Strasburg was the first overall pick in the draft just last year and he rocketed up through the minors, debuting before Flag Day. Griffey, who hit 19 home runs as recently as last season, retired after managing just 18 hits in 98 at-bats this season and finished with more clubhouse naps than home runs (one compared to none). Strasberg threw seven innings in his debut, fanning 14 and allowing just two runs on just four hits while walking no one. In one start, he did more for baseball in the city of Washington since the Texas Rangers were there under the name the Washington Senators. He electrified the crowd with every fastball (four and two-seamers), curve ball, slider, sinker, and God-knows what else he threw at the helpless Pirates hitters. He electrified them in the same way that Griffey used to in his first stint with the Mariners and even in his first year with the Reds. Griffey never reached his true potential due to injury problems and still managed to hit 630 home runs in his career. To me, he's the Mario Lemieux of baseball. One of the best to ever play the game, especially in his prime, but he'll never get the recognition that guys I hate do like Barry Bonds and Wayne Gretzky (I'm sure hockey's golden boy was clean of PEDs, I just hate him as a Blues fan).
While I'm on the subject of Dante Bichette and bottoming out, I should talk about conference expansion in the NCAA and how the University of Missouri got completely owned by the Big Ten, Nebraska, the Big 12 South, and hell, even Colorado, who sucks at everything but ultimate frisbee. Mizzou got all hot and bothered when they heard the Big Ten was expanding. They want off into a fantasy world where they have a football program that competes with Texas and Oklahoma, when in reality, they still haven't beaten either under Gary Pinkel. And while their basketball program is on the rise, as much as I love the sport, it doesn't affect anything when compared to football. Otherwise, the Big Ten would've extended an invite to Kansas, who stomps Nebraska every year in basketball. Twice. But alas, the Cornhuskers have joined the likes of Michigan and Ohio State, while the Jayhawks were on the verge of having to beg the MAC or Mountain West for a home. Football makes the money in college sports and sadly, money is all that matters to schools. It's certainly not the student-athletes. You know, those little people that can have their scholarships taken away when their school's head coach has recruited someone better to replaces them. Those people that have to sit out for an entire season if they want to switch schools, while coaches can leave them high and dry while rarely encountering consequences of their own. Let's face it, if the students and the spirit of competition mattered, we'd have a playoff system by now in Division I-A college football. But no, we're still stuck with the BSC (not a typo), because it makes more money than the school presidents believe a playoff system would.
Mizzou, or as a Huskers fan called them today(and quite appropriately I might add), the University of Texas at Columbia, is officially Texas' bitch. They're going to continue to make less money than the Longhorns or Sooners and there will be nothing that they can do about it. Mizzou might as well be to Texas what UMSL is to Mizzou, an affiliated school with a lesser athletic program that only play each other in exhibitions. Sure, Mizzou's won two straight against the Longhorns in men's basketball, but their football games really do appear to be exhibitions, with the Tigers playing the role of the Washington Generals. And no Krusty, the Generals are never due. That tiger on the left doesn't look nearly sad enough. It looks like it lost its cubs. Mizzou lost its cubs and then found them again, just to realize that they had been burned and that Shooter McGavin had pissed on the ashes. McGavin is pictured below and to the right.
Also trending up as of late is the NHL. The Stanley Cup Finals was one of the most viewed in a long time. After almost every game, especially the ones on NBC instead of Versus, the media would talk about what great ratings the game got. It had two large market teams in Philadelphia and Chicago going for it. Another positive was that neither team had won the cup in forever. The Blackhawks last title was in 1961 and the Flyers' last parade was in 1975. The best part about the series was that just like Strasburg, it lived up to all of the hype. The only way the series could've had more drama was if it had gone seven games. Four of the six games were decided by one goal, including two in overtime. And one of the two games that wasn't decided by a goal had an empty-netter tacked on at the end. We also had our first clinching goal in overtime since Jason Arnott locked up the cup for the Devils a decade ago. It seemed that only Patrick Kane, who scored the goal, actually knew it was in. But I had a sinking feeling when I lost sight of the puck and saw Michael Leighton crouching in one corner of the goal. If the puck wasn't in the net, it should have gone into the corner of the boards in the opposite corner. My only hope was that it was in Leighton's pads and I didn't know it. But instead, the puck went straight through and stuck in the netting, sending the cup to Chicago. I can be happy for friends that are Blackhawks fans, as no Chicago fan under 50 had seen their team win before, and I feel the pain that they now have sweet relief from. But now, for me, it's just another bitter reminder that I'm yet to see my team do this. I've seen some of my favorite teams, Duke, the Cardinals, and the Steelers bring home an NCAA title, a World Series, and two Super Bowls in the last five years respectively, but with hockey being my favorite sport, I'd probably trade them all for one cup. I felt we were getting close as we made the playoffs last year, but after missing them this season and now having ownership uncertainty, it feels as far away as ever. When I'm asked why I still believe it will happen someday, my answer is simple. Because I have to...
Photos from the Googly, Nintendo, and The University of Texas
