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5999. wabbit - 6/8/2008 9:46:28 PM  Paul Pierce shook off a sprained knee and scored 22 points - 11 after getting hurt in the third quarter - to lead Boston to a 98-88 victory on Thursday night over the Los Angeles Lakers in Game 1 of a tradition-rich and super-hyped NBA finals that already has a signature moment. Pierce's return immediately joins the annals of Celtics-Lakers finals lore, taking a spot alongside Magic Johnson's baby sky hook and Kevin McHale's clothesline of Kurt Rambis. It drew immediate comparisons to Willis Reed, the former New York Knicks great who once hobbled onto the court of Madison Square Garden before Game 7 of the 1970 finals against the Lakers. Some of the savvy Celtics fans even chanted Reed's name in tribute. Kevin Garnett scored 24 points and Ray Allen , the third member of Boston's Big Three, added 19. The trio, brought together by two transforming trades was making its first finals appearance, and for a short time it appeared only two of them would finish their long-awaited debut. Game two is tonight in Boston.
A day after the Boston Red Sox and Tampa Bay Rays tangled, Major League Baseball struck back: Eight suspensions totaling 38 games. Boston outfielder Coco Crisp (who looks like he might have made a decent boxer) and Tampa Bay pitcher James Shields were the hardest hit Friday, the result of their fight turning into a wild, bench-clearing brawl at Fenway Park. Three Red Sox were suspended: Crisp for seven games, pitcher Jon Lester for five games and first baseman Sean Casey for three games. Five Rays were penalized by MLB disciplinarian Bob Watson: Shields for six games, DH-outfielder Jonny Gomes and pitcher Edwin Jackson for five games each, outfielder Carl Crawford for four games and second baseman Akinori Iwamura for three games. All eight players also were fined undisclosed amounts. The Red Sox and Rays have often clashed in the past, and their latest outburst came during Boston's 7-1 win Thursday night. Boston remains in first place, barely, in the AL East.
6000. wabbit - 6/8/2008 9:46:52 PM  R.I.P. Jim McKay. I spent many hours watching Wide World of Sports and remember hearing McKay's best known broadcast, the 1972 Olympics. He and Howard Cosell are the two voices I remember clearly from the early days of TV sports.
Please NOOOOOOO!! Now batting for the Red Sox ... Barry Bonds. A DH replacement for injured David Ortiz? Bonds once called Boston a racist city, but he had a different take when his Giants visited Fenway last year. "Beautiful city," he said. Plus, his kid, Nikolai, attended a nearby boarding school, Valley View School in North Brookfield, Mass. Outside a San Francisco courthouse after Friday's not-guilty plea to perjury charges, Bonds had no comment.
This was the year Roger Federer was supposed to beat Rafa at the French Open. It wasn't even close, ending in straight sets, 6-1, 6-3, 6-0. On Saturday, assured of rising to No. 1 in the rankings for the first time, Ana Ivanovic collected Grand Slam title No. 1 by beating Dinara Safina 6-4, 6-3 in the French Open final Saturday.
Big Brown turned out to be less freakish than many had hoped and didn't have his usual power in the Belmont Stakes. Rather than risk any injury, Kent Desormeaux loped across the finish line in last place, far behind 38-1 shot Da' Tara, who lead wire to wire and won by 5-1/4 lengths. He was followed by Denis of Cork in second and a dead heat for third between Anak Nakal and Ready's Echo. Macho Again was fifth, followed by Tale of Ekati, Guadalcanal, Icabad Crane and Big Brown.
6001. alistairConnor - 6/8/2008 10:26:01 PM And that'll be a nice round number for Wabbit... it's a buzz to see the thread come back!
5998 - I saw that gesture, Nadal biting the Roland Garros cup -- was he checking to see if it's real silver?
Best match by far (out of four) of the Euro just finished - Germany vs Poland. Both goals were scored by Podolski.
... yeah he's a German. The Poles are very good, they shouldn't have too much trouble qualifying against the two other teams of their group: Croatia and Austria.
The Czechs looked laborious in overcoming the stonewalling Swiss, 1-0. They don't seem to have the class of four years ago.
Portugal are a shadow of their former glory; Turkey had plenty of spunk and talent but make horrible errors : 2-0.
Tomorrow we get France-Roumania : we have a very talented team, though no real genius since Zidane retired; and the other group match, Italy-Netherlands, will show who our real opponents are. It's a tough group.
Then Tuesday, the fourth group comes into play, with Russia - Spain and Greece - Sweden. 6002. jexster - 6/9/2008 12:25:24 AM 
6003. jexster - 6/9/2008 12:28:27 AM Didn't realize I was such a tennis fan
 6004. jexster - 6/9/2008 1:35:50 AM Eats trophies AC
 6005. jexster - 6/9/2008 2:14:05 AM What if you built it but no one came?
