Unfortunately, due to crap at work, I won’t be able to liveblog tonight’s game. It seems employers expect more out of you after taking two weeks off. The inhumanity!

Hopefully, my trite and sophomoric observations can be condensed into a recap after the game.

See ya then!

Having juuuuust gotten back from a two-week vacation without television and internet (which is somewhat distressing in today’s Age of Instant), I’m woefully ignorant of what’s taken place in sports over the past few weeks. And according to newspapers and cable news, apparently the only other notable thing to have happened in a while is the death of Jimmy Dean Sausage and something like 6 gazillion gallons of oil are flowing into the Gulf of Mexico every nine seconds. I’m waiting for a Scooby Doo villain to emerge any day now until Kevin Costner saves the day, all to the chorus of “I would have gotten away with it if not for you meddling actors!” As such, it would be difficult to provide much analysis on what’s transpired in sports or life otherwise. But fuck it, here’s a quick roundup. Also, I’ll be liveblogging the Yankee-Phillies game tonight.

That darn meddling actor!

*Football power conferences are playing musical chairs and it seems the Big 12 is the big loser here. They were poached by the Big 10 (who now have an even amount of schools again, and most of them are gritty, “fundamentally sound” Midwesterners with less-than-impressive athletic skill and make for boring games, both in football and basketball) and the Pac-10 (Hey Pac-10, you know Colorado hasn’t been relevant since Kordell Stewart, right?).

Colorado to the Pac-10 (Utah tagged along; Boise St. moves to the Mountain West) and Nebraska drops into the Big 10. Seriously, now that these conferences have a different number of institutions than they tout, will they rename themselves to clear up any confusion? The Big 12 (formerly the Big 10), the Pac 12, the Big 10 (formerly the Big 12)?

The Wall Street Journal has a pretty interesting idea on how to restructure college football to make things more engaging. The cure? An English Premier League format. Worth a read, although it’s infeasible, largely because it makes some modicum of sense.

More of this should be featured in the World Cup.

*Speaking of soccer, the World Cup has started. This is roughly the one time of year Americans feign interest in a sport we’re still surprisingly good at despite caring about slightly less than important current events, obesity and wheelchair water polo. For those unfamiliar with soccer (or as other backwater bastions call it, “football”), it’s like foosball. Except your players aren’t attached to steel rods, you have to do a lot of running and the stadium always sounds like a Tampa Bay Rays game with the horns always going off. Both sports involve drinking and endurance, though football requires endurance in the tax it collects by just watching a bunch of dudes kick the ball back and forth until some arbitrary clock reads -7:32. Foosball is merely taxing in binge drinking and masturbating scenarios (shit can really do a number on the wacking wrist).

The soccer players usually play professionally in Spain, Italy or England, but are generally from some shit hole in Africa and somehow are representing like Norway or something. Really confusing how that all works out. Anyway, true to its fashion, Spain lost to the Swiss (who I figured would call it a draw out of mere habit) because some guy representing the Swiss was African but played on a club team somewhere else. Many bulls were slaughtered afterward. Spaniards may also be considering another Inquisition to jump-start their economy. [...]

History repeating itself?

Here is the 5^th and hopefully final installment of the In Game Observations: NBA Finals edition.  The Celtics and Lakers are back in Los Angeles with the Celtics leading 3-2.  Kobe Bryant finally played a great game in Game 5, but still was nowhere to be found in the 4^th quarter.  Ray Allen is lost, maybe getting back in LA will get his shot going away, but the last 3 games have been some of the worst of Ray’s Hall of Fame career.  If Paul Pierce plays as well he did in Game 5, the Celtics will be on the right track.  Andrew Bynum’s knee continues to be an issue, and the Pau Gasol who dominated early in the series will need to show up for the Lakers to compete tonight.  The more Kobe goes into “give me the ball and get out of the way mode” the better for the Celtics.  Kobe cannot win this on his own.

Pregame Notes

*Apparently Christina Aguilera is singing the National Anthem.  What took so long?  Game 6 of the NBA Finals pitting the two biggest rivals in the game, and it took until Game 6 to get someone relevant to sing the Anthem?  What would have happened had the series ended in 4 or 5?  The only person having a worse series than Ray Allen is whomever picked the Anthem singers.  Allen had Game 2, that guy has Game 6.  Other than that they have come up short. [...]

As a Yankee fan in New England, I live in the heart of Red Sox nation, and get to hear about the Red Sox 24/7.  I’ll give you the weekly rundown of what Sox fans are saying right now.

Weekly Record: 4-3

Season Record:  37-28 3^rd place in AL East, 4.0 Games back

Upcoming weekly schedule: 3 vs. ARI, 3 vs. LAD

Offense

Studs of the week:

Duds of the week:

Great week for the left side of the infield as both Scutaro and Beltre hit the ball well.  Every Red Sox fan’s favorite whipping boy J.D. Drew crushed the ball this week to the tune of a 1.212 OPS.  Drew got off to a terrible start, but since May 1^st is hitting a robust .316/.397/.493.  Victor Martinez continues to be on fire. [...]

