5/13/07: The Week In Sports

May 13, 2007

The theme for this week’s column will be the word, sense
It only makes sense: The NBA playoffs try to compete every year to confuse the not-so-average basketball fan that it is just as interesting to watch as the NCAA tournament.
Truth is it is far from interesting. The key to the disinterest in my opinion has to be the best of seven game series. One of the huge thrills in the NCAA tournament is the threat of if you lose you are done. In the NBA you can lose twelve games and still be the NBA champion.
But, this year the NBA had its chance, it had its sports savior. The eighth-seeded Warriors in the Western Conference dominated the top-seeded Dallas Mavericks in the first round.
So I became interested, just in time to watch the Warriors drop the first two games of the second round on the road to the Utah Jazz. Golden State would then win the third at home, and lose a key fourth game at home.
It only makes sense, that this year the NBA finally had a chance to redeem itself with the Golden State Warriors, but it seems that media darling will have to wait another ten years.
It takes street sense: Another year, another 14 hours of coverage in a 24-hour span from Churchill Downs, home of the Kentucky Derby.
After hours of pre-race build-up, the world’s most famous two minutes were underway. I can not stress enough how odd it seems to me that there is so much coverage and so many viewers for two minutes!
How long has it been since the favored horse even won? Being that there was no big name horse in this year’s field, that didn’t change. My pick, Cowtown Cat ran very well for three-quarters of the track, and then fell from second to seventh.
This year’s winner, Street Sense, began at the back of the pack in 19th and in the last half-mile moved all the way in front. It actually was a very good race, but as for a Triple Crown winner this year, it’s not going to happen.
A sixth sense: Barry Bonds, where to begin? The guy is phenomenal. Granted he maybe one of the rudest people on the face of the earth, but is he being paid to be a nice guy? No, he is being paid to play baseball, and he does that very well.
Bonds already has 11 home runs this season, and is now only 11 shy of breaking Hank Aaron’s all-time record of 755 home runs. A Dallas auction house has already offered $1 million for the 756th home run ball.
My feeling on Bonds is that the guy never took any steroids and the media can easily find him as a target. For years he refused to do interviews and sat away from his teammates in the dugout making him an obvious outcast.
Why are we not investigating every huge hitter? Albert Pujols has never come up in any steroids conspiracy, yet he hits many home runs and is very muscular. I feel that in a day-in-age when Floyd Landis corrupts cycling with performance enhancements, are there any records left that are sacred?
The point of all this is, Barry Bonds maybe an awful man, but an awfully good baseball player. He simply has a sixth sense of hitting the ball very well.
Use a little common sense: Brett Favre is upset in Green Bay after the Packers were unable to acquire Randy Moss in a trade. Favre is so distraught over this that he is demanding a trade.
Give me a break. Favre is nearing senior discounts at Denny’s and he’s threatening about leaving a team, for who? What team is going to pick up a guy who has been flirting with retiring for the past few seasons?
Granted, he improved a team of nobody’s from 4-12 to 8-8 in the past two seasons, but we have seen Favre’s prime come and go. Brett, please use a little common sense, stop whining and play ball or quit.
And, on that note might I add that it makes no sense that Roger Clemens returns to baseball for yet another season. I think Favre, Clemens, and Clifford Robinson should all look into some retirement home together.
For my two sense (cents, but in this case sense because it is the theme), tune in every Wednesday at 3 p.m. to KEOL La Grande 91.7 FM for Sports 101.