I’M back and better than every. Vegas were fun and restful. I did see last weekend’s sports events, so lets get to it.
Tiger Woods won the “US Open”; beating Rocco Mediate on the first hole of a sudden victory playoff after they tied a 18-hole playoff. This was by far his most remarkable major championship victory. Especially, after coming off six weeks of rehab for knee surgery, it is just incredible, but at what price did this victory cost him. Two days after the win Tiger announced on his website that he will need season ending ACL knee surgery. I know Torrey Pines is his home course but he could have risked his career on one major when he will definitely win more.
Most people are predicting that golf TV ratings will go down without Tiger for the rest of the year. Yes, I lot of people watch TV golf for Tiger and those people will probably not watch. But I do think the “British Open” and the “PGA Championship” will give other golfers a chance to win a major and the season long “FedEx Cup” which is exciting will be worth watching. I think the major hit will be on the “Ryder Cup”, I don’t think the US can win the cup without Tiger but, we will see.
Congratulations to the Boston Celtics for winning the NBA Championship last week. This is the team’s 17th championship but the first since 1986. The old saying goes that defense wins championships and that’s what the C’s did to win the title in six games. I, by the way, did predict that they would win the series in six games. My hats off to coach Doc Rivers for a great coaching job. I had my doubts about him as a coach but he did make the right adjustments. I also would like to congratulations to General Manager Danny Ainge for putting this team together. He did know what he was doing with all those kids, trade them a way for Ray Allen and KG.
I know that I have said in the past that I don’t like watching the drafts, but I was looking forward to the NBA draft on Thursday. I wanted to see if any team would have the courage to make moves like the Celtics did last year. Update, there were no big trades or any big news this year.
This weeks viewing pick is the three and most famous “Grand Slam” tennis tournament, Wimbledon. It is the only Grand Slam to be played on grass counts. The “Australian Open” and the “US Open” were played on grass before sifting over to more hard counts that are used more often now. It is also the most traditional tournament with all players dressed in white. My picks are the same as the “French Open” on the Men’s side or as they say at Wimbledon the Gentlemen’s draw Roger Federer VS. Rafel Nadal, with Nadal taking his first Wimbledon crown. On the Ladies’ side it is wide open with any number of ladies’ could win it. I will pick number 3 seed Maria Sharapova to win. She won it back 2004; I think she can do it again. Late update, I was wrong Maria lost in the 2nd round on Thursday I think one of the Williams sisters may win it. By the way, the Women’s Final at the All England Club is July 5 and the Men’s Final is July 6.
Enjoy the weekend.
Talk to you soon
Jamie
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Goodbye Jim Mckay
Some kids idolize athletes, others, idolize actors or musicians, I idolize sportscasters. The sportscaster that I grew up with and idolize is Jim McKay. Jim died this past weekend at his home in Maryland at the age of 86. Jim was the voice of ABC’s Wide World of Sports for the better part of my youth. It was not Saturday without Jim McKay “Spanning the globe to bring you the constant variety of sport… the thrill of victory… and the agony of defeat… the human drama of athletic competition.” Do you remember the first sports event on Wide World of Sports when it debuted on April 29, 1961? Answer later. Jim was also the voice of the Olympics during my youth. I remember watching the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles and marveling at the way Jim told the story of the athletes for around the world. You know it was a big event when Jim McKay was on the spot. As I grew up I have come to appreciate the work Jim did at the 1972 Olympics in Munich when eight Arab commandos slipped into the Olympic Village, killing two Israeli team members and seized nine others as hostages. Early the next morning, all nine were killed in a shootout between the terrorists and West German police at a military airport. Jim was on air for 12 hours straight updating the American people of the story. The amazing thing is Jim was not the host of ABC’s Olympic coverage; Chris Schenkel was the host of ABC’s Prime Time coverage, and Jim was on an off day when he got the call to anchor the unfonding tragedy.
Thank you Jim for the memories, you will be missed. God speed Mr.. McKay, there isn’t and never will be any one like you.
The week ahead
This weekend is the second major of the Golf year, the “US Open” at Torrey Pines in San Diego. Torrey Pines is the longest course in major championship history. The story is that this is Tiger Woods first tournament since knee surgery. In the first two rounds he will be paired with Phil Mickelson and Adam Scott, which will be very interesting.
The coverage starts on Thursday with ESPN at 1PM to 3PM then NBC takes over until 4PM then ESPN is back for 5PM until 10PM, with the same schedule on Friday. On Saturday NBC has coverage from 4PM to 10PM. On Father’s Day Sunday, it’s on NBC from 3PM to 9PM. Enjoy, Primetime golf should be fun.
The answer to my trivia question is the Drake Relays and the Penn Relays. Jim hosted the show from the Penn Relays. Both are by the way, Track and Field meets.
Talk to you all in a few weeks, I’M off to Las Vegas for a vacation with my dad for Father’s day.
Good night and Good luck.
