“I Just Lost My Lunch, And I Didn’t Even Have Any!”

Two years ago, NASCAR legend Darrell Waltrip took a ride in a V8 Supercar on the Mount Panorama course before announcing the Bathurst 1000 for the States on Speed Channel.

Let this sink in for a moment: DW once drove well over 200+ at Talladega and yet this ride along scared him.

Enjoy!

Bad Things Happen When You’re On The Cover & A Bold Prediction

Many of you may not be aware of it, but there is such a thing as The Sports Illustrated Cover Jinx. It’s not an urban legend. It’s a fact that several high profile athletes have had bad luck occur to them once they’ve been given the cover treatment. Consider some of the eerie things that occurred after athletes were featured on an SI cover, with publication dates included:

• January 31, 1955 – skier Jill Kinmont was paralyzed from the chest down after a near-fatal accident that occurred the same week she appeared on the cover.
• February 13, 1961 – figure skater Laurence Owen, as well as the rest of the U.S. Figure Skating Team, perished in a plane crash near Brussels, Belgium two days later.
• June 7, 1971 – racers Al Unser and Peter Revson were both featured on the SI cover. Unser was hampered by retirements during subsequent races that season. Revson was killed while practicing for the 1974 South African Grand Prix.
• July 30, 1984 – Steelers linebacker Jack Lambert suffered a turf toe injury that ended his career.
• June 20, 1988 – boxer Michael Spinks appeared on the cover with the caption “Don’t Count Me Out”. Thanks to a Mike Tyson punch, the referee did exactly that in ninety-one seconds after the opening bell of their fight. Spinks never fought again.
• December 6, 2000 – racers Dale Earnhardt and his son Dale Earnhardt Jr. shared the cover. Dale was killed two months later on the final lap of the 2001 Daytona 500.
• September 2008 – Patriots quarterback Tom Brady was on the cover of the NFL Season Preview issue. During the team’s season opener, Brady was lost for the season with a serious knee injury.
• October 15, 2011 – NASCAR racer Jimmie Johnson had an accident at Charlotte Motor Speedway later that month that ultimately stopped his championship winning streak at five years in a row.
• February 17, 2012 – Knicks guard Jeremy Lin’s team had their six-game winning streak snapped by the New Orleans Hornets, at the time the second-worst team in the NBA.
• February 23, 2012 – Lin, after making his second straight cover appearance, went 1 for 11 in a loss against the Miami Heat. The next month he tore the meniscus in his left knee and underwent season ending surgery.
• May 15, 2013 – Grizzlies guard Mike Conley Jr. and his team were swept by the San Antonio Spurs 4-0 in the Western Conference Finals.
• June 10, 2013 – The Spurs “Big 3” of Manu Ginobili, Tim Duncan and Tony Parker appear on this week’s cover.

I know HESPN (that H is for the 30 minutes of coverage ESPN devotes to the Miami Heat during SportsCenter every night) wants the Spurs to lose, but SI has to give my team another obstacle to overcome? I know everyone hates the Spurs, but this is ridiculous.

I’m crossing my fingers Michael Jordan and his 49 SI cover appearances weren’t an aberration.

PREDICTION: Spurs win their fifth NBA championship in six games.

IT AIN'T SHRECK, BUT TAMING A MONSTER, DOVER STYLE.

Well Tony Stewart (14)  has gotten the monkey off his back and he did it in fine fashion Sunday afternoon. After a very sluggish start, Stewart was back into victory  lane at the FEDEX 400 BENEFITTING AUTISM SPEAKS  and possibly into Chase contention.
Stewart put an outside pass on Juan Pablo Montoya (42) with three laps to go and hold on for his first win in 30 races. With things not going good for Stewarts team which includes Ryan Newman (39) and Danica Patrick (10), this win puts to rest rumors of grumbling within the team, as some reports of crew chief Steve Addington's job being questioned. Stewart was visibly upset about these reports that he said stemmed from the media and not the garage.
Jimmie Johnson drove his wheels off to come from almost a lap down to lead the race but got a black flag for jumping a restart on the 19th lap and put at the back of the field with a drive thru penalty. With the 48 out of the picture, Montoya and Stewart battled for the lead. Jeff Gordon (24) was third followed by Kyle Busch (18) who came fourth and last years champ Brad Keslowski (2) grabbed fifth.
Matt Kenseth (20) and Martin Truex Jr. (56) both had engine problems, with this race TRD  has a dire need to find out why the Toyotas keep losing engines. Pole sitter Denny Hamlin (11) finished 34th after hitting the wall late in the race. the Petty cars with Marcus Ambrose (9) and Aric Almirola (43) both finished, although back in the field. Kasey Kahne (5) finished 23rd.
The Nationwide Series saw Joey Logano win THE 5 HOUR ENERGY 200  for the Penske team, holding off Brian Vickers, Matt Kenseth, Trevor Bayne and Kyle Busch. Busch dominated most of the race leading 72 of the 200 laps, but was 10th in the final restart and pulled off a fifth place finish. Points leader Regan Smith finished 9th. Bayne, who critics have been saying needs to start finishing races came through with a fourth place.
Speaking of Kyle Busch, and this writer likes doing that a lot, he won the Camping World Truck Series, Lucas Oil 200. Matt Crafton was 2nd, followed by Ryan Blaney, Chase Elliott, and Brendan Gaughan. Pole sitter Darrell (Bubba) Wallace although driving a tough race in the beginning was relegated to 10th place.
My big  query this year is the TRD problem, this has been raising it's ugly head for two years now, and the main problem appears to be a top end valve spring breakdown. This has been known and brought to light for that two years and it isn't getting any better. What the heck is wrong with finding a new vendor, if the steel is dirty and causing the spring to breakdown and fail why aren't the other big name builders having the same problem, just a query but it can't be that hard to find an answer.

