I admittedly haven’t followed hockey all that much since about 2000. The Stars have been fairly bad up until this year and really I just had other sports to watch and didn’t miss it.  This year, however, things changed. Being born and raised in Michigan, I was naturally rooting for the Red Wings to re-claim the Cup. But even with them in the finals, I didn’t start watching until game 4. But boy did I get sucked in at that point! Game 4 was nearly wrapped up with about 60 seconds to go and Pittsburgh had pulled their goalie. Somehow they managed to score with about 30 second remaining and forced the game into overtime. Which lead to double-overtime, which lead to triple overtime…where, sadly, the Penguins won the game. Now, I can stay up late if a game is holding my interest but even I have limits. So when the second over-time ended and my clock was nearing midnight, I thought “I’ll have to read about the end of this game tomorrow on-line”. But lo and behold, the eyelids only fluttered a few times during the intermission between double-and triple-overtime. The rest of the time I was literally on the edge of my seat and my heart was racing as I gritted my teeth, willing the puck not to cross the goal line on the Red Wings side. Every time Osgood got a save, I let a little breath out, but never completely relaxed. The time in each period seemed to fly by and I was genuinely excited watching the skill required to score a goal.  

Now, that’s one of the reasons people cite for why people in America don’t follow hockey more closely. Frankly, that argument just doesn’t hold water with me. Baseball is supposedly America’s Past Time, and one of the most amazing feats to witness in a baseball game is a no-hitter. We cheer the concentration and cool that it takes to record a no-hitter or even a just a scoreless game from a pitcher. And yet that type of low scoring performance is not appreciated when it comes to hockey, and really soccer too, for that matter. So it seems hypocritical.

You really don’t need to know all the rules to follow a hockey game. About the only requirement is good vision because it’s nearly impossible to keep up with the whereabouts of that little round puck gliding back and forth on the ice! And the action is as fast-paced as it comes. In terms of physicality, it rivals football. Every other time someone’s vying for the puck they’re getting checked into the glass and that doesn’t hold a candle to the glove-dropping, all-out fights that break out in every match!  

You can tell that the NHL is desperately trying to show that their sport should be included in the sports that even a casual fan watches. I got a good laugh out of the “Wired” feature that they had going on during the games. It’s the same concept as when the have players wired for sound in football. They put a mic on someone and try to capture the sounds of the game, but it loses it’s effectiveness in hockey. They would cut to the “Wired” segment during time outs in the game and the idea is that you’d feel closer to the action. It fell flat because all you really heard was the sound of someone’s stick moving around on the ice and some heavy breathing. I guess they don’t trash talk in hockey like they do in football. So they may want to dial that back next season because it’s really not adding anything to the viewing experience.  

It helps too that I was able to watch the playoffs in HD. Hockey is a sport that is best viewed in person. More so than maybe any of other the other sports. And not just for the hotdogs and nachos.  The level of action in a hockey game is so intense and you do lose something just watching that on tv. But the HD experience helps you see the game clearly and that helps in terms of following the puck.  

I contrast that viewing experience with Game 1 of the NBA Finals because Game 1 just felt like a regular-season game. It felt like, “oh yeah, the Lakers are playing the Celtics this week”. Now, Game 2 just wrapped up as I write this, and that game had a little more drama built in, but it’s not as though the basketball vibe blows away the excitement level of hockey. So I fail to see why more people don’t watch hockey, and if they’re not watching now, I’m not sure when they’ll tune in again. Sidney Crosby is pretty darn amazing to watch and he’s only 20, so there’s your young phenom with the hype. The level of play in the finals was as good or better than any hockey I’ve seen. And the Red Wings are the marquee team and they just won the Cup. So I doubt it’s ever going to cross into another plane. And that means that most of the casual fans will continue to choose something like “The Mole” to watch when they could easily tune in a hockey game.  

