The Weekend That Was

World Baseball Classic

The World Baseball Classic got underway and although Canada opened with a 6-5 loss to the states it was still an amazing game.  I will be talking more about this later in the week as I am currently working on an article about the World Baseball Classic.  I am a huge fan of the event and hope that they continue to hold it every year.

A-rod Opts for Surgery

Alex Rodriguez will undergo arthroscopic surgery to repair a labral tear on his right hip and the procedure is expected to keep him out six to nine weeks. That would have him returning sometime in May.  In A-rod's absence the Yankees will have to hope that the other members of the team can pick up their game and fill the offensive gap that will clearly be evident.   

  

T.O. to the Bills

Last week wide receiver Terrell Owens was released by the Dallas Cowboys.  He didn't have to wait long to find a new team as yesterday he signed with the Buffalo Bills for 1 year and $6.5 million (all guaranteed).  He is a perfect fit for the team as he will take the double team off Lee Evans and give quarterback Trent Edwards a viable option over the middle.  Owens is especially good for getting yards after the catch which is more conducive to the way Edwards plays as he is more of an accurate passer than a deep ball kind of player.

Owens should also help out the running game and since defenses will be worried about Owens and Evans they will not be able to put 8 in the box as often allowing running back Marshawn Lynch more freedom to run the football.    

March Madness Getting Close

Over the weekend there were tonnes of games in NCAA basketball that had serious tournament implications.  Kentucky is seemingly out of it after their loss to Florida where as Northern Iowa punched their ticket to the dance by winning their conference.  Cornell and Morehead State also secured a tournament bid by winning their conference tournament.

Good thing Michigan State will be going, possibly as a 2 seed, as they clinched the Big Ten conference with a win over Indiana and then Purdue.  Hopefully the Spartans can go far and bring home another National Championship.

Jazz Keep Winning

The Utah Jazz beat the Toronto Raptors on Sunday 109-101 to win their 11th straight game.  It seems that no one can stop guard Derron Williams who has been putting up amazing numbers over the course of the winning streak and is showing why there is a debate over whether he or Chris Paul is a better point guard. 

It hasn't been an easy 11 wins as the Jazz have beaten quality teams like the Lakers, Celtics, Hornets, Rockets, Hawks, and Nuggets.  The streak has also helped them take over the division lead in the Northwest as they have passed Portland. 

Dirty Burn

This didn't happen over the weekend but I feel it must be mentioned.  During NHL trade deadline day Pierre McGuire dished out what can only be described as the dirtiest burn ever when he called Derek Armstrong of the Los Angeles Kings a "poor mans Jeff Halpern."  Now if you're not a hockey fan this may be lost on you but trust me its a severe kick to the nuts, verbally of course.

Random Youtube Video: (Top 10 Video of All-Time)

The Weekend That Was

NFL Free Agency Frenzy

Thursday at midnight was when NFL free agency officially began and it didn't take long for some big names to move.  The following are some of the bigger names and deals:

Albert Haynesworth signed a 7year $100 million dollar deal with the Redskins

Kellen Winslow was traded to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Matt Cassel and Mike Vrabel were traded to the Chiefs for a 2nd round draft pick

Brian Dawkins signed with the Denver Broncos

Chris Canty signs 6 year $42 million dollar deal with the NY Giants

Lito Sheppherd was traded to the NY Jets

Bart Scott signed with the NY Jets

Perhaps the bigger news from the weekend though was that Ray Lewis remains unsigned and that Denver was trying to trade quarterback Jay Cutler.  Apparently Cutler found out about this and was very upset as he felt betrayed to which I say get over it pal.

Jim Bowden Resigns

Jim Bowden has been the GM of the Washington Nationals since the teams inception in 2004.  Bowden leaves under the cloud of a federal investigation into the skimming of signing bonuses given to Latin American prospects.  When asked why he is leaving Bowden said, "I've become a distraction."

Bowden is the only GM the Nationals have had since the franchise moved from Montreal to Washington before the 2005 season, overseeing a team that went 81-81 in that debut season but has been below .500 ever since.  Last season, the Nationals were a majors-worst 59-102.

It seems that baseball can't go one week without having some sort of scandal tarnishing its name.

Return of Brodeur

Martin Brodeur returned to the net for the New Jersey Devils this weekend and went 3-0 with 2 shutouts.  The Devils were managing without Brodeur but I'm sure they won't complain having him back.  

