Happy Wednesday everyone, here's my Top 5 for June 15, 2011 from Len Berman at www.ThatsSports.com.
1. Quick Hits
- The Stanley Cup will be hoisted tonight after game 7 in Vancouver.
- Secret talks between NFL players and owners are continuing in Washington. I guess that makes them not so secret. There are reports of honest to goodness progress.
- Derek Jeter's chase of 3,000 hits is stuck on 2,994 as Jeter goes on the 15-day disabled list with a calf strain.
- When Dallas won the NBA title, owner Mark Cuban suggested he might give the players something other than rings. Nobody else in the organization seems to like that idea.
- The U.S. Open golf tournament begins tomorrow at Congressional outside Washington D.C.
2. Game 7
A one-game season tonight in hockey. Cool. It happens more in hockey than the other sports. This will be the seventh seventh game in the Stanley Cup Finals since 1994. The NBA Finals has only had three in that span. Same as baseball, which hasn't had a seventh game in the World Series since 2002. Vancouver will either win its first ever Cup tonight, and the first for a Canada based team since 1993, or the Bruins will win their first since Bobby Orr and Phil Esposito in 1972. Remember when those two graced the cover of Sports Illustrated? So either way a long drought will end tonight. I'm rooting to make the drought a little longer. Triple overtime, say.
3. Plaxico
Don't you find it interesting that the Giants won't rule out rehiring Plaxico Burress? They made it seem as if he was toast while he was sitting in jail, but now that he's out, it's a different story. On the one hand, Burress was a pain in the butt. He makes his own rules, and his stupidity cost the Giants big time. On the other hand, he's paid his debt, he's free to pursue his career anywhere. But most important, on the third hand, if rumblings about him going to rival Philly are true, the Giants may be back in play. In sports, past history is simply history. Especially if someone can help you win.
4. Shake it Up Baby
So now comes talk of realignment in Major League baseball. Actually it should be called alignment. It's all out of whack. One division has four teams, one has six. One league has 14 teams, one has 16. One proposal is to do away with the divisions entirely: two 15-team leagues, with the top five teams in each making the playoffs. Of course that means two teams will have to play an interleague game every day, half the time with a designated hitter. Is it a good idea to do away with rivalries? Less Red Sox/Yankees games for example? There only seems to be a consensus in one area. 10 playoff teams instead of eight. Ka-ching.
5. Laugh Riot
The LeBron James jokes keep on coming.
*LeBron was asked for change of a dollar but he only gave 75 cents. He doesn't have a 4th quarter.
*From subscriber Robert P. "Why did LeBron James skip college? Because he was afraid of the Finals!"
*And from Top 5 reader Craig.L. "Apple to release a LeBron James iPhone...it only vibrates cuz it has no RINGS!!!"
I'll be here all week. Actually, just weekdays.
Happy Birthday: A couple of former Yankees (and some other teams too) Wade Boggs 53. Andy Pettitte. 39.
Bonus Birthday: Friends star Courtney Cox. 47.
Today in Sports: The first night game at Ebbets Field. Reds pitcher Jonny Vander Meer pitches his record 2nd straight no-hitter. 1938.
Bonus Event: Go fly a kite. And maybe attach a key to it. Ben Franklin plays with lightning. 1752.
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