My alma mater, Northwestern University sits on top of the sports world this week. No, we still haven’t won a bowl game in football, and our men’s basketball team remains the only school in Division I (or whatever it’s called now) to never have made the NCAA Tournament.
But we have been a dynasty in women’s lacrosse, and we avenged our defeat last season to Maryland, by beating them this year 8-7 in the final game for our sixth national championship in seven years.
And then, alum Luke Donald became the number 1 ranked golfer in the world.
Now if we can just win a bowl game….

So, obviously, my new favorite teams in basketball and hockey are the Dallas Mavericks and Boston Bruins respectively. Why, you ask? Because they are playing the Miami Heat and Vancouver Canucks in their sport’s finals, that’s why.
As I’ve said here often, I don’t want LeBron “The Decision” James to win an NBA Title. Period. They way that he had already settled the issue and still left several teams dangling, was a travesty. If he had just said – I’m going to Miami, without all of the pitches made to him, then I would have been OK with it. Add to it the fact that Scottie Pippen and Chicago Tribune columnist Rick Morrissey both proclaimed James to be better than Michael Jordan showed their ignorance.
Besides the six titles (James is still looking for his first), LeBron James should be remembered for his apparent white flag job against the Celtics last year, nothing that can EVER be said of Jordan. James is young (he came into the NBA straight out of high school, you’ll remember), and he may eventually reach the six titles Jordan accomplished, but for my money, Jordan is the greatest player under 7 feet in the history of the game.
Then there are the Canucks. The daughter of a friend of mine lives in Vancouver and the whole city is showing a boorishness that is unusual for a Canadian city. The Sedin twins are talented, but they play for this franchise, so I want them to lose. Ass to that the fact that they are playing an Original Six team – the Bruins, who haven’t won since Nixon was in the White House. I have some good friends from the east who hate all things Boston, and while I have no great love for the teams, the enemy of my enemy is my friend.
Go Bruins! Go Mavs!

One of my pet peeves is when a journalist makes a mistake. I don’t mean the occasional flub by someone on television or radio, which is still live and mistakes do happen. (I am also not talking about the un-real world of lies, falsehoods, and half-truths that makes up Fox News). But when someone is writing, or is a sports commentator and they get the facts wrong, it boils my blood. Particularly a writer should take the time to research what they write – the Internet is a wonderful place to check facts, especially sports statistics.
What has me all hot and bothered is a piece I recently read about the Blackhawks. The writer (I don’t remember if it was for a newspaper or for The Hockey News – which would be a worse sin if you write for a hockey magazine and don’t know what you’re talking about) said that the Blackhawks lost this year because the drastic salary cap cuts they were forced to make after winning the Stanley Cup last year forced them to get rid of goalie Annti Niemi.
Anyone who knows local hockey knows that Niemi and Corey Crawford were neck and neck for even making the team last year to back up Christian Huet in goal. The Hawks went with Niemi, but kept Crawford in the minors, and eventually, Niemi took over as the team’s number 1 goaltender and helped the team win the Cup.
Last summer, Niemi proved too expensive after his arbitration hearing and he ended up going to San Jose. Meanwhile the Hawks signed Marty Turco and brought up Crawford. Turco appears to be finished – he did not play well and at 35, his career may be over (it certainly is in Chicago). Crawford had a stellar season in my mind – the Hawks lost because of injuries, too many non-returning skaters, inconsistent play, and the simple fact that it’s hard to repeat as Stanley cup Champion.
But because the Sharks are still alive in the playoffs (although barely, since they trail Vancouver 2 games to none in the Conference semi-finals and appear to be near another playoff choke job – but not Niemi’s fault), some lazy writer said that Niemi’s loss doomed the 2010-2011 Chicago Blackhawks.
For over a week since I read this stupid article, I had been meaning to compare Niemi’s and Crawford’s stats, and I just finished today. Let’s look at the facts: Niemi played in 60 games to Crawford’s 57; Niemi gave up 140 goals (2.38 GAA), Crawford gave up 128 (2.30 GAA). Niemi has a better save percentage – .920 to .917 – because he faced more shots (1,741 for Niemi, 1,545 for Crawford), which says to me that the Blackhawks’ defense was better than San Jose’s. Niemi has the edge in shutouts: 6 to 4; but in the most important category – wins and losses, Niemi was 35-18-6 while Crawford was 33-18-6. It looks even to me folks. That’s not to say that Niemi is a bad goalie – far from it – he has kept the Sharks in the hunt all season, but Crawford (who just got a big money contract extension of his own) is every bit the goalie that Niemi is, and far from the reason the Hawks didn’t repeat. Both have bright NHL careers ahead of them (barring injury, of course).
I admit that when I see incompetence in sports reporting or writing, I get angry because that says to me that I should have that job – I can do better then they (and can prove it right here with you my friends). All it took was a 30 second Google search to look at the regular season goalie statistics. I do this for free – that writer makes dumb, uninformed comments for a living. It’s not fair.

