King James And The Friendly Timekeeper

Is there anyone that thinks that was a legit shot by Lebron James to win the game last night? One second and he can stop, pop and get a shot off, says GBVH? Not bloody likely. Of all the sports out there, do any seem more easily manipulated than hoops? The Cavs evened the series 1-1...the real winners of the Denver Nuggets and WWE double booking is, as always, Ticketmaster. They're charging an $8.95 service charge for RAW and that is non-refundable, a pretty healthy charge when tickets range $20-$70. With 11,000 tickets sold two weeks back and surely more since, Ticketraper are earning their name. You'd think they might have noticed they were selling tickets to the same venue on the same night, no?...the New York Yankees win streak is done at 9. Good thing for the Yankees that the Toronto Blue Jays lost again, as did the Boston Red Sox, though Tampa Bay won to get to 4.5 out in the tightening AL East...AJ Burnett has pitched well in spots but remains winless since April 14th...it sure sounds like Jake Peavy is greasing the skids for a move to the Chicago Cubs...guess the Chicago Black Hawks carrying two big ticket goalies all year wasn't such a bad plan after all. They went to Cristobal Huet for game 3 and he carried them to a 4-3 overtime win after Patrick Sharp scored early in the extra frame to make the series 2-1 for Detroit...mark July 12th on your calendars. That's when Entourage returns...the upside of the Blue Jays sending Travis Snider to the minors is it may impact his service time enough to keep him under team control for another year through 2015. That said, if he doesn't stop resembling a human air conditioner, it won't matter. Snider had 48 whiffs in 172 at bats with the big club until he got shipped to AAA...Jeremy Roenick is one of my all-time fav athletes just for speaking his mind. But saying Detroit Red Wings coach Mike Babcock has something against Americans as the explanation for him not playing Chris Chelios is just wrong, J.R. If you're hunting for theories, maybe take a peak at Cheli's age and effectiveness. American and Red Wing Brian Rafalski had this reaction: "Yeah, sure, he doesn't like me. He only lets me play with Niklas Lidstrom."...here is a quote, can you guess the source? "I don't watch ESPN. I don't believe half the [expletive] people on the channel personally - no disrespect." The source is new ESPN Monday Night voice Jon Gruden, just a couple years ago. Hoping Tony Kornheiser left him his notes, Gruden does a lot better riding the coattails of guys named Tony...good of the Calgary Flames to finally get around to firing Mike Keenan...Toronto FC host DC United today at BMO Field, and I'm calling for a win. Kickoff is 4pm, coverage on CBC...UFC 98 goes tonight. Rashad Evans defends his light heavyweight title against Lyoto Machida in the main event, and Matt Serra and Matt Hughes finally tangle after years of talk. I'm riding Evans and Serra in this one. Watch online here...playing the LA Dodgers today at -124. Enjoy...have a great Saturday.


LeBron James last second bucket...

Hurricane Gino

Evgeni Malkin led the way for the Pittsburgh Penguins with a hat-trick in Game 2 of the Eastern finals - the backhander was disgusting! - and the Pens downed the Carolina Hurricanes 7-4 to take care of business at home...so, Toronto Blue Jays fans, is the term "dry hump" front and centre yet? 1-5 against the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees now after getting swept in Beantown and the noose - err - lead is getting tighter at the top, down to a half over Boston and a game and a half over New York. Good thing for Roy Halladay, or it might well be 0-6...is it just me, or is anyone you see rocking "Tap Out" gear that isn't a fighter a loser?...engineers say that when the original Yankee Stadium comes down in July, they're expecting the wind patterns to change and the propensity for balls flying out of right field will slow...I'll never understand how teams give no-trade clauses to players and I'll also never understand how a player invokes that clause when he can go to a team far better than his own, the way Jake Peavy has in opting to stay with the San Diego Padres instead of moving to the Chicago White Sox. How he ignores the Pads don't want him now is beyond me, and saying you want to stay in the NL only makes you seem weak and scared. Shame on you, Peavy...no sooner did I crack on Travis Henry yesterday than along came word from RM reader TS that he'd been arrested again, this time for violating conditions of his bond after his April conviction of cocaine trafficking. This is now way to pay for over a half dozen kids...it is the final weekend of the English Premier League and of course, that means teams at the relegation end are sweating what others are doing. In this case, there is talk of pending lawsuits over Manchester United's likely playing a sub-standard team against relegation threatened Hull, possibly helping Hull stay up if they get a result. I might be wrong, but what responsibility is it of United's to help anyone but themselves heading into the Champion's League final? Why didn't West Brom, Newcastle et al take care of their own business? That said, United's got more than enough to take care of Hull...another result of the conclusion of the EPL: a bevy of cancellations of Setanta Sports coming to Rogers and ExpressVu on Monday...how about all-time NFL draft bust Ryan Leaf? Busted for drug and burglary charges. He's a couple illegitimate kids from being the all-time loser...the LA Lakers again charged out fast but let the Denver Nuggets hang around, and this time they paid for it as the Nuggets evened the series. That's good news for the Nuggets, as only 7% of teams that go down 0-2 in the NBA playoffs historically bounce back to win the series...the Detroit Tigers are 10-0 on weekends this year...before catcher Joe Mauer did it yesterday in a 20-1 Minnesota Twins win over the Chicago White Sox, the last Twin to have 6 RBI as a DH in a game was named Jose Morales, who pulled off the feat in July of 1980. Strangely, the ChiSox catcher yesterday was named Jose Morales (no relation). What comes around, goes around...interleague baseball starts this weekend and I'm still a fan, though it isn't perfect. Each division should at least play the same teams to balance things out, and I'd like to see the home teams using the opposite league's rules to give the fans a taste of what the other offers...Minnesota Vikings QB Tarvaris Jackson on the Brett Favre story: "I don't think it matters who you are. Eventually, you get tired of watching re-runs." Awesome...since opening 11-1, the Florida Marlins are 8-22...have a great Friday.

