Big shot Bob or Rob, Irked Dirk, Pacman, The Boss

The Playoff games were very entertaining tonight. There was drama all the way to the end. The Rockets took care of the Jazz, just one more and T-Mac will get out of the first round. I think it will take 7 games, but I'm still rolling with Houston! The Nuggets had a great chance to even up the series, but they left Robert Horry wide open for a back breaking shot with under a minute left! How the f*** do you leave Robert effing Horry that open, that late in a playoff game?? They deserve to lose this series if they can't do better than that! Robert Horry had 3 points up until that point. 3, but anyone who knows basketball knows that he is probably the most dangerous person on the court with under a minute remaining during the playoffs! The sad thing is he probably won't get into the Hall of Fame, but he certainly deserves to be there. There isn't a team he was on that won a championship that would have won said championship without him. He ALWAYS hits a back breaking shot! They don't call him Big Shot Bob, or Rob for nothing Denver! You have to account for him, you just have to! I'm irked that he is the reason Denver lost this game because they should have known better! Not that they don't still have a chance to win this series, but I just don't see it happening. I thought San Antone would win the series from the beginning, but I love A I and I was really hoping for an upset! Sigh, maybe next year!
Avery is a little frustrated with the frustrated Dirk. I don't blame him either, Dirk is acting like a b*tch right now. You are never supposed to sound defeated and that's exactly how he sounds! Kobe, Steve, Dwyane (when the Heat were in the playoffs) they compliment the other team and give them all the credit in the world, but they never throw in the towel in public. Especially in interviews. I knew the Mavs were in trouble when Dirk said if they lost game 4 the season was basically over. You know what Dirk, I hope you're right! Avery needs to bench his ass and go with the guys that are actually playing hard as hell and want to win this series. Dirk has basically been taking up space in the series anyway.
The LeBron's swept the Wiz tonight. Finally! That was the longest four games ever!!
Pacman filed an appeal today. What do we call this kids? A waste of time. The guy who suspended him is the same guy who hears the appeal. Come on Adam, use a little logic. I know you haven't been convicted and you probably shouldn't have been suspended for the whole year, but you were and I doubt Goodell is going to have a change of heart about it. That would be admitting he was wrong and he is not going to do that this early in his commissionership. (I don't think that's a word) Let's see what the Commish does with Michael Vick. He needs to be suspended because he plays the "I had nothing to do with it" card just as much as Pacman. At the very least he should be suspended for stupidity!
The Boss gave Joe Torre the dreaded vote of confidence. His ass is as good as gone, especially since they probably won't win more than one game this week. The pitching is still atrocious.

Go Warriors, Heat swept, Hancock, Moss

OMG The Dallas Mavericks are down 3-1 to Golden State! For the good of the game, please let the Warriors finish them off! Baron Davis was phenomenal. Dallas has no answer for him or Jacko or J Rich. Dallas keeps daring the Warriors to shoot 3's and dammitt they are more than happy to oblige! Sometimes it seems like all they do is shoot 3's. They will not be derailed no matter how many they miss. They made them when it counted. Dirk has been the 3rd best player on his team for most of the series. How is the MVP getting carried by his teammates instead of carrying his teammates?? If Dallas loses this series, Mark Cuban's head will surely explode! I hope they catch it on tape!
The Heat are done!!!!! Yay! They got swept! Ben Wallace hit 7 free throws in a row. I don't know if he's hit 7 free throws this year let alone in one game! Everything was working against the Heat! Everyone is so quick to point out their injuries. No one cares about how banged up the Heat are. They got the hell beat out of them four straight games by a younger more athletic team. And to think we were all worried that Chicago made a mistake getting that 5th seed.
The Nets beat the Raptors pretty badly. That series should be over Tuesday or whenever they play again.
The Lakers lost to the Suns. Kobe did what he could, but Nash had 23 assists and Amare had 27 points and 21 rebounds. You can't win against players who are putting up those types of numbers in the same game. That series should be ending soon as well.
I insist that the analysts stop calling every pass Steve Nash makes amazing. Some of them are, but a lot of them are pretty routine.
As an analyst Reggie Miller is a phenomenal basketball player. Seriously, he's that bad!
The Yankees got beat by the Sux again. The pitching was atrocious as usual, but at least they didn't get swept!
The Cardinals lost one of their pitchers Josh Hancock to a car accident. They postponed the game they had scheduled for Sunday night. He was only 29.
Randy Moss got traded to the Pats. Now we'll get to see if he's really lost a step or if he was just unproductive because of the injuries and the fact that Oakland didn't have a quarterback for the 2 years he was there.

Finally a win, Playoffs, NFL draft

We finally stopped the bleeding!!!!!! 3-1 over the Red Sux and Rivera got his first save of the season! Our pitching is still atrocious, but at least it was good for one game. Word on the street is Joe Torre is on the hot seat. All I have to say is there isn't much he can do about the piss ass defense and the piss ass pitching in front of that defense. However, he needs to just leave the starters in longer if we are scoring even though our pitcher keeps giving em runs back. The bullpen is going to be busted by the All-Star break.
Barry went deep again. He's only 13 away from tying the record.
The Pistons finished off the Magic today and is it just me or does it seem like its taking the damn Cleveland/Washington series forever to end. Damn they only play like every four days! The Lebron's only need one more game then that series will end mercifully. The Spurs got the best of the Nuggets tonight, and Houston got their asses whipped. The Utah/Houston series might end up being the most compelling one of the first round. At this point I have no idea who has the edge, but I'll stick with Houston to win it.
Day one of the NFL draft is over, and I think Brady Quinn is still in the green room. Haha! Nah he got picked by the Browns 22nd. Hey not being a top pick of Cleveland's might save him from the season ending injury all of their top picks seem to suffer in their rookie season. Detroit took another receiver, but it was Calvin Johnson so you can't blame them. He was by far the best looking player at the draft! He's quite a specimen! He's a pretty good football player too.

