Sunday, November 14, 2004
OL' DIRTY SUNDAY
Just a couple of short ones before the normal stuff...
-- Ron Judd's got an article on the USA/China Sports Summit, which will be held June 6-14 of 2005. However, the name is deceiving since a bunch of Pacific Rim countries (not just the USA and China) will have athletes participating. There's some summer sports and some winter sports. The catch? No swimming (scheduling conflicts). That of course means that no local people with the last name of Kirk will be in the Summit. One fun thing about the article is the possibility of holding the track events at a high school track in west Seattle. Hooray for traffic trying to get to west Seattle to see any of that.
-- The late feature tonight on CBC's Movie Night in Canada is The Birds. This just might be worse than the least watchable hockey game I can imagine -- either one where it's a scoreless tie and there's 9 shots apiece for both teams, or one where my team gets absolutely boat-raced and loses like 9-1 or something. Seriously, though. The Birds?!!?! I want my NHL back!!
-- I want a win out of these Seahawks today. Badly. So badly I may have trouble sleeping after I post this.
-- Or I won't be able to sleep because Ol' Dirty Bastard is dead at 35. Stunning. Ol' Dirty B wasn't nothin' to f' with. He certainly had a knack of finding headlines, that guy.
It's Sunday, and you know what that means: no P-I articles. Just the Times. What if Morris Day worked at the Times? Don't think about that for too long. In a related story, KJR is still using The Time's "Jungle Love" as background music for their Mitch Levy promos.
MARINERS
Finnigan says the Mariners might hire former big-leaguer Carlos Garcia as their next first-base coach. I think I might have Garcia's rookie card lying around here somewhere.
We've all got different offseason plans. Steve Kelley's got Carlos Delgado and Carl Pavano on his, and I don't want either of those guys. I cringe at Pavano and am quite unsure of whether he can keep last year's magic going, so you can imagine what I think when Kelley says Pavano is "a 20-game winner waiting to happen." As for the Delgado/Sexson debate, I guess the factors are the Safeco Field right-field fence which has been hyped up to near-Yankee Stadium short porch proportions, Delgado's injury history, and whether you think Richie Sexson's labrum injury is a debilitating and irreparable (unhealable, insert synonym here) injury. I could understand the rightfield fence argument for Delgado, but I still can't believe they tried to sell that argument to us with Raul Ibanez. Also, Kelley doesn't have the Mariners taking either Carlos Beltran or Adrian Beltre, and quite frankly, I don't either.
Memo to Alex Rodriguez: HAHA!! End of memo.
SEAHAWKS
In the Koren Robinson Suspension Watch: it still hasn't happened, and it'll happen at a crucial time because we're Seattle fans, dang it.
Greg Bishop tries a little too hard to work in a Wyclef Jean reference. The rest of the article, however, is about the tendency of the offense to not find its groove until November. Some say it's partially attributed to some offensive starters healing from injuries, and partially from the Mike Holmgren offensive simplification. Other than this, I didn't see anything too new in the article.
As we've been saying at Sports and B's here since last Sunday, today's game against the Rams is a must-win, and Les Carpenter pretty much agrees. Les says the Rams stole the Seahawks' swagger on that horrible Sunday last month. Yes, a win will make the Seahawks feel quite good about their chances. A loss sends the season hurtling into uncertainty.
Just win, Seahawks.
SONICS
In the final 5:20 of the game against Toronto on Friday, Rashard Lewis was largely nonexistent except for a key three-pointer to pull the Sonics within one point before Vince Carter's airball three-point shot. There was one point in the fourth quarter where I saw Rashard dribbling everywhere with the basketball, and I thought he had a pretty good chance to shoot, but he passed up the shot and kicked out to Antonio Daniels in backcourt with about 7 to shoot. I thought the fact that Rashard was having a crappy shooting night had crept into his head. One thing I've almost forgotten about during this five-game Sonic win streak is that Rashard's still dealing with that plantar fasciitis.
Percy Allen chats with David Stern. Stern reacts to the Sprewell, Artest, and Bryant headlines with "[w]e are...one of the largest providers of reality television in the world. On and off of the court. And that's what's going to happen from time to time." Allen then defends Artest, stressing that Artest didn't directly ask coach Rick Carlisle for time off to specifically promote the rap album (apparently his group is Allure), but to "get healed up." Allen also stresses that Artest was benched -- not suspended. Allen's best moment of the article may be where he talks about the Artest madness and brings up Marcus Fizer's guilty plea to a loaded-handgun-in-car charge, which has gotten little to no media coverage. Stern says the NBA and its players do a ton of things for the community that go unnoticed by the media, that covers the NBA's weaknesses, but Allen rebuts by saying that the greatest moments in NBA history have been brought to the mainstream by the media.
Upcoming...