Masters Of Panic? Not Last Night

Now that Michael Vick has left the crow bar motel, you can start the rumor mill on where he lands. First up? The Buffalo Bills. And why not? There are guys who have done worse things in life still playing sports, and he's at least done his time and expressed remorse and hey, it isn't like the Bills haven't had some bad seeds in recent years. For the record, the "seed" comment is not related to Travis Henry - his seeds are potent...the UEFA Cup was an incredible final, won by Shaktar Donetsk with an overtime goal, 2-1, in a game dominated by Dario Srna. Shame there were no live Canadian feeds, except for those working free to air packages...trivia answer: Brett Cecil. Question: who served up David Ortiz first homer of 2009? Cecil gave up 5 bombs in 4 2/3 innings and the Toronto Blue Jays lost 8-3 and the AL East lead is evaporating fast...after one quarter, you had to be thinking that not only did the Cleveland Cavs not come out rusty after a long layoff, but they were looking stronger than ever after a 33-19 opening frame over the Orlando Magic. But it didn't last, and they found themselves in a knife fight that finished 107-106 for the visitors. Looking like there could be more to the Eastern Conference final than initially thought...after "Grease Gate", UFC fighter BJ Penn says he doesn't want to fight in Las Vegas anymore. Good thing, Prodigy, they tend to like big names there, not guys exposed as has beens...have to admit I find it funny that the entries are shorter when I'm not doing parts of them at the office...Vince McMahon and the WWE will be moving Monday Night Raw to the Staples Center in L.A. after the double booking at the Pepsi Center in Denver. You can bet your bottom dollar that the WWE will be taking several swipes at the Nuggets all night long. Here's betting one involves describing a nugget as something that gets left in the toilet after flushing...if you haven't seen Terrell Owens doing the Channel 7 Buffalo sportscast a few nights back, it is worth a peak here...speaking of sportscasters, one of my all-time favs is worth revisting. Just skip to about 2:20 and wait til 2:30 for your fix...have a great Thursday.

Mr. McMahon speaks on the moving of Monday Night Raw...

Kobe Delivers Room Service for 40

With the Denver Nugget's looking for the Game 1 upset in the LA Lakers crib, Kobe Bryant went off like he was in a Denver hotel room and poured in 40 for a comeback 105-103 win...in other conference finals, the Detroit Red Wings need just over five minutes of overtime to hold serve in their two home games...I'm sure I've said it before, but words cannot begin to describe how much better ESPN's Sportscenter is than TSN's Sportscentre. Not even referring to content necessarily - that's a part of it - but the presentation is light year's better. TSN's is the Rogers Centre of sport's presentations: bland, antiseptic, flat...Real Madrid's likely incoming president is said to be against bringing in Manchester United's Cristiano Ronaldo, even when an agreement is said to be in place. I can see why. No matter how good Ronny is, €90 million just to get a player's rights is a load of risk, and a load of jersey's to sell and titles to win just to break even...the LA Clippers won the NBA draft lottery. Are you like me, and get the feeling they could have the top three picks and they'd still screw it up?...the Toronto Blue Jays lead at the top of the AL East is narrowing as the Boston Red Sox beat them 2-1 last night. Also winners were the New York Yankees (7 straight) and the Tampa Bay Rays are just 6.5 back now, with loads of home games coming shortly where they tend to dominate...if Vernon Wells, Alex Rios and Lyle Overbay were NBA players, they'd be playing for the Toronto Raptors. They're just guys who come up small and feeble when the situation calls for big and strong...the UEFA Cup final goes today with Shaktar Donetsk facing Werder Bremen in Istanbul in Europe's second most important club competition...have a great Wednesday.