7 straight, NBA Playoffs, NFL Draft

Sigh. 7 losses in a row.......... Yankees pitching is atrocious! I really don't know if they'll win another game anytime soon. If they get swept by the Red Sux 2 straight series..................
The Mavericks got their asses whipped tonight! They never had a chance! That Golden State crowd was acting like it hasn't seen a playoff game in 13 years. When Dirk gets that MVP trophy on Sunday or whenever the hell they play again, It's not going to be a good look for the league. The likes of Stephen Jackson and co. have been abusing his ass. Dallas gave up 52 points in the paint to a team with no post players. This could end badly. The Dallas players had several techs tonight. Let's see how quick the media is to remind them that they can't lose their cool.
The Heat got their asses whipped tonight as well. Not as bad as Dallas, but they lost all the same. Their free throw shooting is absolutely gross! It makes Yankees pitching look world class right now. Pat Riley had to resort to hack a Ben and he made them pay splitting the free throws each time. And someone is going to have to explain to me why in the hell D Wade falls down after every damn shot he takes! The ish is getting completely out of hand and someone needs to question him about it. I refuse to believe he's that clumsy!. I hope the Bulls go ahead and end this thing Sunday. That Detroit, Chicago series (if it is to be) all of a sudden becomes very interesting! I think Detroit was banking on Chicago slugging it out with the Heat for at least 6 or 7 games. At this point they'll be lucky if it goes 5.
The Nets beat the Raptors tonight. Vince had damn near 40 or more than 40 or hell I don't know, that game bored me. Jason Kidd had a triple double.
I'm so glad the NFL draft is about to come and go. The coverage has been exhausting to say the least.

Yanks, Lakeshow, Houston, MIP, Malnourished dogs

The Yankees have lost 6 straight games. The pitching is atrocious, but the offense was even worse tonight.
Was the blood in Curt Shilling's sock real??? Who the F*** cares???
The Pistons beat the Magic tonight. That series will end Saturday.
The Lakers came back from an 11-0 start to beat Phoenix and hopefully make a series of it! Kobe had 45 points, but that was expected. No way he was going to go down without a fight in this game. There was one play where he did Shawn Marion so dirty. He might still be trying to pick himself up off the floor! The amazing thing was that someone taught Kwame Brown how to dunk!!!! He had 19 points and he looked like he's played basketball before tonight. Can they do it again Sunday? We shall see!
The Rockets lost to the Jazz tonight. Only 4 players on Houston's team scored. That is atrocious on sooooo many levels. Their bench played 47 minutes and they didn't score a single point! Luther Head was the one starter who didn't score. You can't win like that, I don't give a damn how many T-Mac's and Yao Ming's you have.
Montae Ellis won Most Improved Player. He deserved it. Let's hope he plays well tomorrow when they give him the trophy and Golden state takes the lead in the series.
Apparently Mike Vick owns a home in Virginia that got raided by police and they found malnourished dogs or something like that. While he doesn't live there, this will just give those who hate him even more things to hate him for. You got to be more careful Mike. Maybe he needs to check on his cousins a little more often. And what the hell is up with athletes starving dogs?????

Barry, Playoffs, Stephen Jackson

Barry hit another homerun. He's knocking em out pretty regularly right now. I was kinda hoping he wouldn't be approaching the record until August when he comes to Atlanta, but the way he's swinging the bat I'll be at Turner Field watching the homerun king instead of watching him chase it.
The Yankees got rained out so I can't bitch about our pitching. Oh what the hell, our pitching is atrocious. It had to be said.
Dallas and San Antonio evened up their series tonight. Baron Davis and Stephen Jackson both got ejected. I could see it coming from a mile away. I knew there was no way Dallas was losing this game tonight. Let's just say they got some home cooking before heading out to Oakland. Stephen Jackson is a riot! I love him! Every team needs a Stephen Jackson type of player. There was a sequence in the game where he had just been called for a foul so he had his hand raised to acknowledge that he was the one who fouled (not that they didn't already know that) anyway he had his back to the court and the other players started pushing each other a little and Stephen turned around and I swear his eyes lit up! He ran over there and he was ready! You need a guy like that on your team, someone who will fight with his teammates even though he has no idea what the hell he's fighting for! I love him. They gave him a tech even though he was just pushing his teammates back. I guess it was based on his reputation. Damn Bennett Salvatore! He picked up his second tech later and he was ejected. He wasn't pleased so he didn't run to the locker room. He'll probably be hearing from the Commish about this later this week. Oh, Baron got ejected for clapping. Apparently that is not allowed. Although I don't see how the Commish can fine these players when he completely ignored the fact that Shaq called out a ref by name. If I'm a player and I've been fined for anything I said, the commish would have some splainin' to do.
Rick Carlisle got fired today. I'm sure he'll land on his feet. There are positions available in Seattle, Sacramento and Memphis. Someone will give him a call.
I'm ready for the NFL draft to be over already. The nonstop coverage is ridiculous. I'm sure I'll be watching on Saturday anyway!

