Left Coast Sports Babe

One more reflection, for now on the mens NCAA final last night.

Watching Memphis at the free throw line, you have to wonder who taught them how to shoot…  Dick Cheney?

Chicago baseball holds a special place in the hearts of all three remaining major presidential candidates. Barack Obama is a White Sox fan, Hillary Clinton used to be a Cubs fan, and actually John McCain says he still is a Cubs fan.

Because he remembers having so much fun the last time they won the World Series.

With the announcements that Aloha, ATA, and Skybus have ceased service, thousands of passengers find they have paid money for flights that will never get off the ground. Sort of like donors to Mitt Romney’s campaign.

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And in London, protesters who were trying to stop the Olympic torch clashed with British police.  At one point the torch was put on a bus for safety reasons. 

But the protesters should have just asked that the torch be shipped on British Airways.  No one would ever see it again.

Okay, the San Francisco Giants may have one of the worst slogans of the year, with All Out, All Season. …but there are other contenders.

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Detroit’s “Who’s your Tiger?”  Which with their 0-6 start might be better changed to “Lose, your Tigers.”

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And Baltimore’s “This is Birdland.”  Presumably to differentiate themselves from Washington DC 40 miles to the south, which is “Birdbrain land.”

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And Florida’s “You gotta be here.”  Is this directed at the people who bought season tickets before they dismantled the team, again?

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And the Texas Rangers – “You could use some baseball.”    And as usual, we could use some pitching.

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But regarding “All Out, All Season.”  Would it be too much to ask that Barry Zito has a game where he gets MOST of them out, all season?

Though with a grand total of 12 runs in 6 games, 4 of them in a 13-4 blowout loss, the offense is doing their best to live up to the slogan.

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James Carville recently compared Governor Bill Richardson to Judas for his endorsement of Barack Obama.

What was he thinking?   Let’s get real.  Now, Mike Montgomery going over to coach Cal.  THAT’S Judas like behavior.  But at least he got more than 40 pieces of silver.  $10 million over 6 years.  And now he can recruit all the kids who couldn’t get into Stanford.

No sour grapes or bias on this site.  No chance.

In a recent New York Times poll 81 percent of Americans said the country is seriously on the wrong
track. The other 19 percent were apparently distracted by the lights of the oncoming train.

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And now Senator Debbie Stabenow‘s husband has admitted he paid a prostitute for sex. This right after the Eliot Spitzer scandal. Hey, say what you will about the Clintons, but when Bill was in office at least there was none of this wasteful spending.

For those who need a challenge, here’s a tough question.

What will come first? 

Hillary Clinton releasing her tax returns?

Or John McCain releasing his medical records?

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Rumors now have Brett Favre mulling a return to the NFL with a new team this fall.  If this happens I presume the National Anthem at his first game will be sung by Cher.

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Barack Obama bowled a 37 this past weekend.  Well, so much for all those who say that this campaign he has never been down in the gutter.

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Who knew the sequel to “White Men Can’t Jump” would be “Black Men Can’t Bowl?”

This was the week that male politicians tried to show
how athletic they were: President Bush threw out the
first pitch, Barack Obama threw some bowling balls in
the gutter, and John McCain threw out his back.

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And this year’s major league baseball team with the
lowest payroll – just under $22 million, is the
Florida Marlins.   This year’s minor league team with
the highest payroll – just under $77 million – the San
Francisco Giants.

Stanford’s seven-foot twins, Brook and Robin Lopez, have announced that they will leave school after their sophomore year and declare for the NBA draft.

Guess they figure if they get drafted by the Heat or Knicks they will at least be with a team that might be talented to make the NCAA Final Four.

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In football news, the NFL has approved radio communication for defenses in the 2008-2009 season.  Any truth to the rumor that Bill Belichick was seen shopping for a police scanner?

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And it was announced that A-Rod makes a few million dollars more by himself than the entire Marlins roster.  Though in both cases those salaries don’t really cover playing in October.

Spring is a great time for fans in cities where hockey
teams have not been doing well.   New York Islanders
fans can start thinking about the Mets and Yankees,
Toronto Maple Leaf fans can be hopeful about the Blue
Jays, and Tampa Bay Lightning fans can be glad the
writers strike is over.

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This year the American League had their Opening Day a
week early in Japan to market the league overseas, and
the National League had Opening Day at night in
Washington DC to show off the new stadium.

But baseball still doesn’t use instant replay. Guess Commissioner Bud Selig really hates messing with tradition.

The San Francisco Giants have no real cleanup hitter, shaky spring training pitching, but they do have a new slogan – All Out, All Season.

They are already down 4-0 in the second with Barry Zito starting opening day.

