Bored

ESPN & FOX Games to Poison Our Youth MONDAY Cubs (Jason Marquis) at Mets (Tom Glavine), 7:00/4:00 PM, ESPN WEDNESDAY Tigers (Mike Maroth) at Red Sox (Julian Tavarez), 7:00/4:00 PM, ESPN SATURDAY Yankees at Mets, 3:55/12:55 PM, FOX White Sox at Cubs, 3:55/12:55 PM, FOX SUNDAY Yankees at Mets, 8:00/5:00 PM, ESPN

I cringe everytime Stephen Jackson decides he's going to try to beat someone off the dribble and makes up his mind that he won't pass the ball no matter what. Only time anything good comes of it is if he gets fouled otherwise it's usually a steal or a terrible shot.

Cust for MVP! Now he isn't going to hit six homeruns every week but if he remains productive it will be interesting to see if they entertain the idea of moving Piazza back to catcher when he comes off the DL as Kendall is a black hole offensively.

I'll be going to the A's/Indians game on Saturday. With all the A's injuries one lucky fan will get to play centerfield for them so cross your fingers for me.

Oof, Pietrus channeling Nick Anderson there. Fuck....oh shit only a two! Lucked out.

Aww I talk about him and a few weeks later he ends up back in prison. http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article...29/0/BUSINESS01

ESPN & FOX Games to Poison Our Youth MONDAY Mariners (Miguel Batista) at Yankees (Matt DeSalvo), 7:00/4:00 PM, ESPN WEDNESDAY Rangers (Robinson Tejada) at Yankees (Mike Mussina), 7:00/4:00 PM, ESPN SATURDAY Cubs at Phillies, 3:55/12:55 PM, FOX Tigers at Twins, 3:55/12:55 PM, FOX Angels at Rangers, 3:55/12:55 PM, FOX SUNDAY Tigers at Twins, 8:00/5:00 PM, ESPN

This past week has to be the most bizarre week I can remember in my sports lifetime. The Golden State Warriors upset of the Dallas Mavericks has made the Warriors the most talked about story by the national sports media, well until fat fuck Clemens signed with the Yankees today. Since I've been watching sports for the last 20+ years the only time the Warriors were ever the national conscious was when Latrell Sprewell choked P.J. Carlesimo almost 10 years ago. I have said in the past though that if the Warriors ever made a serious playof run that the Bay Area would go apeshit over it like nothing else and the crowds at The Oracle for those three games proved it. You have split fan bases in baseball and football, the Sharks have a nice hardcore base but hockey simply doesn't interest the moderate sports fan in the Bay Area, and pretty much only alumns get truly excited about Stanford and Cal sports. Hell the Warriors now even have bandwagon celebrity fans. It will be interesting to see if in the next round though as more bandwagon fans gobble up tickets if the crowds will be as insane as they were for the Dallas series. It's just crazy to think that if the Clippers don't lay an egg against the Kings at home on April 15th none of this might have happened. Now of course the Mavericks became the 3rd #1 conference seed to lose in the first round to a #8 seed and only the 2nd overall #1 to lose in the first round since the NBA expanded the playoffs to 16 teams in 1984, joining the '94 Sonics. What's interesting it was only the 3rd time since '84 that the #1 overall didn't reach the conference the finals, the other being the '90 Lakers who were bounced by the Suns in the West semis that year. The Mavs are now part of trend where six of the last seven teams who had homecourt assured through out the playoffs has failed to make it to the NBA Finals. Before then 13 of the 17 overall #1's made it to the Finals, with 10 winning it all. Now here is the random list with how each team who had homecourt assured through out the playoffs faired each year since 1984. 1984: Boston Celtics 62-20 -def. Lakers in NBA Finals 4-3 1985: Boston Celtics 63-19 -lost to Lakers in NBA Finals 4-2 1986: Boston Celtics 67-15 -def. Rockets in NBA Finals 4-2 1987: Los Angeles Lakers 65-17 -def. Celtics in NBA Finals 4-2 1988: Los Angeles Lakers 62-20 -def. Pistons in NBA Finals 4-3 1989: Detroit Pistons 63-19 -def. Lakers in NBA Finals 4-0 1990: Los Angeles Lakers 63-19 -lost to Suns in West Semis 4-1 1991: Portland Trail Blazers 63-19 -lost to Lakers in West Finals 4-2 1992: Chicago Bulls 67-15 -def. Blazers in NBA Finals 4-2 1993: Phoenix Suns 62-20 -lost to Bulls in NBA Finals 4-2 1994: Seattle Supersonics 63-19 -lost to Nuggets in First Round 3-2 1995: San Antonio Spurs 62-20 -lost to Rockets in West Finals 4-2 1996: Chicago Bulls 72-10 -def. Sonics in NBA Finals 4-2 1997: Chicago Bulls 69-13 -def. Jazz in NBA Finals 4-2 1998: Utah Jazz 62-20 -lost to Bulls in NBA Finals 4-2 1999: San Antonio Spurs 37-13 -def. Knicks in NBA Finals 4-1 2000: Los Angeles Lakers 67-15 -def. Pacers in NBA Finals 4-2 2001: San Antonio Spurs 58-24 -lost to Lakers in West Finals 4-0 2002: Sacramento Kings 61-21 -lost to Lakers in West Finals 4-3 2003: San Antonio Spurs 60-22 -def. Nets in NBA Finals 4-2 2004: Indiana Pacers 61-21 -lost to Pistons in East Finals 4-2 2005: Phoenix Suns 62-20 -lost to Spurs in West Finals 4-1 2006: Detroit Pistons 64-18 -lost to Heat in East Finals 4-2 2007: Dallas Mavericks 67-15 -lost to Warriors in First Round 4-2