Two words: GOOD RIDDANCE!!!!

1. Minnesota Twins slugger Harmon Killebrew died today. It had been announced that his cancer was inoperable a few days ago and that he would enter a hospice. The man was a great long ball threat and was a class man. I met him at the 1983 All Star Game at the old Comiskey Park. Despite being a Hall of Famer, he was very nice and treated me well. He will be missed.
2. Former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger had an extra marital affair with a staffer 10 years ago and told his wife Maria Shriver about it after he left office, and now they’re separated. At least he is financially supporting the child….
3. Now Mike Huckabee and Donald Trump have dropped out of the GOP race for president in 2012. This leaves Mitt Romney as the frontrunner, a man who has been moderate in the past (at least far too leftist for the Far Right). I admit that I want Michelle Bachmann and Sarah Palin to run. Their gaffes and ignorant comments will keep us in stitches for months. No comic will be funnier….

We have reached the final four teams left alive in both the NHL and NBA playoffs, and in hockey at least, I have no rooting interest except for one – who do I least want to win the Stanley Cup?
This used to be an annual event until the last three seasons because usually, the Blackhawks either didn’t make the playoffs, or weren’t serious contenders. Of course, we won last year, ending a 49 year draught, but they came up short this year. If you remember, a couple of weeks ago, I posted the teams I wanted to lose. First (always), were the Detroit Red Wings. I never want them to win, and I admit to expecting San Jose to choke like they usually do when the Red Wings overcame a 3-games to none deficit to tie the series, but the Sharks came through and eliminated the hated “Dead Things.”
My second team that I wanted to go home were the Philadelphia Flyers. I don’t have any great hate for them, but after the way they lost to the Hawks last season, I wanted them to lose, just because.
So that leaves the team that I knew would be hardest – the Vancouver Canucks. The Indignant Wife is rooting for them, which is to be expected since she is a Canadian, and no Canadian team has won the Cup since 1993. However, like I said, it will be tough – the Canucks were the best team in the regular season, won game 1 of the conference finals, and the Sharks have a tendency to gag. That means that I will probably root for the Eastern Conference representative; no matter who that is.
In basketball, there is a local team – the Bulls, who surprised the league not by being good (everyone figured they would be good), but by winning 62 games and capturing the number one seed in the Eastern Conference. So, now they are facing the team that I wanted most to lose – the Miami Heat. Even a non-NBA fan like myself, I watched some of last summer’s “The Decision” program in which LeBron James revealed that he, Chris Bosh and Dwayne Wade had played most of the NBA for fools, having secured deals with the Heat while other teams dangled millions at the threesome.
Like the old days of George Steinbrenner, the Heat were trying to buy a championship, and with James’ reputation for doing his own choking in the playoffs, there was no guarantee that the Heat would win.
So, they got past the aging Celtics, and celebrated as though they had won the championship, dissing both the Bulls who awaited the winner of the conference semi-final series and the winner of the Western Conference, like they would be easy after overcoming the Celtics. Well, these young Bulls weren’t intimidated, having won all 3 games against the Heat during the season and already up one game to none in this series. With Kobe Bryant’s Lakers dispatched last week by Dallas in convincing and humiliating fashion. That leaves the Heat as the only remaining team that I really want to watch the Finals from their homes.
One could say that it’s mean, not sporting to root against teams, but that’s part of the fun. If your team isn’t in it (or if they are, like the Bulls), there’s nothing wrong with wishing bad luck on your hatred rivals.

In San Jose, California, hockey fans are practicing the Heimlich Maneuver for their hockey team, the Sharks. Always a force in the regular season, the Sharks either fall flat in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs, or the get deeper into the playoffs, find adversity, then fold like a house of cards.
This season, they faced a rematch with one of the teams they ousted last year, the Detroit Red Wings, and they played three terrific games and took a commanding 3-0 lead. Since then, they have lost three straight and the unthinkable has happened again, a decisive seventh game when there shouldn’t have been one.
Last year, the Sharks won Game 1 of their series against the Blackhawks, and then the Hawks started playing more physical, and it looked like the Sharks shrunk. Joe Thornton and the rest of the team have more pressure on them than ever – high expectations; a tough, veteran Detroit opponent, and a history of heart attacks under pressure.
Game 7 is tomorrow night. I’m no fan of the Sharks (other than the fact they have former Blackhawk standout defenseman Doug Wilson as their GM), but I hate the Red Wings more. They have to toughen up and play big in their own building tomorrow night, or the dreaded hated Red Wings are going to be moving on to Vancouver for the Western Conference Finals.