Zen master, Bulls, Torii Hunter

The Lakers are in trouble. Okay, I knew that them winning this series was going to take a superb effort, but damn I didn't think they'd get blown out like they did tonight. It's all good. As a Kobe fan I'll look at it like this, Phoenix just took care of home. If the Lakers can take care of their end at the Staples Center everything is all good. (wink) On a side note, I'm starting to think Phil doesn't want to win this series. Some of his rotations make absolutely no sense. When you have Shammond Williams, Brian Cook, and 3 other players and one of them isn't Kobe Bryant or Lamar Odom you need to be questioned. Nobody wants to question Phil about this though. I'm convinced he's tryna lose every time he lets Smush in the game for extended amounts of time. He's supposed to be a genius coach and etc. Well Phil it's time to show it.
Chicago beat Miami pretty handily. But again, all they did was take care of home. I'm really concerned about the fact the Wade falls out of bounds every time he hits a layup. Is that really necessary? Is he just clumsy as hell? I mean seriously what the hell is going on there? Meanwhile, Miami has no answer for Ben Gordon or Luol Deng. It might be a wrap for the defending champs in about 5 games.
The Raptors evened up the series with the Nets tonight. Good for them, I hope they win this series! Sam Mitchell won coach of the year, I guess they won tonight to reward him.
On to baseball; The Yankees pitching is atrocious. I had to throw that out there in case you hadn't noticed.
Apparently Torii Hunter could be banned from baseball for a few years for sending the Royals some champagne as a thank you for sweeping the Tigers at the end of last season and allowing the Twins to rally back and win the division. There's a rule that says you can't do that. Um..................

Yankees, T-Mac, Team USA

Sigh, the Yankees got smacked around by the Devil Rays. Our pitching is atrocious. Yes I'm going to type that damn near every day! A-Rod hit 2 more homeruns, but even he can't combat this atrocious ass rotation we are trotting out there!
Mark Prior is having exploratory surgery which will no doubt lead to the disabled list in keeping with his yearly pitching routine. He's a sad story!
Let's talk about T-Mac. He is the 2nd best 2 guard in the league, behind Kobe of course. He's one of my favorite players and I really hope Houston gets far in the playoffs, at least out of the first round. I've always been a fan of his and every time I watch him I can't help but marvel at some of the ridiculous shots he takes and makes. He doesn't need a lot of space either and its like defenders are just daring him to shoot. Hey, what's a bad shot for most is not a bad shot for Tracy because he makes em! He will shoot without hesitation. Don't dare him! Houston won tonight by the way. Someone needs to tell Yao Ming that he's bigger than EVERYONE on the court. He plays like a small forward and there's no excuse for that!
Detroit beat Orlando. That has to be the least compelling series of all of them. I expect Orlando to win at least one game though. Detroit keeps letting Orlando hang around and push them to the limits though. That's inexcusable. I really do feel like they are THAT much better than Orlando.
Leandro Barbosa won sixth man of the year. It wasn't even close. He could start for most teams, but he's perfect for Phoenix's system!
Chris Paul had surgery so he won't play for Team USA this summer. Lucky him! I hope he recovers with no problems! Everyone looks down on the guys that don't want to go, but damn 82 games is a lot and there is no shame in taking some time off. They aren't going to beat the European teams anyway because our talent is not overwhelmingly better than theirs like it used to be. Thank David Stern for that, he took the NBA global and now we just can't hang! They need to find some college kids that aren't quite good enough to make it in the NBA and just build team USA that way. That way they are familiar with each other and we aren't just trotting out a Nike commercial of players who can't defend the pick and roll!

We got swept, Manny, Playoffs

Oh my gosh, we got swept by the Red Sox for the first time in 17 years! Our pitching is atrocious. We had to bring Any Pettite out of the bullpen and he just pitched on Friday nite.
But before that happened, Chase Wright gave up 4 consecutive homeruns! Oh My Gosh!!!!! Manny, Drew, Lowell and Varitek. These weren't cheap homeruns either. They all went over the Green Monster. You have to hit the ball hard and high to accomplish that! Chase was just hangin em right over the plate! This season could end badly!
About Manny, I absolutely LOVE his homerun follow through! I hate it when he does it against my Yankees, but I can't help but marvel at how he reacts after he knows he got one! It's priceless! I love when he starts unstrapping the batting gloves before he even leaves the batter's box!
Barry went deep again.
Day 2 of the NBA playoffs was very entertaining! There were 2 "upsets" Denver and Golden State won. The Lakers blew a 12 point lead in Phoenix. Kobe was horrible down the stretch! He couldn't hit a shot to save his life, but he kept shooting. Meanwhile Leandro Barbosa was killin em!!!!! He was on fire! Is it a contract year for him? I thought some of Phil's substitution patterns were a little suspect, but of course no one questioned him about it.
B Diddy was a man among boys tonight. He gave Dallas everything they could handle and then some. Its good to see him perform well on a big stage. If they can beat Dallas in the first round that would be tremendous for the playoffs. It would add a whole other level of intrigue! As a matter of fact, I hope all of the top seeds in the west fall!

