Bye Bye Cleveland

On Thursday night the Boston Celtics defeated the Cleveland Cavaliers 94-85 in game six of their Eastern Conference semi-final series, thus eliminating the Cavaliers. The most telling part of the evening was in the last minute or so of play. The Celtics had the ball and what did LeBron James and the Cavaliers do, they watched the Celtics dribble the ball. They didn't try to foul the ball handler. They didn't try to steal the ball. Instead they just flat out quit. This to me is the worst thing I can say about a player or a team, but it was right there for everyone to see. The funniest thing was that in the post game press conference Cavaliers coach Mike Brown said his team fought to the end. Why lie to us Coach Brown? We saw it and you saw it, I don't expect you to throw your team under the bus, but don't lie to cover their butts. Another thing is I was surprised not one of the reporters in the room had the guts to call him on it. Mark Jackson did it during the broadcast and kudos to him. On July 1 LeBron James officially becomes a free agent, until then we will have to endure speculation on where LeBron will wind up. Of course there will be no real information just a bunch of guessing by a bunch of so called experts. Meanwhile the Eastern Conference Finals will take a backseat to the LeBron speculation circus and to me that is just kind of sad.

Song of the Blog: It is time to reveal the song of the blog and this time around the honor is bestowed upon an 90's country tune The Mavericks "All You Ever Do is Bring Me Down." It is just a fun little song that isn't something I usually like, but somehow the song gets in my head and stays there, and not like a dreadful Lady GaGa song.

To Tase or Not to Tase That is the Question?

I woke up this morning and as usually flicked the TV on to Mike and Mike in the Morning on ESPN2. It wasn't long before they touched on an incident that happened last night in Philadelphia. A 17 year old kid consulted with his dad and he decided that it would be a good idea to run out on the field. So he proceeded to run and avoid security until he was Tasered. Needless to say the 17 year old punk fell to the ground and the game could continue shortly thereafter. Now everyone who has ever attended a game knows that you are not allowed on the field of play. This punk decided he was above the law and did it anyway. Now his father says that it was just a prank and that he is shocked (bad pun intended) the cops Tased him. I say the idiot got what he deserved. If you stay in your seat you won't get Tased. Now a debate rages on the internet about if it was justified and many cop haters have come out of the woodwork, including the ACLU. I guess we should wait until one of these morons stabs someone before we take action? Then again the cops would be blamed then because someone would say they didn't do their job. Now the kid got his 15 minutes of fame and his weenie father will probably file some trumped up lawsuit against the Phillies and everyone else. This is what we have come to, and it just makes me sad.


Stupid statement of the week: Jim Felix in his blog Another Night at Citizen's Bank Park wrote about the incident: "First of all he was a Phillies fan. The team on the field at the time was the Phillies. I don’t think a Phillies fan is looking to harm anybody on his home team." I am glad this guy isn't the head of security, because all someone would have to do is where the hometown jersey to do whatever the hell he wants.

A Good Sunday

Yesterday was just a great sports day. The baseball season is still all shiny and new. The NHL wrapped up it's regular season, with my Bruins warning a sixth seed. The Lakers took another loss as the stumble towards the playoffs. The best event from yesterday though had to be the Masters. The Masters is easily my favorite golf tournament and when one of my favorite golfers won the title it made it that much better. Now I will let it be known that I was rooting for Fred Couples first and foremost. Couples has been my favorite golfer for a long time and it was nice to see him near the top of the leaderboard all weekend long. But if Fred couldn't win, I was perfectly content seeing my second favorite win, Phil Mickelson. Phil is just the kind of guy I want my athletes to be, approachable, somewhat humble, and of course talented. Phil seems like a guy that you could sit down and have a beer with. This is a reason many give for liking John Daly, but of course you would have to sit down and have a case of beer with Daly. We all know that Tiger Woods was the focus coming into the Masters and he played well for someone who was away from the game for so long. I won't bash Tiger here, I will leave that to the holier than though crowd, but I heard stories of Tiger reaching out to fans this weekend and I really hope he keeps that up. Tiger will never be able to get back to where he was before "the scandal," but he can climb out of the hole a bit by letting the fans in just a bit. So congratulations to Mickelson and his family a well deserved victory and maybe the perfect ending to the weekend after all.

Song of the Blog: Hungry Heart by Bruce Springsteen. I have liked this song since I first heard when I was just 11 years old (man that is a long time ago). Another simple song, with a simple message, that everyone just wants to find a place in this world where they fit in.

