In today’s Philadelphia Inquirer Mike Jensen has some questions about the state of thoroughbred breeding.
Take a walk down memory lane with me to my comments on the same subject about five years ago.
A View of College Sports
May 10, 2008Dwight Jaynes has some interesting thoughts about athletes and academic progress.
Most college athletes are really there for the education. The ones who aren’t think they’re in the minor leagues for football, baseball, and basketball.
I know a guy who wanted to go to college in Idaho so he’d be playing hockey closer to his parents in Alaska. They told him to go to the best school he could, because he may not have a future in hockey, but a degree from a good school would give him a future outside of it. I always respected their attitude. He’s still chasing his hockey dream (now in the AHL playoffs) but knows that when hockey is over for him, he has a degree from Notre Dame to fall back on.
It’s really too bad U.S. colleges and universities have co-opted their educational purpose for the promotion of the cash cow sports. And it would be nice if the NCAA’s response to questions about this didn’t involve resorting to circling the wagons and planting heads firmly in the sand.
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Going Blind in Detroit
May 10, 2008Is Mitch Albom on crack?
A few years ago I checked out the prices of playoff tix in Detroit. Finals tickets in the lower bowl were $450 each (as a comparison, lower bowl seats in the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia are $250 face, discounted to season ticket holders). Detroit, in case Mitch hasn’t noticed, is one of the most economically depressed areas of the United States. And it isn’t just the recent downturn. The greater Detroit area didn’t really participate fully in that last positive growth of the business cycle.
I have a friend who bought a house in the Detroit area a few years ago. Even three years ago he couldn’t afford to sell that house and relocate because he couldn’t get what he’d payed for it. This wasn’t after the big housing bubble. Now, with the mortgage crisis, $4 gas, and continued hard times for U.S. automakers, who sold their souls and are caught with big gas guzzling SUVs and trucks they can no longer sell enough of, things won’t be getting better in Detroit any time soon.
If the Redwings win the Stanley Cup this year (and really, they look like a team from another, more advanced hockey planet, so I think it likely they will), will anyone be able to afford to come to the parade?
Leave a Comment » | hockey | Tagged: Detroit Redwings, hockey, Mitch Albom, NHL, NHL playoffs | Permalink
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Oh the Humanity
May 8, 2008When disaster strikes, it is swift and unexpected. With Flyers fans eager for the Eastern Conference Finals to begin so the Flyers can prove to the world they are no fluke, the team has lost its most indispensable player for the rest of the playoffs.
Last night, when Jim Jackson, on the CSN playoff special, answered the question, “Who would be the player they can least afford to lose?” He said, aside from the obvious Biron, Kimmo Timonen, and I had that black cat feeling. You know how it is. The feeling you get when someone mentions that a guy has a shutout going. Or says something about the other team’s power play not having scored for the past 10 games.
So today we find out that Timonen has a blood clot in his ankle and is out for the rest of the playoffs. And I (and many Flyers fans) have gone from thinking our heroes may just be able to upset the Penguins to thinking there’s no hope. Without one of the best defensemen in the league, without their anchor on the blue line and on the point in the power play, the Flyers hopes seem to have just gone up in smoke.
Stinky black smoke.
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Game 7 Is Not My Favorite Thing
April 22, 2008If the Flyers are as tense as I am, there’s not much hope for them tonight. But I don’t think they are. They’re alive and kicking and ready to play tonight. I have to convince myself of this. It may require bourbon.
Why will the Flyers win tonight? Fast start. Kill the energy of the Johnny-come-lately red-clad fans and infect the Caps with the same frustration they felt in games 2 and 3.
Jeff Carter and Mike Richards will be animals. Danny Briere will take the huge fire that burns in that tiny body and score two or more. Being on the road will work to the Flyers advantage. Them against the world.
Does any of this make any sense? No of course not. But as FlySkippy said on HockeyBuzz.com today, “We are fans of the team, not of the record.” So there’s really no choice for Flyers fans but to strap in and get ready for the roller-coaster ride.
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The Will to Compete
April 21, 2008An Olympian who makes you forget demonstrators.
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Bizarro Universe
April 20, 2008How does deadly force on an Olympic torch relay possibly fit in with the spirit of the games? How does it possibly enhance China’s international image, which is the whole purpose of its hosting the games in the first place. Somewhere, are there cooler heads in China to prevail? Somewhere, is there someone in China who understands the loss of face that would accompany deadly force being used on protesters at an Olympic-related event?
Oh, and by the way President Bush, the Olympics aren’t in the United States this year, weren’t in the last summer cycle, and won’t be in the next summer cycle. So there’s no legitimate reason for you to be at the opening ceremonies in the first place. Attending under the circumstances of China’s current deafness to any international dissatisfaction with its actions in Sudan or Tibet is against U.S. interests. Why not skip the Beijing Olympics and show in one last little action that you actually ever cared about those.
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MSG Doesn’t Understand the Message
April 19, 2008Excuse me if there’s an obvious answer, but what in the world does Isaiah Thomas do well enough that a company (especially one with the internal, on-court, and PR troubles of MSG) would pay him money to consult? It isn’t coaching, or player personnel, or anything GM-related, and certainly he isn’t going to be working with Employee Relations.
MSG shows its utter cluelessness almost daily.
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Games 3 & 4–The Crowd Experience
April 18, 2008So we’ve seen what the Washington media and owner thinks of our little Flyers Caps series, but what is it like to be there? Oh my little kittens, you have no idea!
Leave a Comment » | hockey | Tagged: 950ESPN, Danny Briere, Don Salesky, Mike Knuble, Mike MIssanelli, Philadelphia Flyers, Randy Jones, Thunder Stix, Washington Capitals | Permalink
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Overtime Hodgepodge
April 18, 2008I don’t know if an owner should do this, but laugh with me at Ted Leonsis’s playoff diary. He is foolish enough to suggest his wife and daughter wouldn’t be safe in a luxury suite in the Wachovia Center. Unless he’s bringing along members of the great unwashed to sit in his box and throw back some brews, there’s really no risk there.
While Ted may be forgiven for being a bit on the clueless side, this guy is paid to write about hockey, so there’s no excuse for him. Is he the only person in the building who didn’t know that when a penalty is called and the crowd chants “asshole,” the object of their ire is the official? Someone should strip him of his apparently ill-gotten media credential. I do realize that Caps fans are new to the excitement of playoff hockey, but for a sportswriter to make this kind of error? Of course, he’s probably more a PR person than a sports person.
This comes just a day after Mike Wise in the Washington Post embarrassed himself crossing from basketball to hockey and showing his complete lack of understanding of the game. The incitement is obvious, but his attempts to play the whole thing off as meant to be funny shows either desperation (I don’t want to look foolish so I’ll pretend I was trying to be funny) or a complete lack of ability (because it isn’t funny, even if you’re a Caps fan).
Leave a Comment » | hockey | Tagged: Mike Vogel, Mike Wise, Philadelphia Flyers, Ted Leonsis, Washington Capitals | Permalink
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