Jamie
Thank you Jim for the memories, you will be missed. God speed Mr.. McKay, there isn’t and never will be any one like you.
The week ahead
This weekend is the second major of the Golf year, the “US Open” at Torrey Pines in San Diego. Torrey Pines is the longest course in major championship history. The story is that this is Tiger Woods first tournament since knee surgery. In the first two rounds he will be paired with Phil Mickelson and Adam Scott, which will be very interesting.
The coverage starts on Thursday with ESPN at 1PM to 3PM then NBC takes over until 4PM then ESPN is back for 5PM until 10PM, with the same schedule on Friday. On Saturday NBC has coverage from 4PM to 10PM. On Father’s Day Sunday, it’s on NBC from 3PM to 9PM. Enjoy, Primetime golf should be fun.
The answer to my trivia question is the Drake Relays and the Penn Relays. Jim hosted the show from the Penn Relays. Both are by the way, Track and Field meets.
Talk to you all in a few weeks, I’M off to Las Vegas for a vacation with my dad for Father’s day.
Good night and Good luck.
Jamie
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
This week in sports
Hi all,
This was not the busiest weekend for sports, but it was a huge weekend for “Mixed Martial Arts”. Saturday was the first network TV broadcast of MMA on CBS. Everyone is talking about this show (blogers, sports radio, ESPN Sportscenter) even my assistant watched it.
Here is my review of the action. I liked the beginning of the show when Frank Shamrock showed the moves of MMA and some of the terms used on the show. My fight of the night goes to the ladies, Gina Carano Vs. Kaitlin Young. This was the first time I got to see women fight and I didn’t know what to expect. I was surprised at how good they were. The next match was "Ruthless" Robbie Lawler VS. Scott Smith for the Elite XC Middleweight title. This was a great match until the referee stopped the fight because of Lawler inadvertently stuck his finger into the right eye of Smith. This action by Lawler caused the fight to end because it was ruled as a no contest. The rules state that a title fight must last at least three full rounds, or result in a no contest. Championship fights are 5-5 minute rounds. The good thing about this event is that we will have a remacth between the two.
The main event of the evenining was Kevin “Kimbo Slice” Ferguson VS. James "The Colossus" Thompson. Kimbo won after 38 seconds into the third round. Slice landed a punch to the left side of Thompson's head bursting his already heavily cauliflowered ear. Thompson was not ready to quite but I belive the fight was stopped because of the blood coming out of his ear and The Elite XC did not what its drawing card, Kimbo, to loose. I believe if you put Kimbo in the Ultimate Fighting Championship he would loose because he wouldn’t be able to get past the first round.
This first show, overall, was very good. The real question will be the second show. You’re not going to get the same type of fighters, (hard hiters and strikers) like you had this time. The only thing I did not like about the show was that they announced the fighters twice, once coming down to the cage and then again in the cage for the offical announcement. The announcers on the show were very good. I was surprized how knowable of the sport Gus Johnson was and just how good Frank Shamrock is as a commentator. Mauro Ranallo was great. I liked the fact that they talked about the fighter’s past with other organizations like the UFC and Pride Fighting Chanpionship. It was interesting to read that the show was produed by CBS Entertainment and not CBS Sports. Interesting, maybe next time CBS will realize that it is a sport and will cover it as such.
Did you watch this show? If you did let my know what your thoughts are. Drop me a line at jman200086@netscape.net. You can give the show a thumps up, thumps down, or thump in the middle and what you throught was the fight of the night.
What’s Ahead this weekend?
The NBA Finals start this Thursday with the “Boston Celtics” taking on the “Los Angles Lakers”. This is an old school matchup with these two teams meeting for a record 11 times in the finals. This is tied with the New York Yankees VS. the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers for meetings in a championship series across all sports. These two franchises combined to win 30 of 60 NBA campionships since 1947. In the 80’s these two teams played in some of the greatest games in NBA history. With Larry Bird and Magic Johnson battling it out for the NBA championship was the reason I and a lot of people starting watching basketball. This year is a great matchup with Kobe Bryant VS. Boston’s big three of KG, Paul Pierce, and Ray Allen. I think Boston will win it in six games.
Also this weekend is the Belmont Stakes. Big Brown has a change to do something that has not happened in 30 years, which is to win horse racing’s “Triple Crown”. The Belmont is the longest of the three races at 1mile and a half. I think he can do it and win the “Test of the Champions”. The race is Saturday on ABC Sports at 5PM. Before this is 6 hours of pre race hype on ESPN starting at noon.
The last major event this weekend is the start of the “UEFA Euro 2008 Soccer Championship”. This event goes for three weeks. There will be 16 teams in this championship tournament. Ten of these teams are ranked among the top 15 in the FIFA World Ranking. The UEFA European Football Championship is one of the most prestigious and competitive tournaments among national soccer teams. Fourteen of these teams have earned a spot in the finals following a two-year qualification process among 50 UEFA member nations while the host nations – Austria and Switzerland – received automatic berths. Since its inception in 1960, the competition is held every four years. Greece won the last Championship – UEFA Euro 2004 – hosted by Portugal.