I think Tom Izzo should take the Cleveland Cavaliers job.  He is a fantastic college coach, but only a so-so recruiter.  In his time at Michigan State the best players he’s coached have been who, Jason Richardson and Zach Randolph?  Solid players, but certainly not the best of the best.  He’s one of those guys, like Bobby Knight, that gets the best out of what he has, and if given the same players, could outcoach almost anyone.  I always love watching Michigan State play as their fundamentals are very sound and his players always seem to box out, which is seemingly a lost cause these days.  If he takes the job and they lose Lebron though, it’ll suck.  If he takes the job and fails, he’ll end up with a better college job in a few years anyway.  As a college free agent, he would be in huge demand.

I’ve always believed that if soccer was the #1 sport in the US, we would dominate.  If all of the best athletes picked soccer at a young age wouldn’t we be great?  Instead soccer is at least 4^th amongst the top athletes in the US, if not 5^th.  Seriously, if someone had put a soccer ball in Lebron James’ hands, or at his feet, as a 3 year old, couldn’t he be great?  Imagine him in goal at 6’8, 260 pounds with ridiculous athleticism?  Or how about Kevin Garnett (in his prime), 7’0 tall, huge length and cat like quickness?  Or how about Reggie Bush or Chris Paul as strikers?  I doubt it will ever happen, especially in my lifetime, but I would love to see an alternate universe where America took soccer seriously as the biggest sport, just to see how good we could be. [...]

Here we go again as I liveblog Game 5 of the NBA Finals between the Celtics and Lakers.  In Game 4 I was able to break the Mystique and Aura “In Game Observation post” Curse.  Check out Game 1 here and Game 3 here.  You’ll notice that there is no Game 2, which occurred when I had a power outage and had to listen to Game 2.  Seeing as how games 3 and 4 played out, I still have no visual proof that Ray Allen set a record for 3 points in an NBA finals game, and I doubt it truly happened. I have seen Ray Allen attempt 14 3 pointers this series and make zero.  And I’m supposed to believe the one game I didn’t witness he went 8-11?

Pregame Notes

A couple big questions for Game 5.  How will Andrew Bynum’s knee respond, can he give the Lakers 30 good minutes?  Will Kobe Bryant’s 4^th quarter disappearing act continue as in Games 3 and 4?  Will Ray Allen make a shot?  Will two of the Big 3 get it going?  Can the Celtics bench come up big again?  Can Rasheed Wallace and Kendrick Perkins play aggressive and avoid 7th technicals that would lead to suspension?  Has Pau Gasol showered?

We will get answers to most of these questions and more tonight, and I truly think the winner of this game wins the series (I reserve the right to change my mind if the Lakers win).  If the Lakers win I don’t see the Celtics going back to LA and winning two straight at the Staples Center.  If the Celtics win, I see them going into Staples and winning the one they need, as they have already shown they can win there, and were better on the road this year.

[...]

I'll take any excuse to post this picture, really.

Hey all. Bexy’s back. For right now, at least.

So last night’s game was pretty awesome, right? We won, there was some timely hitting from the bottom of the order which is always nice, Pettitte turned in another great performance and got win #200 with the Yankees, Mariano was Mariano, and it was all over before 9:30 for us cranky old people. Wait, what’s that you say? Last night was in fact completely ruined by A-Rod? Who would say such a stupid thing? Oh, wait, it was Wallace Matthews? Well, I guess that’s not really all that surprising.

Believe it or not, I’ve only read ESPN New York a few times since the site launched, and only when linked. So when, shortly after the game, someone linked me to a certain article of Matthews’ which I will not be linking because I’m not giving them traffic, I … didn’t quite know how to react. I read the article a few times and then just kind of stared at it. I mean, there’s bad sportswriting, and then there’s that. It’s pretty much the exact kind of article that makes me wish, terribly, that Fire Joe Morgan still existed. With their tragic departure from these here internets, though, all we have to turn to are poor imitators of their utter genius. Like, well, me. Let’s do this thing, shall we? [...]

Absolutely nothing.

I consider myself to be relatively knowledgeable when it comes to sabermetrics in baseball.  I do my best to learn new statistics that come out, and search to find the flaw in certain stats so that I’m not spouting them off incorrectly.  When I heard a radio host on WEEI comparing Alex Gonzalez’ and Marco Scutaro’s UZR/150 after about 20 games, I fully understood that they should just shut the hell up.  One huge issue I have right now with sabermetrics is WAR.

WAR, on the surface, is a great statistic.  It’s pretty much context driven, and encompasses just about all tangible, measurable numbers, without leaving any room for the intangibles often attributed to otherwise flawed players.  In layman’s terms, Jason Varitek’s WAR gets no boost for him being the greatest game caller in MLB history.  That’s a good thing.  My problem with WAR comes down to one thing.  How does anyone truly know who’s WAR is what? [...]