Washington Nationals Park......
The San Francisco Midgets took another one this afternoon. I could not believe how empty the new DC stadium was. The Giants are worried, and rightly so, about their attendance. Will it hold at 3 million+ with such a crappy team on the field?
This is the opening season for DC....and that place was empty this weekend. Even allowing for the fact that these are two of the worst teams in baseball this year,..... 6006. wonkers2 - 6/9/2008 2:54:29 PM Jex is a Prufrock walking on the beach in his white flannel trousers and eating a peach. 6007. jexster - 6/9/2008 7:13:20 PM Wonkers is a poet and don't know it
But he don't know squat about horse races 6008. jexster - 6/9/2008 7:16:29 PM My Peach
I eat...For I have known them all already, known them all
6009. jexster - 6/9/2008 8:30:19 PM Peach on a beach
 6010. alistairConnor - 6/9/2008 9:30:56 PM I missed all but the last 5 minutes of France-Roumania. But I didn't miss anything. 0-0, rather worrying. All France's matches are knock-outs now.
Italy-Netherlands now on. And the Dutch are magnificent, leading 3-0. Though they had some help from the ref: for the first goal, Van Nistelrooy was frankly a couple of yards offside. But there's no injustice when you're sticking it to the Italians : they are never trustworthy, specially not these ones, they are over thirty. 6011. wabbit - 6/10/2008 6:51:17 PM I think Rafa is kinda strange-looking. Federer too, now that I'm thinking about it. Maybe it's me.
I was just reading Curt Schilling's blog and had to share some of what he said in his last post about professional basketball. He managed to get seats just behind the Lakers' bench, so he had an up close and personal POV: ...I always wondered about the bitching and moaning of NBA coaches and players with regards to officiating and last night I was literally on the floor to see and hear it first hand. Things I heard and saw.
1) KGs first quarter Technical. I heard EVERY word of his exchange with the ref. It’s nice to know that they share the same problems some players do with MLB umpires. He was giving a technical because he said the F word, period. He did NOT call the ref a name, he was bitching about a non-call and said “C’mon, what the F am I supposed to do” and got the T. Now I watch both Pierce, and I think Allen, talking to this ref and he shoots back to Paul this little tidbit. “I can’t let him talk to me that way.”
What? Dude, your an NBA official, not the stinking Pope. Not one person in the arena paid 1 cent of their ticket to see you, ref the game and shut your pie hole. These guys are playing for a world championship, they are as amped up as you expect the best players in the world to be, they are grown men, there’s going to be some PG-13 language, and you are giving a T to a guy for dropping an F bomb? Stupid.
2) Every SINGLE play up and down the floor has MULTIPLE fouls being committed by multiple players. These guys are in close, every play. They are beating the crap out of each other, and the refs see it. That makes me think that the game is called and paced exactly how the refs want it to be. I wondered aloud, a few times, how in the hell calls weren’t being made against the Celts on a ton of plays in the paint where there was some serious pugilism being committed. There were a ton of ‘non-calls’ in my incredibly amateur opinion.
3) Phil Jackson knew it. Early in the game, Farmar comes to the bench during Celts free throws and asks about the next series, Jackson says “One thing I do know is we’ve got to stop !@#$&@#%$#&*()@ fouling these guys” Farmar asks what he says and he repeats the line.
4) I don’t know much about the NBA beyond some of the star players and the famous teams. I heard that the Lakers got Gasol in a horrible steal of a deal and that the league should have investigated the trade for some sort of punishable crime :) I saw a 7 footer last night who grabbed like 4 rebounds and spent the entire game whining about getting fouled... 6012. wabbit - 6/10/2008 6:51:59 PM 5) Kobe. This one stunned me a little bit. Who doesn’t know Kobe Bryant right? I only know what I have heard, starting awhile back with the entire Shaq debacle. I don’t really have an opinion one way or the other on or about him other than to know that people feel he might be one of the 4-5 greatest players to ever lace it up. What I do know is what I got to see up close and hear, was unexpected. From the first tip until about 4 minutes left in the game I saw and heard this guy bitch at his teammates. Every TO he came to the bench pissed, and a few of them he went to other guys and yelled about something they weren’t doing, or something they did wrong. No dialog about “hey let’s go, let’s get after it” or whatever. He spent the better part of 3.5 quarters pissed off and ranting at the non-execution or lack of, of his team. Then when they made what almost was a historic run in the 4th, during a TO, he got down on the floor and basically said ‘Let’s f’ing go, right now, right here” or something to that affect. I am not making this observation in a good or bad way, I have no idea how the guys in the NBA play or do things like this, but I thought it was a fascinating bit of insight for me to watch someone in another sport who is in the position of a team leader and how he interacted with his team and teammates. Watching the other 11 guys, every time out it was high fives and “Hey nice work, let’s get after it” or something to that affect. He walked off the floor, obligatory skin contact on the high five, and sat on the bench stone faced or pissed off, the whole game. Just weird to see another sport and how it all works. I would assume that’s his style and how he plays and what works for him because when I saw the leader board for scoring in the post season his name sat up top at 31+ a game, can’t argue with that. But as a fan I was watching the whole thing, Kobe, his teammates and then the after effects of conversations. He’d yell at someone, make a point, or send a message, turn and walk away, and more than once the person on the other end would roll eyes or give a ‘whatever dude’ look.
