Archives

New Adventures

Jan11

So . . . for the past month or so, I have been sitting on big news for me and I have been DYING to talk about it.  Well, I finally can and my big news is that is that I am going to be joining the G9sports.com network of blogs!!!  You can read more about it here, from founder Julie DiCaro. I am really excited to be doing this and I will be covering none other than the White Sox!  I hope you all get a chance to check it out once we launch on February 1, 2011.  Rest assured, I will continue to post things here, such as the long awaited post on sports learnin’ that I have been meaning to get around to.  And who knows, I might even get my fangirl hat on and go to SoxFest 2011 this year.  We shall see.

This is a really cool thing for me because of the purpose behind it, and to be included in the 30 women so far who will be writing about sports is amazing.  I can’t wait for you to read their work in addition to what I have been writing.

In the mean time, keep reading things here and as things progress with G9, I will be sure to keep you updated on what is happening!  Of course, you can always follow me on Twitter for the latest happenings with a girl’s perspective and G9sports.

We are still looking for female writers who know their stuff to cover ALL the teams in NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL.  And it is not just a midwest sports thing, so if you live on the coasts or know some fans of teams on the coasts, contact me so we can bring you on board.  We could really use some Red Sox and Yankee loving ladies (with baseball season fast approaching).  There will also be coverage of the various college teams as well.

Opposites Attract

Dec31

I love sports.  They are dependable for ensuring that if I am having a crappy day, that watching a game, whether it is an old one or currently happening, I will be cheered up.  They rarely let me down in terms of knowing what is going to happen.  The thrill of finding out how the ending will occur is so much fun for me.  If I am let down by sports, it is usually because the team I am rooting for didn’t end up with my desired result.  Though, this disappointment doesn’t last long as I always look forward to seeing the next game.  Even if I am having the best day ever, sports just are icing on my fabulous cake for keeping the party going.

I will watch most any sports, but my favorites are about as opposite as one can get.  Fortunately, they are also in opposite times during the year, so that I am occupied with sports year-round without a break.  Some may find this strange because you should take a break from your loves just for sanity purposes, but for me, there is an inherent break given the sports I follow closely. 

Hockey and Baseball.  Fast, heart-pounding, brutal, ice, clock.  Those would be things that come to mind when I am thinking about hockey.  Slower, long grind, nine, grass, timeless.  Those are some of the words that come to mind for me when I think about baseball.  In almost every way, these two sports are opposite.  Both are team sports, except that baseball is deceptive in that while it is a team sport, it is more about the individual players coming together to do something.  Guys can still be superstars even if only one person is putting up stats while the rest of the team is just blah or in some cases, just bad at the game.  With hockey, sure, there are superstars, but every guy on that team needs to do his thing in order for the points to be put up on the scoreboard and the team to win.  Sure, at times a team will get a win that can and should be credited to a goalie who stood on his head, but for the most part, you need all the forwards, defensemen and the goalie to work in concert for things to equate to a win.

The biggest difference for me between the two is the speed of the game.  In hockey, you are up against a clock.  The guys are athletic and moving around on skates!  Things happen quickly and if you aren’t paying close attention, you can miss something in the blink of an eye.  When I watch hockey, it can be the most intense 60 minutes ever (spread out over about 2.5 hours).  If a guy with the puck gets a breakaway to the net and then shoots and JUST MISSES the goal or the goalie makes a great block, it is super intense, waiting for that score to happen.  I think it is probably more intense when it is a potential goal that the team you aren’t rooting for shoots.  When your team’s goalie makes a great stop, you will realize you were holding your breath waiting to see if the puck crosses the line.  In baseball, there is none of this type of heart-pounding stress.  You know you are in for at least 3 hours of time to sit back and relax while watching the game.  Sure, there are times when you will hold your breath — usually when a pitcher is throwing a no-hitter or making a bid for a perfect game, but generally, guys get hits and you just want to make sure that the base runners don’t score.  Sometimes, the game can go really quickly if you get two pitchers who like to get the ball and throw it to the plate.  Those type of pitchers will not allow for batters to play games to mess with their rhythm.  Those are also games where no one is getting very far on the base path.  Honestly, I love those types of games because anytime there is a great pitching duel, sign me up.  I know a lot of baseball fans out there don’t care for them because they would like to see lots of home runs (and the ensuing fireworks that some parks will shoot off when a home run is hit).