Do you plan on watching any of there events or did you over the weekend? Drop me a line at jman200086@netscape.net and let me know what you think or give me your report on them?
Enjoy the weekend and I will be back next week with a recap. Saturday I’M off to Boston for the Visa Championships for Woman’s Gymnastics, I think this is the Olympic trails.
Good night and good luck.
Jamie Lazaroff
This was not the busiest weekend for sports, but it was a huge weekend for “Mixed Martial Arts”. Saturday was the first network TV broadcast of MMA on CBS. Everyone is talking about this show (blogers, sports radio, ESPN Sportscenter) even my assistant watched it.
Here is my review of the action. I liked the beginning of the show when Frank Shamrock showed the moves of MMA and some of the terms used on the show. My fight of the night goes to the ladies, Gina Carano Vs. Kaitlin Young. This was the first time I got to see women fight and I didn’t know what to expect. I was surprised at how good they were. The next match was "Ruthless" Robbie Lawler VS. Scott Smith for the Elite XC Middleweight title. This was a great match until the referee stopped the fight because of Lawler inadvertently stuck his finger into the right eye of Smith. This action by Lawler caused the fight to end because it was ruled as a no contest. The rules state that a title fight must last at least three full rounds, or result in a no contest. Championship fights are 5-5 minute rounds. The good thing about this event is that we will have a remacth between the two.
The main event of the evenining was Kevin “Kimbo Slice” Ferguson VS. James "The Colossus" Thompson. Kimbo won after 38 seconds into the third round. Slice landed a punch to the left side of Thompson's head bursting his already heavily cauliflowered ear. Thompson was not ready to quite but I belive the fight was stopped because of the blood coming out of his ear and The Elite XC did not what its drawing card, Kimbo, to loose. I believe if you put Kimbo in the Ultimate Fighting Championship he would loose because he wouldn’t be able to get past the first round.
This first show, overall, was very good. The real question will be the second show. You’re not going to get the same type of fighters, (hard hiters and strikers) like you had this time. The only thing I did not like about the show was that they announced the fighters twice, once coming down to the cage and then again in the cage for the offical announcement. The announcers on the show were very good. I was surprized how knowable of the sport Gus Johnson was and just how good Frank Shamrock is as a commentator. Mauro Ranallo was great. I liked the fact that they talked about the fighter’s past with other organizations like the UFC and Pride Fighting Chanpionship. It was interesting to read that the show was produed by CBS Entertainment and not CBS Sports. Interesting, maybe next time CBS will realize that it is a sport and will cover it as such.
Did you watch this show? If you did let my know what your thoughts are. Drop me a line at jman200086@netscape.net. You can give the show a thumps up, thumps down, or thump in the middle and what you throught was the fight of the night.
What’s Ahead this weekend?
The NBA Finals start this Thursday with the “Boston Celtics” taking on the “Los Angles Lakers”. This is an old school matchup with these two teams meeting for a record 11 times in the finals. This is tied with the New York Yankees VS. the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers for meetings in a championship series across all sports. These two franchises combined to win 30 of 60 NBA campionships since 1947. In the 80’s these two teams played in some of the greatest games in NBA history. With Larry Bird and Magic Johnson battling it out for the NBA championship was the reason I and a lot of people starting watching basketball. This year is a great matchup with Kobe Bryant VS. Boston’s big three of KG, Paul Pierce, and Ray Allen. I think Boston will win it in six games.
Also this weekend is the Belmont Stakes. Big Brown has a change to do something that has not happened in 30 years, which is to win horse racing’s “Triple Crown”. The Belmont is the longest of the three races at 1mile and a half. I think he can do it and win the “Test of the Champions”. The race is Saturday on ABC Sports at 5PM. Before this is 6 hours of pre race hype on ESPN starting at noon.
The last major event this weekend is the start of the “UEFA Euro 2008 Soccer Championship”. This event goes for three weeks. There will be 16 teams in this championship tournament. Ten of these teams are ranked among the top 15 in the FIFA World Ranking. The UEFA European Football Championship is one of the most prestigious and competitive tournaments among national soccer teams. Fourteen of these teams have earned a spot in the finals following a two-year qualification process among 50 UEFA member nations while the host nations – Austria and Switzerland – received automatic berths. Since its inception in 1960, the competition is held every four years. Greece won the last Championship – UEFA Euro 2004 – hosted by Portugal.
Do you plan on watching any of there events or did you over the weekend? Drop me a line at jman200086@netscape.net and let me know what you think or give me your report on them?
Enjoy the weekend and I will be back next week with a recap. Saturday I’M off to Boston for the Visa Championships for Woman’s Gymnastics, I think this is the Olympic trails.
Good night and good luck.
Jamie Lazaroff
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