The Hawks win!

The Chicago Black Hawks won the Stanley Cup last night with a 4-3 overtime win that was eerily similar to Canada's gold medal win in February. A late goal from the opposition ties it up, and the winning goal comes early in overtime on a nice individual play - this from Patrick Kane - from the goalies right shooting five hole, just like Sidney Crosby did in Vancouver. Kane will never have to pay for a cab in his home town of Buffalo again.  Finally, a sincere "STFU" to Don Cherry for his continued raving about how many Canadians were in the final four.  We get it, you like Canada.  It stuns me that more people don't cringe at his broken record act.  Imagine if you tuned into the World Series or Super Bowl to hear "90% of the players here are American!"  You'd puke in disgust and bitch and moan, but that old curmudgeon does it and we get to pay for the privelege.  Can't wait til Father Time takes care of Grapes, because the CBC sure doesn't seem to have the stones to not cater to the lowest common denominator.

In the 2-3-2 format, the last ten years the winner of game three has won the NBA title.

The NHL is in the process of renaming some of its trophies.  If they were ever to rename the Stanley Cup, wouldn't "Scottie Bowman's Cup" be a slam dunk?  He's getting his name on it again after his run as a consultant with the Hawks, in addition to multiple Cups in Montreal, Pittsburgh and Detroit. The guy is as money as anybody in sports history.

A mere 100 hot female soccer fans.  Enjoy.  This is fantastic stuff.

The Seattle Mariners think the New York Yankees will come knocking soon to trade for starting pitcher Cliff Lee, and are scouring the Yankees farm system to get their legwork done ahead of time.  For their part, the Yankees insist they're not interested in Lee at the moment. Of course, they once insisted they weren't in on Mark Teixera and we know how that ended.

Well that didn't take long.  A trio of journalists were robbed in South Africa where they're covering the World Cup, in their hotel.  Two slept through it.

John Doyle at the Globe and Mail looks at diving in soccer and calls it part of the game.  My take is this: (1) yes, it is a part of the game.  A terrible part.  Let's be clear: not all players and teams engage in it, and not even close to most players.  For example: find the U.S. do it once this World Cup and I've got a beer for you.  No joke.  Lionel Messi - best player on the globe today - won't go down unless he's killed.  Wayne Rooney is largely the same way with a couple incidents I'd rather not discuss for my fav player who plays the game right 99% of the time (2) Don't necessarily watch a replay and see a guy go down and assume it was a dive.  Remember these guys are flying out there and a shoulder can knock you off balance and on your rear easy. Cristiano Ronaldo is a noted diver, but he also takes more of a pounding than virtually anyone as there isn't a way to slow him down otherwise and he doesn't often look to pass once he gets in top gear, so he's not always diving.  I won't reference his bitching to the refs, that's another topic.  (3) don't pretend it doesn't exist in hockey and basketball.  It does, and as GBVH pointed out, in the NBA it is often called "defending".  (4) I hate it, it is embarrassing, and have long maintained that if you were to dish out cards with post-game reviews by video, you'd see it disappear in a hurry when teams started losing guys to suspension and coaches jobs became threatened when stars started missing games and games were lost.  (5) Fortunately, it is also a rare, almost non-existant occurance in the MLS.

Two games on the go tomorrow and here's how we're going to do it.  We're going to play every game on the money line available to either wager or win a hundred dollars.  So if a dog, we're wagering a theoretical $100, if a fav, we're betting to win the hundred.  I'm taking the draw in the South Africa-Mexico game at +231.  In the afternoon battle, I'm betting France at +120 over Uruguay.  All lines at Pinnacle where you can sign up, or just check lines, by clicking the link above today's entry.  If you're wondering why I'm doing them a day ahead, it is more to get the 7:30am kickoffs out of the way that start Saturday morning.  Post your picks in the discussion portion if you wanna go head to head.

No, it won't be all soccer here for the next month, but there will be a lot of it.  If you're not a fan, stick around, you might learn something.

Why Spain is my pick to win the World Cup...check them take Poland apart a couple days ago in a 6-0 beatdown.


Dan Patrick brings Jeremy Roenick to tears, leaving Roenick in the same spot Patrick leaves most.