Prelimenary Playoff Schedule

Continue Reading April 18th, 2006

Remarkable turn of events tonight — full report tomorrow. Just to let you know now, the Rangers are slated to play Saturday and Monday at the Meadowlands before returning to the Garden for games 3 and 4 — early reports…

The Game That Wasn’t There

Continue Reading April 18th, 2006

An absolutely bizarre situation in the NBA tonight: A game between two playoff teams who, if they’re smart, will be doing everything in their power to lose.

Tonight, at 8 p.m. ET, the Memphis Grizzlies will host the Los Angeles Clippers in one of the final games of the season. Ordinarily, a late-season game between the Grizzlies and the Clippers would be meaningless, because both teams would be long out of the playoffs. But this year, they’re battling for playoff seeding … but in the wrong direction.

As Mark Cuban pointed out more than a week ago, there is absolutely no reason for either team to want to win tonight. Whoever finishes with the sixth seed — the worse record — has the home-court advantage against the Denver Nuggets in the first round. Whoever ends up with the fith seed — the better record — has to play on the road against Dallas … and if they somehow survive that, they get the Spurs.

We know the playoffs is all about beating whoever is front of you. But if you know you can make it easier on yourself, and get yourself more games in front of your home fans, why would you want to even try tonight?

Should be something to see. We’re not gamblers here, but we’d highly suggest the under here. We have a feeling the Clippers will revert to history and, finally, win … exactly when they’re supposed to lose.

The Clippers And Grizzlies Have A Lot To Lose For [Detroit Bad Boys]
NBA Playoff Seeding … What If [Blog Maverick]

(UPDATE: Frighteningly, Woody Paige appears to have a point on how to best deal with this game. A reader writes:

By the way, we don’t actually suggest betting the under. As always, we’re terrible at gambling advice.)

Fear Of Flying

Continue Reading April 18th, 2006

A reader sends us a picture of the apparent official promotional airplane of The Buzzsaw That Is The Arizona Cardinals.

We’d like to say that flying in the Buzzsaw Plane would be a dream come true for us, but, having been a fan for as long as we have, we’re pretty certain it would crash. Really certain.

Get Your Mini-Sex Boats

Continue Reading April 18th, 2006

We love minor league baseball promotions, and we love anything that brings the words “Fred Smoot” and “boat” back into the public consciousness. So we’re very happy people this morning.

The St. Paul Saints, the minor league baseball team ran by Mike Veeck, is giving away miniature Minnetonka Queen boats for the 30th anniversary of the Love Boat and “may remind fans of another well-known Twin Cities area vessel that has been in the news. ” The date is May 27, and one forgives Fred Smoot for showing up and thinking the “Love Boat giveaway” would allow him a very different freebie that it actually does.

By the way, other Saints promotions include “VHS Demolition Night,” the “Buddha Giveaway” and “Billy Murray Bobblehead Night.” The Saints are just about the only thing we can think of that makes us sad we don’t live in Minnesota.

A Boat Load Of Promotoins Set For 2006 [Saints Baseball]

(UPDATE: Do not anger Minnesota residents, apparently; the mailbox was flooded almost immediately. It’s not like we don’t like Minnesota; every time we’ve been there, we’ve enjoyed ourselves. It’s just that, you know, it’s kinda cold. That’s all. Honest.)

Last Shot at First Place

Continue Reading April 18th, 2006

The season finale arrives tonight with first place in the Atlantic Division on the line. News reports today still focus on the return of Henrik Lundqvist, and the nuances of the points race between Ranges, Devils, and Flyers. Add in…