trevor Linden will, after we sacrifice him on our blood altar. Although if they lose Game 7, that blood altar (on the corner of Georgia and Hamilton, natch!) is gonna be busy.

219> Whew, it's a relief to finally hear that there is a place where the inhabitants are actually worse than us Texans! After reading through this other thread, I was beginning to get a complex. Maybe I'll change my location to say Delaware. Nobody hates Delawarians, right? Or is it Delawarites? Hmmm, better do my homework if I'm gonna pull this off.

Ah, who am I kidding? I'd be a conceited asshole no matter where I say I'm from.

No shit, bubba. Texas, Watts and Detroit have got nothing on Vancouver, the latter two especially when it comes to sick riots! How very impolite of you, Oh Canada! Not nice. Smartini called it. Even Reginald Denny can't believe what he witnessed last night in British Thuglumbia!

Not all bad:

I've seen stories that several thousand Vancouverites (Vancouverists? Vancouverees?) have volunteered to help with the clean up and restoration of the most damaged parts. How many USofAers do you think would volunteer in similar circumstances? Most of the ones that show up would be the dreaded, hated un-American libruls. Real 'Murricans would have the attitude never to do anything if you can't extract payment from it, and, plus, too, also would heed the call of the Wild Extreme Individual, "I didn't do it. It ain't my problem". You know, Canada might have an inundation from the South if we get another four or eight years of Republican reign in this country. Of course, as always the first generation would spend all their time plotting their triumphant return (see Cuba), but the second and third generations would settle in to life in snow country.

>223 copyedit52: thank you. I've been wondering when we'd find out who they were!

>224 geneg: Oh, Gene, everyone I've ever met from the South has been delightful. If they can lean to vote on the left and smoke weed (are the two related?), they're welcome any time.

222> I love that!

Bubba, I'm afraid Vancouver, turns out, has got nothing on Dallas. Have you heard this monstrosity?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76rZyVbM7YI

Thanks Rique, I couldn't stop laughing! That was priceless. Sounds like he's been taking singing lessons from David Hasselhoff.

Freak accident at baseball game:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aesp8ViZbro

Hey, Trojan boy! My duckies are gonna kick ass tonight!

But ... but ... where were you last year when your duckies went down? Some of us were lined up and ready to raz you, but you were gone. And where is Jane, I want to know, with her Tigers at no. 1 and not a word about it?

Is "gonna kick ass" code for "gonna lay a rotten egg" up there in the Bend boonies of the Oregoners?

No baby, that would be the golden egg.

I am watching recording. At this posting I am about 48 minutes behind. so this is my last post til the end of the game or when I catch up... which ever occurs first. ;p

Drats! Foiled again... I'm heartsick. :-(

Effing Trojans kept sitting on my duckies trying slow them down. Bad form, USC. Bad form.

Entertaining game, though.

It was indeed....

what's all this talk about condoms?

Rick, she likes calling me "Trojan Man" since I'm a Dick.

You know, bas lives not far from a town in the Gers, in France, called Condom.

I wonder if he's ever visited Gers Condom Cathedral of Saint-Pierre.

Yes of course he has visited that cathedral. I think the French have finally caught on to why so many English speakers choose to have their photograph taken alongside the nameplate for the town.

tip - don't go into a builders merchant and ask for "preservatives"

241: One of the many French "faux-amis" (words that sound the same in English but mean something really different)

♥ Happy New Year! GO OREGON DUCKS!!!! OOOOOOOOO! ♥

Who's your ducky now?

1st win in 95 years! Chip Kelly brought it home.

Go Duckies! !!!

Congrats Tani. All smiles at my house too!