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| June 2004 - In Case You Missed It…. In American Sports - By Hugh Jass | |
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Two out of three isn’t good enough. Twenty-seven up, Twenty-seven down. A new addition to the Yankees front office staff. How long are the playoffs? Lord Stanley goes to the beach Smarty Jones out-smarted Two out of three may have been good enough for Meat Loaf, but in horse racing’s Triple Crown it’s the difference between damn good and legendary. Since 1948 (Citation) only three thoroughbreds, all during the 1970s, were both good and lucky enough to win it all. Seattle Slew, Secretariat, and Affirmed are now legendary. Smarty Jones is now simply another damn good horse, joining such “almosts” as War Emblem, Real Quiet, and Alysheba. After winning the Kentucky Derby and Preakness, Smarty Jones was overtaken in the stretch by 36-1 long shot Birdstone in the 1 1/2 -mile Belmont Stakes. As expected, Smarty's rivals went after him right from the start. They forced him into the lead with a mile to go and pressed the pace so much that the colt was tiring when he hit the top of the stretch. But make no mistake; this small colt captured the imagination of the public and created excitement more than any horse in recent history, with the possible exception of Seabiscuit. Baseball The Big Unit Hits Perfection. Randy Johnson, at the ripe age of forty, became the oldest pitcher to hurl a perfect game, and the seventeenth of all time. The “Big Unit” has had a fantastic career (5 - Cy Young Awards), and this is just the icing on the cake. For a guy who once used to just rear back and throw, he has become quite a pitcher. A candidate to throw a no-hitter every time out, he was always too wild to even dream of a perfect outing. But on a warm night in Atlanta, everything was in his zone. The highlights: · Of his 117 pitches, 87 for strikes. Think about that – an average of only one ball to each batter. · He only went to three balls on one batter (in the second inning) · He struck out 13 batters · The last pitch of the night, a strike out, was clocked at 98mph. · He set a record for the longest gap between no-hitters by the same pitcher – 14 years · In his previous no-hitter, in 1990 against Detroit – he walked six batters. At the end, the crowd of 23,381 gave him a standing ovation, grateful for the chance to witness perfection. Of course, there were the usual cliché quotes to follow: “A game like this was pretty special, it doesn't come along very often.” Duh, like only 17 times in 150 years Randy. “The bottom line was we needed to win the game. Winning the game was the biggest, most important thing.” Really? Winning may be important, but more important than something as special as a perfect game? Check the standings Randy, your team is 12 games out of first place, and it’s only May. The New York Yankees, dubbed the “Evil Empire” by Boston Red Sox President Larry Lucchino, have certainly not done anything to disprove that claim. On the contrary, they seem to take every step to corroborate such accusations. Now, George Steinbrenner has sunk to a new low. It’s not enough that he signs every top free agent (Gary Sheffield), trades for each highly paid disgruntled star for pennies on the dollar (A-Rod, Kevin Brown), uses his own and Cablevisions bottomless pockets to sign top Japanese (Hideki Matsui) and Cuban (Jose Contreras) stars. Now he has gone over the edge, hiring a certain infamous tough guy as his new “Director of Scouting and Player Development – Mid East Region.” (Picture Below) Where will the madness stop? After what seems like many injury-plagued seasons in Cincinnati, Ken Griffey Jr. is finally back to playing the future Hall-of-Famer he was early in his career with Seattle. His recent hitting binge has catapulted the Reds into first place in the competitive NL Central, ahead of the Cubs, Cards, and Astros. And in case you haven’t noticed, his home run number now sits at 498, just a couple of swings from the exclusive 500 Club. Checking the Inbox In this weeks email is a note from Leo W, of London. “You wrote about the NHL Playoffs two months ago, and they’re still playing? You’ve got to be kidding me!” Whew, right you are Leo. Not only the NHL, but the NBA as well. Sixteen teams make each post-season tourney, and every round is best-of –seven. It sometimes feels like the playoffs are longer than the regular season. Maybe they should just scrap the regular season, and have best-of-fifteen series between all teams (how many are there in each league now, fifty?). The NHL must do something about this problem, as the TV ratings are somewhere below reruns of Julia Child on PBS. Could the public be trying to tell you something? Enough bitching, on to the review: Hockey The Tampa Bay Lightning bring the Stanley Cup to the Sunshine State for the first time, defeating the Calgary Flames in seven thrilling games. This will certainly boost alcohol sales in the great white north, with Canadians needing something to drown their sorrow over another winter (now eleven and counting) without the oldest prize in professional sports. Although I have only seen two games so far (on tape), reports from hockey loving friends back home have said that this was one of the most exciting series in a few years. While both teams were relative unknowns, they both play a “go get ‘em” style of hockey, rather than a sit and wait style. The championship series seems to be getting a little more competitive, with three of the last four years going the full seven games. This is a stark contrast to the mid-nineties, when four consecutive years (95-98) saw four game sweeps! Since the NHL expanded from six to twelve teams (ah, the good old days) in 1967, the winners of 13 of 37 series have “gotten out the brooms.” This is like the old days of the Super Bowl, when people didn’t even pay attention to the second half. Hopefully the trend of close and exciting championships will continue in both leagues. As for personal achievements, there are two worth mentioning. Lightning center Brad Richards, in addition to a league leading 26 playoff points (12 goals and 12 assists), set an NHL Record for game winning goals in the playoffs with seven. The ability to score often, and at big moments earned the Prince Edward Island native the Conn Smythe Trophy as the playoff MVP. The Bolts were 31-0-2 in the regular season and 9-0 in the playoffs when the 24-year-old center scored. And finally, the sentimental favorite of this year’s playoffs finally gets his name on the Cup after 22 professional seasons, 6 teams, and 1,759 games. Dave Andreychuk, nicknamed “Wood” because of how slow he skates, finally had a chance to hoist the Cup. This future Hall-of Famer previously came close with Toronto (1993) and Colorado (2000), his teams losing in Game 7 of the Conference Finals each year. He also is third all time in seasons played (19) with at least 20 goals. If you can name the players that are first and second, send in your answer to BangkokStrayDog @yahoo.com. All correct submissions win you one (1) free beer. If you are in Bangkok, it will be at the pub of your choice. If you are not in Bangkok, I will buy you a beer at the pub of my choice and drink it for you. Basketball Ok, I have
now gone seven years without watching even ONE MINUTE of an NBA game!
Believe me, it isn’t hard to give up. But reading just a little about the
games, and seeing the scores, and I cant help but think it must resemble WWF.
Scores like 83-74 are common. One hundred points for any team is unheard of.
Besides rough physical play, there is unquestionably an erosion of
fundamentals. Teams nowadays routinely shoot 42-44% from the field. In my
day, (God help me, I sound like my father) teams field goal percentage was
in the 47-50% range. And just look at some of today’s “stars.” Kobe Bryant –
41% from the floor? Shaquille O’Neal – 49% from the free throw line!
Hey Shaq, it’s only ten feet, uncontested! How about a little practice?
These guys couldn’t carry the jockstraps of guys like Havlicek, Big O, and
even more recently, of Larry and Magic (God help me, I sound like my
grandfather). I’ll watch the NBA right after I become a big cricket fan. |
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June 2004 - In Case You Missed It…. In American Sports - By Hugh Jass |