Playoffs, Yankees, Draft

Day one of the NBA playoffs is in the books and there really weren't any surprises. Chicago, New Jersey, Detroit and Houston won. All of the games were entertaining enough down the stretch. Toronto blew a great chance to win the game because Vince played HORRIBLY! Well I should say he shot horribly. I don't expect that to continue so Toronto may have blew it big time! R J was a beast, for 3 quarters anyway. T-Mac was a beast in the second half after scoring a single point in the first half. There's nowhere to go but up from there! Shaq fouled out and now he's bitching about the officiating. Calm down big fella, I'm sure before it's all said and done you and your teammates will see your fair share of favorable calls! You are the defending champs and let's be honest the officiating helped you win the title last year. No need to panic now! Kirk Hinrich played absolutely horribly as well. He couldn't throw it in the ocean. He was in foul trouble most of the game as well. I'm sure Shaq isn't upset about that because he's always come off like he's the only person that can get in foul trouble and it affect the team negatively. Someone needs to tell him while Kirk Hinrich is far from being him, he is a big part of what Chicago needs to be successful. I'm glad tomorrow's games (the intriguing ones) will be on TNT except for the Suns/Lakers. Its unfortunate TNT couldn't have gotten that one, but oh well. I really, really don't like Bill Walton calling games. I don't like to have to mute my television while watching sports. This is like the NCAA tourney featuring Billy Packer all over again! It's hell for me!
Barry hit another homerun. It couldn't have come at a better time considering they won the game 1-0. Barry Zito has looked like a $100+ million pitcher his last 2 outings.
My Yankees got drilled in Boston. So much for us taking 2 out of 3, now we just have to hope we don't get swept. Our pitching is atrocious! I feel like I might type that sentence at least 80 more times this season!
Oh yeah, yesterday Greg Oden announced he was going pro. Finally he confirmed all those rumors. He'll most certainly be the #1 pick, unless my Hawks get it. We'll end up taking Corey Brewer or some other swing man. I like Corey Brewer a lot and I'd love to have him, but not with the first pick! I know Billy's affection for those type of players so if we do happen to get a first round pick it should be interesting!

Why every playoff team can win, Predictions

Since everyone else is making their NBA playoff predictions I might as well make mine. First I'll tell you why each team can win it all.
Detroit-Because they have Chris Webber and if the game is on the line and you have no timeouts left, he can make things happen.
Cleveland-Lebron can hit 15 foot game winning jump shots when no one is guarding him.
Toronto-Chris Bosh isn't graduating so the ceremony shouldn't conflict with game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals.
Miami-D-Wade is back. We all in.
Chicago-Ben Wallace gives them the much needed inside scoring presence they lacked last year.
New Jersey-Vince Carter isn't graduating so the ceremony shouldn't conflict with game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals.
Washington-They have Wizards with Bullets.
Orlando-They have a guy in Darko Milicic that was picked ahead of Carmelo, Bosh and D Wade. He's obviously a game changer.
Dallas- According to Dirk they gave away the title last year. Surely they won't make that mistake twice.
Phoenix- They have a 2 time MVP who has never been to the Finals. Come on, that's unheard of, they have to win it.
San Antonio-Joey Crawford has been suspended for the post season now Timmy can go back to being the fun loving, jovial guy he was before.
Utah-They're the only team that travels with an AK47.
Houston-This time when T-Mac makes it out of the first round of the playoffs, his team will join him.
Denver- A I and Melo will commit to one hairstyle for the duration of the playoffs leaving them more time to practice.
Lakers-Phil is a master motivator so in the interest of getting Kwame to dunk the ball instead of attempt an errant layup, he'll keep birthday cakes on the sideline for Kwame to throw at Andrew Bynum every time he makes a field goal.
Golden State- Don Nelson promises Stephen Jackson if they win it all, he can transfer his probation over to Mike Dunleavy Jr.

First Round winners:
Detroit
Chicago
Toronto
Cleveland
San Antonio
Golden State
Los Angeles
Houston

Rumors, KG, ATL, Yankees, Harold Reynolds

Today was a day full of rumors and sad truths. Now a family friend says Oden will enter the draft. First it was his dad, now its a family friend and ESPN is reporting it like its a certainty. I'll admit, I'm pretty sure he'll enter the draft but for goodness sake, just wait till he holds the damn press conference instead of spreading rumors! That's all this is right now.
Calvin Johnson and a couple of other projected top 10 picks in the NFL Draft apparently admitted to smoking marijuana at one time or another. Now you have to applaud them for their honesty, but I don't think I would have admitted to it unless there was a chance I was about to fail a test! This might be a preemptive strike for someone with cloudy p*ss!
On to some sad truths; Kevin Mchale will return to the Timberwolves next season. They are clearly not serious about winning and since there is a good chance K G will opt out of his contract after next season, expect Mchale to get about $.20 on the dollar for him before the trade deadline. Apparently the coach will be back next season as well. But as I've said before if K G doesn't ask for a trade we are not allowed to feel sorry for his ass! For some reason he still thinks they should build around him, and he has a point. He did assume the role of franchise player so they should be able to build around him. Unfortunately his GM has been HORRIBLE at his attempts to do so. He gave K G one good team in all the years he's been in the league. If the big ticket is delusional enough to think they are going to put the pieces around him to make them a contender, then we need to question his sanity. If he lives out the rest of his best days in Minnesota, he asked for it.
I wonder when we'll hear about Mike Woodson's future here in Atlanta. If he's back next year, I am going to have to seriously consider pledging my allegiance to a franchise with competent management and a commitment to winning. I'm not saying Woody was the only problem, but dammitt people have been fired for a lot less and there has not been much improvement record wise in this team since he's been here. It's time to try someone else. I have reason to believe Rick Carlisle will be available. Hell let's give Doug Collins a holler! He's still dying his hair bleach blonde, he clearly has a sense of humor and this team desperately needs a personality!
The Yanks won behind a 9th inning comeback capped off with an A-Rod walk off homer! He has 10 on the season. I think he's going to seriously challenge the single season homerun record. The crazy thing is the fact that the Indians pitched to him with first base open. Yes, it would have loaded the bases, but no one has been hotter than A-Rod this season. Why in the hell would you even dare? Don't listen to us Yankees fans when we bitch and moan about him not coming through in the clutch. We're talking about the clutch in October. April thru September don't even give him that chance. Especially when he's swinging the bat the way he is right now.
While we're on the subject, Baseball Tonight SUCKS without Harold Reynolds! I'll admit, his knowledge of the game was not the primary reason I tuned in. It may have had a little something to do with his looks, but you can't blame a girl for that! He's handsome. Anyway, they keep trying out all of these different guys who have an extremely hard time articulating their thoughts and its just plain unwatchable most nights!

