Sunday Bloody Sunday

At least it was for the Blackhawks Adam Burish who took a teammates skate in the neck. He was very lucky that it was just a glancing blow and was just a flesh wound and he was able to stay in the game. It could have been a very bad situation as we have seen with Richard Zednik not that long ago.

Beyond that it was a very busy Sunday with a little something for just about any sports fan.
~There was the Game 1 in the NHL Playoffs between the Red Wings and the Blackhawks.The Wings managed to outwork the Hawks and take Game 1 at home.

~Then there was The game seven in the NBA between the LA Lakers and the Houston Rockets. This was a series that became a lot closer then most thought it would be. With a depleted Houston team missing 2 of its stars they managed to give the Lakers a scare. This was essentially a series of home court advantages. It seemed that the visiting team could never get going and the home team just played with a swagger. It is crazy that the home court in the NBA seems to carry so much more weight then in any other sport. LA had home court advantage and rolled to an easy win. Now they have to turn their focus to the Denver Nuggets. Hmmm, Kobe in Colorado again this could go bad but the potential for jokes may prove to be epic!

~Want more hockey? Then there was the Memorial Cup with Rimouski playing Windsor. In what figured to be a game that Windsor should have the advantage in turned out to not be that way. The home crowd may have been an extra player for Rimouski and they played with a lot of emotion and managed to knock off the OHL champs 5-4. The loss could prove to be an exit ticket for the Spitfires and sets Rimouski up to go further then you would have thought after game 1 versus Kelowna. In a crazy finish with the Windsor goaltender out the Oceanic managed to hold off the furious attack until the clock struck 0:00.

~ Again a game 7 in the NBA. This was the defending champion Boston Celtics in tough versus the Orlando Magic. The Garnett-less Celtics couldn’t keep up with the 3 point shooting of the Magic and wound up falling to the younger team from Orlando. The game was never that close and the end result was never really in doubt as the “Truth” Paul Pierce just didn’t have it on this day and Dwight Howard and crew rolled for the right to face LeBron James in the Conference Finals.

~Roger Federer beat Rafael Nadal to end his 33-match winning streak on clay 6-4, 6-4. This is either a great sign going into the French Open that Federer may actually be able to upset Nadal in Paris. Either that or he has just opened Nadal’s eyes and have re-focused him and only make him stronger and more dangerous.

~ Usain Bolt, the worlds fastest man, ran the world's fastest 150 metres to win a soggy street sprint in England. He won the race 14.35 seconds, breaking Canadian Donovan Bailey's 12-year-old world best of 14.99 in the rarelyy run150 m. This was also his first race since being sidelined after a car crash that required him to have foot surgery.

And this doesn’t include any of the baseball games or touch on any of the events of Saturday which saw the less then impressive return to the pool by Olympic hero Michael Phelps after his suspension and questionable behaviour of late and Rachel Alexandra becoming the first filly to win the Preakness since 1924,doing so with the Kentucky Derby winner and feisty Mine That Bird nipping at her heels in the final stretch. If she does run in the Belmont she may be considered one of the greatest of all time.

This Years Sportsman of the Year - Michael Phelps

Michael Phelps continues his great year with yet one more major accolade. There is little doubt that this was going to be awarded to Phelps and he is certainly a deserving recipient. For 2 weeks in China this past August the Olympics were all about Phelps and his quest to become the most decorated Olympian in history. He walked out of those games with 8 golds the most in one Olympics. Even the casual observer couldn’t help but become captivated by the story in the pool. What he managed to do, and in some cases his team was not only compelling but it brought a spotlight to swimming that will now become obsolete for the next 4 years until the next Olympics. It is too bad that this sport only gets recognition every 4 years along with the likes of gymnastics.
Technically he was sportsman of the 2 weeks even though the 4 years of training leading up to the games will no doubt be overlooked.

As for Phelps himself, he is a commodity and you can see him everywhere either in ads or just randomly in public. Does he run the risk of being over exposed? Perhaps, but in his role as a swimmer he almost needs to exploit himself and stay in the news for as longs as possible because once the light goes down on his star it will be 4 years before he can hope to get it back. It may not be right but that is just the way things go for amateur athletics (just ask Daniel Igali).

In any event Phelps is the big winner this year and we should all applaud what he was able to accomplish.

Around the Horn

Chad Johnson has just taken the cake and we all must bow to him...He has reportedly legally changed his surname to 'Ocho Cinco'
This may not be "He Hate Me" but it is close. Even Manny being Manny thinks this is over the top.
From Sportsnet.ca (There was a basketball player in the 80’s - World B. Free was an NBA player in the 1970s and 80s who changed his name from Lloyd Bernard Free in 1980. It’s long been considered the benchmark for novelty names.)...until now.

Kicker Jay Feely was cut by the Kansas City Chiefs, the after signing a one-year deal.
Almost as bad as the time that Rob Ducey was essentially traded for himself...not a proud moment for either guy.

