Sunday Re-cap

As I'm posting this I'm eating a Ham & Cheese Hot Pocket and a bag of Cheetos Puffs, so if this post abruptly stops half way through it's because my cholesterol reached such a high level that my blood stopped coursing through my body and I need you to call 911 for me. Immediately. Regardless today was a big day in Detroit as the Red Wings played the Oilers in Game 2 of their first round playoff series, the Tigers went for the sweep against the Mariners, and the Pistons started their playoff series against the Milwaukee Bucks.

I say the Wings playing was a big deal, because it is to a lot of people, but personally I could care less. No, that's selling it a bit short, I do care.........a little. I want them to do well and win strictly because they're the local team, and if I happen to catch a game on I'll watch it, or at the very least have it set as my previous channel, so I can flip back to it while the thing I'm really watching is on commercial, but I'm not going out of my way to watch the Wings games and I'm sure as hell not waking up at 1 P.M. to watch one. I used to love hockey starting about the time I was 10 in 1993 up until about 2000. I was first introduced to the sport by NHLPA 93 for the Sega Genesis, which easily ranks as one of the top 3 sports games of all-time, and continued to follow hockey mostly because of EA NHL series. I lived and died with the 1995 Stanley Cup finals where Martin Brodeur played out of his skull and I first learned to passionately hate Claude Lemieux. However for whatever reason my interest in hockey continually waned until it became nearly non-existent. Seriously if you told me Bill Ranford and Bernie Nicholls had started for the Oilers today I would've believed you. Anyways I slept through most of this game and apparently the Red Wings lost, which I'm sure will lead to serious teeth gnashing by angry Wings fans who still lose sleep over the 93-94 upset to the Sharks. (If any of you aforementioned crazy Wings fans read this, please don't send me a blood soaked Pat Falloon jersey, I think owning two is enough for me.)

I did manage to crawl my ass out of bed to watch the Tigers finish a sweep of the hapless Seattle Mariners. I don't think it's possible for a team to be more boring to watch then the Seattle Mariners. Outside of Ichiro they have no identity, no personality whatsoever. Tigers pitching owned this series, with my former room mate Mike Arnold........I mean Mike Maroth setting the tone in Game one by shutting down the Mariner's for six innings with the soft left-handed stuff, before turning the game over to the flamethrowing Joel Zumaya for two innings, before Todd Jones made his highly anticipated.........scratch that, dreaded, debut. The best thing about Jones being back is that it allowed the Tigers to send that dirtbag Chris Spurling back to the minors with his ridiculous giant #48 gold pendant that drives me absolutely crazy.

Game Two of the series featured some outstanding pitching from Nate Robertson......wait that can't be right....Nate Robertson?......really?......huh, the surprisingly little used Jamie Walker and Fernando Rodney who combined to two hit the M's. However after watching this game I think a Clio Little League team could two-hit the Mariners playing on the Pony fields at the Clio Sports Complex that measures 250 in straight away center........but I digress. This game also featured Gene Lamont getting two runners hosed at the plate while testing out Ichiro's arm. Hmmm, I know Ichiro has a strong arm, you know it, even my dog Sadie is mildly aware of it, so how does the Tigers third base coach not know it......I don't know, but hopefully this doesnt become a problem as the season goes on.

Today featured Justin Verlander versus Felix Hernandez in a battle of star pitching prospects. First off there is no way Felix Hernandez is only 20. No way. He's way to developed, and I was around when all those Latin American ball players aged five years over night (especially Deivi Cruz who went from 27 to 43) once the INS cracked down on birth certificates a couple of years ago. Anyways Verlander was spectacular today with his fastball hitting 101 MPH and although he didnt get a lot of K's he kept guys off balance. However Zumaya proved he was human by getting touched up for a few runs, but that's all right, it's just a little blip, Rodney bailed Zumaya out, as opposed to allowing every inherited runner to score Spurling style, by striking out Roberto Petagine, (which coincidentally is Chef Boy-ar-dee's real name) and Todd Jones pitched a flawless ninth for his second save. As I said the pitching was the most impressive thing in this series, especially the bullpen, because it seems as though we have three guys who could be relied upon to close in Zumaya, Rodney and Jones.........However I remember writing the same thing last year about Farnsworth, Ugie, and Percival and we know how that turned out.

Finally the Pistons played Game One tonight, and soundly beat the Bucks as many people expected. It was nice to see them shut down Michael Redd for the first time in......well, forever. The only big news is that Rip hurt his ankle, which more then anything seems like a bad omen. Rip should be fine however, and I think if you need to rest him in Game two go ahead and do it. I think the Pistons could win without him, by rotating in a combination of Delk, Delfino, and Evans, and that would give Rip until Saturday to get well. Even if they did decide to rest him and lost, I don't think it would matter in the long run as it would make this series run 5 games instead of 4. Big deal. Go Pistons.

Finally.......again. I have final exams for law school over the course of the next three weeks. I'm not going on hiatus or anything, but posting may become more infrequent, shorter, and increasingly hostile/depressing. I may also have a nervous breakdown during the course of the next three weeks, which would put things on hiatus as I roamed Asia with Ricky Williams trying to find the meaning of my existence. Hopefully it won't come to that, but wish me luck. Thanks.