Playoffs, No-Hitter, Barry, $100,000 hat

The NBA season is finally over!!!!! Thank goodness! The playoff matchups are set and I just want to say I am so mad at the Chicago Bulls for ruining my dream playoff matchup of the Cavs vs. Heat. That matchup would have guaranteed that one of them would have been eliminated in the first round! I dislike both of these teams now there's a good chance they'll both advance. Damn you Chicago.
The Nets will play the Raptors, this means Vince against his old team. I know the Raptors are young and inexperienced, but the Nets sucked most of the year! Plus, they beat the Bulls and ruined my dream matchup so I have to root against them!
The Warriors got the 8th seed. Yay, they've ended their playoff drought. It would be lovely if they could upset the Mavericks.
I know the Lakers don't look like much, but I think they'll upset the Suns. That's right, you heard it hear!
The playoffs start Saturday.
The Yankees won tonight, they got a great pitching effort by Igawa. he only allowed 2 runs.
Mark Buehrle pitched a no hitter against the Rangers. He could have had a perfect game but he walked Slammin Sammy. He picked him off later.
Barry went deep. You know a lot of people tend to think that when Barry gets close to Hank managers will not pitch to him. I say if I were a manager I wouldn't pitch to him now. He's always a homerun threat and if I were serious about winning, I'd walk his ass! I mean think about it, he has no cartilage in his knee. Its not like he's able to get around the bases like these younger guys. The way I see it, it will take at least 2 hits to get him home. Hey I respect Ray Durham and Bengie Molina just as much as I respect the next guy, but I think I'd take my chances there.
The Thrashers are officially done! They got swept! This is disappointing on sooo many levels!
The NFL fined Brian Urlacher $100,000 for wearing a vitamin water hat during Superbowl Media Day. I mean damn, it took them 2.5 months to figure this out. I have to assume Gatorade or whoever the league is in bed with pointed this out. That's a lot of money, I hope vitamin water picks up that fine.

Vince Young, NBA, Yanks, Sox, Thrashers

The worst absolute thing for the 2007-2008 NFL season could have happened already and the season has yet to begin. Vince Young is going to be on the cover of Madden. This is terrible!!!! I screamed no at the television when I heard it this morning. Of course he says he doesn't believe in jinx's or curses or whatever. Yeah all of the other Madden victims said the same thing and they still got injured. I really hope he breaks that trend and not some bone in his body this upcoming season.
The Hawks had the nerve to win tonight. They actually scored over 70 points in the first half. I mean, there are a lot of games where we barely scored 70 and in the last game of the season (a game they badly needed to lose) they score 70 in a half. Unforgivable if we end up without our pick and without Indiana's.
Golden State and the Clips are in a dogfight for that 8th spot. I believe if the Warriors win their last game they're in. I'm rooting for them to end their playoff drought.
In other NBA news, the commissioner actually suspended Joey Crawford indefinitely for tossing Duncan for laughing. I'm surprised the Commish acted in this manner. I have to wonder if it had been Rasheed or some other NBA problem child would he have reacted the same. Me thinks not!
The Yankees won tonight. Thank goodness! Chase Wright made his MLB debut and he pitched extremely well, although when you get an 8 spot from your offense after 2 innings, it should kind of take the pressure off.
The Red Sox lost and Dice K got another loss on his record. Its not like he pitched horribly, but the Red Sox offense was a no show yet again. I'm thinking these opposing pitchers are tired of the Dice K mania and they just focus and try to pitch that much better when going against him.
The score was 2-1.
The Thrashers got the hell beat out of them in their 3rd playoff game. Looks like they'll have one more and they won't even make it back to Atlanta. They should have started Hedburg anyway. He only gave up 2 goals as opposed to the 4 that Lehtonen gave up in the previous game but he got the start! 7-0 is what they have to show for that decision. And where is the offense? The Thrashers have the #7 and 8 leading scorers in the NHL and they have a goal between them. I don't care all that much about hockey but I work for the Thrashers. This is horrible! I thought they would at least make a series of it!

VA Tech, Jeter, Caron

First things first, my heart goes out to all those involved in the Virginia Tech shooting. I don't know what the hell is wrong with some people! I mean its bad enough that you've killed 30 some odd people, but then you go and kill yourself. To everyone out there, if you have the urge to kill a lot of people but you know in the end you'll kill yourself too, go ahead and kill yourself first then work on everyone else.
So, much has been made of Derek Jeter's defensive woes this year. He already has 6 errors on the season. I am the biggest Derek Jeter fan, but even I cannot defend this. Neither can he apparently! Our pitching is going to be suspect all year and the last thing we need to do is give extra outs when the first 3 will already be hard to come by! If this were A-Rod.............
My Hawks lost tonight, sigh I can't wait for the last game tomorrow. We play Indiana and I think we really really really need to let them win so it will increase our odds of getting their draft pick! Knowing those selfish bastards they'll try to get to 30 wins.
Meanwhile the season is still dragging on.
Caron Butler says he hopes to have his cast off and be ready to play in time for the second round of the playoffs. Considering the Wizards are going to get knocked out in the first round, I guess he just wants to get the cast off to make it easier for him to flip thru the channels while he's watching the second round from his home.

