Big Lead Sports Bar

5/04/2007

Friday Wrapup

--First off, thanks to 93.7's Dave Dameshek for the double segment last night, in a conversation that started with Sandman and ended with QB/Dogfight Promoter Michael Vick. Hey, villains are villains.

The appearance was a lot of fun, and I wish Dave and his wife good luck with the new addition to the family!

--Also a big thanks to ESPN Radio 1250's Mark Madden for his kind words last night and his enjoyment of the "Cowher Auction Wrapup" story.

--In case you missed it, I added a new sidebar to the site, entitled "MFOM: Media Friends of Mondesi", named in honor of Bob Smizik's classic "MFOM: Media Friends of Mario". This little section is a permanent "thank you" to all of the different media outlets that continue to do so much for the site.

--OK, on to real sports...I know it's uncool to talk about the NBA in Pittsburgh, but if you missed the Warriors-Mavs series, then you missed some exciting stuff. In fact, yesterday's result of the 8-seeded Warriors knocking out the 67-win, 1-seeded Mavs might be the second-most shocking thing I saw yesterday, only trailing the FedEx guy delivering some stuff to my house while absolutely blasting Lil Jon in his delivery truck. That was unexpected.

Seriously though, this entire series has intrigued me. As you know, I am not the world's biggest Mark Cuban fan. I mean, I know he's going to buy the Penguins, Pirates, Cubs, Microsoft, and the continent of Antarctica, but this goes even beyond that. This became more about rooting for the Warriors and less about rooting against Cuban or the Mavs as the series went on. The Warriors are a likable bunch, they play with a ton of energy, Nellie is their coach, and their fans are Steeler-like nuts.

This was such a beat-down that it didn't even feel like an upset by the end. An upset would have been seven games, with Baron Davis hitting a half-court shot at the buzzer to win it for the Warriors. As Steve Kerr said near the end of the game last night, you could almost feel sorry for the Mavs. Almost.

Dirk Nowitzki, the odds-on-favorite to win the MVP, was pwned by the Warriors on this night, going 2-for-13 from the floor (8 points) and getting dunked on by Matt Barnes to add insult to injury (you really should watch the whole highlight clip).

The Warriors starters outscored the Mavs starting five by a count of 96-56. That should tell you all you need to know about this game. Can't wait to watch the Warriors in the next round and beyond.

--The LaRoche-less Buccos took down the MLB-leading Milwaukee Brewers last night by a final count of 4-2. A few thoughts on the state of the franchise:

-LaRoche sat through a 70-minute horror film of video yesterday, trying to see at what point his swing got lost between Atlanta and Pittsburgh. Maybe someone stole it from Troy Crosby's luggage.

-Ryan Doumit is red-hot and batting .407. LaRoche is at .132, which is below the Pirates' pitchers batting average of .157. Any thoughts on how Gentleman Jim will handle/botch this situation? Because it looks like LaRoche is starting tonight.

-Other than Doumit, who's not even truly a regular, no Pirate "regular" is batting over .300:

Duffy .250...Wilson .295...Sanchez .250...Bay .274...LaRoche .132...Nady .246...Baustista .287...Paulino .224.

I don't care how weak the division is, that's simply not going to get it done.

-Dave Dameshek brought up a great point last night: with the Yankees losing a pitcher every other day and still below .500, could they make a potential trade partner for the Pirates and their apparent pitching surplus?

-To take that idea a bit further, John Fedko pointed out a few selected ERAs from the arms being wasted away at Indianapolis on the Fone Zone last night:

Bryan Bullington: 1.17...John Van Benschoten: 2.45...Josh Sharpless: 1.54...Sean Burnett: 3.90...Dan Kolb: no runs allowed in 9 relief appearances

A few links for your Friday afternoon:

--Stu Scott has an interesting take on PacMan Jones and Don Imus. Yeah, he should probably stop talking now.

--A judge sues a South Korean immigrant cleaner for $65 million over a pair of pants. Glad to see the people interpreting our country's laws are so level-headed.

--A guest columnist on thebiglead.com claimed this:

You could put together a team of NBA players, give them 6 weeks of practice, and they could beat the New England Patriots in a football game.

Chaos ensues in their comment section.

--HBO is looking to make a mini-series about Stephen King's book on the 2004 Red Sox season. Finally, a media outlet gives that season some publicity!

--Here's the first episodes of 20 different classic TV shows, including ALF, Entourage, and Family Guy.

--Guess what, tailgaters? Drinking alcohol shrinks the brain.

--We all heard about Tiger Woods golfing with MJ on Wednesday. But did you know a car dealer had the good fortune to play in their group?

--I present you with a great list of the top 10 worst Spiderman tie-in products. I own two of them.

Don't forget to send your thoughts on anything or your interesting news bits/links to mondesishouse@gmail.com

And please include your city and state if you can.

1 comment:

The Duke from Dukes Court said...

imagine how that guy in the Mavs jersey felt