Thursday, May 22, 2008

Stanley Cup and Hoops

Penguins-Red Wings
Dave Molinari of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette writes about how some of the Penguins are in unchartered water... "Just six members of their current roster -- forwards Petr Sykora, Gary Roberts and Georges Laraque, defensemen Darryl Sydor and Sergei Gonchar and goalie Ty Conklin -- have competed in a Stanley Cup final, which means most players will be in uncharted territory when the Penguins face Detroit in Game 1 Saturday night at Joe Louis Arena." ...
  • Dave Molinari


  • Ed Bouchette of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette writes how Pittsburgh's other sports teams are supporting the Penguins... "Steelers cornerback Deshea Townsend, who did not know the difference between hockey and curling when he grew up in Mississippi, is scrambling for tickets to Game 3 of the Stanley Cup final in Mellon Arena Wednesday night." ...
  • Ed Bouchette


  • Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press writes about the dynamic match-up of Crosby-Malkin vs. Datsyuk-Zetterberg... "In the playoffs, Crosby leads the NHL with 17 assists and is tied with Zetterberg for the scoring lead with 21 points, but Crosby's output came over 14 games to 16 for Zetterberg. Datsyuk and Malkin are tied for second (with Penguins forward Marian Hossa) in scoring with 19 points and each has nine goals." ...
  • Helene St. James


  • Eric Adelson of ESPN writes how Detroits fans have a dilemma on Saturday night... "The first three games of the Stanley Cup finals will be played at the same time as Games 3, 4 and 5 of the NBA's Eastern Conference finals. Who cares, you say? Well, just about everyone in Detroit, to start with, as fans here will now have to choose whether to watch the Red Wings or the Pistons." ...
  • Eric Adelson


  • Spurs-Lakers
    Buck Harvey of the San Antonio Express-News writes how the tired Spurs will regret losing a 20-point lead... "All of the Spurs had reason to be tired after the previous two days. Playing a tense Game 7 two time zones away from Los Angeles, then sleeping in an airplane makes for a pretty good excuse." ...
  • Buck Harvey


  • Bill Plaschke of The Los Angeles Times writes how the Lakers comeback win will haunt the Spurs... "They stole a victory from a team that was doing everything right, and they stole it after doing everything wrong." ...
  • Bill Plaschke


  • Pistons-Celtics
    Mitch Albom of the Detroit Free-Press writes how the Pistons-Celtics match-up is different than 20 years ago... "If you could have been at the old Boston Garden, back when Dumars, Isiah Thomas and the others were battling a dynasty that included Larry Bird, Kevin McHale and Robert Parish. That building reeked of age and legend. The banners hung low enough to taunt you. The screaming fans were one part enthusiasm and nine parts arrogance." ...
  • Mitch Albom


  • Christopher Gasper of the Boston Globe writes about the match-up and friendship between Kevin Garnett and Rasheed Wallace... "There are few players in the NBA Garnett respects as much as Wallace. He looks forward to their matchups. They share a friendship and, according to Garnett, a lot more." ...
  • Christopher Gasper
  • Wednesday, May 21, 2008

    The Cup

    The Stanley Cup is the most coveted championship trophy in the world...whether you are a hockey fan or not, everyone dreams of lifting that cup over your head....and if you are a hockey player, this is the ultimate goal of a lifetime...it has to rank right up to the birth your first born....The Holy Grail....The Cup....Lord Stanley's Mug...this is what you play for....that few seconds of skating around the ice with The Cup over your head....and players from either the Pittsburgh Penguins or Detroit Red Wings will have the thrill of hoisting The Cup...

    Unlike the trophies awarded by the other three major professional sports leagues of North America, a new Stanley Cup is not made each year...Cup winners keep it until a new champion is crowned....it is the only trophy in professional sports that has the name of the winning players, coaches, management, and club staff engraved on it....the current Stanley Cup is made of silver and nickel alloy and has a height of 35.25 inches and weighs 34.5 lbs...

    Currently, in order to have one's name inscribed on The Cup, a player must have played at least 41 games for the championship team during the regular season (provided the player remains with the team when they win The Cup) or at least played in one game of the Finals.... the NHL will also consider other reasons on a case-by-case basis....for instance, Vladimir Konstantinov, whose career ended after a car accident on June 13, 1997, had his name engraved on the Stanley Cup after Detroit defended their title in 1998.....