Oh my gosh, Carl Pavano is on the DL!!! Where have we seen this before? Oh I know, the last 2 years!!! I cannot believe they didn't put something in his contract about the amount of games that he must play. Cashman did nothing to protect the damn team! And, if that isn't bad enough Mussina is on the DL too where Wang has been the whole season. Just to add insult to injury, Mariano gave up a walk off homerun! This is madness. I know its early, but the pitching is atrocious and if the likes of A-Rod and Jeter don't score an obscene amount of runs the Yanks could very well end up in the bottom of the league. I guess $195 million doesn't buy what it used too!
Today the league was honoring Jackie Robinson's breaking the color barrier. Several players wore the #42. The Dodgers vs the Padres was the marquees game and maybe it was just a coincidence but there were about as many black players on the Dodgers today as there were back then.
Kobe scored 50 again and secured a playoff spot for the Lakers. He was very efficient going 18-25 from the field. He's the best, but I'm sure you know that by now.
Tim Duncan got ejected for laughing while on the bench. I don't know what to say about this.
Joe Johnson and Speedy Claxton will miss the remainder of the season. I figured as much I mean there are only 2 games left. Speedy wasn't much help when he was "healthy". I personally think we need to cut our losses and let his ass go. They are going to have to pay him anyway, but I'd feel better if we didn't have to see him on the bench in a suit.
The Magic clinched a playoff spot. I doubt they'll make it out of the first round, but playoff berths make fans happy.
Meanwhile, the Pacers were eliminated from playoff contention. Maybe Rick Carlisle will be available to coach the Hawks. I know he isn't the biggest of names, but he got a team in the playoffs that missed 3 of its 4 best players for much of the season because of suspensions. We haven't been able to get into the playoffs under the best of circumstances. He obviously has something.

Hawks vs Cavs live blog (in case you weren't able to watch)

My Hawks are about to take on the Cavaliers right now and even though we are fighting for a top 3 pick, I kinda want us to beat Cleveland. They'd stay in the 5th seed and have to play the Heat. This is my dream first round series because it would guarantee either the Heat or Cavs would be eliminated in the first round. I dislike both of these teams so that would bring me great joy! It's 9-0 in favor of Cleveland right now so it looks like our hopes of getting a top 3 pick are very much still in tact!
Josh just busted Lebron's nose! He's actually bleeding. Why am I laughing? That is so not funny! Haha. Lord knows that nose of his does not need to get any bigger!!! If they weren't in a dog fight with Chicago for that #2 seed they'd probably pull his ass for the rest of the game! Lebron keeps shooting 3's, he must be practicing for late tie game situations. I love his new NBA commercial when he hits the game winning jumper while no one is guarding him. Everyone lambastes him when some "inferior" talent is guarding him and he doesn't drive to the hoop. Well, he made everyone look like fools. In the commercial he showed that he won't drive to the hoop even if no one is guarding him! He clearly has something against lay-ups when the game is on the line this year. Cleveland is leading by 12 right now. I'm happy and sad all at the same time. The "King" has 16 already. Could he give us 50 tonight? We shall see. Lebron just got a steal and pulled up for a jumper. Josh was back with him, but still. A jumper? Come on Lebron. You can tell how small we are when Donyell Marshall starts driving to the hoop and posting people up. We're now down by 18. I don't think we'll be playing spoiler tonight, but that's okay. We're still in the running for that #1 pick! Bring on my fan crush Kevin Durant! The starters are on the bench right now for Cleveland. They're shooting like 80% for the 2nd quarter. Our defense is stout! The Cavs fans just booed loud as hell when Josh was at the line. I bet Josh hasn't felt that much hostility from fans since he last played at Philips. Cavs by 21. Our offense is still flowing like it has much of the year. The point guard dribbles the air out of the ball then starts passing it with about 7 seconds left ultimately leading to a shot clock violation. Who says our players aren't improving under Woody? They've obviously learned consistency because they've been doing this shit all year. April 17th can't get here soon enough. Bob just said we haven't scored in the past 3 minutes. I'm surprised, it seems like longer! Shelden Williams couldn't score if he were inside the basket. The "King" has just checked back in. We can't even make layups. This isn't news, but its still troubling. We can't rebound either. Cavs by 26 and it ain't even half time yet. We went 6 minutes 45 seconds without scoring. We may not have 30 points at the half. I don't think I'll be able to stomach the rest of this game. The Hawks players must be in "Bermooda" as Charles would say. 56-28 at the half. Game is back on, we're now down by 30 its still early we could come back. I have to applaud Steve Smith and Bob Rathburn for remaining so positive throughout the season. No one would have blamed them if they just lost it at any point during the season. I mean they could have literally thrown off the headsets, kicked chairs, turned tables over and stormed out of several arenas in disgust and no one would have questioned them. They are troopers! Shelden just scored his second bucket. Lebron's free throw shooting is atrocious. He doesn't just miss, he MISSES. We haven't won a road game since February. Anthony Johnson has got to HATE the Dallas Mavericks for sending him to Atlanta. Bob Rathburn just said its getting worser and worser. He was joking, and it was actually funny as hell! Woody just took a timeout. We're down by 31. He looks defeated just as he has all season long! I know no one wants to be fired, but damn either Woody or the Atlanta Spirit has got to say Uncle this summer. They just showed Joe Johnson highlights from when we beat Cleveland earlier in the year. I miss Joe. Drew Gooden has got to cut that ridiculous patch of hair off the back of his head. Shot clock violation. We have to be leading the league or are very near the top in those! Lebron just hit a fade away jumper, although it looks like he's fading away every time he shoots a jumper if you ask me. Why is he always scowling after he makes a basket? What do you have to be angry about at that point? The Cavs are leading by like 30, if we were the Knicks Mike Brown would have to seriously consider taking Lebron out. He wouldn't want to risk him getting a hard foul. Lucky for him the Hawks players aren't dirty enough or tough enough in general to give hard fouls. Josh busting Lebron's nose was more Lebron's fault than it was Josh's. Lebron's at the line, he makes the first one and the second one. The lead is now 35. This is gross. When this game is over it will look like the Cavs played suffocating defense, but trust me the Hawks offense has been abysmal at best. Lebron just shot an air ball from damn near half court and he had plenty of time left. I guess he's still practicing for those late tie game situations. 85-55 at the end of 3. 12 more gut wrenching minutes left then this will end. The Cavs have 24 assists to our 8. When the Cavs miss free throws they miss em! None of that roll in and out type stuff. We're talking back iron clankers. We just successfully stopped a fast break. I'm impressed since we've not been able to do that all year. It's not because we never have anyone back, its just that normally we don't foul hard enough to stop the other team from scoring. Scott Pollard is in the game, so you know Cleveland is whipping our ass! We just had two layup attempts and neither one of them managed to hit the rim, shot clock violation. I'm gonna find out if we lead the league in those. Damon Jones is in the game that definitely lets you know how over it is. He's apparently not talking anymore. Who says God doesn't perform miracles anymore? There's a good chance we'll lose this game by 40+. Shelden has 12 points. Steve and Bob are still super positive even though they've had ample opportunity to rip the players to shreds. Lesser men would have seized that opportunity by now. Our worst lost this season was only by 27 points. I'm actually quite impressed by that, I just knew we'd lost by at least 30 a few times this season. We certainly will tonight. Royal Ivey has played more minutes in this game than he has in all the other games combined this year. I don't know if that's true, as a matter of fact I know it isn't but it seems like it. Daniel Gibson just hit a 3 and Lebron was on the sideline holding up the "Hook em Horns" sign. The Buckeye fans have to be outraged! 2 minutes left Cavs lead by 38. Anthony Johnson is setting up our offense. That whole scene is laugh out loud funny! If the Cavs get to 50 wins Larry Hughes gets a $2 million bonus. If Damon Jones is the best looking guy the NBA has to offer, then the league is in serious trouble. If he's the best shooter in the NBA, then the league is in serious trouble. If he's the best anything in the NBA, the league is in serious trouble. We won't lose by 40, there's something to be said for that. "at least we didn't lose by 40" there I said it. 110-76 is the final. At this point in the season do you even bother giving a post game speech? You feel like you were at the game after reading this, don't ya?