The NFL Network is going to be airing "NFL Classics" the next four Thursday's which will be four original broadcast games. Of course the first game they picked is from just last year but they will show progressively older games as the month goes on and here are the four games on the schedule with a real treat at the end of the month: May 10th: Chicago at Arizona, 10/16/06 May 17th: Indianapolis at Tampa Bay, 10/6/03 May 24th: Miami at N.Y. Jets, 10/23/00 May 31st: Houston at Buffalo, 1/3/93, AFC Wild Card From what I can tell this will only be this month they will be airing original "classic" games but like when they showed a handful of original Super Bowl broadcasts in January at least it's a start.

Dirk just needs to hit 14 homeruns the first month of the season next year.

Glad to see Adonel Foyle get in at the end. Overpaid slug but probably the nicest guy in sports. Simply awesome. No matter what happens the rest of the payoffs, after this series Baron Davis will never be able to do anything wrong in the eyes of Warriors fans.

Shut up Marv!

Now with Mike Piazza out 4 to 6 weeks the A's new starting DH is.......Jack Cust. This is becoming some sort of sick parody now.

The "Langer Hands" will have to travel to again as Ryan Langerhans has been traded again this time to the Nats for Chris Snelling. I like Snelling better than Langerhans but good lord the A's are hell bent on making the entire 40 man roster full of guys who are injury prone.

Sooo where was the MVP the other 21 minutes of the second half? Hey I give him credit for hitting those two threes but it was partly his the fault the Mavs didn't have this game salted away long before the end. The Warriors stepped on the Mavs throat in Game 3 when they had a big first half lead, but Dallas couldn't do it here. Seriously the Warriors should and will be supremely confident going into Game 6.

Warriors didn't get nervous, just bad strategy offensively the last few minutes.

So the best team in the league blows a 21 point lead and has to eek out a win to keep their season alive on their home floor and the Warriors are the one that choked? Ooookaaay. Mavs are very fotunate to have their season still alive.

Damn when Baron hit that insane three I thought that was the game. This is going to be a tense final two minutes.

If I'm the Mavericks I make sure Josh Howard takes at least 10 shots in the 4th quarter after shooting none in Game 4. It seems like he hasn't missed one of those midrange jumpers the entire series.

Cut it from 22 to 7 in about four minutes, nice.

If the Warriors can't get this down manageable deficit by halftime they might just want wave the white flag in the 2nd half and get some of the starters rested for Game 6, especially Baron.

At halftime of Game 2 he said the Mavericks would win four straight and it went from there. But Barkley knows what he's doing, it makes great television.

alf, cheer up I'm sure Jackson will get arrested again the in the offseason. Even Artest was at the game tonight, jeez. Great, great game. Never in my wildest dreams would I think they would be up 3-1.

Barkley has always been a great heel. They need to start doubling Howard as he's the only Mav hurting them offensively this entire series. It was huge that Baron got through the half without picking up his third foul.

The Langer Hands? Good Lord. That's why I always hated watching home Braves games; the fans have some dumbass names for fan club's-"Chipper's Chippendales", "Francoeur's Franks", "Langer Hands". Come on, guys, put some thought into it! For years there was a sign in the right field bleachers of the Coliseum that read "Eric's Fox Hounds" for A's cult hero Eric Fox. Trust me we'll come up with something unoriginal for Mr. Langerhans. My personal favorite was always the "Jamie Quirk Fan Club."