Views, views, and more views…
Aaah, all is well in La la land after the NBA Championship returned to its’ rightful place, in the hands of Dr. Buss and the Laker family. Kobe doesn’t have to hear about not winning a title without Shaq. Pau Gasol doesn’t have to hear the “soft” label. And, most importantly, Lamar Odom will never have to read the View write that the Lakers would never win a title as long as he was on the team. In my face! The series against Orlando might have seemed anticlimactic and not as enjoyable as beating Boston, but the Magic were the old “team that beat the team” and deserved to be in the Finals…
The Dodgers, arrgh, just beat my beloved Halos two out of three in Anaheim. I attended on Friday night, and the atmosphere was simply electric. The Dodger blue was evident in the crowd and they were loud, and it made for a fun game. Honestly, why can’t baseball turn its’ back on tradition, realign, and have Western and Eastern conferences, and put the Angels, Dodgers, Padres, Giants, and A’s in a Pacific Division a la basketball? It would save money by cutting down on travel expenses, the baseball would be better, and seeing the Angels and Dodgers, Mets And Yankees, White Sox and Cubs, and even Brewers and Twins get it on 18 times would be fun and add pizzazz to a long season. But that would make too much sense, and baseball is sorely lacking in that department. Tradition is over rated…
The Dodgers, I have told people, keep calling themselves the “best team in baseball”, but to me having the best record is totally different, as the Angels of 2008 can attest to. The Dodgers have proven to be some team, and after the return of Manny Ramirez, will be far and away the best team in the National League. But, I watch a lot of baseball, and the Red Sox have the best team. The Dodgers, player for player, are very good, but their starting pitching doesn’t go enough innings, and the bullpen gets taxed tremendously. The knock on Joe Torre in New York was that he abused his bullpen, and it would show up in the playoffs, and I believe that would be the case here…
As for the Angels, Mike Scioscia is doing a great job with his troops. But their window of opportunity with this group may have shut and the team will probably win its’ division and make a quick and quiet disappearance in the playoffs. Bobby Abreu has been a surprise but a stop gap, and their once reliable bullpen bridge of Jose Arredondo and Scot Shields has been horrendous. The major problem is their punch and Judy singles hitter in the # 4 spot, Vladimir Guerrero. He has been a great player, but he’s lost it. The Angels would be well served to play out the season with Guerrero, cut ties, and spend the money on Matt Holliday. They also need to bring up Brandon Wood to see just how he’s going to be. This is just not a World Series caliber team…
Some years ago, the legendary Mexican boxer Julio Cesar Chavez, as his tremendous career, was winding down, and he was still unbeaten, was upset by a journeyman named Frankie Randall. Randall, a great boxer with a big right hand, sealed the deal by flooring the granite chinned warrior late in the fight. In the rematch, Chavez was performing better, and winning early in the fight, but it was close and then he was the victim of an accidental head butt. Randall started landing his patented right hand at will and was starting to dominated the bout. Chavez then decided he couldn’t continue and was the recipient of a technical decision. Even though you don’t know how a cut can determine a fight, he seemed fine until Randall started to land punches, I kind of questioned his warrior reputation after that fight. Two weeks ago, Puerto Rican welterweight star Miguel Cotto was in the same position as Chavez, in a close fight, and the victim of a head butt, which gave him a huge gash and handicap. But, unlike Chavez, he showed the meaning of the word warrior by fighting on and getting a close decision over skilled African boxer Joshua Clottey. Even though analyst Emanuel Steward seemed to think Clottey got a bad deal, and I thought the one judge who gave Cotto 10 rounds was the recipient of a head butt, the point was that Cotto fought on and deserved to win as Clottey’s work rate dropped and he was doing nothing in the championship rounds. Now Cotto is in line to fight Manny Pacquiao, and that is one fight I don’t mind paying to see…
Over the weekend, heavyweight Wladimir Klitschko defended his title and someone named Lucas Glover won the U.S. Open golf title. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…
One of the best events that I have seen in person at the Home Depot Tennis Center was the thrilling bout between Israel Vasquez and Rafael Marquez. But as exciting as it was, there was an event last week at the same venue that thrilled me even more. My daughter Kimberly graduated from high school, and got to be one of the speakers, and it was after the speech, I got out of my seat and cheered as loud as I did after one of those epic rounds in that fight. Now she gets to continue her education at Loyola Marymount, and she says one of her inspirations was listening to Dave Smith talk and write about sports. Okay, not really…Way to go Kimmy!