Hawks (of course) Roy, Rumors, Pacman Reggie

So the Lakers suck right now! They lost again tonight and they really might fall out of the playoff picture all together! Bless their hearts!
The Hawks lost tonight. Yay! It was fan appreciation night and for the 10 or so fans that stayed, I'm sure they felt appreciated!
The Nets clinched a playoff spot tonight. Does it really matter at this point. I'd be shocked if they win more than 2 games in the postseason
Barry hit 2 home runs tonight. He's only 19 away from passing Hank. Go Barry!
The D Train gave the Braves all they could handle tonight.
Roy Halladay pitched 10 innings as the Blue Jays beat the Tigers. Most managers don't have the balls to leave their starter in past 9. I applaud them.
ESPN is reporting that Greg Oden's dad said he'll enter the draft. Talk about spreading rumors. Why in the hell don't we just wait for him to hold the damn press conference in a week or so?
Pacman Jones says he doesn't understand why the Commish suspended him for the whole year when he's yet to be charged or convicted and at this point I have to agree with him. He does need some type of reigning in, but I just don't think you can make an example of him when he's not been found guilty by the justice system. However, I do find it hard to believe that he's ALWAYS in the wrong place at the wrong time and he NEVER has any involvement when something bad happens. Hey maybe it is just a coincidence! He's going to appeal, but I honestly don't see why considering the Player's Union president doesn't seem to disagree with the Commish and hell the Commish is going to be the one to hear the appeal! This is what I like to call a waste of time!
The Rutger's women have accepted Don Imus' apology. That's really not news.
Oh, one more thing, Reggie Bush settled the law suit that agency filed against him. I guess he really did take the hundreds of thousands of bucks they said they gave him. He can kiss that Heisman goodbye, Vince should have won it anyway! It will be interesting to see how the NCAA punishes USC. They HAD to know something was going on! They'll probably lose a couple of scholarships, but oh well. If they just paid these "student athletes" they wouldn't have to worry about these such things.