Tonight: Memphis at Seattle (5pm tip)
Tuesday: Seattle at Philadelphia
HOCKEY
Seattle beat Vancouver, 3-1. I think it might be safe to say that the Giants are in a tailspin. Meanwhile, the Thunderbirds have won all four games against Vancouver so far this season. But this particular defeat hurt a little bit for Vancouver. Gilbert Brule opened the scoring in the first period on the power play. That 1-0 lead held into the third period. Ladislav Scurko had the equalizer on some brilliant second-chance grunt work (according to the article) by Derek Couture. The tying goal came just 96 seconds into the third period, and Seattle got the lead only 1:05 later on a goal by Tyler Metcalfe. The dagger goal was provided by Chris Durand, who found the five-hole on Marek Schwarz from just inside the blueline. Bryan Bridges stopped 21 of 22 for Seattle, and Schwarz stopped 31 of 34. The loss brings the Giants to .500, at 10-10-0-2.
Portland skated with Spokane, 0-0 in overtime. Needless to say, there was no scoring for 65 minutes. Kevin Opsahl (31 saves) collected the shutout for the Chiefs, and Dustin Butler (20 saves) did likewise for the Winter Hawks. Portland had four power plays, Spokane had six. With goalie Blake Grenier's status uncertain after Vancouver's JD Watt rammed into him on Friday, Butler is the only goalie left on the roster. According to Portland's recap, the team used "a local Spokane goaltender" as their backup.
Manitoba beat Cincinnati, 2-1. Ryan Kesler scored the game-winner on the power play with 2:31 left in the third period for the Moose victory. Manitoba has gotten points in eight straight games, and got five points on their three-game road trip. The Mighty Ducks had the lead when Pierre Parenteau finally opened the scoring at 7:20 of the second period. Manitoba tied the game on a power play with 1:58 left in the second period. Wade Flaherty turned back the Cincinnati tide, stopping 36 of the 37 shots he was peppered with.
Puget Sound beat Tri-City, 6-1. Eighteen wins. Two losses. People, this team is nuts. For any of you in Kitsap County, if you're bored next Friday and/or Saturday (let's face it, if you're in Kitsap County, you probably will be), head on over to the Bremerton Ice Arena (across from the YMCA in East Bremerton) and watch this team play. As for last night's game, the Tomahawks did what they like to do quite often, and that's jump out to a massive lead in the first period. They had a 4-0 lead after 20 minutes.
Tonight: Vancouver at Kootenay
---
By the time most of you are reading this, I'll probably either be watching the Seahawks and forming a post, or I'll be formulating my postgame stuff or something. Or something may get in the way, but I'm bound and determined to keep that from happening.
Have a good Sunday, all, and hopefully a winning Sunday.
-- Ron Judd's got an article on the USA/China Sports Summit, which will be held June 6-14 of 2005. However, the name is deceiving since a bunch of Pacific Rim countries (not just the USA and China) will have athletes participating. There's some summer sports and some winter sports. The catch? No swimming (scheduling conflicts). That of course means that no local people with the last name of Kirk will be in the Summit. One fun thing about the article is the possibility of holding the track events at a high school track in west Seattle. Hooray for traffic trying to get to west Seattle to see any of that.
-- The late feature tonight on CBC's Movie Night in Canada is The Birds. This just might be worse than the least watchable hockey game I can imagine -- either one where it's a scoreless tie and there's 9 shots apiece for both teams, or one where my team gets absolutely boat-raced and loses like 9-1 or something. Seriously, though. The Birds?!!?! I want my NHL back!!
-- I want a win out of these Seahawks today. Badly. So badly I may have trouble sleeping after I post this.
-- Or I won't be able to sleep because Ol' Dirty Bastard is dead at 35. Stunning. Ol' Dirty B wasn't nothin' to f' with. He certainly had a knack of finding headlines, that guy.
It's Sunday, and you know what that means: no P-I articles. Just the Times. What if Morris Day worked at the Times? Don't think about that for too long. In a related story, KJR is still using The Time's "Jungle Love" as background music for their Mitch Levy promos.
MARINERS
Finnigan says the Mariners might hire former big-leaguer Carlos Garcia as their next first-base coach. I think I might have Garcia's rookie card lying around here somewhere.
We've all got different offseason plans. Steve Kelley's got Carlos Delgado and Carl Pavano on his, and I don't want either of those guys. I cringe at Pavano and am quite unsure of whether he can keep last year's magic going, so you can imagine what I think when Kelley says Pavano is "a 20-game winner waiting to happen." As for the Delgado/Sexson debate, I guess the factors are the Safeco Field right-field fence which has been hyped up to near-Yankee Stadium short porch proportions, Delgado's injury history, and whether you think Richie Sexson's labrum injury is a debilitating and irreparable (unhealable, insert synonym here) injury. I could understand the rightfield fence argument for Delgado, but I still can't believe they tried to sell that argument to us with Raul Ibanez. Also, Kelley doesn't have the Mariners taking either Carlos Beltran or Adrian Beltre, and quite frankly, I don't either.
Memo to Alex Rodriguez: HAHA!! End of memo.
