December 27, 2024

What a Great Week in Sports

Last week was an excellent week in sports.  To start the week we had the Lakers win Game 6 Tuesday in the NBA Finals. Then Thursday the US Open began and later that day the Lakers beat the Celts in a Game 7 which hasn’t happened in over 20 years. Interleague baseball was happening in MLB and if that wasn’t enough we also had the World Cup. The US got screwed on Friday against Slovenia unfortunately, but we were able to laugh at the French team that imploded over the weekend after their coach dismissed forward Nicolas Anelka. Tiger shot a 66 on moving day of the US Open, but in the end Graeme McDowell stood tall and was victorious at the US Open in Pebble Beach.

I neglected to mention the College World Series is also taking place in the last year of Rosenblatt Stadium. Whew, did I mention Texas and their posse are staying in the Big 12 which is now only 10 teams and Utah and Colorado are now in the Pac 10 which now has 12 teams?

I can’t keep up with all the changes these days, but needless to say this past week did not disappoint.  Being a LA Laker fan I have had a lot of anxiety, but throw in a US Open and a US Soccer controversy and it’s enough to make your head spin. UCLA crushed the hated Gators in the first round of the College World Series and having Graeme McDowell on my fantasy golf roster was the icing on the cake.

Sports is my life and it identifies me as such. Happy Fathers Day!

Oh by the way, the NBA Draft is this week, the College World Series continues, Wimbledon starts up, and the US plays their third game in the World Cup.

Sharapova Interlude

Miss Maria advanced to the second round of the French Open after defeating qualifier Ksenia Pervak 6-3, 6-2 earlier today. Sharapova is ranked #12 in this year’s tournament and her best finish at Roland-Garros was the semifinals in 2007. Good luck Maria!

Island Getaway

I wanted to let all the SU.com followers know that posting will be very light over the next week. I’m down in beautiful St. Maarten for a much needed vacation so there won’t be much time for writing. I look forward to getting back to it on the 25th. Au revoir!

Where is College Football Going?

With all the talk about the Big Ten becoming the Big 14, the SEC stealing some ACC schools just after the big ACC merger a few years ago along with the whispers of realignment of the Pac 10 which could become the Pac 12 I start to wonder just WTF is going on?

Earlier this week it was rumored the Big Ten had offered membership to four schools: Notre Dame, Nebraska, Missouri and Rutgers. The ACC is looking anxiously at the Big Ten expansion because it could set off a chain of events that one day affects the ACC with regards to Bowl games and the money those games generate for the ACC. Already losing the Gator Bowl this year the ACC is scheduled to have three New Years Eve games which we all know is nothing monetarily in comparison to the January 1st games.

The big loser in all of this would be the Big East.. They could lose up to 4 maybe 5 teams out of a conference still looking for an identity after losing Miami, Va Tech and BC to the ACC a few years back. They have added Louisville, Cinci and UConn which are nice schools, but only in basketball are they a marquis brand. Losing a Rutgers, UConn, Syracuse and Pitt would be devastating for the league considering that football is the big purse that allows for the other sports to survive.

As far as the Pac 10, they plan to hire super agency CAA to find out if what they want to do is a viable solution for the league, Geesh, so SoCal it makes me want to puke and I live here. You don’t need an agency to conduct studies and get paid millions to come up with the answer because the answer is to EXPAND you Idiots! Get BYU and Utah or raid the wo-be-gones from the Big 12 like Colorado and Kansas and expand the brand into the middle of the country. Basketball as well as football would be affected in a positive manner. Every year 2 of the most storied programs (KU and UCLA) could play in hoops in a home-and-home. Sounds better than Utah vs UCLA or BYU vs Oregon State, right? Whatever they do I hope they do it fast! Knowing how the Pac 10 purists handle emerging ideas I say that the conference will still be in the same boat 5 years from now, but maybe with a Pac-10 and Big 12 partnership — NOT a merger — to maximize TV opportunities.

And finally the SEC. One of the most popular scenarios right now is for the SEC, Big Ten, ACC and Pac-10 to expand and form four super-conferences by absorbing teams from the Big East and Big 12. Ya right, and we will have a college football playoff to boot! Anyway, the SEC is looking at grabbing South Carolina rival Clemson as well as Miami and Fla St out of the ACC to create a super duper conference. Maybe ESPN can start a new network called ESPN-SEC and throw in Tim Tebow as their lead analyst.

In any case all these adjustments are leading to what we may all want. These super conferences happen and let the winners of the conferences play in a 3 game tourny where we would have a semi-final and a final to at least give us some sort of playoff system to crown the absolute champion.

It would definitely be better than what we have now!

Changes Coming for Kentucky Derby?