One random, final thought, speaking of programming on ABC. Supposedly ABC will begin airing a show called “Wipeout” this summer. The concept, given the commercial I saw, appears to be people competing in an obstacle course where the object is to see them wipe out in dramatic, kick-in-the-crotch type fashion. Correct me if I’m wrong, but this show is called MXC and they’ve shown it on Spike for years. MXC has been the source of many a tear-filled belly laugh late at night for me. The main difference I see so far is that MXC is a Japanese show where they dub in American voices, which adds to the sheer joy of viewing. The ABC version appears to be filmed in America, so I’m guessing it will be in English, and that will kill some of the entertainment.  I shake my head at the whole thing. If we haven’t learned by now that our sense of humor in this country is very different than the rest of the collective world, I don’t know when we will. The Office is the only show that originated in another country that really works with American humor. Yet another source of tears-of-joy laughter in my day. Needless to say, I’ll be checking my TV Guide to see if Spike still shows MXC, just as a back-up plan in case this Wipeout lives up to it’s title…

First things first. I’m becoming a bit of a baseball fan. Surprised even me! I actually sat down tonight and turned on my TV only to watch the end of the Twins-Red Sox game instead of immediately tuning into the Celtics-Cavs game that was in full swing. And it’s not like I have any particular affinity for the Twins. Can’t stand the Red Sox, and maybe that’s what made me tune in. I wanted to be sure they lost. But this strange compulsion actually caused me to watch the game the night before from about the 3rd inning on. And contrary to my own popular belief, the games actually held my attention. 

So between the baseball and the NBA playoffs, I find myself in a place I’ve never been before–satisfied with the sports scene sans football. I have a few selections of sporting events to watch every night and for the most part, it’s good quality stuff. Ok, I did find myself getting annoyed by the announcers in last night’s BoSox game repeatedly telling us the differences between natural grass and Astro Turf fields. But beyond that, the on-field–or on-court action depending on the night–is truly entertaining. It’s a bit difficult to root for the Yankees right now since they kind of suck. I’m sticking it out though. And the Tigers have been showing some signs of promise, with the AL Central sort of up for grabs.

Since I’m on a bit of a roll, I suppose now is as good a time as any to divulge that I don’t, under really any circumstances, root for the Rangers. And worse than that? I actually have started rooting against almost all the Dallas teams! I’m glad the Mavs lost. There, I said it. I was rooting for the Hornets the entire series. And as proof that that was the right decision, the Mavs went and fired Avery Johnson at the end of the season, which in my book was a big mistake in a long line of mistakes this season. From everything I’ve heard, the major force behind the Kidd trade was Cuban, not Johnson. If they would have kept Diop and Harris, who knows how they would have fared against New Orleans. But they didn’t, and they lost, and I was glad. And now I’m hoping the Hornets win it all. I want them to crush San Antonio (yes, my lack of love apparently extends to all Texas teams right now), though I’m a little surprised that there’s such a discrepancy between how they play on the road and at home. And frankly I couldn’t care less who’s coming out of the East. I already don’t want them to win.  

But wait! The hate doesn’t stop there! I’m actively rooting against the Stars in favor of the Red Wings! The city of Dallas will likely ask me to move, no doubts. I have been a Red Wings fan since I was a kid, so really this isn’t such a bad thing. I don’t necessarily hop on the hometown band wagon. But it makes it tough to talk a little water-cooler talk when you are cheering against the team that everyone else lives and dies by. Guess I’ll have to work on my neutral stance. 

And with that, my sins have been exposed. Just don’t tell football that I’m getting along fine without it. We’ve had such a good thing going all these years, I don’t want to ruin it just yet.  

The baseball season is tough for me. My favorite way to watch a game is in person, but I can’t quite bring myself to root for the Rangers. I’m really an Astros fan but ever since they welcomed back Roger Clemens with open arms, I question their leadership. Well, actually, I questioned their leadership well before that, but whatever. I question the Rangers front office even more. The Rangers had one good season about 5 years ago where everyone really believed that they could make the post-season. After that, they haven’t been close. Maybe I’ll wait until a good team comes to town and then I’ll get tickets. I’m not the biggest baseball buff to begin with, so watching a crummy team doesn’t help matters.

