As most of you know that read my blogs, I am a loyal Detroit sports fan sometimes to a fault. But after last night's 4-1 loss to the Black Hawks, I have not given up but know who is the better team. The first period of the game was pretty even, and I can only imagine what Joel Quennville said to his team during the intermission. After whatever was said, the Black Hawks came out and proved to me without any doubt they are the better team.

The Red Wings had their chances, despite Chicago's suffocating attack which left the Wings trapped in their zone facing shot after shot for what seemed like an endless amount of time. The Black Hawks out shot the Red Wings 35-14 after the first period, and admittedly the score could have been worse if not for goaltender Jimmy Howard making save after save, until he allowed the second Hawks goal.

The only goal I did not understand was the third goal, when Howard appeared to intentionally knock the puck off the net which led to the puck going in the net for a 3-1 lead. What the hell was he thinking, if he would have froze the puck on the back of the net, covered it with his stick he would have gotten a whistle almost instantly. But instead, he knocks if off the net and the Black Hawks burn him seconds later.

I am tired of the announcers making excuses for the Red Wings game after game, it has gotten very old hearing they were tired from playing Game 7 in Anaheim. Why can't they just say the Red Wings are rebuilding, which for the most part is the truth. There is a lot of youth on both defense and offense, and one day they will be a Stanley Cup contender again just not this year. Even a person with no knowledge of the game itself, knows that replacing the pieces to their Stanley Cups was and is going to take some time We as fans miss Lidstrom and Holmstrom, and knew they would be difficult to replace. I almost feel sorry for the organization, because they have not clue to what they are getting themselves into next year moving to the much bigger Eastern Conference. In turn the streak may end next year, regardless just as simply put as that.....

I am not looking forward to Saturday afternoon's game, even though history suggests the Wings will play much better than they did Wednesday night..

Sometimes we watch sports or became fans to see that one defining moment, as was the case Monday Night in Boston. The bruins found their backs up against the wall down 3 goals with 10 minutes to play in game 7 in logical Hockey terms it was time shine the golf clubs and get the summer started. But they just didn’t quit of course they seem to have quit in games 5 and 6 to let the Leafs back in. But hard work and determination prevailed for the Bruins as they took game 7.

I feel for the Toronto fans, after all we here in Boston had Bucky Dent, then Bill Buckner, and David Tyree We had Grady Little. Yes we have had our share of playoffs and championship games yanked from the Jaws of victory and ending up in the agony of defeat.

The Leafs will be back next year they have the makings of a contender but Leafs fans are like Cubs and Red Sox use to be. They are just never quite good enough but they continue to support the team so hang in there Toronto.

I guess now when a player has unusual high numbers in baseball we automatically question it and assume there is PED issue. That issue was created by players of the not so distant past. We still see instances of it as we did with Melky Cabrrara. This year it seems at least here in Boston on David Ortiz. Remember , he did test positive a few years back 2003. Ortiz has had unusual hot early season so the question arises. To Ortiz’s credit he is willing to share his test results. . To the medias credit for questioning him he is 37 coming of an injury and was batting over .400. That should be a red flag. Sometimes I think it’s guilt that needs to prove innocence.

Again the players have created this and baseball kind of gave them a wink and a nod for manyt years. Although it has gotten better over the past several years with more testing there is always that seed planted in the media and the public eye. In Ortiz’s case he just seems focused and as made a few adjustments to his swing. He will eventually comeback to a typical Ortiz season if he remains healthy.

NHL Update

The Elite 8 are in place . You have two orgiinal six series one in each conference with the Black Hawks and The Red Wings Hawks lead series 1-0. After a 4-1 victory last night in Chicago. Meanwhile in the East the bruins and Rangers will battle in game 1 tonight both coming off tough 7 game series This is the second straight orginal 6 series the Bruins had. All six of the orginal teams made the playoffs this year with both Toronto and Montreal getting knocked out in the first round.. I think the Bruins will have all the can handle with the Rangers but it should be a decent series. Meanwhile back in the old West we have the second six Kings against the Sharks in a battle of the Golden State.Kings lead series 1-0. And in the East the second six penguins have taken a 1-0 series lead over the Senators. Winning Tuesday 4-1 in a hard checking game.Penguins should roll through this series. I still see the Hawks and the Penguins in the finals but I wouldn’t mind seeing that spoked B getting there somehow.

Zebra Tale

I have been working a lot of HS baseball over the past few weeks. In all the years I haven’t seen this. I ring this kid up on a funky curve ball that came in high and then dropped and curved through the strike zone. The batter was totally fouled on it. The kid stood there with the are you serious like back at umpire(me) look. But he turns to me and the catcher and still kind of in shock and says what a great pitch. The coach comes down the line and says hey Blue he wasn’t giving crap was he. I said no not at all. So the coach who is a pretty good guy says what did he say.I said well he had the dear in the head lights look and the he just turned to me and the catcher and said what a great pitch.