SEAHAWKS
In the Koren Robinson Suspension Watch: it still hasn't happened, and it'll happen at a crucial time because we're Seattle fans, dang it.
Greg Bishop tries a little too hard to work in a Wyclef Jean reference. The rest of the article, however, is about the tendency of the offense to not find its groove until November. Some say it's partially attributed to some offensive starters healing from injuries, and partially from the Mike Holmgren offensive simplification. Other than this, I didn't see anything too new in the article.
As we've been saying at Sports and B's here since last Sunday, today's game against the Rams is a must-win, and Les Carpenter pretty much agrees. Les says the Rams stole the Seahawks' swagger on that horrible Sunday last month. Yes, a win will make the Seahawks feel quite good about their chances. A loss sends the season hurtling into uncertainty.
Just win, Seahawks.
SONICS
In the final 5:20 of the game against Toronto on Friday, Rashard Lewis was largely nonexistent except for a key three-pointer to pull the Sonics within one point before Vince Carter's airball three-point shot. There was one point in the fourth quarter where I saw Rashard dribbling everywhere with the basketball, and I thought he had a pretty good chance to shoot, but he passed up the shot and kicked out to Antonio Daniels in backcourt with about 7 to shoot. I thought the fact that Rashard was having a crappy shooting night had crept into his head. One thing I've almost forgotten about during this five-game Sonic win streak is that Rashard's still dealing with that plantar fasciitis.
Percy Allen chats with David Stern. Stern reacts to the Sprewell, Artest, and Bryant headlines with "[w]e are...one of the largest providers of reality television in the world. On and off of the court. And that's what's going to happen from time to time." Allen then defends Artest, stressing that Artest didn't directly ask coach Rick Carlisle for time off to specifically promote the rap album (apparently his group is Allure), but to "get healed up." Allen also stresses that Artest was benched -- not suspended. Allen's best moment of the article may be where he talks about the Artest madness and brings up Marcus Fizer's guilty plea to a loaded-handgun-in-car charge, which has gotten little to no media coverage. Stern says the NBA and its players do a ton of things for the community that go unnoticed by the media, that covers the NBA's weaknesses, but Allen rebuts by saying that the greatest moments in NBA history have been brought to the mainstream by the media.
Upcoming...
Tonight: Memphis at Seattle (5pm tip)
Tuesday: Seattle at Philadelphia
HOCKEY
Seattle beat Vancouver, 3-1. I think it might be safe to say that the Giants are in a tailspin. Meanwhile, the Thunderbirds have won all four games against Vancouver so far this season. But this particular defeat hurt a little bit for Vancouver. Gilbert Brule opened the scoring in the first period on the power play. That 1-0 lead held into the third period. Ladislav Scurko had the equalizer on some brilliant second-chance grunt work (according to the article) by Derek Couture. The tying goal came just 96 seconds into the third period, and Seattle got the lead only 1:05 later on a goal by Tyler Metcalfe. The dagger goal was provided by Chris Durand, who found the five-hole on Marek Schwarz from just inside the blueline. Bryan Bridges stopped 21 of 22 for Seattle, and Schwarz stopped 31 of 34. The loss brings the Giants to .500, at 10-10-0-2.
Portland skated with Spokane, 0-0 in overtime. Needless to say, there was no scoring for 65 minutes. Kevin Opsahl (31 saves) collected the shutout for the Chiefs, and Dustin Butler (20 saves) did likewise for the Winter Hawks. Portland had four power plays, Spokane had six. With goalie Blake Grenier's status uncertain after Vancouver's JD Watt rammed into him on Friday, Butler is the only goalie left on the roster. According to Portland's recap, the team used "a local Spokane goaltender" as their backup.
Manitoba beat Cincinnati, 2-1. Ryan Kesler scored the game-winner on the power play with 2:31 left in the third period for the Moose victory. Manitoba has gotten points in eight straight games, and got five points on their three-game road trip. The Mighty Ducks had the lead when Pierre Parenteau finally opened the scoring at 7:20 of the second period. Manitoba tied the game on a power play with 1:58 left in the second period. Wade Flaherty turned back the Cincinnati tide, stopping 36 of the 37 shots he was peppered with.
Puget Sound beat Tri-City, 6-1. Eighteen wins. Two losses. People, this team is nuts. For any of you in Kitsap County, if you're bored next Friday and/or Saturday (let's face it, if you're in Kitsap County, you probably will be), head on over to the Bremerton Ice Arena (across from the YMCA in East Bremerton) and watch this team play. As for last night's game, the Tomahawks did what they like to do quite often, and that's jump out to a massive lead in the first period. They had a 4-0 lead after 20 minutes.
Tonight: Vancouver at Kootenay
---
By the time most of you are reading this, I'll probably either be watching the Seahawks and forming a post, or I'll be formulating my postgame stuff or something. Or something may get in the way, but I'm bound and determined to keep that from happening.
Have a good Sunday, all, and hopefully a winning Sunday.
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