The 136th Kentucky Derby is this Saturday with a post time of 6:24pm. A lot of the discussions this week are around whether or not this is the last time the race will be run during the day. Churchill Downs now has permanent lights installed at the track so the move to primetime seems almost inevitable. The Derby is one of the bigger sporting events of the year and if you can position the event to a larger television audience then why wouldn’t they make the plunge? The move would even make the event better for the actual spectators at the Derby because they could have a 20-race card and a few more mint juleps while waiting in anticipation for ‘the most exciting two minutes in sports.’

Shocker at Boston Marathon

I know we all get excited to watch running events on television, but some people do actually watch the Boston Marathon because it is probably the most popular marathon each year. So as we watched the conclusion of the 114th Boston Marathon today we were shocked to see a Kenyan (Robert Kiprono Cheruiyot) win the men’s race and an Ethiopian (Tebya Erkesson) won the women’s race. Some miracles never cease.

Kenya’s Robert Kiprono Cheruiyot won the 114th Boston Marathon on Monday, breaking the course record with a time of 2 hours, 5 minutes, 52 seconds. Ethiopia’s Teyba Erkesso took home the women’s title.

Destitute Derrick Coleman

What is going on these days with former NBA players going bankrupt after making millions of dollars during their career? Antoine Walker and Latrell Sprewell are two perfect examples of players who poorly managed their wealth and then today comes the news that Derrick Coleman is flat broke. DC made more than $87 million throughout his NBA career yet he has filed for bankruptcy and owes creditors close to $5 million. He supposedly has roughly a million left in assets that include some jewelry, five fur coats, a 1997 Bentley convertible and two homes in the Beverly Hills. According to Coleman’s lawyer Derrick lost most of his fortune in Detroit real estate which probably wasn’t the best place to invest.

OMG! What Have I Done?

In case you didn’t know I recently moved back to SoCal, Long Beach to be exact, and since my return all of my favorite LA teams are in the crapper except for the Los Angeles Kings.

I came back to SoCal on the 24th of February and the Lakers have lost 10 games and 6 of their last 9. They have been dominated at home for two consecutive Sundays against San Antonio and Portland. They are limping into the Playoffs and Kobe is totally off his game shooting less than 30% from the field in his last 5 games.

One week into the MLB Season it is very apparent that the Angels and Dodgers, who are perennial playoff contenders, are horrific so we could be in for a long summer.

So what do I have to look forward to? Well, the LA Kings are in their first NHL Playoff season in 8 years which helps ease the pain a little bit. Also, the Long Beach Grand Prix comes to town next week so that is another plus, but doesn’t take away the sting overall.

When exactly does football start?

The Best Week in Sports

This is probably the best week of the year in sports and we are very excited for the outcome of The Masters this weekend.

Here is what we have had in sports just since Monday.

Duke beats Butler in one of the greatest National Championships in recent memory. Sure there was the Kansas and Memphis game 2 years ago that went to overtime, but this game provided us a Hoosiers like feeling. Butler practices and plays their games in the arena which Hoosiers was filmed. The campus is only 6 miles from the arena where the Final Four was played and even though they are a mid-major they beat giants like Syracuse and Michigan State on its way to the final game against Duke. The epic story and run through the tournament was only seconds away from having a happy ending, but the Blue Devils sqaushed the dream and the memories of the Butler Bulldogs.

On the same day of the National Championship we had the real Opening Day of MLB.  Spring is officially here so we can all wear white shoes and/or pants for the next five months.  My prediction for the World Series is an exact repeat of last year between the NY Yankees versus the Philadelphia Phillies.

Also on Monday, Tiger Woods made his much anticipated press conference at The Masters. If you don’t think Tiger commands an audience and that the PGA doesn’t need Tiger then consider the fact that the 32-minute press conference garnered 23 million viewers. The Golf Channel’s coverage of live PGA golf in 2010 has only attracted 18 million total which is hard to fathom.

When Tuesday came around the greatest women’s basketball team EVER came from behind to beat Stanford in the women’s National Championship. The Lady Huskies have now won two championships and 78-games in a row.

Now as we roll into Wednesday we are excited for The Masters which is the greatest golf spectacle of the year.  I think Paul Casey wins this year and it very well could be a clean sweep by the Europeans in the Major’s this year.

So, make sure to stop by your local liquor store and enjoy the weekend’s festivities. It truly is the best week of the year!

Dwight Gooden Doesn’t Get It

Doc Gooden has been arrested AGAIN and the list of charges from this latest arrest isn’t pretty at all. Yesterday morning the former Mets and Yankees (don’t forget about Rays, Indians, and Astros) pitcher was in a car crash with a kid in his car and unfortunately Gooden was under the influence of drugs. The list of charges looks more like a grocery list due to the length, but here we go: Failure to Keep Right, Reckless Driving, Failure to Notify Change of Address Regarding Driver’s License, Leaving the Scene of a Motor Vehicle Accident, Driving While Under the Influence of Drugs, DWI with a Child Passenger, Endangering the Welfare of a Child, and Being Under the Influence of a Controlled Dangerous Substance. Does anyone want to bet the substance was a little snowflake?