That’s it for today

Even marrying up, I find that there is a little redneck in all of us.

Ok I’ll admit I married up…way up.

My wife’s family is made from different stock, they are bright, good looking and polished. Her 3 sisters and brother and their spouses are all of post graduate degree success. Her parents did a fine job raising these hard working Americans; I love and deeply respect these people.

This unique family is truly one of a kind. Shirt off their back, there for you in a crisis, always caring, and all get along almost all the time. They are a welcoming lot…must be because 27 years after marrying up I’m still in!

 I’m no slouch myself…I did graduate Suma oh laudy don’t come backy

from HS and went on to a distinguished, but very short college career at the local University of Party Tech.

After racking up some bills and a GPA in the ones, I reached my potential and got a job…in construction. and here I am decades later with…a job…in the construction industry. I wouldn’t change a thing.

All that being said, I submit to you, that no matter where you were born and raised and no matter what your social class or which precious metal spoon was between your gums at birth, there IS at least a latent redneck gene swimming in that pool in all of us.

We live in Southeastern MA, an area known for being an ultra liberal hotbed of academia.

We Harrys try to bring some good old fashion redneck style common sense conservatism to the neighborhood. I don’t drive a hybrid but my fairway irons are hybrids

One brother in law said to my wife last weekend at our pre Mothers Day family get together at my place,

"Harry has turned you into a redneck"

Mrsharry started to protest and then stopped…and pondered…and looked around our place…and laughed.

And said,

“ so what your saying is…just because we have a deer hoist on the side of our shed, we just might be rednecks!”

And then she cheerfully added:

“ if you have the black and white striped side canopy from the old Coleman pop up camper attached to the front of that shed to shade the beer fridge…you just might be a Redneck”

And then they all piled on

If your husband plants a row of arborvitae to create a green monster left field wall to the wiffle ball court…you might be a redneck

If the first thing you see when you open door #3 of the shed is a 350 small block Chevy engine…you might be a redneck…if your shed has 3 doors…yup, redneck.

When your stone fire pit is rigged with cast iron hooks and rods to become a cooking fire at

A moments notice… you could possibly be sporting some redneck traits.

When you protect your blueberry bushes from the birds by tying the old

screen house screens around it…chances are that you just might be a redneck

And if all five of your kids smile in agreement when you are called a redneck and proudly admit they are too…than you just may be doing your part to perpetuate the species known as rednecks.

Thanks to the staff here at the Gab and also to Norm for taking care of business whilst I was housing the Marines back in oldharrysville, nice job Norm.

Mom is home and feeling better, thanks for your thoughts and prayers.

We had a great visit and I’m happy to say that my Marines make all of us very proud as they risk much to protect our freedoms. As my daughter said,

“ Fighting for freedom isn’t a safe job but I’d rather be free than safe”

OK Gabbers, this is where you admit to that Redneck gene and tell the rest of us your best redneck moment…don’t be shy

Try not to shit your pants again...




 

Hello and welcome to another Wednesday of deep thoughts. What happened to global warming? It is mid May and normally, Austin is well on the way to summer. Not this year…pleasant and comfortable is what we have had of late. Of course, that means that others are still waiting for the warm up. I always find it interesting that “experts” talk of trends in weather in the past 100 years. Hell…that is not a trend; that is just a blip. Perspective is an interesting thing. Would you find advice from an 80 year old guy more valuable than a 20 year old? How about a weatherman that was 2000 years old?  Now that is a guy that I would tune into listen to. Beezer and BOB touched on something that has been bothering me for awhile. As BOB mentioned yesterday, Tim Tebow cannot find a team willing to put up with the circus that comes with Tebow the football player. Beezer brought out the fact that the “hero” in Cleveland is perhaps not such a great guy after all. Many will say that Tebow is a victim of his popularity that he willingly fed. I guess that is fair, but is really true? From everything that I have heard, Tebow is a very hard working kid that loves to play the game. I am not a fan, but I can see that he has talent to play the game. What is it about Tebow that the media loves? Is it that he was a personality in college and has failed to find success in the NFL? Fans expect, no that is not the right word…we demand players to be available to the media. Usually, players adopt a mask for the camera and use clichés to avoid offering any real depth to who they really are. With Tebow, we get a player that appears to offer us something more than clichés. In doing so, Tim Tebow now understands the dark side of overexposure.

