Thursday, June 14, 2007

These NBA Finals Stink

Let me be the 1 millionth person to drone on about how these Finals suck.  Yeah, a 3-0 series lead tends to do that at times [see: Lakers v Nets].  But this series has been awful.

First off, it is a shame that no one is watching.  You have the Spurs ... who are the closest thing we have to a dynasty right now.  When they finish this one off, they will have won 4 titles in 9 years ... including three titles in the last five years.  And they are facing the Cavaliers ... who have King LeBron James, the most marketed player in the NBA.

There are varying reasons for it. 

*One is that most people felt the outcome of this series was a foregone conclusion.

*With the NBA League Pass and all the action TNT and ESPN give you, many folks may be tapped out.

*They decided to play Game 2 at the same time the final Sopranos episode was set to air.

*No one cares.

I am a basketball junkie who's TiVo'd and watched these games and ... well ... it is boring.  Tony Parker has been a whirling dervish and there have been a few nice plays ... but it's boring. 

Nothing against the Spurs, but they are a fundamentally great team.  There defense is so good that when they have an off night offensively ... they can still win.  See, we don't like that from our Western Conference teams. 

But, it is par for the course.  This has been a bad NBA season.  The biggest storylines all year has been who was going to get Greg Oden on draft day; the Carmelo Anthony fight; Amare Stoudamire getting tossed from a playoff game.  Heck, if it wasn't for Kobe Bryant's weird trade demands last week ... we woulda forgot about the NBA entirely. 

So, Cleveland, please just lay down and die tonight so we all can look forward to the 2007-2008 season and put this ol' dog out of his misery.

Friday, June 8, 2007

The Longest Name in Professional Sports

We've all made fun of the Anaheim Angels recent name change to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. 

So check this out.

Another baseball team changed their name.  The Long Beach Armada.  Their new name?

The Long Beach Armada of Los Angeles of California of the United States of North America Including Barrow, Alaska.

I'm not kidding.  The LBALACUSNAIBA [that's the acronym] team has the longest name in pro sports.  They did so to, I guess, add the LA market to Long Beach [just like the Angels did], plus assure everyone they were in the United States.  But why Barrow, Alaska?

Well, to be naughty, really.  They chose the northernmost baseball city as their "sister city" and will even have a "Barrow Day" next month in Long Beach.

Thursday, June 7, 2007

Remembering "The Baseball Bunch"

For any of you 30-somethings out there, I'm sure you remember a little show called "The Baseball Bunch".  Johnny Bench hosted, the San Diego Chicken did some gags and Tommy Lasorda taught us fundamentals.  This is when fat people played ball, road uniforms were blue and Astroturf was cool. 

It's been 25 years since the show first hit the airwaves and the folks over at Just My Show have a little interview with some of the participants of the program.  Enjoy!