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.

Series 1 - @ Boston - Red Sox 2 - Yankees 1

After Dr. Reisman threw out the first pitch; and I'm still not sure how I feel about that. I'll let it slide on this occasion on account of him being a native of Parsippany, NJ, neighbor of my hometown: Denville, NJ. And after the Ortiz jersey was unearthed from deep in the new Yankee Stadium's concrete foundation, the Red Sox took two out of three from the Yanks, winning the rubber match 8-5 in which Philip Hughes looked spectacular, especially over the first two frames. At least Dice didn't look like a world beater. That was encouraging. As was seeing that Posada's arm has healed by leaps and bounds. That was evident late in the game Sunday Night. But overall, I can't complain about the outcome too much after a weekend at Fenway playing as poorly as the Yankees have been. You figure it's hard enough to beat the Super Sox on a good day let alone with an anemic offense and, our staple, poor pitching.

On a side note, I think they should have left the Papi jersey in the infrastructure of the new Stadium. As long as it's been buried there, D.O. has struggled to say the least. Boasting the lowest BA of any player in the ML, that qualifies, Papi has gone 3-for-43 overall and just 1-for-his-last-29 for a .070 average for the season to date. Secondly, all of that nonsense and drama shit the Red Sox rounded up in October of 2004 to pull off the miracle of miracles about believing, and idiots, and red sox nation, and reversing the curse. It appears now, four years and 2 Red Sox WS championships later, that the most enduring of their charming little mantras was reversing the curse. I'm not a superstitious kinda guy and I didn't buy it at first as I thought it was just your standard Boston propaganda because they like the soap opera part of things more than the game itself. But, it has held true. The Yankees surrendered their streak of first place finishes, they have been dismissed in the first round of the last three MLB playoffs, but worse, Boston has meanwhile prospered. After witnessing all of the events that transpired to allow the Red Sox to win that ALCS after they had infinitesimal chances of doing so. The indefensible steals of Dave Roberts. The 2-out rallies of the Red Sox, pick which one was your favorite. Mariano Rivera. Mariano Rivera. Mariano Rivera. Tony Clark's ground-rule double over the, coincidentally, shortest fence in the Major Leagues that missed winning the series by a matter of inches. Getting eerie, isn't it? Never mind all of that. The Red Sox Nation believed that the idiots could reverse the curse! And I didn't even get into the topic of AA level ballplayers resurrecting their previously tepid careers one after the other soon after arriving in Boston (i.e. Millar, Mueller, Bellhorn, Ortiz, Damon). Or the incomprehensible ability of slumping players or generally poor players breaking out solely against the New York Yankees (i.e. Varitek, Nixon). The point is that the Trost should have left the jersey embedded in the stadium to allow the Yankees teams for years to come to experience the good fortune the Red Sox have enjoyed over the last 4 years. We gotta get it back.