The Easy Out

It seems like Heisman Trophy Winner and supremely talented Florida State baseball player Jameis Winston has gotten himself into trouble again but players like him at major football factories like Florida State always never seem to pay for it. All over $32 worth of seafood from a Publix Supermarket. He said he "forgot" to pay for it. When the cops talked to him three hours later, he had made no effort to go back and pay for it or even make a phone call to the Publix in question. The statement that was supposedly released by Jameis Winston yesterday through Florida State University wasd a real pant load because I do not believe Mr. Winston wrote the first word of it or even read the first word of it before it was passed on to the press. It was written and prepared by FSU's Public Relations Department and I am guessing whoever wrote this is preparing for a career as a Presidential Speech Writer because it mastered apologetic double talk and it meant nothing. The baseball coach at least had the stones to suspend him from the baseball team but all Mr. Winston has to do is 20 hours of community service and it will all go away. I can guarantee these 20 hours will be well out of the public eye, he will not be picking up garbage by the side of the road, and they will be well taken care of by the time fall practice rolls around and probably the ACC Baseball Tournament as well. It is the easiest out he will ever have.

Playoffs And More Playoffs

If you like playoffs of any kind, this has to be your favorite time of year. You have the NBA and the NHL Playoffs going on at the same time. Most are pretty tightly contested series in both sports, but I am probably paying more attention to the NHL. There are not too many huge upsets in a seven game series in the NBA, but in the NHL, just about anything can happen. The St.Louis Blues and Chicago Blackhawks (the #2 seed vs. the #3 seed) have had an unbelievable series in which 4 of the 5 games have gone into Overtime. The Montreal Canadiens swept their series over the Tampa Bay Lightning and I think it would be good for the NHL to see Montreal go far in the playoffs. I am a Philadelphia Flyers fan but goaltending has always been their achilles heel and with Mason coming off an injury at the end of the season, I don't know if he can carry them to the Stanley Cup or not.

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.