Rainy Monday Morning

The East spanked the West 39-13 in the 4th Annual PSFCA East-West All Star game, which was held at Altoona’s Mansion Park. Unfortunately (for me at least), the East continues their dominance over the West. Had it not been for Darelle Revis’ masterful performance for Aliquippa in the AA PIAA final, the East would have swept the West. With many of the summer all star games in the books, the only one of any importance left is the Big 33, which will take place in July.

Well, 2 major sports drafts have taken place since the last time I’ve blogged. I’ll start with the NBA. I put on the draft coverage on ESPN and watched the crawl and was like “who ARE most of these guys?” Even some of the few college players that went in the first round, aside from Okafor, I wasn’t too familiar with. The NBA draft has become the high school/Euro draft. Look, I love college basketball and I know that from the amount of it that I watch I see good players. I just don’t know what some of these scouts see in these guys. Lebron James only comes once in a great while. Emeka Okafor is a great player for the Charlotte Bobcats to build their franchise around. Orlando will regret passing him up. I know, I know, I’m the guy that said ‘Bron would be a flop. I’ve already said I was wrong on that one, but this Howard kid is no Lebron James. Also, tell me how you take Sebastian Telfair over Jameer Nelson? I’m a big proponent of the 20-year-old rule that Commissioner Stern wants, but I can’t see any court letting that happen. The association needs to take a long hard look at the NBDL. They need to expand that thing in two phases. The first phase should work like the NFL Europe works with the NFL; the second phase will see every team having a “farm team” so to speak. That way you can develop these Europeans and high schoolers.

The NHL also held their draft over the weekend. Although the point may be moot since the likelihood of the NHL even having a season in 2004-05 is low. The Penguins got the guy they’ve wanted all along, Russian forward Evgeni Malkin.

Who else was shocked to see the Pirates on the winning side of a 1-0 game? That shocked me more than yesterday’s walloping. A team will give you the blowout every now and then no matter how bad they are. But the low scoring games are harder to win. Finally a good pitching performance isn’t wasted. By the way, if you don’t think that Oliver Perez is the star of the current Bucs pitching staff you’re sadly mistaken. That Brian Giles trade looks better and better each time Perez takes the mound.

Congrads to the San Jose Sabercats for winning the Arena Bowl over the weekend. I have to say, I LOVE Arena Football. I think rather than every 15 years or so someone trying and failing with a spring league (WFL, USFL, XFL, etc) we should just embrace the indoor game. NFL has been doing an outstanding job with the coverage as well. Also, if you miss the games broadcasted, you can check out Fox Sports Net’s excellent program “AFL Weekly” at 3:30 on Mondays (and sporadically throughout the week repeated). I’d rather watch AFL than the NFLE. I miss Johnstown not having a low-level arena team. The Jackals/J-Dogs were fun to watch. Also, congratulations to Meyersdale native Matt Kinsinger, a member of the SaberCats, for winning a championship ring.

Jeff Gordon won the first of Nascar’s Nextel Cup Series’ two road course races yesterday in dominating fashion. Sonoma is one of the few places that the #24 car gets booed at (Indy being the other). Big surprise of the week; Tony Stewart was picking a fight with somebody after the race. Boy has this guy’s act gotten old or what? I equate what is happening now in racing with baseball and the brush back pitch. Twenty years ago, pitchers like Bob Gibson throw at batters, it was part of the game and no one had a problem with it. Now, a guy gets a pitch thrown behind him and he’s ready to fight. Same thing with stock car racing; I guarantee if you go back twenty years you won’t see nearly as many after race altercations between drivers. It’s nonsense and it should stop. Maybe Nascar should make Stewart an example and suspend him the rest of the season. They need to come up with a rule similar to how the NHL banished bench-clearing brawls. The penalties need to be so stiff that it just won’t happen again.

A much more serious incident occurred at a NHRA drag race event over the weekend as Darrell Russell, a top-fuel driver, lost his life in a crash. Thoughts and prayers out to the family.

Time for the Coulter Count: I’m disappointed in a meager three usages of the word liberal (or liberals). Although it’s a fantastic “column” bashing Bill Clinton’s book. Wow! Who didn’t see that one coming?

I actually started the book last night, just read the first chapter though. I think the major complaint from reviews I’ve read is that it’s just too wordy and long-winded. I would think that would be the case with a book nearly 1,000 pages. But hey, War and Peace is a classic right?

And yes, I did finish “The Da Vinci Code” and it is a book definitely worthy of the hype. It would make a fantastic film, if done correctly. If that happens though, don’t sell yourself short, read the book.

Have you ever heard of a hotel bar being closed on Saturday night? Me neither!