Armadillo: Friday's six-pack
-- San Antonio Spurs haven't lost a game since April 11. Any game. You think they're going to lose a best-of-7 series?
-- Why isn't Gregg Popovich the Olympic coach? Well, Jerry Co****elo runs USA Basketball, and apparently he and Pop aren't great buddies.
-- Dwyane Wade is 18-58 (31.0%) from the floor in the Indiana series.
-- Pacers were 100-1 to win the championship back in the fall.
-- All five teams in the NL East are over .500.
-- If Patriots don't want Wes Welker, could they send him to St Louis?
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Armadillo: Friday's List of 13: Random thoughts with the weekend here......
13) Read an interesting book on the plane home from Las Vegas; Play Their Hearts Out, about AAU basketball in southern California. The writer followed this group of kids for eight years as they grew up from 4th graders to prospective college athletes. Quite an undertaking, but its really well-written, it is sad at times, uplifting at times, but all of it is true. Some of the kids in the book are still playing college ball. If you like college basketball, its worth your time.
12) In Celtics’ three playoff games with Philly so far, they’re +47 with Kevin Garnett on the court, -31 with him on the bench.
11) Remaining NHL teams' records in the playoffs:
Kings 11-1, Coyotes 8-6, Rangers 9-7, Devils 9-5.
10) ESPN.com insists on posting these articles on which teams should sell off players and which teams should buy. Its May 18 today, too damn early for teams to be giving up on the baseball season.
The season is still young. Come up with other stuff to right about. Use your imagination. Write about prospects, anything, but the constant drivel about small market teams trading players is getting old.
9) Old Dominion is leaving the CAA for Conference USA; CAA has now lost Georgia State, ODU and VCU- they’re rumored to be going after Charleston/Davidson to restock their shelves.
8) Why did the A-14 move its conference tournament from Atlantic City to Brooklyn? Are people from Saint Louis, Duquesne, Dayton or Xavier more likely to trek to Brooklyn for the tournament, or to the casinos/boardwalk of Atlantic City? Or would Philly be the place to hold it? Brooklyn is a weird place to hold the tournament; Fordham is the only NYC team in the league, and they’re in the Bronx, not Brooklyn.
7) Apparently, NY Rangers’ coach John Tortorella despises the media, but isn’t part of his job to promote his team, his sport? If making himself the focus of the media makes things easier for his team, so be it, but the NHL needs as much exposure as it can get, and having him mumble his way thru cameo appearances at press conferences isn’t helping the league any.
Weird thing is, it is obvious from watching HBO’s 24/7 special on Rangers/Flyers last winter that Tortorella is a character, someone the media should love, not loathe. Its too bad. He should watch Bull Durham, learn a few cliches, and sleepwalk thru the media sessions. Its part of his job.
6) This weekend’s Spur-Clipper games at Staples Center aren’t sold out yet. Spurs' easy win Thursday isn't going to help that situation any.
5) Just dawned on me that when Ozzie Guillen jumped from the White Sox to Miami, the two pitching coaches stayed where they were. That’s very unusual, no?
4) MLB Network televises the early part of the amateur draft now; since the A’s have five of the first 74 picks, guess I’ll be watching those days.
3) Speaking of the A’s, just when it looked like Brandon Inge was going to be the 3B they’ve been dying for, he has a leg injury and and is on the DL. Terrific. He had 16 RBI in five games, then got hurt, so we’re back to Josh Donaldson at 3B, which wouldn’t be so bad except the guy is hitting .083 and he’s more of a hitter than a fielder. Seriously, he is.
2) Somehow, with Cespedes, Braden and Anderson all hurt, with their two best pitchers traded away, with no Manny Ramirez until Game 51, the A's are 20-19. With every passing day, Bob Melvin looks like a combination of Dick Williams, Miller Huggins and Tony Larussa. Outstanding manager.
1) This is an actual billboard in Las Vegas:
“Everyone screws up now & then. Especially around here. Call us when you do.”
Billboard is for a bail bondsman service. You wonder why I like it there?