Random Thoughts of the Week
1. Sunday I attended one of the top 10 sporting events I've ever seen in person. No, it wasn't the Masters, it wasn't the Red Sox Yankees game...It was game 3 of the Bruins vs. Habs first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Despite the hard hitting aggressive play, the chants, the many cheers and beers, and the outcome in overtime (Bruins won 2-1) I couldn't help but walk away a little disappointed. Will the NHL ever get the appreciation in America it deserves? I couldn't believe it when I showed up at the arena an hour early, and the parties were dominated by Montreal fans, and the attendance had to have been at least 50/50 Bruins/Canadians fans...if not even in Montreal's favor. Why is it Canadians get it and we don't? Hockey is a fast paced, skillful hard hitting sport. There are minimal stoppages, consistent player changes, and many scoring chances. I think a Montreal fan wearing the Blue and Red towel holding a Stanley Cup made of aluminum foil said it best when looking at the TD Banknorth Garden's souvenir shop: "why is all the Celtics gear in the window right now? All I see is Green. Don't they know the Bruins are playing tonight?" Who knows...
2. I love Hank Steinbrenner. He is far more interesting than Mark Cuban, and may be the most enjoyable baseball owner since Marge Schott. (come on, we all remember her and Schottzie, her lovable little mutt that used to defecate all over Riverfront Stadium.) After spending $50,000 to have a weekend construction crew come in and spend 5 hours drilling through concrete to pull out a planted David Ortiz Jersey, Steinbrenner made the following statement: "This is such a bunch of bullshit. I hope his coworkers kick the shit out of him." This is the latest on a bunch of classic lines including my personal favorite, "This is Yankees' Nation. We are going to put the Yankees back on top and restore order to the universe." That's just classic. I'm not even being sarcastic. I really like the guy, great entertainment.
3. I saw a couple of goobers trying to "speed walk" the other day. This got me thinking, "how the hell are some sports created?" Even further, how the hell do people even get involved in some of the more obscure sports. Speed walking, or officially known as race walking, is an actual Olympic sport! How did that become an Olympic sport and golf isn't? The only thing I can think of is that it all started one day when the recess bell rang, and everyone starting rushing to the door at which point a teacher yells the cliche command, "no running in the halls!" Every child knows how to handle this situation.....walk as fast as you can and elbow the chump next to you without technically running. Check out this Youtube video of a 20Km...yes I said 20Km, race walking event.
4. Here are the Hots Nots of my ESPN MLB fantasy team (Southie Sluggers) through the first 2 weeks:
Hot: Derrek Lee (64 points), Raul Ibanez(62 points), Livan Hernandez (58 points)
Not: Robinson Cano (16 points) my boy J.J. Hardy (He will come around for sure,15.5 points), Nate Robertson (5 points)
Sleeper of the year: Andre Ethier. Took Juan Pierre's spot in the L.A. outfield....keep an eye on him.
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As roomates in college, there is a lot of time to pass. Some people listen to music, some people do homework, some people take the real college health route and go to the gym. We watched sports. Now by no means is this out of the ordinary or unique. Sports in its nature can be a commonplace for even the most different and conflicting of people. But it was not simply that we watched sports, but the observations, thoughts and conversations that would ensue because of it.
Standing on opposite sides of the greatest rivalry in sports, there was never a lack of topics to discuss. Our conversations would lead to many things, sometimes more conversations, sometimes laughter, sometimes fits of rage. But probably the most important thing it lead to was a well constructed and fact based list of beliefs, policies, principles, and stances on the vast world of sports. These "tenants" if you will represent for us the bigger picture of sports, the picture that not everyone sees.
Through our posts and discussions on this site, we hope our thoughts and positions will be exposed. While we disagree almost as much as we agree, we always share a respect for plain old good sports. As much as we may root against eachothers favorite teams, we root for the things teams and players do well. We aim to point those "things" out in this forum.
This site is still in its beginning stages and will get better. We would love some comments and feedback. Shoot us an email at outfieldassistguys@gmail.com.
Standing on opposite sides of the greatest rivalry in sports, there was never a lack of topics to discuss. Our conversations would lead to many things, sometimes more conversations, sometimes laughter, sometimes fits of rage. But probably the most important thing it lead to was a well constructed and fact based list of beliefs, policies, principles, and stances on the vast world of sports. These "tenants" if you will represent for us the bigger picture of sports, the picture that not everyone sees.
Through our posts and discussions on this site, we hope our thoughts and positions will be exposed. While we disagree almost as much as we agree, we always share a respect for plain old good sports. As much as we may root against eachothers favorite teams, we root for the things teams and players do well. We aim to point those "things" out in this forum.
This site is still in its beginning stages and will get better. We would love some comments and feedback. Shoot us an email at outfieldassistguys@gmail.com.
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1 comment:
Just so you know... Ethier will not keep up what he has been doing in the early going. It is far too early, in fact, to get a read on who is actually good this year. I mean, Xavier Nady... come on. However, one guy that I drafted early... maybe too early given his lack of experience is Justin Upton. He is the real deal. In fact, in my crappy espn.com league, he was drafted by only 34% of teams early on... now owned by 100%.
Also, the reason the NHL does not succeed is pretty obvious. They don't market themselves properly. You see, when something is deemed unlikeable, the NHL simply changes it. So, the games were low-scoring... let's allow two line passes. Let's kill neutral zone traps... Let's enlarge the goals (I could not believe they were thinking about this). Anyway, the average American does not know exactly how hockey works... it escapes them. And when hockey keeps changing the mode in which they play, it makes it even harder. People don't care to keep up with it. Hockey needs to do what soccer did and just promote the heck out its young stars... (which they do with Sidney Crosby though he is the third best young guy in the league... I think both Ovechkin and Semin are better and they are both on one team). Plus, there is too much negative press surrounding a sport about which people already don't care... Tocchet, the strike.. etc.
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