Best/Worst Owners Revealed

Sports Illustrated has put together a Top 5 Best and Worst owners in the big four team sports. Here's MLB, and the NFL, and the NBA and finally, the NHL where a certain team in Toronto finished - not surprisingly - with the worst owners in hockey...so much for the economy affecting the NFL. Teams will have a record increase of $12 million to spend on the salary cap, bringing the total to $128 million in the last year of this labour agreement. You'd think they would let teams know what they've got to spend before they actually started spending it, no?...the Pepsi Center in Denver, home of the Nuggets, is booked for WWE Monday Night Raw next Monday. Problem is the NBA wants the arena for Game 4 of the Nuggets/Lakers series the same night and it looks like the WWE is out of luck. Of course, that left WWE Chairman Vince McMahon to needle the Nuggets for not having enough faith to book potential playoff dates earlier. Love it...in addition to today's pic of the day, here are an assortment of Mike Tyson motivational pictures, sure to be a hit with Bukkake...for the first time this year, the Tampa Bay Rays are .500, and you have to think stud prospect David Price is on his way soon from AAA. In his last start, Price tossed 5 innings of no hit ball - striking out 9 - but didn't finish as the Rays are keeping his innings down...the Pittsburgh Penguins won the first game of the Eastern Conference final 3-2. For their part, the Carolina Hurricanes have lost the opener of the last five series they've won. They're now off until Thursday in the first of what could be three two-day breaks. Man I miss the every two days thing that they used to do by conference back in the day, which I believe GBVH also mentioned last week...Milwaukee Brewer 2B Rickie Weeks is done for the year after a wrist injury. Shame for the Brew Crew, who have been rolling of late in winning 11 of 13...the Toronto Blue Jays are off to Boston for a big series. The Sox will see Kevin Youkilis return in the series at some point, as will Daisuke Matsuzaka on Thursday...Mark Teixera continues his hot streak, at the plate where he hit homers from both sides, and in the field where his glove has saved runs each of the last three days. Somehow, despite some pretty solid Minnesota Twins teams over the years, the Twins are in a 3-23 run at Yankee Stadium since 2002 after last night's 7-6 loss. 40 of the 63 homers at Yankee Stadium have been hit to right field...pretty clear I'm becoming more selective on the PTP front. Forcing it wasn't working...have a great Tuesday.

Damon deep!

The New York Yankees are 7-2 since A-Rod returned to the lineup and while he hasn't entirely found his stroke yet, his presence has seen Mark Teixera hitting over .500 in those games. Scary when a guy making an average of $22.5 million over the next eight years needs protection. The Yanks have won the last three with walk-off hits, the first time doing so since 1972...good of the NHL to finally get the semi-finals rolling. The Detroit Red Wings downed the Chicago Black Hawks 5-2 to open their series. Tonight, Carolina visits Pittsburgh to start the Eastern finals. I'm thinking a Detroit/Pittsburgh Cup final is all but a foregone conclusion...two game 7 beatdowns in the NBA yesterday, but you wouldn't have figured that the Boston Celtics were among the curbstomped, especially at home. Rough week in Beantown with the Bruins and Celtics both dropping Game 7's or as the rest of the world calls is: beautiful...in tennis action, at the Madrid Open yesterday, Roger Federer beat Rafael Nadal. On clay. Impressive, when Nadal is practically untouchable on that surface. Makes for a more interesting French Open, which opens shortly...say goodbye to Tony Kornheiser in the Monday Night Football booth, and say hello to Jon Gruden. Chucky is replacing T.K. starting this season...wise of Bud Selig - yes, I just said that - to move World Series start times up to just before 8pm this year, about 40 minutes ahead of recent years...have a great Victoria Day.

RM returns tomorrow.