I read this week that Vinny Testerverde and Chris Weinke spent time in the off season working with Tim Tebow. They quickly learned that it was not his throwing motion that caused Tebow’s inaccuracy, but his horrible footwork. After correcting his footwork, his passes had sizzle and repeatedly were true. I also read that the Jets ruined Tebow’s chances of playing in the NFL. I would really like for this kid to get a chance to play. As of now, the only team interested is Jaworski’s AFL team. Tebow has not expressed any interest in arena football at this time.

We live in what has been described as an information age. It is impossible to ignore the many wonderful advances that technology has provided. With the good, comes the bad. With regards to the media and the manner that information is dispersed, I am done…kaput; sick and tired. Emails, twitter, TV, radio…each day such a giant tidal wave of information pours out that I find myself pulling back. Now, of course information is a good thing. It is just the way that the message is being delivered that I have such a problem with. Dig, dig and dig some more is what many media sources do. Why is it that each story must contain drama? Is it because that we want to find the bad stuff that surely must be hidden? I don’t know the Ramsey guy in Cleveland from Jack Shit and really don’t understand why his past is an issue. Except that it gives the media something to dig up and hold up as a trophy of sorts. See, this Good Samaritan is really not such a good guy at all. Look what we found…in the end, we forget that the guy did a really good thing in saving the three women from a horrible existence. Ramsey obviously has had issues in his past. He was punished for his bad behavior and it is not for me to judge his worth as a person, now. Obviously there is a need for this type of coverage because the media finds a large willing market. Maybe it is just me?

I suppose it is rather Pollyanna of me to wish for a simpler time. A time when we accepted things at face value without searching for the bad.. Naive, perhaps…but so much easier in so many ways.

Baseball fans are really big on maintaining the integrity of the game. When a player is “tainted” with real or alleged use of peds, he is completely written off by many fans. I constantly hear it said that players cheating are cheating the game. Why do these same fans not see that horrible umpiring also presents the same threat to the integrity of baseball? Frequently, I hear…”let’s not mess with the “human” element that umpires bring to the game.” I am sorry folks; you can’t take one without the other. A threat is a threat nonetheless. Why should we allow umpires to miss a home run that could have changed the outcome of a game? How can an umpire have access to replays that clearly indicated home run and still get it wrong? How can an umpire not know the rules required for a pitching change? Why allow a manager to protest a game without ever changing the outcome? I can recall one game that was replayed because of a protest…the pine tar game. If ever a game should have been redone it was the game that Oakland lost to Cleveland. Rule the ball a home run and finish the game from that point.  I was listening to an interesting story with regards to the pine tar game that I had forgotten. When the Yankees and Royals met to replay the end of the game that allowed George Brett’s home run… Billy Martin appealed that Brett missed first base, then second and third base. The umpiring crew ruled that he was safe in touching all of the bases. Martin screamed, how can you say he touched the bases, you were not even here! Well, Billy we talked to the other crew and they said he touched the bases. Talk about covering all of your bases!! I have to admit that I had my mind changed this week. I work with a guy that is an umpire for high school games locally. I was asking the question why umpires get a pass from the media. Players and coaches alike have to endure the grilling after a game…why don’t umpires? My friend pointed out that umps are not supposed to be a personality. The problem that he sees is that many of these guys have too much personality and ego. By putting them in front of the camera or having their name put in print, we remove the anonymity that an umpire is supposed to have. An impartial judge is the job and I have to agree that he is right.  Let’s give the umpires better tools to do their job and get rid of the few tools that wear blue and threaten the integrity of the game.

For all the complaining about baseball, there are also many great things about the game. Here is something that is an example of something that is wonderful about baseball. Think Ryu is now a favorite of this kid? Awesome...

I have not followed the NBA much this year, but do know that everyone was singing the praises of Seth Curry. Golden State was going to knock the Spurs out. Spurs were too old…yadda yadda. Looks like the Spurs had a different idea on Tuesday night. Curry had touted that they were the greatest backcourt in history…Curry had 9 points Tuesday night. Reminds me of the great quote by Samuel Clemens…”reports of my demise have been greatly exaggerated.” Somehow the Spurs get it done…when Pop is done coaching, we will look back and realize what a great coach he was. What a great defensive team coached by a tough minded coach.

That’s all I have today, but I will leave you with a bit of Jack Handey…

“If I had a nickname, I would want it to be” Prince of Weasels”, because then I could go up and bite people and they would turn around and go…”What the…?”And then they would recognize me and say, ‘Oh, it’s you, the Prince of Weasels”. “

“I hope when they die that cartoon characters have to answer for their sins.”

That’s all I have for today, but feel free to leave a few deep thoughts of your own.