TSDMike | June 29, 2009

I can’t believe it has come to this. I am actually writing a post about Soccer.

It’s not that I don’t like soccer. I kind of view it as I see the game of rugby. It’s an interesting game and as a sports fan, I can see why people like it. But I am an American. And as an American, my attention span is already filled to capacity with the likes of professional baseball, pro football, pro basketball, college basketball, pro hockey, MMA, the major golf tournaments, and women’s mud wrestling. There just isn’t enough room for anything else, save for the occasional Olympic event or the local minor league sports franchises.

Many people, like Jeffrey Kayer from BleacherReport.com, think that this is going to be the turning point toward a significant rise in the popularity of soccer in this country. I disagree.

Category: Other/General Commentary, Uncategorized | 4 Comments »
Tags: popularity, soccer, sports, usa, zidane

TSDMike | June 25, 2009

Cleveland, although they won 66 games last season, fared poorly against good teams. Strong shooting teams with a solid frontcourt like the Lakers and the Spurs were able to withstand the explosion from James and win anyway. The Cavaliers were exposed for having no answer for Dwight Howard or for Orlando’s three point shooting and almost got swept by the Magic after rolling through the first two rounds of the playoffs untested. Superman is going to come into next season ready to crush anyone who gets in his way, including Shaq. Replace Z.I. with O’Neal last year and maybe the Eastern Conference finals go seven games instead of six.

Category: NBA | Comments Off
Tags: cleveland cavaliers, Lebron james, NBA, shaq, shaquille o'neal, trade

TSDMike | June 22, 2009

I rarely read Rick Reilly’s columns on ESPN.com. I’ve always found his pieces to be highly critical items of little substance whose sole position was to imply a morally superior position when his is often anything but. But, I don’t bitch about him. I refrain from bashing Mr. Reilly even though I find it quite pretentious that you can’t find one of his articles online without a tidbit about the 11 Sportswriter of the Year accolades he’s won invariably floating around the page in a conspicuously impossible-to-ignore spot.

But, after checking out his latest article, I have to make an exception. In short, Reilly’s latest digital version of Charmin substitute absolutely rips the softball coach of a Minnesota women’s softball coach for winning a game on the technicality of an obscure (and likely widely uninforced) rule.

Category: Other/General Commentary, Uncategorized | 16 Comments »
Tags: Baseball, coaching, integrity, Jean Musgjerd, jennie finch, kids, pony league, teenagers, winning, womens softball

TSDMike | June 20, 2009

I was checking web referral stats and I noticed a handful of hits from a Russian sports site, all linking to my rant about Bettman and the Stanley Cup Finals. I checked it out – It was a blog post of some sort with the title “Obituary for the 2008-2009 Red Wings”.

Here’s the website translated to English courtesy of Google Translator.

I guess this would explain all of the “Kiev Mail Order Brides” spam comments that I’ve had to delete over the course of the last couple of weeks.

Category: NHL | 1 Comment »
Tags: conspiracy, detroit red wings, gary bettman, hockey, NHL, pittsburgh penguins, stanley cup finals

TSDMike | June 18, 2009

The worst time of year for sports is upon us. The NBA and NHL playoff years are officially done, and with pro football a couple of months out, we’re left with the annual vortex of sports doldrums – a sportex if you will. Baseball doesn’t get interesting until August, when the pennant races really start to take form.

The US Open is this weekend, but, as usual, Tiger Woods is the only real story there. If Woods isn’t in contention on Sunday, there really isn’t anything else worth watching about it. The Mickelson return is a slightly interesting subplot, but I’ve never liked him very much, so I don’t really care about that. Nor do I root for the underdog just for the sake of doing so. His situation sucks, and I feel for him because I’ve been through something similar. But I’m not going to root for him just because his wife is sick.

Category: PGA | Comments Off
Tags: best to never win a major, golf, phil mickelson, Tiger woods, us open

TSDMike | June 16, 2009

After landing on the cover of Sports Illustrated a couple of weeks ago, baseball’s LeBron is once again turning heads and raising eyebrows with news that he is foregoing his final TWO years of high school to take the H.S. diploma equivalency exam – resulting in him being awarded a GED (in the words of Chris Rock, a “Good Enough Diploma”). It was also reported that he intends to attend community college in the fall. All of this is suited to one purpose – to make him eligible for the 2010 amateur draft.

