Oh I was just celebratin' Harden ran into my elbow! 

Greetings from the Hoodwood, where it suddenly got colder and the natives don’t like it a bit

This is kind of a lull period where baseball is just getting warmed up. College basketball is on no one’s mind, pro basketball is lurching toward its playoffs and hockey is still weeding out the suckas and pretenders, one of which are my beloved Detroit Red Wings who were shooed aside by the Nashville Predators for their earliest playoff exit since 2006, it’s a bitter pill to swallow for that veteran laden team and one has to wonder if the magic is fading. The Wings have the longest playoff run of any of the four major sports. The last time that they missed the playoffs was my senior year in high school,  1990. But you wonder with grizzled captain Nick Lidstrom hinting at retirement if the Wings will continue to make splashes in the free agent market to keep their run going and try to  get back to the Cup final…

Leading Off: More problems in the Big Easy?

Damn when it rains it pours. The Saints embattled GM Mickey Loomis, already under fire for his role in Bountygate is now weathering allegations that he rigged listening devices on opposing coaches. The device which had been used by Loomis’ predecessor Randy Mueller to monitor his own coaches, was allegedly rewired to spy on opposing coaches. Loomis, who is set to serve an eight game suspension  for his role in Bountygate is being accused of having the apparatus at his access from 2002-2004. Now keep in mind that the Saints were so-so during that period going 8-8, 8-8 and 9-7 and were 12-12 at home during that period. No one knows how long this would have continued, remember the Superdome was a makeshift homeless shelter during the Hurricane Katrina. But Loomis is facing not only trouble from the NFL who have the Saints high on their master shit list to start but a possible investigation from the FBI. Oh yeah, the feds are not too keen on eavesdropping. They liken that to wiretapping which is a big no-no to them.  Loomis might get over on that though because of statute of limitations on that particular crime. Loomis, of course denies the allegations calling them “1000 percent false”.  Loomis is playing Russian Roulette with his career and freedom and that gun has more bullets than blanks.

Canucks and Pens get the gate

As  chronicled in this blog last week, the defending Western Conference champ Vancouver Canucks fell into a 0-3 hole to the heretofore unremarkable LA Kings, a team that hadn’t won a playoff series in 11 years. But after averting a sweep by winning game 4 and leading game 5 at home the Canucks lost in OT and were eliminated. Sully was predicting a riot in BC but Canuck fans just packed it up and went home too stunned to be angry. The ever present curse of the Presidents Cup has reared its head once again. While not a regular occurrence the Presidents Trophy Winner in the NHL has been jinxed as the last four winners of this trophy have not put a Stanley Cup next to it. The Canucks won last year as well but were defeated by the Bruins. The last team to win the Presidents Trophy and Stanley Cup? The Detroit Red Wings in 2008. Since its inception in 1985-86, only 6 times has a Presidents Trophy winner won the Stanley Cup.

Meanwhile in Pennsylvania , The Penguins looked as if they too would get swept out of the playoffs by their hated in-state rival Philadelphia Flyers, but they staved off elimination not one but two times, thrashing the Flyers in Philly in game 4 and finally beating the Flyers at home in game 5. The whispers were getting louder if the Flyers couldn’t eliminate the Pens at home a winner take all game 7 in Pittsburgh was looming. But the Flyers played loose and relaxed and throttled the Pens before a raucous Philly crowd. The Pens with all their promise and talk of wanting the Bruins or Rangers are going home.

Oh Damn it’s them again!

 I make no bones about the fact that I loath the Spurs. Their yawn inducing offense, Manu Ginobili’s fullback charges to the basket, Pop’s no necktie whines on the sideline and the uber boring yet masterly efficient Tim Duncan who just seems to be more and more vanilla  yet peaks at the right time. The Spurs have been clicking off wins like a metronome and are in position to take the top seed the West with with late stumbles by the Thunder but possibly the NBA’s overall #1 seed with the poor play as of late by the Bulls in the East. I will give grudging credit to the Spurs and for their fine play down the stretch all the while secretly hoping that a plucky team like Memphis or Utah will rise up again and send the Spurs home way early. I really couldn’t stomach a full spring with ESPN fawning over the Spurs and their “team oriented basketball” I know it sounds like mindless hatred, but Ive never been a fan of Pop, Parker or Ginobili and the  Spurs snooty fans.  With the possible injury to the Thunder’s James Harden (See head slap) the Thunder may be in trouble trying to get out of the West. I would dread seeing the Spurs in the Finals.

Phat Dap/Head Slap

Phat Dap

To Tennessee’s Pat Summitt who retired as not only the Tennessee’s and Women’s all time winningest coach but in all of college basketball. Summitt is battling early onset dementia and will move into the largely ceremonial role of Head Coach Emeritus but her shadow will loom large over  Knoxville and womens college basketball. Her 1098 wins are 172 ahead of the Coach K at Duke who started as a head coach only a year later than Summitt. Hoodwood wishes nothing but the best for Summitt as she battles this memory sapping disease

Head Slap

I saved the best for last. Did you think that Ron Artest (I think that stupid moniker of Metta World Peace is insulting and inane) would escape without mention? Oh, that fool and his “celebration” which somehow landed an elbow behind the ear of Thunder forward James Hardin was just as stupid as his given name. I don’t know which is stupider, his name  that so-called celebration or his excuse for what he did.  Artest is going to get socked by the NBA for this one. Its hard to believe that he was last years receipient of the NBA citizenship award.

I know this one was short, but Daddy duty in Hoodwood calls... Until Next Post Fellow Sports Fans!