A view for the chair

Hi folks

I’m back and better than ever. We are diligently working on the audio podcast; I hope to have it up by the end of next week. I’ll keep you posted.

Enough about me, on to the sports.

There is a lot going on in the world of sports, so let’s go. Rance Mullinicks was in the booth this weekend as the Red Sox were in Toronto to play the Blue Jays. New England Sports Network (NESN) has been using different analysts since May 6, when Jerry Remy took a leave of absence so he can fully recover from the effects of cancer surgery. Rance has been the best sub NESN has had; he was clear and did not use baseball jargon. Please come back soon Jerry, we miss you.

Breaking news: Tony Dungy and Rodney Harrison are the new analysts for NBC’s Sunday Night Football. Rodney and Tony worked for NBC at the Super Bowl in February and were very good. They are replacing Cris Collinsworth, who is leaving the studio and replacing John Madden in the game booth and Jerome Bettis who was let go by the network. I cannot believe Tiki Barber as the only holdover from last season and Jerome was let go. Jerome you could tell loved the game and it showed. He had passion and Tiki is seems like he’s just going through the motions. Tony and Rodney has that passion and I think they will do very well.

For the past two weeks, ESPN has been sharing converge of the French Open with the Tennis Channel on weekdays and NBC Sports on the weekends. This past Sunday 4-time defending champion Rafael Nadal lost to 23rd seed Robin Soderling. NBC had all the matches on the day taped for the afternoon; remember that Paris is 5 hours ahead of New York. Next time something big happens please NBC, let ESPN (as they are in more homes than the Tennis Channel) show the match live. The finals this weekend will be live, the women are Saturday and the men are Sunday.

There is big news in the mixed martial arts world this week. The Ultimate Fighting Championship has announced that former eliteXC fighter Kimbo Slice is a part of season 10 of there reality TV show the “Ultimate Fighter” that will start airing on Spike on September16. UFC President Dana White, at one point last year, called Kimbo “not a real fighter”, a “fraud”, and that he would not let him in UFC. Dana has stated the only way Kimbo will fight in the UFC is if he wins the Ultimate Fighter contract. The other fights announced for the show are all former NFL players…will be a fun season and I can’t wait for September.

I have one question, why are games 3 and 4 of the NHL Stanley Cup Finals on Versus? I don’t know any major sports league other than the NHL that has their championship series on cable TV. For a league that needs showcasing, the NHL does a terrible job at being visible. Just a thought.

This weekend

This is a huge weekend for sports. The crazy French Open wraps up with the Women’s Final Saturday morning and the Men’s final on Sunday morning, both live on NBC.

It is a huge weekend for mixed martial arts with events on both days. Saturday is Strikeforce on Showtime. The main event is Robbie Lawler versus Jake Shields, but the fight I want to see is Nick Diaz versus Scott Smith. These will be two very entertaining bouts but there are great fighters up and down the card. Should be fun…wish I had Showtime.
On Sunday night is the WEC on Versus at 9 P.M.. The main bout is a rematch for the Featherweight Championship with defending champion Mike Brown fighting Urijah Faber, the man he beat for the title.

Saturday is the Belmont stakes on ABC at 5 P.M. Calvin Borel will be looking for a jockey triple crown, as he won the Kentucky Derby on Mine That Bird, and the Preakness on Rachel Alexandra and he is back on Mine That Bird for the mile and a half “test of the champions.” Will be very interesting, I don’t think he can do it. The Belmont is the longest Triple Crown and perhaps the longest race the horse will run in his entire career. Calvin Borel is a jockey made for shorter races.

Besides all this, the WNBA starts its season. I will be at the season opener this Saturday at the Mohegan Sun Arena when the Sun take on the Washington Mystics. I will have a report next week. Should be fun.

Also, can the USA Men’s national soccer team rebound after a 3 to 1 lost to Costa Rica Wednesday night in World Cup qualifying? Saturday the U.S. host Honduras at Soldier Field in Chicago at 8 P.M. on ESPN. With only two home games left in qualifying I think we need to win this game. The national team has a big month ahead of them as they head to South Africa for the FIFA Confederations Cup and play some of the best national teams in the world. Their first two games in South Africa will be against Italy and Brazil; these two teams combine for 9 world cup titles. Will be some good matches, I hope.

Talk to you next week if not before.

Jamie Lazaroff