Let me reiterate that this is from a complete basketball newbie, so for all I know this could be exactly how these guys play this game and interact with each other...
Schilling is nothing if not a man who never hesitates to share his thoughts. He puts his foot in his mouth a lot, but there is never any doubt about what he thinks or where he stands. I like that about him.6013. arkymalarky - 6/10/2008 7:13:22 PM Hey Wabbit! I sent you an email (two, actually) to your viwabbit Yahoo email.
How's your mom? 6014. wabbit - 6/10/2008 7:47:27 PM 737 messages and all but four were spam - yikes! Have replied at last.
My mother is doing better, thanks. She still has trouble walking and is using a cane, so she's a very long way from being fully recovered. Actually, she'll never be back to where she was, since she has no lower fibula now; that ankle will always be sore and swollen. I still have her using the porta-potty in her bedroom at night, because I don't want her walking to the bathroom in the middle of the night when she isn't fully awake. Her ribs are pretty well healed, as is her broken wrist. She has a deep tissue hematoma in her upper left arm that still gives her pain. She's back at work and happy to be able to drive, but any shopping still needs my presence. That's unfortunate for her, I didn't inherit the shopping gene. I regard grocery shopping like a big-game hunter...armed with my store card and coupons, I go to get supplies for the family and come home having saved 31% on average. My motto is No Retail. Shopping is purely functional for me, not something done for fun or to kill time. Except for bookstores, and my motto still applies. I'm a very boring shopping companion. But I bet she spends far less with me in tow! 6015. arkymalarky - 6/10/2008 10:21:58 PM Haha! I'm an awful shopper too, but awful and inefficient--so very speedy. "No Retail" sounds like the motto to adopt in these times.
That's great that your mother is back to working and driving! 6016. alistairconnor - 6/13/2008 7:06:18 PM Perfect result!
Italy 1 - 1 Roumania.
That makes both of them less threatening for France... we have to win tonight against the Netherlands, or the tournament's over for us.
The gods had a sense of humour when they drew lots for the groups. The world champions and vice-champions in the same group (Italy, France). Add in an eternal Euro favourite who is currently in better form than either (Netherlands). And, because you need a weak team, add in Roumania. Yeah, the one who has drawn their matches with the world champions and vice-champions.
And I'm going to miss the France-Netherlands match. Choir practice. 6017. jexster - 6/16/2008 11:45:48 PM Well Tiger Woods just won his third US Open in sudden death against Rocco Mediate.....The color commentator earlier observed, as Woods was walking up the fairway with his white caddy, that Tiger on one leg (gimpy knee) was better than anyone else on 2
Not a good year for White Pride 6018. wabbit - 6/18/2008 5:26:32 PM  Game 7 is now officially moot. The Celtics clobbered the LA Lakers last night 131-92 to win their first NBA Championship in 22 years. The "Big Three", Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen, were big indeed, but everyone contributed. Rajon Rondo had quite a night. Though he shot only 8-for-20 from the field, Rondo spearheaded Boston's superior defensive effort, finishing with six steals (including one monster rip from the hands of the 6-foot-10, 230-pound Lamar Odom) to go with his 21 points, eight assists and seven rebounds.
For the Big Three, this was the first NBA title for each of them, and the first for the league's most-decorated franchise since the original Big Three of Larry Bird, Kevin McHale and Robert Parish won No. 16 in 1986. Danny Ainge was the point guard for that team and the general manager for the one that won 66 games a season after winning 24 -- the biggest turnaround in NBA history. The Celtics join the 1975 Golden State Warriors and the '77 Trail Blazers as the only teams to win it all a year after missing the playoffs.
Pierce was name the finals MVP - I would have given it to Garnett. Pierce had 17 points and 10 assists in the clincher, Garnett had 26 points with 14 rebounds, and Allen returned from a red-eye from the coast and a poked eye in the lane to add 26 points, including an NBA finals record-tying seven 3-pointers.
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