Maybe they should change the slogan to “All Routs, All Season?”

Hillary Clinton said today she was a Rolling Stones fan.

John McCain accused her of pandering and said he wasn’t into that modern music.

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Actually, Hillary is hoping Mick Jagger will allow her to use one of their songs for her new campaign theme –  “Sympathy for the Devil.”

After all the hype and possible Cinderella stories, four number one teams are in the final four.

Which means the only number one seed who isn’t winning these days is Hillary Clinton.

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The Washington Nationals opened their new stadium today to a sellout crowd.  It was a bittersweet moment for old Expos fans – had the team been able to get a new stadium earlier when they were still in Montreal,  they might have been able to sell a few hundred more tickets.

President Bush was at the first Nationals game.  Of course W. loves baseball – expressed as a batting average, his 30 percent (.300) approval rate, actually looks good.

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Actually Bush heard so many boos he felt like a member of the Texas Rangers’ pitching staff.

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And the Miami Heat scored only 17 baskets in their latest loss to the Celtics.   They just might be the worst scoring team since the Star Trek trivia champions went to Mexico on Spring Break.

The San Francisco 49ers were penalized a fifth round draft pick for allegedly trying to tamper with Lance Briggs.   (Yeah, Lance Briggs. Who?  And they didnt even end up signing him.)

Maybe it would have  been better for the team if they had done some SERIOUS tampering and been penalized with a first round pick, considering how well they did with Alex Smith.

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And now Hillary Clinton and some of her weatlthy supporters are urging Chairman of the House Nancy Pelosi to repudiate her statement that superdelegates should not overturn the will of the people  as expressed at the ballot box.    The reasoning being that superdelegates might know better who would be a stronger candidate.

Guess the candidate “of, from and for the middle class,” will do anything for that middle class.  Except acknowledge their right to vote.

So Jose Canseco now claims A-Rod is guilty of steroid abuse because he introduced him to a “well-known steroids dealer?”

Big deal, last year’s San Francisco Giants were all certainly introduced to their hitting coach.

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Chris Webber retired today, or maybe we should say, he called his last time-out.

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Since the California primary is over,  Democrats don’t expect the usual crush of reporters attending their state convention this weekend in San Jose.  But it was just announced, Bill Clinton will be headlining the Sunday speakers. 

Guess Hillary figured it was a good way to keep him out of Pennsylvania.

British Airways is opening their new Terminal 5 at Heathrow tomorrow. And they have chosen their  first female pilot to fly the first plane to land there.  Guess they figure it is the only way to be sure that if the pilot gets lost looking for the new terminal, that they will ask for directions.

So as March winds down what was the most shocking story in the sporting world.

That Tiger Words actually finally had a loss.

Or that the Knicks finally had a win?

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Fans of the Oakland As have to be awake at 3am to listen to their team open the season in Japan.  As opposed to fans of the San Francisco Giants,  who are likely to be up at 3am wondering how many more of the team will open the season on the DL.

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Giants infielder Kevin Frandsen probably tore his Achilles tendon and will like miss the entire year.  He joins several other San Francisco players who are already on the disabled list.  Maybe it wasn’t such a great idea to come up with the slogan “All out, all season.”

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At this point it’s more like “All out, for all season.”

Is it too soon to be talking about the curse of Barry Bonds?

But back to the game in Japan.  Fans of the As had to get up at 3am Wednesday to listen to  how their team would start the season. As opposed to fans of the Red Sox, who until a few years ago were often up at 3am thinking about how their team would end the season.

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And apologies in advance if anyone finds the following sacreligious. 

Last week Bill Richardson, a longtime friend of the Clintons, endorsed Barack Obama for president.   James Carville compared him to Judas, and today he said he meant the comparison. 

So if Nancy Pelosi and Howard Dean do not interecede in the nominating process on Hillary’s behalf, wonder which one of them he will compare to Pontius Pilate?

From the NCAA site.  Right.

2008 NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship

Question:
At this point in the primary season what’s the hardest state left for Hillary Clinton?

Answer:

The state of denial.

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And John McCain is working hard to counteract the notion he isn’t hip.  Someone asked him recently what he thought of the Youtube phenomenon, and he replied, “I’m not a fan personally but my daughter loves their lead singer Bono.

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A couple weirdnesses from March Madness – there’s a team from Pennsylvania left, and it’s not Pitt nor Temple but Villanova.

Ditto two from Kentucky, and one of them is Western Kentucky.

And two from North Carolina, and one of them ISN’T Duke.

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But back to the campaign –  this spring may see another definition of “Sweet Sixteen.”  The states Hillary Clinton thinks she has to win to get the nomination.