Hits and Misses

Hits

Leafs Get it Right – On Tuesday the Toronto Maple Leafs put inept goalie Andrew Raycroft and complete bust forward Kyle Wellwood on waivers. They also announced they intend to buy out Darcy Tucker’s contract as well. Well it looks like the house cleaning is for real this time and I think it’s fair to say that it’s long overdue. Took ya long enough there Leafers.

Home Sweet Home– The Chicago Cubs are just a beast of a team at home this season and going into the All-Star break they look flat out scary. The Cubs have won 14 straight at home and are 32-8 at Wrigley Field this season. That puts them on pace for the second-biggest home winning percentage in a single season since the introduction of air travel. The only team to finish a season in the expansion era with a better home winning percentage was the 1961 Yankees who won 80.2% (65-16) of their games in the Bronx. The Cubs are currently on pace to finish at 80.0% which in today's game is just plain ridiculous.

Kent J. Desormeaux – The jockey of the once unbeaten Big Brown took a lot of criticism after he and Big Brown finished 9^th at the Belmont a few weeks ago. It was recently discovered however that one of Big Brown’s horse shoes was not on correctly and was causing the horse some pain. Desormeaux realized this and decided that rather than push the animal to certain injury he would lay off and let the horse live. While some people will say that Desormeaux is an idiot for losing the race I have to praise him for his ability to understand that horses deserve to be treated better and that he would rather have the horse live as a could have been story than die as a Triple Crown winner.

Giant Slayings – At Euro 2008 Spain is the only group stage winner to still be alive in the tournament. Portugal, Croatia, and the Netherlands were all defeated by “underdogs” which makes for an exciting semi-final round. To me the biggest surprise was the Turks beating Croatia without the use of their goaltender Volkan Demirel. Turkey is a scary team going forward as they just continue to find ways to win games.

Misses

Shut Up Don – Don Imus was in the news again this week as he decided that one inappropriate comment wasn’t enough for him. This time instead of calling the Rutgers’s Women’s Basketball team “nappy-headed hoes” he attacked African American men instead when he talked about Adam “Pacman” Jones latest troubles with the law.

“He's been arrested six times since being drafted by Tennessee in 2005," Wolf said.

"What color is he?" Imus asked.

"He's African-American," Wolf responded.

"Well, there you go," Imus said. "Now we know."

Imus claims he was defending Pacman and was making a point on how African American men are targeted by the police. Is anyone actually buying that? Do everyone a favor Don and just shut up.

Barry Melrose? – The Tampa Bay Lightning announced that Barry Melrose will be their next head coach after the recent firing of John Tortorella left an opening behind the bench. Melrose hasn’t coached in 13 years and the last time he was behind the bench franchise player Vincent Lecavalier was only 14 years old. A new NHL with a different style of game makes me think Melrose won’t be able to adapt. But good luck this season because you are going to need it.

DUI for Melo – Carmelo Anthony was recently in court where he pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of driving while ability-impaired. Anthony was sentenced to a year probation, 24 hours of community service, and more than $1,000 in fees and court costs while prosecutors dropped a more serious DUI charge. How hard is it to not drive drunk? You are a millionaire. If you go to the bar and have a few too many drinks BUY A CAB, trust me you can afford it. Glad to see the team showed some backbone however and suspended Anthony for the first 2 games of the season even though the league wasn’t going to suspend him.

Pool Boy - "Looks like the guy who cleans Tiger's swimming pool." This is what NBC golf analyst Johnny Miller said about Rocco Mediate as he was playing Tiger Woods in an 18 hole playoff for the US Open. Miller likes to think he is a comedian and tries to be funny; but his sense of humor, or lack there of , often misses the mark and comes off as rude. When thinking of that comment in your brain how do you find it to be humorous? Miller needs to reevaluate the way he approaches broadcasting with his whole “humor” approach. Either that or watch some more South Park to learn what funny really is.