I hate to say it, but I don’t honestly care about women’s basketball. I’d sooner watch the Rangers play the Kansas City Royals than watch a women’s game, college or pro. And I realize that’s probably traitorous to my gender, but I can’t help it. I don’t find the level of competition to be nearly as compelling. I fully support the womens’ programs and i don’t discount that those women are excellently conditioned. But it doesn’t capture my interest. Sorry.

Is it wrong of me to be excited about the NFL draft? I’m positively giddy to see who ends up going #1. Mel Kiper and Todd McShay keep moving that projection around. Maybe Jake Long, maybe Glenn Dorsey, maybe Matt Ryan. Forget about NBC’s line up, the draft is what I deem must-see TV. This year’s NCAA tournament has been the most exciting tournament in my recent memory. So many of the games went down to the final seconds, even in the early round. When filling out the bracket every year, I try to anticipate the upsets. Like most, I think I hold the crystal ball when it comes to predicting the Cinderella story. I will pat myself on the back for taking Xavier down to the Elite 8, especially considering that I seriously toyed with the idea of picking Georgia over them in the first round!

I’ve got Memphis winning the whole deal, so I’m nervously watching to see if they can pull it off. The support I showed for Kansas in the football season is gone. I’m over the whole Roy Williams saga. And I’m over the multi-colored hanky he thought he could rock in the pocket of his oddly flecked suit tonight…

So hopefully the lack of blogging will be remedied by the ramp-up of the baseball season. I may not be there in person but baseball in HD is only a hot dog and cold beer away from being the real deal. And that’s close enough for me.

Speaking of SportsCenter, I tuned in for a late-night episode the other day and was struck by the number of things that just didn’t jive. There was a story running about Carl Edwards  being penalized 100 points for his missing oil tank lid, which caused him to lose his first-place standing in the Sprint Cup chase. ESPN had some guy, Marty Something-or-Other, on to discuss the harshness of this penalty. (shows you how closely I follow NASCAR when I can’t even remember the kid’s name) This poor fellow looked like he was about 12 years old, and his hair was coiffed in a way that created more peaks than the best of lemon meringue pies! And he was dressed in a suit. Now, at face value, I would have listened to him discuss how to punch up my bland living room on some home re-do show. But he was classic Texan in his speech patterns and something about that just did not match up to the appearance. Not to mention, in this same discussion, they had Rusty Wallace share his thoughts on the situation, also clad in a suit, and I found myself just shaking my head. Put these guys in some boots and jeans for goodness sake! It just wasn’t right.

Later in the episode, they showed highlights of that night’s Phoenix Suns game. Shaq Diesel in a Suns uniform? Not right! It doesn’t fit. And I don’t just mean because it’s difficult to find a jersey big enough to fit that giant beast of a man. I would have loved to see Shaq and Kobe bury the hatchet and re-team to win 3 more championships. Wait, I’m supposed to be a Mavs fan, right? Hmm, well that’s another thing that’s just not fitting this season…

I HATE the Kidd trade. I don’t see how it makes the Mavericks a contender for this season. I understand some feel that Devon Harris is overrated but I say he is every bit as effective as Kidd is at this stage of his career, only Harris is younger and you’ll get more years out of him. And really, the big shame of that deal was losing DeSagana Diop. He was a quality big-man who made a contribution. Plus all that cash…for Kidd? 5 years ago, not a problem. I understand the “win now” mentality that drives this NBA, (or really all sports leagues for that matter) but I can’t see how Kidd helps the Mavs win now. And because of that fact, I have boycotted my fan-ship for this season. And before you say it, I know, that ain’t right. But cut me some slack.

