Monday, May 10, 2010

05/10 Quickie: Braden, Suns, Tiger

It's not just that someone threw a perfect game -- just the 19th P.G. ever.

It's that the someone was Dallas Braden, the outspoken -- and previously unspectacular -- A's pitcher.

And that he did it on Mother's Day in front of his grandma, who raised Braden after Braden's mom died of cancer (which MLB spent the day supporting the fight against).

And, in the quote de grace -- Grams said "Stick it, A-Rod," which turned into a Twitter thing.

All in all, just the type of remarkable and entirely unexpected moment that captures why we all follow sports.

Braden leads today's SN column, but I could have led with the Suns sweep -- remarkable in its own right -- or "mondo" Rondo, who had the best playoff performance in the NBA East of the year. (It would be hard to top Dragic for best this year overall.)

I also could have led with Tiger quitting on the Players. What an odd situation -- if he was in contention, you know he would have played through, just like he did at the US Open. But he wasn't -- he was stinking it up, and it's unclear whether it's from the disc issue or even if he was healthy, if something else is going on. Tiger is clearly frustrated, but it's hard to say about what.

I don't believe Brian Cushing. Do you?

Of the NBA Draft withdrawals, I'm most intrigued by Jimmer Fredette (1st-team All-America of the future), by Alex Tyus (who clearly doesn't want to be at Florida, but whose presence gives the Gators one of the deepest frontcourts in the country - quite a change of pace from the thinnest frontcourt in the country of two years ago), and by the Moore/Johnson pair at Purdue, instantly putting the Boilermakers back near the top of the Big Ten, rather than decimated.

Elana Kagan is a Mets fan, btw. Given the Sotomayor connection to baseball, thought you'd want to know.

Complete column here, and there's a lot more in there. More later.

-- D.S.

No comments: