Pine Tar Incident #2

The New York Yankees and Pine Tar have had a strange place in baseball history with the most famous of those being the George Brett Pine Tar Incident on July 24, 1983. Who can ever forget an incensed George Brett charging out of the Kansas City Royals dugout with bad intentions after a homerun was disallowed because the pine tar was higher on his bat than the baseball rules allowed. New York Yankees Manager Billy Martin noticed the pine tar on his bat earlier in the game when he got a hold of one of George Brett's bats that landed near the Yankees dugout. He did not point it out to the umpires until he needed to use it. Martin was very shrewd like that. Last Wednesday night on April 23, Pitcher Michael Pineda of the New York Yankees had little control over his pitches in the first inning because of bad weather conditions in a game against the Boston Red Sox. In between innings, Pineda dabbed some pine tar on his neck to help him get a better grip on the baseball. He had done this pine tar thing before (it had also been against the Red Sox) but that time he had dabbed the pine tar on the heel of his hand and it wasn't as noticeable. On Wednesday night, he dabbed it on his neck and it was noticed by the Boston Red Sox, the ESPN cameras, and to most everyone watching it on TV. Even my girlfriend, a non-baseball fan, noticed it. Red Sox Manager John Farrell also caught it and brought the pine tar smear to the umpires attention. Pineda was ejected and received a 10 game suspension as a result. Pineda did not even try to deny it and will not appeal his suspension.

A Brit Finally Wins Wimbledon

Wimbledon is about the only tennis tournament I watch all year long. I usually try to catch the semi-finals and I always watch the Gentlemen's Final. This year it was #1 seed Novak Djokovic versus #2 Andy Murray from Great Britain. Tim Henman had a window of about 5 years where he was probably good enough to win it and Murray has been in contention for the past 3 or 4 years but never could quite get over the top. He was able to beat Djokovic in straight sets and is the first player from Great Britain to win in 77 years. Fred Perry in 1936 was the last. As far as the match itself goes, all I can say is I really miss serve-and-volley tennis. Playing from the baseline commits yourself to long rallies and more unforced errors and I believe that is where the match turned. I don't think that it was that Murray that played so well, it was that Djokovic made a ton of errors. At one point, ESPN showed a stat that said Murray had ran 1.35 miles and Djokovic had only ran 1.15 miles. Really all that matters in the end is that Murray was holding the Championship trophy over his head. He finally made the British fans proud.

The Best Minute In Sports

The best minute in sports is the last minute of a game in the National Hockey League with one of the teams behind a goal. The team that is losing waits until the time is right to pull their Goalie and add an extra skater to the ice in order to pepper the opposing Goalie with shots hoping to tie the score. The team that is leading has an unopposed open net at the other end of the ice just beckoning to be shot at. The leading team's primary purpose is to get it out of their zone to kill some time whether they score or not. The majority of the time pulling the Goalie does not work and the leading team either gets an empty net goal or they win the game by one goal. When pulling the Goalie does work, it is a thing of chaos and beauty. It is just a mad scramble to put the puck in the net and the most exciting minute in sports.

Fighting In The NHL

The NHL strike is finally over and the teams are back to playing hockey with an abbreviated 48 game season. The shortened season seems to have placed a greater sense of urgency at the beginning of the season because teams cannot afford to get too far behind. This has caused more fighting majors at the beginning of the season as most teams are out to make a statement. I was watching the Rangers-Maple Leafs game the other night and the announcer made the comment that every team in the Eastern Conference had at least one tough guy on the team now. The Carolina Hurricanes went out and traded for Kevin Westgarth of the Los Angeles Kings to add to Tim Gleason. Gleason is a stand up guy and will stick up for his teammates but he didn't exactly strike fear into the hearts of the other team. When I first started watching hockey, I was attracted to the fighting as most casual fans are. However, the more I watched it, the more I began to realize what a beautiful, fluid sport hockey is with some amazing athletes. There is also a time to drop the gloves and a time to skate away. The Carolina Hurricanes and Buffalo Sabres were tied 0-0 about halfway thru the second period and John Scott of the Sabres tried drawing Kevin Westgarth of the Hurricanes into a fight. The Hurricanes announcer quickly pointed out that Westgarth had no reason to drop the gloves because it would only serve to get the crowd into the game (the game was in Buffalo) and fire up the Sabres and may have the adverse effect on the Hurricanes.