And alas, poor Brett Favre, we knew him well. But he has made the tough decision to retire. He says it’s for good. I believe him, for now. I don’t think it would be smart for him to retire now and come back in two years. But it wouldn’t shock me if he did. I know it’s cliche, but when I heard he announced his retirement, my mind immediately went to the infamous Monday night game right after he lost his father. Not too many games stick with me the way that one does. Even I teared up at the post-game interview. Favre is one of the greats, though I am shocked that some polls show him as the overwhelming fan selection for greatest of all-time. To see the Green Bay Packers led by their fearless starting QB, Aaron Rogers, just ain’t right.

I will say, as March rolls along, I am finding the excitement growing as the selections begin for the NCAA tourney. for the length of the tournament, I turn into a rabid college basketball fan. I’ll follow every game, eagerly watching my bracket. Invariably, the bracket is busted after the first two days, but it’s still so much fun to tune in. I’m a sucker for a Cinderella story, as I’ve discussed before. Is San Diego the new Gonzaga? I’d love to see a smaller school win this year as opposed to a Duke or UNC taking home the trophy. Of course I can’t actually pick a smaller school to win the tourney on my bracket, because, you know, that just ain’t right.

And the reality of the moment is that our US Senate is actively involved in the sports world. This is not a good thing. We are embroiled in the Spygate controversy and are also being treated to the hearings on the steroid issue as it pertains to Roger Clemens. It’s a stretch, but I don’t begrudge Congress for investigating the steroids issue as much as I whole-heartedly resent any investigation into the Patriots taping mess. And before you start saying that if it were any other team being investigated in the Spygate debacle I would support the Congressional intervention, let me dispel that myth.

My annoyance over the Congressional involvement in dredging up an issue that was dealt with stems from the rest of the pressing issues that our nation faces at the moment. It’s only a matter of technicality that we can’t officially declare the economy to be in recession; there’s this small thing called the Economic Stimulus Package that has been put together to help pull the struggling credit lenders out of the depths of despair they’ve been mired in for the last 6 months; there are a myriad of other issues I’m sure to which our Senate could devote their attention. Consider this bullet point taken from Mike Fish’s column on ESPN.com in regards to Sen. Arlen Specter’s interest in the video taping practices of the New England Patriots–”Specter is particularly concerned about how the taping might have affected New England’s games involving teams from his home state in the 2004 postseason. ” Since when can the Senate use their elected position to settle a case of sour grapes? Give it up Specter! Your Eagles suck! That’s not Bill Belichick’s doing. I don’t buy his excuse of the NFL receiving special consideration on the anti-trust/monopoly laws as the impetus for the witch hunt.

And just what is his overall vision here? What is Specter hoping to accomplish that hasn’t already been achieved? The franchise being publicly embarrassed? Check. The coach known for being a student of the game having to squirm uncomfortably in his press conferences while dodging questions about his involvement in this? Check. Both coach and team paying dearly for the frowned-upon practice? Check. So in my book we’re done. And I don’t say that from the perspective of a Patriots fan; I say that from the perspective of someone who feels the matter is closed and now it’s time to move on!

Speaking of moving on, at the moment, I feel for Andy Pettitte. He’s reporting to Spring Training today and will have to contend with the barrage of media that he is sure to face, this being his first public outing since he gave his deposition for the steroids investigation. I know Clemens is on record as saying that they’ll always be friends (this is a good thing?!) but the word strained comes to mind. Pettitte should be the example to any athletes who are implicated in the scope of this investigation. He admitted, almost immediately after the Mitchell report was released, that he took HGH to rehab from an elbow injury. The fever pitch died down. It comes out that he took it a bit more frequently than first confessed. He cops to it and once again, the questions he dodges pertain to Clemens’ use, not his own. Anyone else taking note of this point? Sounds to me like admitting what you’ve done is the way to go.

