racingmeridian.com

The Los Angeles Lakers were upset by the Sacramento Kings 113-101 at Arco Arena last night. Kobe Bryant cheekily blamed the loss on the lack of cowbells at the arena(!). Back in the day large boisterous crowds would clang away all night in an attempt to get Kobe off his game. Dwindling attendance and an invasion of Laker’s supporters has diminished the unholy cacophony…like a story ripped from a tawdry pulp fiction paperback, gunslingers Brett Favre and Chad Pennington are set to face off in the final week of the season with the Championship of the AFC East on the line. The battle of the peripatetic QB’s was originally envisioned to be a lightweight affair, with the Jets cruising to a playoff spot while the hopeless Dolphins sunk. But Pennington has played with immaculate precision and dragged his scurrilous crew, 1-15 last year, to the brink of an implausible turnaround…Junior Seau, playing linebacker for the New England Patriots on Sunday, did a remarkable impression of a guy who hadn’t played in a year. With Teddy Bruschi just about done, the Pats are coming down the stretch with two rookies logging significant time in the middle. There’s going to be no miraculous rally from the Boston lads this year, so don’t even be tempted to play them in Superbowl futures…that 17 point spread seems desperately large as the Detroit Lions roll into Indianapolis. But the cats are arriving without anyone to play QB. Culpepper is hurt, as is backup Dan Orlovsky. The alternative may be Drew Stanton, a QB whose presence Lions management have treated all year with the welcome accorded a beer fart at the ballet…you know it and I know it, it is time to for the NHL to get rid of the damn shootout. It is a ridiculous way to end a game, but it always was, so the evolution in thinking must instead point to the tedium engendered by the process. It just hasn’t worked. It isn’t enjoyable. And take a gander at the Boston Bruins current record. They have nineteen wins and four losses, an outstanding record. But as your eyes meander across the small type you realize the Bruins also have four “SL’s”. Huh? In the old days, when I roamed with verve and passion, we would call this a tie. The record would settle at nineteen wins four losses and four ties. Beautiful. Clear and easy to understand. And impressive. What significance, in evaluating this team, in pondering their prospects for post season success, does four “SL’s” portend? Shootouts are not used when games matter, and here is the message to Bettman, when fans are paying hard earned bucks, all games should matter. End the farce and resume a tie after a five minute overtime…when you screw up the way Brett Hull did, signing the malignant Sean Avery to a lucrative long term deal, you resign, plain and simple…apologists for Avery are missing the point. The comments he made about Melissa Cuthbert and new beau Dion Phaneuf were sheer gutter talk. There is a type of language that is not suitable for public discourse and Avery knew the expression he employed was beyond the pale. And I love that naughty language. Trust me. But Avery pissed me off with a saying I remember from my frat days as the providence of the truly repulsive and the brain dead misogynists… hey, whatever happened to Brendan Shanahan?…the Detroit Piston are a sub .500 team since being joined by Alan Iverson. Truly, if he is the answer, I have never gleaned the appropriate question…Somebeachsomewhere was the focal point for an invigorating discussion by the panel discussing the 2008 recipient of the Lou Marsh award, given to Canada’s outstanding athlete. Most felt a horse should not be eligible. In truth, the Lou Marsh award is doused in political correctness and the committee, predictably, found an appropriate athlete, Chantal Peticlerc, to champion. Canadians who never won the award include Gordie Howe, Martin Brodeur, Patrick Roy, Jerome Iginla, Dance Smartly and Lennox Lewis. When Daniel Igali won the award in 2000 he was apparently eligible by virtue of having had a croissant at the Vancouver airport during a stopover…