The inherent heart-pounding with hockey is a great change for when it is not baseball season.  And conversely, the relaxed games of baseball are great to get away from the heart-pounding that is hockey.  Hockey is just intense and I love it.  The fact that you have guys going after each other and even the fights are just amazing.  Seeing those guys do that, it is a way to enjoy getting out aggression without being an angry person myself.  With baseball, it is just more relaxed in terms of being able to watch, but you don’t have to do it super closely to know what is happening.  Once in a while there will be a fight, but the whole team will get involved.  Personally, I like the way hockey goes about dealing with the aggression and hits.  Unfortunately in baseball, it doesn’t always happen. Especially if you happen to be watching an American League game where the pitchers don’t hit.

Overall, each sport has its own unique rhythm and beauty and watching to see what the beauty in each game is, is a wonderful thing.  Speed, athleticism and skill in each are all on display in different ways.  Every sport has its own rhythm and beauty, but for me, the beauty in hockey and baseball is the best kind of beauty to behold.  If you haven’t experienced the beauty, I’d encourage you to take a look and appreciate it for all its glory.

Hannukah, Christmas and Kwanzaa in October!

Oct6

October 6, 2010.  The date the Yankees begin the 11 game trek to accomplish Mission 28, i.e. winning world series title 28 in the team’s history.  It is also just hours away from the start of the NHL season.  Or better, the campaign for the defense of the Stanley Cup by the Blackhawks.  As a baseball addict and huge lover of the Chicago Blackhawks, this is such an exciting time.  I don’t necessarily care who wins the World Series — well as long as it is not the Minnesota Twins, but post season baseball is the bomb.  The eight teams that make the post season have a fresh start and anything can happen.  Particularly when in the first round when it is a best of 5 series.  You get a team that is firing at all cylinders and they can be dangerous.  Add a top flight pitching staff with potential aces as your 1-3 game starters and it could be amazing.

Even though my team is out of the playoffs this year I still will find someone and something to root for.  Whether it is the Texas Rangers getting to the playoffs and the amazing story of Josh Hamilton, Dusty Baker leading the Cincinnati Reds to the playoffs and being only the 2nd manager to lead 3 different teams to the playoffs, the Yankees going for it again, etc., there is always something fun to see.  I am hoping to see some amazingly pitched games as well as stellar defense to back up the pitching.  A few magnificent runs would be great as well.  Whatever happens, it will be fun guaranteed.

As for hockey season beginning, it is going to be fun.  Even though the Blackhawks lost a lot of key players due to salary cap issues after winning the Cup in June, I still like the way the team looks. There is still depth there and the core is still there.  It is going to be an exciting season to watch.  It will be a little sad seeing some of the former Blackhawk players on other teams, but such is the business of sports where you can’t keep everyone you would like to.  That can be for a number of reasons, but generally they can all be summed up as due to the almighty dollar.

My guess is that I won’t be fully engaged in the hockey season until the baseball post season is over, but that is ok.  I wasn’t fully engaged in baseball until the Stanley Cup had been decided.  Here is to an exciting post season coming up as well as a phenomenal start to the hockey season for the Blackhawks.

Thank You

Sep25

Pre-season hockey has begun and the Blackhawks roster has a bit of a different look to it.  The team won the 2010 Stanley Cup Championship and immediately after the celebrating began, the team had to be dismantled.  Now before anyone gets crazy and thinks this is a situation like the Florida Marlins went through in 2003 where the owner purposely dismantled his championship team.  This was a situation where this dirty little thing called a Salary Cap required that ownership shed salary, which meant a lot of players were going to have to leave the team.  Some of the notable names gone from the roster include Kris Versteeg, Andrew Ladd, Dustin Byfuglien, and Brent Sopel.  These guys were traded.  Also leaving were Adam Burish through free agency and the beloved Antii Niemi.

For many Blackhawks fans, the leaving of Antii Niemi was especially painful because it seemed to take forever to solidify the goalie position, which is the most important position and oh, HE WON A STANLEY CUP!  The main reason Niemi ended up leaving was because the San Jose Sharks made an offer sheet to Niklas Hjalmarsson.  This was huge because The Hammer, as Nik is known is a really good young defenseman that the Blackhawks couldn’t really afford to lose.  Because there was the offer sheet, the Hawks either had to match or let The Hammer walk.  Once that happened, and Niemi was going to arbitration for a higher salary, it was pretty much a situation where he might be all but gone because of the salary cap crunch.  This was more a problem because of the amount of money that was awarded to Halak in arbitration and he didn’t even get to the Stanley Cup finals.   Well, the arbitrator made an award to Niemi of roughly $2.5M and given that number the Blackhawks decided to just walk away.  This was ok for them becuase of following the Detroit Red Wings model of having an adequate goalie with really good defense in front to not have your goalie be a liability.