I predict that Bobby Knight takes a moment to at least consider returning to Indiana to coach the rest of the season (and possibly beyond) once/if Kelvin Sampson is dismissed. That seems like an inevitability at this point. The minute the story broke that the NCAA was charging Sampson with 5 recruiting violations, my first thought was that this may answer the question of why Knight retired so suddenly from Texas Tech. Let’s face it, that was not a characteristically Knight kind of move to quit on his team. And from what I’ve heard about the Sampson saga there at Indiana, it was known that the NCAA was going to accuse him of these violations prior to the story being formally released to the public. Coincidence? Perhaps. Who knows…maybe the House of Representatives will feel behind the times and will decide to hold some hearings on the matter.

Pitchers and catchers have officially reported to Spring Training. The Mavs and the Nets finally appear to be close to a deal to send Kidd to Big D. We’ll all be paying close attention to see if Kobe decides to have surgery on his pinkie, thus putting him out of commission for 6 weeks or so, or if he’ll gut it out and play through the pain, and what effect each choice will have on the Lakers’ chances of making the playoffs. Todd McShay just shook up his draft board (thank goodness for Insider access on ESPN!) and now shows Matt Ryan going #1 to Miami. So you see, I’ve got plenty to hold my attention without worrying about the fact that the Patriots let perfection slip through Asante Samuel’s fingers. In fact, I won’t even give it another moment’s notice.

First, we’ll start with Heisman presentation. I knew Tebow would win, and really, he deserves to if you’re awarding the trophy to the best college player, which is how it’s supposed to be decided. Chase Daniels played himself out of contention by losing twice to Oklahoma. Patrick White did the same, losing to Pittsburgh in the final game before the votes were tallied. Now, granted, White was hurt in that game and the loss doesn’t sit squarely on his shoulders; if anything his absence in that game underscores his importance to the team, but the Heisman is not the MVP award. Injury is the same thing that prevented Dennis Dixon from getting more attention. Colt Brennan didn’t really ever seem to stand a chance. It was almost as if the Heisman voters felt badly that they knew Hawaii would get left out of the BCS Championship game so they decided to throw Brennan’s name into contention as a consolation prize. This year’s Heisman was always a contest between Tebow and Darren “Run DMC” McFadden. McFadden would hands-down win the award for best nickname in football, but sadly, that’s not a category in consideration for the Heisman. McFadden will be an excellent running back in the pro’s, despite the knock on him that he runs too vertically, but you can’t ignore Tebow’s touch down numbers, especially when you think about how many of them were rushing touch downs. So he is the victor and has earned a little breathing room. Which, after that speech last night, it sounds like he needs!

Now, onto the college basketball season. In an attempt to fill the void left on Saturday afternoons for me now that college football is on hiatus, I watched a little b-ball. Michigan was playing Duke yesterday and I had hopes that maybe someone had re-wound the time to 1989 when U of M actually had a decent hoops team. Alas, I was sorely disappointed. I remember the announcers yesterday commenting that it was somewhat impressive that Michigan was only 5 points behind Duke, at Cameron Arena, and that was maybe 5 minutes into the game. Then I watched Mich miss about 5 shots in a row, completely fail to rebound on offense or defense, and the lead widened to about 20 points without blinking. At that point, I changed the channel. Looks like the basketball season will be even less kind to U of M than the football season, if that’s even possible. Although, the hoops team does have a coach, which at the moment the football team can’t even say, so they do have the leg up there. 

So needless to say, with my re-discovered passion, I’ve been in heaven with all of the sporting events on TV recently. Let’s start with the baseball. My support is squarely behind the Rockies because I’m over all Red Sox fans. (all due apologies to my sister and her husband) I don’t want to hear another announcer use the phrase “shades of 2004″ or talk about Schilling and the sock, etc. I especially hate listening to that chatter because I think the 2007 Red Sox are a better team. Forget all of that “Team of Destiny” crap, this year’s Sox are just freakin’ lights out. Their pitching has been unhittable lately and their bats are on fire. After Game 1 of the World Series, I was seeing “shades of 2006″ when my Tigers got blanked by the Cardinals and everyone wanted to blame it on the time off between their series. But last night’s game I think really spoke to the incredible pitching that the Sox are getting, and also gave me hope that the Rockies could regain some footing when the series heads West. If they lose on Saturday, the Rockies are d-u-n done.

