Saturday, June 5, 2010

Summer Fun... Finals, Firings, and Foals.

There are many signposts to summer... while the actual day the season begins is June 21st, Memorial Day and the final day of school are summertime's virtual kickoffs. So much and so little to do...


First things first-- I'm proposing throwing practice for all of the kids in my apartment complex who use the pool... they've shown the accuracy of Jamarcus Russell when throwing those nerf-like pool balls that exude water on impact. I have no problem getting splashed-- I mean it's the pool... water's expected in the equation-- but kids need to try to keep the ball in play and not on my lawn chair.


The NBA Finals reunites royalty-- Boston and the Los Angeles Lakers have combined to win more than 50% of their league championships and have met for the title more often (12) than any other pair of teams in any other sport. They represent the same (excellence) and different (LA flash vs Boston grit) virtues. Incredible theater all around. Game one saw the Lakers defend and rebound the life out of a Celtic team that looked as though it was aging rapidly by the minute (Kevin Garnett doing his best Greg Kite impersonation on back to back layup misses). It all comes back to a game two as pivotal as the one in 1984 and 1985 where the winner of that tilt and not the series opener took the title.


Meet the new boss, with the same problems as the old boss-- who thinks Dave Trembley's firing will completely change the mess that is the Baltimore Orioles? And didn't this happen three years ago with the Sam Perlozzo purging? The O's own the worst record in the majors and the offense has been reduced to a crawl during their current nine game losing streak (just 14 runs scored). The pitching has been porous... from Kevin Millwood's 0-6 mark to Chris Tillman getting roasted for four runs over an inning and a third last night. In theory, Juan Samuel will finish out the season and then Andy MacPhail will bring in one of his own men to manage the ballclub. The long Oriole nightmare continues.


Belmont Stakes...aka racing not well done-- the Triple Crown wraps up today with the running of the Belmont Stakes. Neither the Kentucky Derby winner Super Saver nor Preakness winner Lookin at Lucky will be running today, making the race even more irrelevant. Wake up, Horse Racing before it's completely too late! Push back the Preakness a two or three weeks (I'm ideally hoping for the first weekend in June, but I'd settle for the last weekend in May) and do likewise with the Belmont (first week of July in a perfect world) to allow the thoroughbreds the proper time to recover and then be in peak condition for the next race. Otherwise, your sport's going to the glue factory.

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