When the news came out about Russia and Georgia how many people thought that it was the first out of conference game for the Bulldogs vs the New Red Army?

Michael Phelps had better sign up fast and get in the World Series of Poker if he hopes to keep his streak of SI covers intact. I don’t think that appearances on the VMA’s and SNL are enough to do it.

Michael Strahan decided to stay retired.
$8M to play and get hit and banged up every week or $2M to sit at Fox in a fancy chair, even with his divorce settlement I think he made a smart choice.

Shawne Merriman has decided to play this year with a tear in both his posterior cruciate ligament and lateral collateral ligament.
Is this a case of being: A Warrior? A Great Teammate? Loyal? OR Stupid, Selfish, or just plain not bright? Shut it down and get the surgery.

The LPGA is adopting a policy that players must be able to speak conversational English- at first glance this is just wrong and unjust.
On second glance it comes down to $$$......no English = no schmoozing of sponsors = no sponsors = no tournament= NO TOUR

Which event was more choreographed The Opening and Closing Ceremony at the 2008 Beijing Olympics or Barak Obama’s acceptance speech at Mile High Stadium in Denver last night?

In a report by La Presse Friday, the Montreal Canadiens plan to retire jersey No. 33 of goaltender Patrick Roy in November.
I just hope that his acceptance speech in front of the crowd goes better then the last speech that he had as a Canadien which was one-on-one with then president of the team Ronald Corey during a game which ended with him in Colorado (...stupid Mario Trembley).

Around the Horn

Congratulations to Michael Phelps on his 7th gold (with plenty of room to spare, 1/100th of a second) of the 2008 Olympics. It was an unbelieveable race and a thrill to watch. All I can say is WOW!!

Around the Horn will not be seen this week and has put on hiatus for re-tooling.
Actually I just don't have the drive to write it this week and plan for it to be back in all its glory next week!

Stay tuned!

Gold Rush

Michael Phelps, perhaps you have heard of him, swam into history as the winningest Olympic athlete ever with his 11th career gold medal - and fourth world record of the Beijing Games. Phelps is now looking to go for a record number of gold in a single Olympics at the Beijing Olympics. The magic number is 8 to break and 7 to tie Mark Spitz. He is sitting on 5 right now and is just over halfway there. How many will he end with? Is he the greatest of all time? What happens if he doesn’t break the record? What if he comes second in an event and only gets a silver is it a failed Olympics, is that a failure? These are some of the many questions that will be answered in due time. The sad thing is that he can’t surpass expectations only equal them. It is not his fault that the bar has been set so high but the is little that can be done about that now. In the worst explanation out there...”it is what it is”. Maybe if the media wanted to assure them selves of having a story like this is to stack the deck in its advantage. You already know that there is a pretty good chance that he will be close to that magic 8 in the pool between his own and his relay team events, why not go that extra step? Make him an extra on the Men’s basketball team as a 12th man, throw him on the volleyball, baseball, field hockey, water polo or any other heavily favoured team event. Then he can sit on the bench and or enter the event for a few seconds and then leave get credit an share in the medal, that would all but guarantee a record and take away all sorts of pressure.

Regardless of what happens from here on out I have seen 4 world records broken, one by close to 5 seconds and Phelps has now eclipsed the record number of gold overall as well. I hope that he does break the record. As I have stated may times before, I am a fan of seeing history being made that is what I would love for this to be one such event.

Around The Horn

Brett Favre has finally moved and maybe now we can all move on to talking about football...the actual game!
You can call him Broadway Brett! I guess green really is his favorite colour for more reasons then one.

In a related note, Chad Pennington the Jets starting QB the last few seasons has gone Dan Crowley (Ottawa Renegades former starting QB) and was released by the team. Not even demoted...released

First it was Paul now it is Morgan. The two USA Gymnast brothers have been forced to sit out the Olympics with injury
I will take the Won Ton Soup and the #29 Special....Hold the Hamm

The European’s record at the PGA Championship is not great, none of the US players are playing particularly well.
Should make for an interesting final Major, Tiger must just be itching to be in this field for an almost guaranteed victory, probably still would be the favorite right now even on one pin.

Are any of the athletes this year actually going to be clean?
Vegas will have its work cut out for themselves setting the over/under for athletes getting pinched by drug tests

The Manny Ramirez trade is being investigated by MLB
After the way the ARod (or the Lightning Rod, as i know him) contract was handled by Scott Boras last year during the World Series there would be an outside chance that ther may have been something greasy going on there

J.P. Riccardi the Jays GM stated that Cito Gaston will be back in 2009
Does that open the door for Beaston and Gillick to come in too?Apparently what was old is new again in TO....Was that just an Allan Bester sighting??

After this regime some more "new/old" faces may be a good thing

As stated on The Colbert Report last night Michael Phelps will be one to watch this year in the pool as he goes for a record amount of Gold. It is a wonder that he has the kind of time required to train while playing Jim on the Office and QB’ing the NY Giants to the Super Bowl