As a likely high first round pick right now, the move makes sense in the respect that he’s not going to really improve his stock much by playing high school ball for two more years. He’s got the body of a 21 year old, and power that’s possibly never before been seen at the high school level. The video of his moon shots at Tropicana Field is impressive to say the least.

But, was this the right move?

Category: MLB, Other/General Commentary | Comments Off
Tags: amateur draft, Baseball, bryce harper, drew henson, ESPN, high school baseball, home runs, hype, scrutiny, teenage boy, turning pro early

TSDMike | June 14, 2009

A lot has been made of the fans’ reaction to the second period hit by Johan Franzen that knocked Sidney Crosby out of the game. I’ve read in comments and blog posts by various writers displaying the ubiquitous opinion that Detroit fans showed no class by cheering the injury to Pittsburgh’s franchise player when it occurred.

But, this is severely out of context, and the criticism is unwarranted.

Category: NFL, NHL, Other/General Commentary | 10 Comments »
Tags: collision, contact sports, detroit red wings, fans in detroit, game 7, hit, injury, joe louis arena, johan franzen, NHL, pittsburgh penguins, sidney crosby, stanley cup finals, violent game

TSDMike | June 13, 2009

Of course, I don’t actually mean that.

Before I go on, I want to say congratulations to the Pittsburgh Penguins and your fans. You fought hard and didn’t quit when you were down 2-0 in the series and again after a 5-0 loss in game five. It’s not your fault that you won.

There’s really no reason to sugarcoat this, so I am simply going to just say it: This series was rigged in favor of the Pen’s. Not to take anything away from them. They played hard, fought hard and persevered. But they shouldn’t have won this series.

Category: NHL | 22 Comments »
Tags: detroit red wings, gary bettman, pittsburgh penguins, stanley cup finals

TSDMike | June 9, 2009

Basketball has the Lakers. Baseball has the Yankees and football has the Patriots. The Detroit Red Wings are the NHL’s counterpart to the perennial winners in the other major sports. But the Wings are the only one of the group that has a legitimate chance to win the championship every single year. Detroit is about to put the finishing touches on what will very likely be their fifth championship in 12 years, in this, their sixth Stanley Cup Finals appearance in the last 14 years. The road to winning the cup almost always goes through Hockeytown.

If you look at the Stanley Cup Finals history since 1995, only four times were the teams to make the finals not required to defeat the Wings en route. The Red Wings are the only team to make the playoffs every single year during that period.

While this is obviously awesome for Red Wings fans – arguably the most popular team in the league – is this a good thing for the sport as a whole?

Category: NHL | Comments Off
Tags: dan wetzel, detroit red wings, dominance, hockeytown, MLB, NBA, NFL, NHL, parity, pittsburgh penguins, popular team, stanley cup finals history, wings fans

TSDMike | June 6, 2009

If I were a pro athlete, I’d be getting fined more than T.O., Ron Artest and Rasheed Wallace combined. Not because I couldn’t control myself on the court, but because of my inherit disdain for the mainstream media.

The thing I detest the most about how the press is set up is the incredible power in which the public has bestowed upon it. The Media routinely shapes our perceptions and ultimately our opinions on virtually every type of public figure – professional and amateur athletes, actors, musicians, politicians, etc. In the court of public opinion, the Media is the ultimate judge, jury and executioner.

So when David Stern gave LeBron James a pass for skipping out on the media after his Cavaliers were knocked out of the playoffs, I was perfectly fine with that. James shouldn’t have to talk to anyone if he doesn’t want to. And really, what was he going to say? Had he attended the post game press conference, he would have been shelled from all angles with stupid questions designed for one thing: to antagonize the reigning MVP into saying something foolish that he’d later regret. That’s the job of the Media after all – to expose the subjects of their scrutiny for the flawed human beings that they are.

But then a few days later, Stern reversed his decision in a move reticent of an NFL line judge reviewing a play in the last two minutes of the half, and imposed a fine of $25k against LBJ strictly for skipping the Media after the game.

Category: NBA, Other/General Commentary | 2 Comments »
Tags: bcs, congress, david stern, fine, Lebron james, NBA