His latest shutout moved him within three of tying Terry Sawchuk's mark of 103. It was also Brodeur's 547th career victory, moving him within four of tying Patrick Roy's league record.

Ogilvy Dominates Match Play

On Sunday Jeff Ogilvy defeated Paul Casey in the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship final on Sunday, 4 and 3, and it wasn't really that close. Ogilvy was 11 under par through the first 27 holes and had a 6-up lead. No offense to Casey, but the last nine holes were a formality.

Ogilvy is 17-2 in this event and has been in the final three of the last four years, winning it twice. He's the only player besides Tiger Woods to win three World Golf Championship events. The WGC scoreboard looks like this: Woods 15, Ogilvy 3. Still, when Ogilvy plays near his best golf, he looks as good as any player in the world, in any format, and this victory (the sixth of his career) jumps him to fourth in the world golf rankings. He already won the Mercedes Championship this year, though that tiny starting field makes it asterisk-worthy. He's still only 31, and he has the skill, experience (he won the 2006 U.S. Open) and killer mentality that could make him a rival for Tiger. Especially in match play.

Going for the Clean Sweep

Manchester United won the League Cup with a 4-1 penalty shootout victory over Tottenham on Sunday that kept the English league leaders on course for an unprecedented five trophies this season.

The victory gave United its second trophy of the season following December's Club World Cup title. The Red Devils also lead the Premier League by seven points, are in contention for the Champions League and play Fulham in the FA Cup quarterfinals next weekend.

As much as I hate Manchester United this would be a ridiculously impressive accomplishment and one that no one could deny is amazing.

Random Youtube Video

The Weekend That Was

Sundin Burns the Leafs

It turned out better than I could have imagined it.  Mats Sundin's first game back in Toronto since leaving the Leafs in the off-season.  The Leafs were leading 2-1 late in the 3rd but in typical Leaf fashion they choked and gave up a goal to Alex Burrows Safari Planet sending the game to OT. Clearly everyone knew this would solve nothing and a shootout would be needed.  Pavol Demitra scored first for Vancouver making it 1-0 and then after two Leaf misses (obviously) and a Kyle Wellwood miss (once again obviously) it all came down to Sundin.  Now everyone in the building knew he was going backhand (cause he always does) except Vesa Toskala who got burned hard by a dirty backhand.  Sundin returns and puts the nail in the coffin for that game.  As a Canucks fan and a Leaf hater it doesn't get any better than that.  Well unless Sundin had given the home crowd the finger or something or maybe given Toskala the People's Elbow while he was on the ice.  Good work Mats.

Biggest Waste of Time Ever

Now being a sports fan I know one of my favorite days of the year is the NFL Draft.  Its an all around great day as a new crop of players comes in and you sit there hoping your team doesn't blow it.  Now every year before the NFL draft they have what is known as the NFL Combine.  This is an event where prospective players come and participate in drills to showcase their athletic ability.  Events range from the 40 yard dash to bench pressing 225lbs as many times as possible.  Now this sounds somewhat interesting I guess but if you ever sit down and watch this stuff you get bored in roughly 90 seconds.  Now I know there are some hardcores out there who eat this up and if so they had the best weekend ever because the Combine was on for more than 40 hours this weekend.  That's right.  If you played your cards right you could have watched over 40 hours or footballs drills, running, and if you were lucky some jumping.  I realise that this is important to the NFL but I feel like having it on at from 8 in the morning til 4am is a bit ridiculous.

So Much for the Streak

I wrote yesterday that the Suns had returned to their old ways as they had scored at least 140 points in three straight games.  I also pointed out that these 3 wins came against the Thunder and the Clippers (twice) so it didn't really count.  Still it was hard not to buy into the hype.  Amare Stoudamire had to have surgery to repair a detached retina and will miss the remainder of the season.  To make matter worse the Suns first true test under new coach Alvin Gentry was against the Boston Celtics.  Thanks to Rajon Rondo (best young point guard in the league, suck it Jebson) and Ray Allen the Celtics put the beat down on the Suns 126-106.  At least we know the old Suns are back cause once again they aren't playing defense.