In some ways, I think that Niemi and his agent miscalculated his worth by going to arbitration now and in all honestly, Niemi was good, but in my opinion, not so great that he deserved what he was looking for in terms of salary.  Ironically, San Jose did sign Niemi because they let their goalie, Evgenie Nabokov go (he is now back in Russia) and Niemi is once again in a battle for the starting goalie job.

So far, I am feeling ok about the reconstituted Blackhawks.  We have Marty Turco in goal, who is someone that people wanted to trade for at the deadline last season and the core of the team (Kaner! Keith, Toewes, Seabrook) is still here.

But most importantly, THANK YOU 2009 – 2010 CHICAGO BLACKHAWKS for bringing the Stanley Cup back to Chicago.  It will be weird seeing some of the guys who helped do this on other teams this season, but I am looking forward to the 2010 – 2011 season.  Go Blackhawks.

Victory

Jun10

The Blackhawks win Lord Stanley’s Cup!!!!! The Blackhawks win Lord Stanley’s Cup!!!! On June 9, 2010, the Chicago Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup finals by a score of 4 – 3 in OT. Crazy goal by Patrick Kane that no one was really sure went in initially, let alone could find. The game was amazing with both teams coming out ready to play and play with some desperation as if life depended on it. For the Philadelphia Flyers, it literally did because they were down 3-2 in the best of 7 series. If the Flyers didn’t win, their season would officially be over.

Watching the game, was incredibly intense. The back and forth scoring that occurred (not rapid fire like in earlier games, but still not fun when it would get tied), the missed calls, the insane penalties (both those you could see as stupid and the ones just completely missed). It was enough to make a person chew your nails off or possibly gain about 20 pounds from stress eating. I think the only reason I didn’t do either was 1) i’ve never been a nail biter and 2) while i had food (nachos) it was the worst ever so i wasn’t inclined to eat it. Additionally, while at a bar to watch (i yell too much to watch at home; my elderly neighbors might want to call the police on me for making so much noise yelling at the near goals), I just was too nervous to want to drink.

Of course, the OT goal was the most insane. It was such a crazy play in that the camera lost sight of the puck, both the NBC and CBC broadcasters lot sight of the puck and had a delayed reaction. It seemed the only person who knew a goal was scored was Patrick Kane (KANER!). Watch the last couple of minutes leading up to the win here.

Overall, this was a great series to watch. Unexpected players stepped up while the top line of Toews, Kane and Byfuglien were mostly absent. Congratulations to the Flyers for making it a series, but the best team won this one. CONGRATULATIONS to the Chicago Blackhawks!!!! They were spectacular and it felt like destiny for them to go the distance. The way the guys on the team thanked their fathers after was amazing. They achieved their ONE GOAL. I can’t wait until the 2010 -2011 hockey season to begin. now to find the guy to hang out at the games with me. . .

Let’s Go Hawks

Apr18

This evening is game 2 of the first round of Lord Stanley’s playoffs. The Blackhawks lost on friday due to a fluky goal that allowed things to get tied and then a strange play to allow for the go-ahead goal against the Predators. Of course, many in Chicago saw that there were Cubs players at the game and immediately started with demanding they stay away from the games because they are bringing their Cubs curse-stench to the Blackhawks and the ‘Hawks don’t want it. I found that pretty funny, mainly because I have a feeling a lot of those professing it was the Cubs’ players fault might have been White Sox fans.

In any event, I won’t pretend to know everything there is to know about hockey. But I do know, the defense hasn’t been stellar for the Blackhawks. Early on in the season, the defense was playing so spectacular and at such a high level, that it made for the only weakness to talk about with the team being the Goalie situation. Well, once the D-men came back to earth, the goalie situation started to show it really was as bad as many thought. BUT, friday’s game was not because of the goalie. Niemi was good. However, I think the Blackhawks may have run into a hot goalie (kiss of death in the playoffs) in Rinne. Please let him not get hot and let the Blackhawk D get back to spectacular. Oh and can the team as a whole stop trying to be too cute with the puck possession. When they get too cute, they aren’t at their best. I get their game is puck possession, but too much cuteness isn’t good.

Here’s hoping for a win tonight so they ‘Hawks go into Nashville this week with some momentum on their side.