Now, onto my true love, football. It was almost painful to watch the first 55 minutes of the BC-VA Tech football game last night. BC looked inept, and I kept cringing thinking of my father who said last weekend that Matt Ryan should be the lead contender for the Heisman this year. Then the last 5 minutes of the game took place, where Ryan threw for two touchdowns and stunned the home crowd into silence with a last-minute victory.  It was awesome. Just when I was getting disheartened, feeling like none of the top 5 teams really wanted to be there, BC pulls it off. And no, I don’t have any particular affinity for Boston teams, I just like to see good teams win games they’re supposed to win. And BC still falls into “Little Guy” status with me, much more so than VA Tech. It was a great ending to a not-so-easy to watch game, complete with a BC-recovered on-side kick with the announcers saying in the background that the best option is to kick it deep and ask your defense to hold the other team to a 3 and out series. Poetic.

And last of all, we have basketball. I was fortunate enough to attend the Mavs-Bulls pre-season game on Tuesday night. I was stoked for the game for many reasons, not the least of which was the food. I LOVE stadium hot dogs. And nachos…anyways. I was looking so forward to the game–which was a last-second suggestion–and much to my chagrin, someone forgot to mention to the crowd and to the teams that basketball game are supposed to be exciting. Let me start by saying that offensive rebounding seems to be optional in the NBA. No one, and I do mean no one, from the shooting teams appears to care to go for the board on a missed shot. On Tuesday, for every 1 Maverick at the basket “vying” for the rebound, there were 4, count ‘em 4, Bulls trying to pull it down. And the same would happen when the Bulls would shoot. It’s like once the shooting team realizes the shot didn’t go in, they start back down the floor, switching into defensive mode. Annoying! So between the lack of rebounding and just the general feeling of apathy (I know, it was pre-season) between the two teams, the game was less than interesting. Maybe it was the hot dog and bowl full of processed cheese on chips that I inhaled in about 2 minutes that made me feel sleepy. But the play on the court did nothing to revive my interest and we left at half time. Happily. So it was a big disappointment and my only hopeful thought is that maybe Avery Johnson has decided to view the regular season the way my dad looks at cars. They’re just a means of transportation from Point A to Point B, so who cares what you look like when you arrive at Point B. Maybe the Little General realizes that it’s great to have a phenomenal regular season record but if you waste your intensity during the regular season, what do you have left when you make it to Point B, which is the post-season? That’s the solace I’m trying to glean from my basketball outing this week. We’ll see if it works…

All I need is to watch some compelling hockey or soccer and I’ll be a happy camper. For now, I’m enjoying my re-discovered passion and giving my thanks that I don’t have to watch the likes of Desperate Housewives for another season!

There is something about Zeke that just seems like he should be uber-wholesome. Maybe it’s the smile. It seems genuine. He always reminded me of Webster with that smile and that sort of little boy look. Now, not only is his basketball acumen in question but he’s been convicted of being a sexual harasser. If his critics needed any more reason to call for his resignation, this is it. Of course so far the team is saying that they stand by him, as does ownership. But how long will that last? Unless the Knicks just have an unbelievable season, which is highly unlikely given their roster and past performances, I see Isaiah losing his job and probably deservedly so. Which is just a shame to me because I want to remember him as a good guy. Especially in today’s sporting culture where so many of the champs are not truly good guys.

By the way, if you haven’t read anything about the accusations from Ms. Brown Sanders against Isaiah, you may not realize that the title of this entry is a reference. She stated that, after backing away from a kiss on the cheek initiated by Isaiah, he said “What? No love today?”. So no, Isaiah, no love today. Only dismay at the fact that your legacy is forever tarnished and you have forever altered the perception of a girl who was a huge fan of your Championship teams almost 20 years ago.