Friday, April 20, 2012

Friday 04/20 (Fenway) Quickie

Fenway turns 100: I like the pageantry. I like the park. I'm partial to Wrigley.

Heat d. Bulls: For the last time, none of this matters -- let's see who emerges from the playoff series.

(For that matter, not only can I not get outraged at the "anti-tanking" movement led by my friends -- and the very smart folks -- at TrueHoop, but I find myself kind of supporting a team's right to tank.)

Anonymous scouts vs. RG3: I'm a huge RG3 fan. My problem with the anonymous scout-bashing is that it is entirely unaccountable -- you can find someone to say something nasty or contrarian about anything (and you can usually find some wannabe pundit to do it on the record). Oh, and that I think the NFL Draft media coverage is an exercise in reporters getting played on a daily basis. And that I'd put my money on RG3 every time.

NHL Playoffs: I'm all in on the Caps (he says as he prepares to drive 50 miles to the nearest hockey super-store to buy gear for my 3-year-old, who is obsessed with hockey and moving from skating lessons to full-blown hockey lessons next week... I know, I know...)

Dwight Howard is done for the season, including the playoffs: Not that the Magic had any shot before, but now they're just wasting everyone's time. The real question is whether Howard is on the team NEXT season.

Roger Goodell goes to L.A.: There's no question the city is getting a team, it's just a matter of when (and which team will relocate).

MMA: I am kind of ashamed to say that I have never watched a "big" UFC event live. That might change tomorrow night for Jones-Evans.

Have a good weekend -- updates here and on Quickish all weekend.

-- D.S.

Thursday, April 19, 2012

04/19 (Summitt) Quickie

*End of an era with Pat Summitt stepping down: Greatest college basketball coach of all time.

*Colts going to draft Luck: No! You're kidding! The "Suck for Luck" cycle is complete.

*Bo Ryan hates transfers: Another battle the NCAA is going to eventually lose, because it doesn't pass the common-sense test.

*Cliff Lee going 10: Awesome for its novelty/throwback-ishness.

*Pudge Rodriguez is retiring: First-ballot Hall of Famer.

*Dwight Howard wants Stan Van Gundy out: For real this time. SVG will be fine -- he'll make a mint on TV or coaching a different contender (he'd be fantastic in NYC, although the Dolans would hate him). Can't say the same thing about D12.

*NHL: The Penguins are still going to lose the series, but at least they won't experience the humiliation of a sweep.

*Today's best read: ESPN Mag's Tom Friend on RG3.

-- D.S.

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

04/18 (NFL Schedule) Quickie

It is a testament to the power of the NFL that the release of its schedule last night was the biggest deal in sports.

The headline/headliner is Peyton: He opens against the Steelers, and if there is a single game that everyone is circling as the most hyped game of the year, it's Broncos-Pats.

Otherwise, it has become a signature moment of annual optimism: Looking through the schedule and thinking your team has as good as any of making the playoffs.

(Good Quickish stuff on the NFL Sked here.)

More:

*Moyer Mania: 49-year-old Jamie Moyer becomes the oldest pitcher ever to get an MLB win. Again: There isn't a single player more worth seeing in person this season than Moyer.

*Kentucky 5 goes pro: I absolutely do not understand any hand-wringing about "one-and-done" players -- the only hand-wringing worth doing is over the existence of any age limit, period.

Don't get how people would want to force these kids to have to stay in school, particularly if the NBA -- the market -- signals (via projected draft position) they are clearly ready to enter the league.

*Anthony Davis will be the No. 1 overall pick. Michael Kidd-Gilchrist ("MKG") will be either No. 2 or No. 3. Terrence Jones will go in the Lottery. Marquis Teague will go in the first round. Doron Lamb might go in the first round, but probably the second. Not a bad class.

*NBA: That was a pretty good game by Melo and a pretty good win by the Knicks -- they will open the playoffs with either the Heat or Bulls and New York's best-case scenario is simply to keep things interesting through 6 or 7 games before losing in the first round.

*Ozzie is back: It's like he never left (except he will likely be way more careful about what he says -- to the extent that Ozzie can ever be too careful about things like that).

*Time's 2012 "Top 100 Most Influential People" list included six athletes: Novak Djokovic, Jeremy Lin, Lionel Messi, Oscar Pistorious, Tim Tebow, and Yani Tseng.

More later. Tons of great stuff on Quickish yesterday -- Will Leitch's GQ cover story on Derrick Rose, Wright Thompson on Ozzie Guillen and politics in Miami, Peter King's mock draft for this week's SI, Part 3 of John Branch's excellent series on a girls' high school hoops team in Tennessee being run by the local correctional system. Click here to check it out.

-- D.S.

Monday, April 16, 2012

04/16 (Monday) Quickie

*Damn: The Flyers are putting on an impressive beat-down.
*Calm down: The Heat beating the Knicks isn't quite the Heat beating the Bulls.
*However: The Lakers have to figure out if it's Bynum's team or Kobe's team.
*Sports x Pop Culture: "Mad Men" incorporating the 1966 World Cup.
*Today in Tebow Hysteria: Tebow at a Yankees game! (In a Yankees hat!)
*Two words: Matt. Kemp.
*Great read: John Branch's series in the NYT about the girls' hoops team administrated by the local correctional system.
*By the way: Tebow's new Nike jersey sold out on its first day of availability.

More later.

-- D.S.