One Championship Down, Another To Go

The Anaheim Ducks put the Ottawa Senators out of their misery tonight, winning Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Finals, 6-2, and winning the Cup, 4 games to 1. The Ducks kicked the Sens all the way back to Canada. The series really wasn't close. As a result, there are riots in Newport Beach tonight. Not really. The Ducks' players can now shave their Grizzly Adams-style beards, since the playoffs are over.

The hockey finals ended tonight just in time for the beginning of the NBA Finals, which start tomorrow night in San Antonio. The Spurs go for their fourth championship in nine years over the upstart Cleveland Cavaliers, a/k/a LeBron James And A Bunch Of Guys. LeBron will be worth watching, all by himself. But, the Spurs will be too tough for them. The championship will go to a team on I-35. Problem is, it's not the Mavericks (remember them?). Spurs win in six.

This Guy's Awesome

LeBron James is the real deal. If there were any doubts, they went away tonight. LeBron scored 48 points in tonight's Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals, as the Cleveland Cavaliers defeated Detroit, 109-107 in double overtime. He scored 29 of the last 30, and the last 25 points of the game for Cleveland. It was a truly awesome performance. At times, it looked like LeBron was taking on the Pistons all by himself. The Cavs have a cast of spares surrounding the great LeBron James.

The Cavs now lead the series, 3 games to 2, with a potential series-clincher Saturday night in Cleveland. The Cavs have never been to the NBA Finals. The city of Cleveland has not had a team play for a championship since 1997, when the Indians lost to the Marlins in the World Series. However, a Cleveland team has not won a championship since 1964, when the Browns won the NFL championship. That was before the Super Bowl came along. It was also before I was born.

Thanks to a guy from Akron, Cleveland has a chance.

Ya gotta look out for CLE...

By the way, what is Chris Webber doing wearing the number 84?

The Cleveland Indians of Milwaukee (at least for three days)

One of the drawbacks of the 162-game, 162-date schedule is that baseball season starts really, really early. The regular season began last week, on April 2. While that's not a problem in places like southern California, it can raise some issues in other parts of the country.

The Seattle Mariners and the Cleveland Indians attempted to play a four-game series this past weekend in Cleveland. Attempt is the operative word here. The city of Cleveland got hit by a massive snowstorm over the weekend. The teams played Friday night into the top of the 5th inning, but, with Cleveland leading 4-0, but with the bases loaded for Seattle, Mariners manager Mike Hargrove complained to the umpires about visibility in the falling snow. So, the game was wiped away, to be rescheduled for Saturday. They didn't play Saturday, as there were three inches of snow and ice on the field. So, they tried to play a doubleheader on Sunday. No luck. Finally, they had a scheduled doubleheader for today. Still snowed out.

There is no word on make-up dates for this series. This was Seattle's only scheduled trip to Cleveland this season.

To add insult to injury for the fans of CLE, the Indians have moved this week's Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursday series with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim to Milwaukee. It seems Milwaukee has a retractable roof over their park. This is also the only scheduled visit by the Angels to Cleveland this season. On top of that, the fans of CLE lose three opportunities to see their team this season.

Baseball has an absolutely absurd schedule. I understand that both the players' union (due to rest) and the owners (more playing dates=more money) desire to stay away from the scheduled doubleheader. This forces the regular season into early April. Also, the regular season currently ends at the very end of September, with three rounds of playoffs extending through the entire month of October. All of this leads to some crazy weather at both the beginning and end of the season. Baseball games should not be in a position to be snowed out.

There are two simple solutions, neither of which will happen in my lifetime: 1) Go back to the 154-game schedule, and sprinkle a few doubleheaders into the calendar. This will allow for opening day to be held no earlier than mid-April. 2) Play all games in the first two weeks of the season in covered ballparks or warm-weather cities. There is always the possibility of freak weather such as last weekend's snow flurries and freezing weather in Arlington, Texas. However, it is not fair to the players, or even the fans, in places like Cleveland or Chicago to play or watch in almost guaranteed frigid conditions.

To add another lack of sense to the situation, this is the only visit by both the Mariners and Angels to Cleveland this year. I have no problem with the unbalanced schedule, allowing teams to play more games against division rivals. However, the lords of baseball can at least schedule these games at both the beginning and end of the season. Scheduling division games early can at least offer more opportunities for make-up later in the season.

As it is, the Mariners could spend two or as many as four off-days making road trips into Cleveland to make up this series. Good luck working all that out.

And baseball wonders why it is no longer this country's leading sport.

UUOTD-Turn Back The Clock Edition

Staying in the 1970's...

The city of Cleveland has been known to some as the "Mistake By The Lake". The 70's weren't good to Cleveland, and nowhere is that more evident than in uniforms worn by two of their teams: the Indians and the Cavaliers.

The Cavaliers have one of the worst uniform histories of any franchise in the NBA. But, that is another story for another day.

The Indians wore these all-red uniforms on occasion from 1973 to 1976. They wore a blue hat, with a funky-shaped "C", and these pajama-looking red uniforms. These are some of the worst uniforms in the history of baseball. They look like tomatoes. Maybe these tomatoes went on the Padres' cheeseburgers. Nah, because there was no interleague play in those days, and both teams were horrible. The only way they saw the World Series was on TV.

Eye gouge rating: 2


I could not find a picture of Oscar Gamble in the red uniform. That's too bad. It would have been classic.