    Jean Beliveau’s name appears on The Cup more than anyone else....he appears 17 times: 10 as a player and 7 as management....Henri "Rocket" Richard has won the most Stanley Cups as a player with 11...13 women have their names engraved on the Stanley Cup....

    Tradition has it that the captain is the first player to hoist The Cup...however, that tradition did not happen on two recent occasions....after Colorado won in 2001, captain Joe Sakic accepted The Cup from the commissioner, however, he immediately handed it to Ray Bourque who was the first to hoist it....Bourqueplayed in the NHL for 22-years and never was on a Stanley Cup champion....

    The other instance happened in 1998 when Detroit captain Steve Yzerman accepted The Cup but then immediately passed it to Vladimir Konstantinov, who had been seriously injured in a limo accident the previous year and had to be wheeled on the ice...

    And remember, NHL players will not touch The Cup until they hoist it after winning the playoffs....

    Over the next week, Stiles Points will be providing coverage of the Stanley Cup Finals and the NBA Conference Finals...

    Tuesday, May 20, 2008

    Kim Cattrall - Is She Hot or Am I Missing Something?

    With all the fuss about the upcoming Sex and the City movie, the Is She Hot feature takes the oldest member of that crew of horny, sex starved women - Kim Cattrall...

    Porky's?
    Cattrall was born in August 1956 in England, which makes her 51-years-old in American years...she has gone through three husbands and is dating a 28-year-old kid right now...that is a 23 year difference in age!!!...so if I hook-up with a 21-year-old, that would only be 18 years...she has no children...

    Anyway, before her role as Samantha Jones, Cattrall had roles in those 1980 movie classics Porky's and Police Academy...she has appeared in over 30 movies...a few years back she also penned a book called Satisfaction: The Art of the Female Orgasm...Cattrall writes how she finally reached sexual pleasure and kinds of other crap about the Big O...

    My thoughts - I have seen Ms. Cattrall without makeup and she looks horrible...however, for being 51-years-old, she still has a good body and is not bad looking once Sherwin Williams goes to work on her...yeh, I would say she is hot, but in an older woman way...she is definitely past her prime, but there is obviously still a some thread left on those tires...so this leads to the questions:

    Do you think Kim Cattrall is is hot?

    If so, why doesn't she get the publicity?

    Am I missing something?

    Leave your comments

    Monday, May 19, 2008

    Random Thoughts

    What a terrific Game 7 between the Celtics and Cavaliers...great performances by Paul Pierce and LeBron James...P2 played a wonderful game to lead Boston...but it will end for the Celtics in the conference finals...Detroit will beat Boston in 6 games...

    Why do the Celtics have good veteran players like P.J. Brown and Sam Cassell and the Cavs don't?...Boston has three stud players in Garnett, Piece, and Allen...veterans like Brown and Cassell, but the Cavs can't get other veteran scorers to help LeBron...Ben Wallace is good on defense, but he is worthless on the offensive end...I just can't understand why Cleveland lacks that other stud player or two...

    I'm tired of hearing about Spygate...I am not a Patriots fan, but let's be honest, Bill Belichick did what probably many other coaches have done over the last few decades...

    Think about this, before Spygate ever broke, why have offensive coordinators, who are on the sidelines, always cover their mouth when they call in a play?...or when plays were signaled in, there was always at least two, and sometimes three, players signaling in the play...only one of the players would be "hot" while the other two players would be signaling in fake plays in order to throw off the opponent in case they were trying to steal signs...suddenly, people are making this big case against Belichick like he has been the only one stealing signals...

    My blogger friend Zach, over at
    The Big Picture, posed a question last week...who would you select if you can pick just one pitcher and one position player to start a baseball team?...my selections were Yankees pitcher Joba Chamberlain and Marlins shortstop Hanley Ramirez...

    If this question was asked last year, Cleveland Plain Dealer sports columnist Terry Pluto would have selected Jeremy Sowers as his pitcher...Pluto wrote, many times, that Sowers was a "phenom"...and Buzz Bissinger questioned the writing of bloggers?...the word "phenom" should be used sparingly and not thrown out to just any athlete who was outstanding in college or the minor leagues...

    If you are a baseball fan and looking for a good read, pick up Working at the Ballpark by Tom Jones...Jones interviewed 50 people who are involved in baseball...from the front office people all the way to the beer vendor and mascot...it is an oral history and a quick read...