Hawks, Imus, Lakers, Johan

It's been a while since I've been here so I guess I have a little catching up to do. First of all, the Hawks suspended my boy J-Smoove for 2 games because he got into it with "Coach" Woodson during their overtime loss to um, I really can't remember who they played at this point it doesn't matter anyway. I'm glad they suspended Josh, what the hell is he thinking about trying to win games at this point in the season? If we don't get one of the top 3 picks it goes to Phoenix and that would be horrible!
The Thrasher's had their first ever playoff game, they lost. But the funniest event of the night was when they put some of the Hawks players on the jumbotron and the crowd booed. Damn that hurts!
Kevin Durant decided to go pro, bless his heart. He needs to eat something! I do still have my fan crush on him so I hope we get him!
The NBA season is too damn long, just thought I'd throw that out there.
Don Imus got fired for his remarks about the Rutger's women's basketball team. He called them "nappy headed hoes". He says shit like this all the time, but I guess they've just had enough. He'll probably end up on satellite radio somewhere.
The Falcon's signed Joey Harrington as Vick's backup. Wow.
Dice K made his Fenway debut which was much hyped because he was going against Ichiro. He pitched pretty well all things considered, he only gave up 3 runs. Unfortunately King Felix shut down that Red Sox offense. He had a no hitter through 8 innings. His fast ball was consistently in the high 90's all game long.
The Laker's are now playing for their post season lives. Just last week the only question was whether they'd be a 6th seed or a 7th. They blew a 17 point lead to the Clips despite Kobe scoring 50 and they are now only a game ahead of them . They are in real danger of missing the playoffs all together, but the way they are playing they'll probably get knocked out in the first round anyway.
Mike Mussina will miss his next start for my Yankees. Dammit we're old and getting older! Our pitching was already suspect and now with Mussina being questionable I just don't know where we'll go. The Twins need to go ahead and give us Johan. We're going to get him anyway! If Barry Zito got a $100 million contract then Johan deserves at least $150 million and the Twins wouldn't dare. We would!
Pacman Jones was suspended for the 2007 by the new Commish. I have a lot to say about this, but I'll touch on it later.

Dammit NBA regular season, Coach Rob, Tiger

The NBA regular season is too damn long! I may have mentioned this before, but it's worth mentioning again. The Wizards lost Caron Butler days ago to a broken hand, now Gilbert has a sprained knee. It's unclear how serious it is, but from the looks of it, he could miss some serious time. Dirk missed a game after hurting his ankle a couple of days back and so on and so on. I'm not saying these players wouldn't have gotten hurt anyway because injuries do happen. But, I bet teams and fans would feel a hell of a lot better if they were getting hurt in playoff games as opposed to regular season games. The league makes enough money and they can afford to shorten the season. They don't care about the wear and tear they are putting on these young men! 82 games is just absolutely unnecessary! They could shorten it by about 30 games and still accomplish the same goals. It shouldn't take 82 games to let over half of the teams in the league in the playoffs anyway. What good is the Player's Union? Someone else has to feel this way!
Hall of Fame coach Eddie Robinson died. I can't sit here and wax poetic about him because he coached for 50 years and I'd only be passing along stories. I only knew of his name and some of his impact until he died. He was apparently a great man.
Barry went deep tonight! He's 21 away now!
My Yankees didn't play today, they got rained out. Oh well.
The Master's starts soon. I'm going to go out on a limb and say Tiger will win. I know this is a stretch, but I'm a risk taker!

Gator Bait, Opening Day, Michael Smith

The SEC is baaaaallin! We knew they had the best football players, but now they are taking over in basketball too! Damn. Florida beat Ohio State yet again to win yet another National Championship. Those Buckeyes must be having nightmares about Gators at this point. The game managed to stay entertaining even though I never got the feeling that Florida was ever in danger of losing. Greg Oden was a beast, but none of the perimeter players could hit a shot. They were trading 2's for 3's and you can't win like that! OSU has a decent team and if they stay together one more year they could make it back to the championship game and probably cut down the nets. I don't think they'll do it because the millions of dollars that awaits them might be too tempting. Either way, Florida is the best team again and they might have 5 or 6 first round draft picks. My personal favorite is Corey Brewer. Every time they needed a big play it seems like he was right there to make it for them. He seems to have a toughness about him. It's an intangible, but it could be invaluable at the next level.
I'm so glad we don't have to listen to Billy Packer and Jim Nantz again any time soon. Those two...........
Baseball is officially underway and boy my Yankees are going to have to average about 8 runs a game to give themselves a legitimate chance to win games this year. I just have a feeling our pitching will be a problem.
Curt Shilling got lit up today! Yay! I guess now we see why the Red Sox were a wee bit hesitant to give him that big extension. Meanwhile the Red Sox lineup made Gil Meche look like Roger Clemens up there. He was knocking em out left and right! I hope they lose all of their games!
D Wade practiced today, he should be ready for the playoffs bless his heart. He may regret this decision. While I don't think players will intentionally try to hurt him, I know they won't go out of their way not to hurt him. He better be careful when he drives into the paint.
On a totally unrelated note, I like Michael Smith of ESPN. I don't know why, but he's about the only football personality I genuinely don't mind listening to. I like Around the Horn better when he's on there as well.

Stay in School

Wouldn't it be great if Kevin Durant and Greg Oden stayed in college another year?? Everyone is just so sure they will be the #1 and 2 pick and they definitely deserve to be whenever they decide to make that jump, but they should wait. They sound like they really like being in college so they just stay. There's something to be said for not wanting to grow up as fast as the NBA will require them too. I know there are millions of dollars at stake, but the money will be there. Have you seen some of the money teams are giving away to players? All you need to do is make sure you show your ass in a contract year, then someone will most certainly pay you a King's ransom for your services. Anyhow, I'd like to see them stay just because it would really make this year's draft interesting. What if teams really are tanking in order to get the services of these two men. It would serve them right if they stayed in school. I'm not saying teams are losing intentionally, but let's just say there have been a lot of "out indefinitely, season ending injuries" occurring of late. It just doesn't seem like teams are all that hesitant to sit their guys for the remainder of the season. I don't know what these guys will do, but I hope they hold onto to their youth for a little bit longer.