Championship updates

The Celtics won then lost at home, and won then lost on the road. Based on my expert analytical skills, I predict this series to go at least 6 games. The Lakers and Spurs split in LA, then the Spurs took game 3 at home. A bunch of people who know a lot more about basketball than I do still feel the Lakers to be the better team in this series, and likely to emerge victorious. Then the discussion turned to whether or not this year's championship will mark the start of another dynastic run by the Lakers. Given that they've won exactly nothing so far, I'd have to go with a resounding yes!

In more important news, the Detroit Red Wings have taken a commanding 2 games to none lead in the Stanley Cup finals. Now winning the first two games at home is hardly cause for the engraver to start worrying about the correct spelling of Datsyuk, but the manner of the victories has NHL executives everywhere groaning at the prospect of Sidney Crosby NOT winning the ultimate prize. The Penguins have failed to record a single goal thus far in the Finals, and have looked pretty meek in doing so. It turns out that thus far in the playoffs, Detroit's best offensive line of Datsyuk, Henrik Zetterberg, and Tomas Holmstrom has been their best defensive line, which is just fucking unfair. Given the ability to match lines, an advantage of the home team, coach Mike Babcock has been able to get his best defensive line out against Pittsburgh's top offensive line, while at the same time get his best offensive line out against Pittsburgh's weakest defensive players.

Heading back to Pittsburgh, look for the Penguins to try to match their Staal line against Detroit's Datsyuk line, freeing Sidney Crosby from the defensive duties he hasn't been performing anyway. Also look for Evgeni Malkin to show up, which would be nice considering as far as I can tell, Pittsburgh's best player this season forget to get on the fucking plane to Detroit.

All kidding aside, it is time to appreciate just how good this Red Wings team really is. With their ability to stifle opposing teams, even a one goal lead early in the first period is nearly insurmountable. Chris Osgood has been very good in net for the Wings, but by no means spectacular. In a way, it reminds me of Grant Fuhr, one of the winningest goalies of all time but far from one of the best. He just had the advantage of having Gretzky, Messier, and the rest of the 1980s Edmonton Oilers pumping 6+ goals a game by the opposing goaltender. Osgood went nearly 8 minutes in last night's game before he faced his first shot. It takes an incredible amount of focus to be ready at that point, especially since you know, I know, and Osgood definitely knows that woman in the 3rd row wasn't wearing any underwear. So tune in tomorrow night in spectacular HD (even on Charter!) to see if the Penguins get it rolling at home, or the ruthless winning machine in Detroit marches on to their seemingly inevitable championship.

Interleague play, round 1

There has been much written over the years about how the AL is much better than the NL. This is mostly due to the fact that the AL is much better than the NL. Evidence is provided in the form of the AL teams stomping the NL teams annually in interleague play. After the first weekend of play the AL is still better...but it's closer. The AL took the overall record 22-19, helped greatly by the fact that the San Fransisco Giants are for some reason still considered an actual Major League baseball team. Take that sweep out of it and the NL earned a split with their AL rivals.

In more important news, the Mets swept a rain-shortened series from the Yankees at Yankee Stadium. After rain wiped away the first game on Friday, the Mets stomped the short-handed Bronx Bombers 7-4 and 11-2. In the finale on Sunday night, the Mets scored 7 runs on Yankee ace Chien Ming Wang despite having a 3-run home run erroneously called foul. Is it REALLY that hard to have the umpires look at instant replay to judge fair or foul, home run or double? It's 2008 people! We're not asking for a review of every pitch, just calls like this. Oh well.

In other news, the Penguins eliminated the Flyers in game 5 to advance to their first Stanley Cup playoffs since 1992. The Dallas Stars refuse to go away, winning the last 2 to force a game 6 in Dallas against the Detroit Red Wings, who had held a 3 games to none lead in the series. The Celtics won a tense game 7 against the Cleveland LeBrons to advance to the Eastern Conference finals against Detroit. The Celtics seem determined to prove that you can in fact win an NBA championship without winning a single game on the road, the reward for the best record of the regular season. Of course, they earned that distinction by having such a gaudy record on the road during the regular season, but now that their series with Detroit is officially tied 0-0 I guess it doesn't matter.

Finally Big Brown took another step towards the elusive Triple Crown in horse racing with a dominating win at the Preakness. You could see jockey Kent Desormeaux physically restraining Big Brown for most of the race before letting him lengthen his stride around the final turn. After taking a couple of peeks behind himself to verify no one was close, Desormeaux eased up on the throttle as Big Brown cruised to a 5 1/4 length victory. Big Brown races for the first Triple Crown since Affirmed in 1978 on June 7 at the Belmont Stakes, the longest of the three races at 1 1/2 miles.