    Sunday, May 18, 2008

    Sunday Stories

    Bill Livingston of The Plain Dealer writes how LeBron James can beat you many ways..."Despite the Cavaliers’ sword fixation, James is a many-bladed knife. If his shot doesn’t get you, his passing, rebounding, or his defense — the best of his career this postseason, by far — will." ...
  • Bill Livingston


  • Dan Shaughnessy of the Boston Globe writes why either team may win Game 7... "The Celtics will win because commissioner David Stern wants a Boston-Los Angeles final more than Hillary Clinton wants the nomination. The Cavs will win because Super Bowl XLII in Glendale, Ariz., officially ended the golden age of New England sports, igniting a chain of postseason disappointments for local teams." ...
  • Dan Shaughnessy


  • Howard Beck of The New York Times writes how the Celtics may not be a guarantee today... "Technically, they are correct. The Celtics still have every chance to put a big green bow on their transformative season. But their frequent pratfalls do not inspire much confidence." ...
  • Howard Beck


  • Michael Wilbon of the Washington Post writes how Game 7 is something the NFL can never give you... "But there's one thing pro football in all its glory can't give you: Game 7. The NFL can't give you six games of back-and-forth, of day-to-day adjustments and second-guessing, of cold stares and hard fouls, of familiarity breeding contempt even among friends. Only six previous games can produce the desperate drama that is Game 7, still the coolest thing in sports -- any sport and any teams." ...
  • Michael Wilbon


  • Juan Gonzalez of The Daily News writes how the Yankees became the richest team in sports... "Documents obtained by the Daily News under a Freedom of Information request provide a rare look at the Yankees formidable cash-generating operation. Even die-hard fans accustomed to paying top dollar to watch the superstar team will be astounded by the numbers." ...
  • Juan Gonzalez


  • Karen Crouse of The New York Times spends "30 seconds" with Laverne DeFazio...
  • Karen Crouse


  • Richard Sandomir of The New York Times writes how former ESPN baseball analyst Harold Reynolds has a new life in broadcasting... "Harold Reynolds seemed pleased. He was on a studio set, talking baseball, but it was about the Mets and the Yankees, not the full breadth of major league baseball. He was in Manhattan as SportsNet New York’s new analyst, sitting with Darryl Strawberry and Lee Mazzilli, not in Bristol, Conn., where he was a mainstay on ESPN’s “Baseball Tonight.” ...
  • Richard Sandomir


  • Mike Reiss of the Boston Globe shares the transcript from Bill Belichick's interview with CBS' Armen Ketayian...
  • Mike Reiss


  • David Wharton and Mike Hiserman of The Los Angeles Times writes how the celebrities get their prime seats for Lakers games... "Hours before Wednesday's tip-off, he arrived at the still-empty arena dressed in a gray suit with a pink shirt and matching tie. His work all but done -- Locklear got her seats from team executive Jeanie Buss -- he needed to be on hand for any glitches. An actor who shows up with no seat for his bodyguard. A singer who does not have her parking pass." ...
  • David Wharton and Mike Hiserman


  • Jay Mariotti of the Chicago Sun-Times writes how Bears linebacker Lance Briggs may be the Shawn Kemp of the current NFL... "And where was Briggs during the Cook County proceedings? In Arizona, his offseason place of residence, living with a third woman who is said to have given birth recently to yet another Briggs daughter." ...
  • Jay Mariotti


  • Andy Beyer of The Washington Post writes that Big Brown's win in the Preakness was impressive, but we still don't know how good of a horse he is... "Big Brown has not yet faced rivals who can challenge him. The supporting cast in the 133rd Preakness was a pitiful group, with only two graded stakes winners among them. The competition was so weak that bettors made Gayego the second choice in the wagering, even though he had lost the Derby by 36 3/4 lengths." ...
  • Andrew Beyer


  • Legendary sports columnist Jerry Izenberg writes about the harmony between jockey and horse... "The gate is open and Desormeaux and the wonder colt Big Brown, the one the army of racetrack workers everywhere lovingly call "The Freak," become one ... a man who talks to horses, communicating through his hands and with an occasional verbal cluck, and a horse that in his brief racing career has shown the ability to create wonders ... there in the kind of emotional and physical harmony that generate a magnificent ballet layered with grace and power and amazement." ...
  • Jerry Izenberg