Four Left Standing

So now that we're down to the Conference Finals in the NHL, it's interesting to note that the four teams remaining are the last four Stanley Cup Champs -- the Penguins in '09, Blackhawks in '10, Bruins in '11 and the Kings last year.  So you have your defending champion taking on the President's Trophy winner (most regular season wins) in the Western Conference Final, and you have the Penguins (the team Jerome Iginla spurned the Bruins to play for) matching up against those Bruins in the Eastern Final.  And there's always the fact that Matt Cooke ruined the career of former Bruin Captain Marc Savard to add some drama and motivation and edge.
I found it surprising that this is the first time the last four Cup champs were the last four standing since sometime in the '50s.  The NHL being a six-team league up until the late '60s, you'd think this would've have happened more often.  But I digress.

I believe we have the four best teams in the league remaining and I felt they were the four best when the playoffs started but usually major upsets take out a few of the "best" teams.  You have outstanding matchups here in the Conference Finals and you're guaranteed a doozy in the Finals, no matter who matches up -- LA against Boston?  Talk about deep and physical teams going at it.  LA versus the Penguins?  Another deep team in Pittsburgh but one that seems to have unlimited offensive firepower going against the defending champs, plus star power any time the Penguins are involved.  How about an Original Six matchup between Chicago and Boston, two of the best sports towns in the country.  Or even the Blackhawks against the Penguins?  While I feel this is the least interesting matchup from a hockey standpoint (no real good reason for feeling that way, just that one matchup has to be least) but what a great matchup it would be anyway and it would be the matchup with the most marquee star power -- Malkin, Crosby, et al, vs Toews and Kane and company.
So who will match up in the Cup Finals?  I hate to say this and never bet against my Bruins but the Bruins are the fourth best team here.  I think we'll learn a lot about this series from game one because if the Bruins team that played the Rangers shows up, it'll be a long series.  And if the Bruins can exploit Pittsburgh only real weakness, goaltending, then they could pull the upset.
Same proviso regarding the western series -- which Blackhawk team shows up will make a big difference.  But even then, they're gonna have to solve Jonathan Quick.  Edge to LA.
What do you all think?  Hey Brent, how'd you end up with your picks?

CABLE PROBLEMS NASCAR STYLE.

Hello all, it's been a while, giving this another try, just a short one because I'm tired of writing stuff and it kept getting lost.
Anyway, Cole's notes version is this, the internet and yours truly were not getting along the last few months, but hopefully that's over.
Anyway quick little thought on the above, I think NASCAR made one of the best decisions I have ever seen since I started watching the sport. Maybe a little more control was needed on what was done by whom to what, but, and that to me that is the catchword, this is something that was under nobodies control and no one deserved to have damage that may have altered the outcome for them, my two guys in the race 18 and the 88 both had damage and both got back to square one and both blew engines later in the race. I know the bosses players are doing pretty good, so good luck to them.
Well we are off to the Monster this weekend and if this goes well I shall see ya'll on Monday, I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

A Picture Says Everything

Now I get nine days away from the NBA, and so does my team. Go Spurs Go!

