* Nick Blackburn is lights out in May, can't get anyone out in June; Kevin Slowey just the opposite. Baseball is a fickle game, or maybe it just seems that way when you have inconsistent players.
*The Stanley Cup Finals have been riveting so far, and if the need to go to a 7th game, far be it from me to complain. But as a person with a keen rooting interest in seeing the Hawks win, I can't stand some of the things I've been reading about "wanting to wrap it up at home". If you are a true fan of a team that's been waiting half a century for a title, you just want it wrapped up any way you can get it, home, road, doesn't matter. This greedy talk of wanting them to win it on home ice smacks of bandwagon fans who have not felt enough pain in their rooting life, and too much of it will create crippling negative karma should Game 7 actually happen. Now go wrap it up tonight Chicago. (By the way, enjoyed this a lot, bandwagon fans are a staple of every playoff run: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNn3k1KfOrs)
*Sidebar to the Finals, I don't think the picture of Chris Pronger in a skirt was a good idea, I just don't. (http://www.philly.com/philly/gallery/20100609_Chrissy_Pronger_skirt_poster_called_sexist.html)
Funny, yes; perhaps even accurate after his play the last two games. But there's a reason people hate Chris Pronger, well two technically, he's dirty and he's good. It might be something the team can't control and it probably doesn't have much of an impact in general, but if there are Hawks fans in the newsroom of the Chicago Tribune, they should be concerned about giving any extra motivation to this guy, of all people. If he comes out like a man possessed and starts scattering Blackhawks like bowling pins, don't say I didn't warn you.
*After watching Delmon Young tear it up over the weekend and post strong numbers through two months of the Twins season, I feel a bit like a proud papa. Delmon is the only player I can recall being irrationally positive about throughout his past two years in Minnesota (as opposed to the players I've been irrationally negative about, which numbers in the thousands, sorry Cuddy) and the hope that he would someday find his game seems to be paying off. Not too much of a shock, given that he's still only 24, just always bugged me that Young was a marked man because of the trade that brought him here...well that and the fact that ha never saw a first-pitch slider in the dirt he didn't like. Anyway, keep up the good work Delmon.
*The World Cup starts this weekend, and I have yet to pick a team. Normally I go with Germany because of my heritage and the fact they seem to have fewer players who flop around like carp when brushed by an opponent, but lately they haven't been doing it for me. Italy and France are out on principle, Spain too for that matter, maybe the Dutch could use my support to put them over the top this time out? Anyway, stay tuned.
*The MLB draft is the biggest "Meh" event in the history of Earth, a bunch of guys you've never seen play who will most likely never play for your favorite team. Riveting.
*Vikings mini-camp started this week. Yes, I am such an NFL rube that I had a twinge of "Ooh, mini-camp!" excitement when I heard about it, I then stuck a paper clip into a wall outlet as part of a Pavlovian re-education program I've worked out. Another month and I might even be able to glance by the words "Brett Favre" without franticly clicking to see what nothing news has been released this week.
*Stephen Strasburg is going to be a great pitcher...probably. But to invoke one of my favorite movie quotes that has become the go-to phrase for tamping down sports hype, let's all not start sucking each others ****s quite yet (only Harvey Keitel could've delivered that line...or Richard Simmons, for the irony). Kerry Wood struck out 20 guys in his 5th career start and is now closing games for Cleveland with an arm powered by Black & Decker. Mark Prior's delivery looked so effortless when he broke into the bigs, it caused me to boldy declare "There's one guy who will never have arm problems, it looks like he's playing catch out there"; didn't quite pan out that way. So yeah, Strasburg is great, happy for the Nats fans, but don't start chiseling that Hall of Fame bust just yet.
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