I Remember

I caught the last 4 minutes of the Lakers-Clippers game the other night won by the Clippers and that game helped me remember why I no longer watch the NBA. The last 4 minutes of the game must have taken 20 minutes to play between all of the free throws and timeouts. There is some kind of new rule in the NBA that if a player gets fouled in the last two minutes of the quarter then it is an automatic two free throws. The Clippers had an 8 point lead when I turned it on but before the two minute mark. it was an all out sprint by the Clippers to blatantly grab Dwight Howard because he can't hit a free throw. I don't care if he was on the other side of the court from the ball, they grabbed him and the refs would call a foul. The strategy by the Clippers was that they would rather take their chances with Howard at the free throw line than Kobe Bryant catching the Lakers up by nailing a few three pointers. I can understand the strategy but it made for some extremely boring basketball. Free throw shooting has been one of the basic fundamentals of basketball since just about the beginning of the game itself. During the ESPN era, it is probably one of the least practiced areas of the game. It is impossible to make ESPN's nightly Top 10 hitting a free throw. Let me know when it is time for the playoffs.

NBA 2K13

I am really not a big fan of the NBA. I haven't really followed the NBA since the Bird-Magic era and the last season I paid attention to was the year the Michael Jordan led Chicago Bulls beat the Utah Jazz. I may not care about the NBA but I love this game NBA 2K13. The game play is smooth, the graphics are great, and it is easy to navigate. Since I am not an NBA fan, I played around with several teams to see which one I wanted to use in the "Association" mode. I finally settled on the Denver Nuggets. I am a huge University of North Carolina Tarheels fan so the main reason I settled on the Nuggets was because of Point Guard Ty Lawson. I like to keep my video games as realistic as possible but I decided to build a Tarheel Super team through trades. I have already traded for Tyler Hansbrough and Tyler Zeller without having to give up too awful much and I am thinking about going after Kendall Marshall and Harrison Barnes next. I almost forgot about John Henson but I do not want to trade away any of my core Nugget players to get him. I really like this game and I am glad I purchased it.

The Seattle Seahawks Vs. The Arizona Cardinals

The Seattle Seahawks 58-0 win over the Arizona Cardinals was monumental for several reasons. With the score being that lopsided the issue of "running up the score" came up with every form of the media imaginable. The announcer, it was either Tim Ryan or John Lynch, started railing on the Seahawks continuing to pass the ball after they put backup QB Matt Flynn in the game. The announcer did not note in his diatribe (I went to Grad school- I have to act educated once in a while with the use of big words) that Russell Wilson was removed rom the game about halfway thru the third quarter and these were the first snaps that Matt Flynn had taken all season. I think Pete Carroll did the right thing. The standard rule in any sport is that the backup is only one play away from being the starter. The Seahawks are fighting for their playoff lives and if Russell Wilson gets hurt, Matt Flynn would go in after not having played for about 4 months. The speed of the game is much different in game situations than in practice. Pete Carroll also emptied the rest of his bench as well and what else were they supposed to do? The Cardinals QB by committee is not working and John Skelton has killed the Seahawks in his brief NFL career. They turned the ball over 8 times and it seemed that the ball bounced right to the Seahawks. An example of this is when the Cardinals muffed a punt and LB Malcolm Smith had the ball bounce off of Jeremy Lane's foot and right into his hands as he is running into the end zone. By the end of the game the announcer was backtracking his earlier statement of running up the score. The Seahawks did take a few shots into the end zone towards the end of the game, but Matt Flynn needs the practice.