A Legend Slowly Passes

The opening day of the baseball season is Monday. It is the time of year when almost every fan thinks that their team may just win it all this year. It is personally one of my favorite days of the year. There is a man out in Michigan that was part of 55 opening days. He was never a player, a manager, or even a coach, yet to many he meant the beginning of spring. He was just one of the best baseball announcers the game has ever known. His name is Ernie Harwell. He spent 42 years broadcasting Detroit Tigers games in his low key style. Harwell told us about the game, he didn't try to become part of it. This is a lesson that many modern announcers should learn. Harwell was diagnosed with incurable cancer back in September 2009. Seven months later he is losing the battle, according to his daughter, he consumes mostly liquids and sleeps most of the time. The 92 year old Hall of Famer will be gone soon, though he isn't looking for sympathy saying "Whatever happens, I'm ready to face it." If you don't know about Ernie Harwell do yourself a favor and look him up and see what he meant to Detroit and how much of a gentleman he is. The days of the great baseball announcers are quickly passing and, although I never lived in Detroit, I just wanted to give a tip of the cap to Ernie Harwell, a hall of fame announcer and, by all accounts, person.

NCAA Expansion Who Needs It

There has been talk about expanding the NCAA basketball tournament field for quite some time, from 65 to 96 or even 128. I really don't understand the push for such a measure, I mean do we really need to have 12 Big East teams in the tournament, isn't eight enough? Expanding the field will just dilute the regular season. Obviously it would be done to make money, but I for one wouldn't be watching. I already hate the fact that they have a stupid play in game, a game I have never watched. They say because a new conference was formed they needed to add a 65th team, really why couldn't they just trim an at large bid? Now today, the day after the selection committee revealed it's bracket, teams on the outside looking in are crying that they were somehow robbed. You know what I say, play better during the regular season and you wouldn't have a problem. Let's not water down the tournament field anymore, this after all is supposed to be about determining a champion and any teams added beyond 64 won't ever win the whole thing. So trim back to 64 and stop the foolish talk of expansion. I don't mind the schools making extra money, but give the fans something real, not this contrived garbage.


Song of the Blog: The song of the blog this time around is Black Cat by Janet Jackson. I am not usually a fan of Jackson's, but I like the harder edge this song has. The guitar in the song is really good as well.

Sorry I have been gone so long. I will try and give you all a new entry at least once a week.

Is This Really Necessary

Last week Major League Baseball felt it needed to post a new sign in every team's clubhouse. The sign stated that items such as guns, explosives, daggers, metal knuckles, switchblade knives or knives with blades exceeding five inches are prohibited from the clubhouse. My question is wasn't this obvious in the first place? It is like having to put a sign over a tailpipe saying do not suck on this, especially when the vehicle is running. I am really glad that they put explosives on the list because I wasn't sure that they would be banned, it seems like such a normal thing to bring to work. Of course the all stems from the incidents that occurred with Plaxico Buress and Gilbert Arenas in the last couple of years. MLB, I assume, felt it was better to be safe than sorry and put up the ridiculous signs. I'm also curious to see what the next sign will cover. Will it be please do not urinate or defecate on the floor of the locker room please use a toilet or urinal that is provided free of charge. Or maybe it will do not stick objects, your fingers or any other body parts in the electrical sockets or you may end up with hair like Oscar Gamble's in the mid 70's. These things seem like no-brainers to me, but then again I am not a professional athlete.

The Song of the Blog: Black Label Society's Just Killing Time is this week's song of the blog. A slow, dark kind of song and I absolutely love the beginning. It is also cool seeing bands of this kind occasionally use a piano in their music.

You can find more articles of mine at: http://www.associatedcontent.com/user/654645/darren_pare.html

What To Do, What to Do?

We are now in the heart of February and as a sports fan I am sad. The Super Bowl is now over and I am left with a whole lot of nothing to take its place. Oh I could watch the NBA and see the Celtics continue to blow big second half leads, but no thanks. I could turn my attention to the NHL, but watching the Bruin's scoring woes would probably cause me to hurl an object through my television screen and I'm sure the wife would not appreciate that. There is always college basketball, but they are still in a regular season that means almost nothing so why waste my time. When 65 teams make the tournament it kind of dilutes the regular season and hey there is even talk of expanding the field to 128 teams, don't get me started on that joke of an idea. Then there is always high school basketball to watch, no I think I would rather bang my head against this desk. Oh wait the Olympics are coming up, oh wait its the Winter Olympics, nevermind. So for the next few weeks I am left without much of anything going on in my world of sports. Pitchers and catchers will report soon and at least the pictures from the spring training camps will make me think of Spring. So if you see someone wandering around the sports world looking lost it is just me, don't worry though I will be fine come springtime.

The Song of the Blog: This time around the song of the blog is Last to Know by Three Days Grace from the CD Life Starts Now. My wife turned me on to this song as she is a huge Three Days Grace fan. Just a simple tune of a love gone bad, not a new topic but still a good song.