A few hockey thoughts

To the Boston Bruins, you can't afford to give games away, even when you're up three games to none.  I give the Rangers credit, they came out and played hard in game 4 but that game was essentially over when the Bruins had a 2-0 lead.  Then comes a "fluke" goal and a brain freeze, and voila, it's tied.  And even though the Bs got the lead back again, the Rangers were fully engaged at that point and proceeded to score two more goals to win in OT, both of the latter goals were hard-working, smart goals. 
Back to the two goals the Bruins gave the Rangers:  I can only guess that Tuukka was coming out of his net to coral a wayward shot to give it to his defense but at the precise moment he starts to do that, the puck is deflected and Tuukka all but ties himself in knots trying to get back to the net.  Yes, you're a better puck handler than Tim Thomas was but that's no great accomplishment.  Play it when it comes to you and that's it.  On the second one Chara has a brain cramp and doesn't realize there's a Ranger on his tail behind the net, his D partner didn't warn him or he couldn't hear it; and the puck is stolen from him and just as quickly put in the net.  Some blame goes to Rask here too as he also was not aware.  You don't need to be aware, just have the goal covered when the puck is near it.  Then if it's stolen, you're not surprised.
All in all the Bruins are the better team and should win one of the next three games but why tempt fate?  You've already seen first hand that a team can come back on you down three games to none (witness the playoff series against Philly three years ago); the Leafs came back on you after being done three games to one and should've beat you; and your AHL team just got beat after being ahead three games to none.

The best team doesn't always win.  Witness the roll the Bruins got on two years ago (de facto becoming the best team at that moment) but they weren't the best time as we commonly think of that term.  Just last season an 8th seed beats a 7 seed in the Cup Final to win it all.  Some experts poo poo momentum but I won't.  Momentum is a factor but also getting your team and its game together (peaking) at the right time is everything.  So while in my humble opinion the four best teams in the league are still alive (Pittsburgh, Chicago, Boston, LA), one of them, Chicago, is on it's last leg because (part B of this paragraph) you can't undervalue experiencing playoff success at the highest levels.   Exhibit A?  The Detroit Red Wings, left for dead three weeks ago and now on the verge of eliminating the best team from the regular season.  Exhibit B to a lesser extent are the Boston Bruins, who in the first three games of this series with the Rangers looked like the team that won the Cup two years ago.

John Tortorella is a bore and the NY Rangers are not the NY Yankees.  You can insert your own examples as to why Torts is a bore...I just wanted to say it publicly.  The Rangers have tried mightily before their one recent Cup and since to buy a championship with horrible results.  Mark Messiers don't grow on trees for one thing and even as the Yankees have learned more often than not the hard way, bringing in an all star team does not a great team make.  You're free to offer your own examples of the wasteland that is the high-priced failures of Rangers past and present, Brad Richards being just the very latest.  Even Rick Nash qualifies here because great players don't always success under the bright lights of NY, they're sometimes already over the hill or in the case of people like Nash, they're the wrong player for the style your coach wants to play.

Trivia question:  Without cheating, which means looking it up in any way, name as many NHL goalies as you can who played at the University of Maine.  Hint:  There's two currently in the league, one very much alive in these playoffs.  Another is the current GM of a team that made this year's playoffs.

PS  My new favorite player is Torey Krug, who's being compared here in New England to my all-time favorite player, Don Sweeney.  Too bad he doesn't wear number 43, my favorite number, which is being worn by another of the three young Bruin defensemen that have risen to the occasion in these playoffs, young Mr. Bartkowski.

The Long Story Of The North Star Athletic Association

In April, the press reported about the formation of the North Star Athletic Association in the NAIA. It will be comprised of 6 schools: Jamestown College, Valley City State University, Dickinson State University, Dakota State University, Presentation College, and Mayville State University. Only Presentation College was not a part of the DAC-10 that dissolved in 2011.

Changing The NASCAR All-Star Race

After trying to fall asleep during the NASCAR multiple times this past weekend, I believe that there needs to be changes made to the race.  I am not talking tweaks to the race, I am talking major race changing rules. I am talking things that many "racing purists" would consider blasphemous. But something needs to be done. The All-Star race is becoming the Pro Bowl like. And that is a bad thing.

Found On The Internet: Old Spurs

No discussion of the San Antonio Spurs can begin or end without talking about the advanced ages of Tim Duncan (37), Manu Ginobili (35) or Tony Parker (a spry 31), but one thing I’ll never accuse them of is being too old. Especially since they took down the physical Memphis Grizzlies easily in Game 1 yesterday.

The Grizzlies had no answer for Parker, and Kawhi Leonard, Danny Green and Matt Bonner (he’s 33 BTW) made sure it rained threes all day long.

If this is how it’s going to be, go ahead and make plans for a Spurs – Heat final. And maybe this time our bench will beat them.