A Lot Going On

I can't believe how long it's been since I last posted something.  There's a lot going on in my life, just like there's a lot going on in the sports world.  First and foremost, I'll now be cheering for Animal Kingdom to snap our 32-year Triple Crown drought.  And from the Sport of Kings, we go to a bunch of other sports...

Baseball

• Andre Ethier's hitting streak is over, and the team he plays for is still a mess.  Bud Selig took control of the Dodgers away from the McCourts and Major League Baseball is currently running the team.  It's time for the McCourts to stop using the Dodgers as a pawn in their messy divorce and put the team up for sale.  That would be in the best interest of the club, as well as Baseball. 
• After a month, the best team in baseball is...the Indians?!  Meanwhile, the Royals are in second place and the Pirates are above .500!  And the Marlins are 21-14.  Of the four, I think only the Marlins are for real. 
• The year's first two no-hitters are in the books, thrown by Francisco Liriano and Justin Verlander.  Liriano's is a little bit of a surprise, but Verlander's certainly isn't.  A.J. Burnett had one going for five innings in Detroit the other day, and that's when YES's Bob Lorenz and John Flaherty started talking about it, which, of course, immediately jinxed the no-no.  However, he gave up an unearned run in the first, so it wouldn't have counted anyway.  I hate it when announcers aren't given that information.

Basketball
I still don't care at all about the NBA, but there are two stories in that league that are just too intriguing to ignore. 

• The Lakers got swept by the Mavericks in the second round of the playoffs, including a blowout in Game 4.  Were they even trying to win?  Just asking. 
• The other hilarious NBA story involves the Wizards, who introduced new uniforms with a "retro" look.  The Washington Wizards have had the same look throughout their entire existence.  The "retro" look being referred to here is uniforms that the Washington Bullets wore in the 70s.  Yes, the Bullets and Wizards are technically the same team, but I don't get this at all.  The name "Wizards" is stupid.  So were their old uniforms.  But if you're not going to change the team name back, going to old school uniforms doesn't make much sense.

Football

• They're still in a lockout, but that hasn't stopped Rashad Mendenhall from acting like a jackass on Twitter.
• I'm also still a little confused about why they still had the draft when they can't sign any of the players that were drafted or make any trades.  And it's not like the rookies can report to camp, either.  Seriously, this lockout is one of the most confusing things ever.

Hockey

• The Detroit Red Wings being in the Western Conference really causes problems with the playoff schedule.  In the first round, every game can't be on national TV.  I get that.  But you'd think that from the second round on, you would be able to see every game.  Except when the Western Conference game is in the Eastern time zone.  They do their best trying to stagger the start times, but 8:30 is probably the latest you can start a game in Detroit, meaning that, at best, you're joining that game in progress sometime in the second period after the Eastern Conference game ends.  (Same problem with Columbus, but since they aren't good, they don't really matter.)
• After an awesome first round, I thought the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs would be equally good.  But they haven't been.  The Bruins went ahead 3-0 on the Flyers for the second straight year, but this time, instead of blowing that lead, they actually managed to complete the sweep.  Same thing with the Lightning, who beat a Capitals team that couldn't have seemed more disinterested.  The Predators at least gave the Canucks a little bit of a fight before the better team won.  Sharks-Red Wings hasn't been bad, but hasn't been as good as I hoped it would be, either.

Olympics

• Belgian cyclist Wouter Weylandt was tragically killed during the third stage of the sport's second biggest race, the Giro d'Italia.
• The IOC released its report on the three candidate cities for the 2018 Winter Games.  As expected, Pyeongchang, South Korea scored the highest, followed by Munich, and Annecy, France.  They won't pick a winner until July, but I'd be very surprised if Pyeongchang doesn't win.  More on that as the decision gets closer.
• For the first time in the history of computer rankings, no American is ranked in the Top 10 on either the men's or women's tennis tour.  It's entirely possible that there won't be a single American woman seeded at the French Open.  That's just plain embarrassing.
• While we're on the tennis front, Novak Djokovic is the man.  He's still undefeated in 2011, and he's even beating Rafael Nadal on clay.  Roger has dropped to No. 3 in the world, but I'm a little more OK with that if Djokovic keeps beating Nadal.  For years, everyone has thought that Djokovic was the only guy capable of regularly beating both of them.  It's great that now he's finally doing it.  Even if that means Roger's losing.