Top 25 Teams that Lost

With March Madness only weeks away teams will have to start securing their place in the tourney and for some teams that means getting some impressive wins over ranked opponents.  This weekend a number of ranked teams tasted defeat as #8 Wake Forest lost to #9 Duke and #24 Syracuse lost to #12 Villanova.  Then there were teams like #2 Oklahoma, #3 North Carolina, #20 UCLA, and #25 Dayton who all lost to unranked teams.  These wins will be crucial for these unranked schools down the stretch as they may be the wins they need to get into the tournament.

Spring Training Started

In baseball players from every position have now reported to their camps for the start of Spring Training.  No one really cares cause spring training baseball is boring and useless but at least it means the regular season will be starting sooner rather than later.

Poll Update

In the blog poll Mark Ruffalo is current leading Clive Owen (hack) 8 votes to 6.  The poll is so to once and for all determine who is the better actor.  Clearly there are 8 smart people out there and 6 morons.  3 days left.  Get out and vote.

The Youtube Video

I have started adding Youtube videos at the bottom of posts just becasue I spend a lot of time on Youtube.  Sometimes they are relevant to the post but most of the time they will just be funny videos that I feel people need to see.  Hope you enjoy.

Random Youtube Video (This one is Hilarious):

The Weekend that Was

In the past I have tried to have weekly posts about the same thing whether it be answering emails or having power rankings but they never seem to work out.  However I have not been deterred and have decided to start another regular post entitled "The Weekend that Was."  Now I know its technically Tuesday as I am writing this but who cares.  It was Family Day in Canada today so technically this was a long weekend.  Either way lets get to some topics.

All-Star Weekend

Brutal from start to finish.  First off the H-O-R-S-E event wasn't even televised in Canada and when I saw the highlights I was anything but impressed.

Secondly, Cheryl Miller shouldn't be allowed anywhere near a microphone.  The woman cannot conduct a good interview.  She got to interview LeBron James about his decision to join the Dunk Contest in 2010 and it seemed like an akward conversation with a fan.  No charisma or attitude at all.  

Third, Jason Kapono not winning the 3 point contest was real disappointing.  Instead it was won by some bench player for Miami named Daquean Cook who, just in case you weren't watching, went to Ohio State (mentioned about 50 times).   Why are Ray Allen and Dirk Nowitzki not in this thing anymore?

Fourth, Dwight Howard.  If you are going to bring out a 12 foot rim to show how high you can jump you gotta at least do a nice dunk on it.  Guy just jumped straight up and did a 2 handed flush.  real impressive.  You're 6'11 with like 9 foot arms and you can dunk on a bigger net.  Come on Dwight you're better than that.  Also the announcers for this contest could not be more biased.  I thought Rudy Fernandez's dunks were pretty sick and they were giving him shit.  How bout you get out there and lace em up Kenny Smith.  Keep chirping from the cheap seats pal.

Fifth, Bill Russell was given a tremendous honor as the MVP of the NBA Finals will now win the Bill Russell award.  I thought this was a real classy move as Bill Russell is one of the greatest to play the game and is a real class act himself.  During his interview he claimed that the proudest moment of his playing career was being named the Captain of the Boston Celtics.  Great guy and a great honor that didn't get enough attention.

Lastly, the game itself was typical.  Lots of scoring with very little defense.  However the highlight of the whole evening was when Chris Paul tried to dunk but got stuff by the rim (couldn't find the video on youtube but I am sure it's out there).

Daytona 500

Who cares right?  The race was ended early cause of rain and the guy who won is not a big name in the "sport."  But hey another great event NASCAR!

Firings

Both Jerry Porter and Michael Therrien both were fired over the weekend.  Porter had been the coach of the Pheonix Suns for 4 months and was fired cause he promised defense and didn't bring it.  He also lost the offense along the way.  Therrien was fired after the Pittsburgh Penguins embarrassing 6-2 loss to the Leafs on Saturday night.  Hard to believe that only months ago Therrien was 2 games away from winning the Stanley Cup with the Pens.  Now he is unemployed.  Crazy world.

Dave Dameshek

Over the course of the weekend I had an email conversation with ESPN writer Dave Dameshek who is a regular on the BS Report and has his own podcast on espn.com.  he is currently doing a series where he discusses the best jerseys fans can wear on a city by city basis.  I emailed him my suggestions for Toronto (Joe Carter, Doug Gilmour, Doug Flutie, and Damon Stoudamire) and was surprised to find he responded fairly quickly saying he hadn't thought of Flutie.  Always nice to know these guys actually read your emails.  I challenge someone to come up with a better pick for the Raptors than Damon Stoudamire.