Who's Up and Who's Down

Who's Up? :)

1. The Canadian Olympic Team: It was looking tense there for the first week, but in the end, Canada had a very successful Olympic games with many fantastic story lines. If I had to identify three things I'll remember from these games, they'll be Simon Whitfield's silver medal in the triathlon (the one moment that actually caused me to yell at my television), Eric Lamaze's gold medal in show jumping, and all the Canadian athletes who broke Canadian records and set personal bests, though may not have medalled. GO CANADA!

2. Natalia Paderina and Nino Salukvadze: In my view, the most important story of the Beijing Games.

3. Vijay Singh and Sergio Garcia: The pair of them got the FedEx Cup Playoffs started in an exciting way, with matching 25-ft putts on the first sudden-death playoff hole at the Barclay's this week. Anybody who watched Sergio's gigantic grin and playful shove to his opponent after Vijay sunk his putt could tell that these two were having a little fun out there.

Who's Down? :(

1. Posted without comment:
2. The New York Yankees: Any opportunity to include them on this list... The Yankees are not looking like a playoff-bound team, and the Steinbrenner siblings can't seem to figure out how they feel about it, with one brother announcing that he's looking to next year and the other stating that the Yanks are still in it. Bums, the lot of them.

3. The LPGA: The Ladies Tour is desperate to stay alive, and didn't do itself any favours this week by releasing news that it will now require players on the tour to speak English. There are approximately 73 ways that the tour could have approached the issue of player-sponsor communication, and this was the worst of the options. That this will be a RULE, and that players will potentially be prevented from playing if they don't meet the tour's standards, reeks of discrimination, heavy-handedness, desperation and short-sightedness. Think of it this way... would the PGA ever tell Camillo Villegas that he couldn't play because his English isn't good? I don't think so...

Who's Up and Who's Down

Let's see what we've got this week...

Who's Up? :)

1. Ichiro Suzuki, who reached 3,000 hits this week, a feat he accomplished over 951 games with the Orix Blue Wave in Japan's Pacific League and 1,224 games with the Seattle Mariners. The achievement itself, and the relative rapidity with which he accomplished it, speak to his consistency, strength and longevity. And I'm relieved that the feat is being celebrated as an interesting and unique accomplishment because it occured over two leagues on two different continents, rather than being minimized because the first half of it didn't happen in the Majors. I think that North American sporting leagues are starting to realize, finally, that there is true legitimacy in many of the leagues elsewhere. (Side note: The NBA is starting to learn this lesson too.)

2. Chez Reavie. Who?? That's what I asked, anyway, when we heard that Reavie was leading the Canadian Open after 36 holes. I made the cardinal mistake of allowing the fact that I'd never heard of the guy to cloud my judgement about whether he could win or not, and I bet my husband a dollar that Reavie wouldn't be at the top of the leaderboard at the end of the weekend. Well, of course, he proved me wrong, hoisting the trophy for his first PGA win. It's ok though, I took the dollar off my husband's dresser...

3. Toronto and Edmonton, which were just announced as the only two stops on next year's Indy Racing tour. Canada has a lot of knowledgeable racing fans, so it's good to hear that those fans will continue to be rewarded with races on Canadian soil.

Who's Down? :(

1. Michelle Wie, who is skipping this week's major tournament (the British Open) on the LPGA tour to play yet another men's event, at which she has only the bare minimum of chances of making the cut. Let me be clear that I have no problems with women playing against the men, and a number of women have done it very successfully (a certain Billie-Jean comes to mind...). But I think that you should prove yourself on your own turf first. Wie has yet to win an LPGA event, and was disqualified at her last event for failing to sign her scorecard. She has, with astonishing rapidity, gone from becoming a young, exciting golf prodigy to an embarassing punchline. And I can't understand how she doesn't see it, how she doesn't see that working hard to qualify and play at the LPGA level is the only way for her to get her reputation back on track. And that it's really, really time for her parents to get out the picture, as far as her career management is concerned.

2. Anybody involved in the ugly fiasco of Brett Favre's "un-retirement," up to and including the star quarterback himself. I hate it when this happens, when a great career gets over-shadowed by stupid and selfish behaviour. My bottom line is that if he wants to play, he should show up at training camp and earn it, like everyone else. And if that means that he plays back-up, then he should embrace that opportunity, mentor Aaron Rodgers, and keep his mouth shut about it. And the Packers should really stop this ridiculous trade talk, because I don't think any good comes from Brett Favre playing in anything but Packer colours. I think we may be too far gone for either of those options to still be possible, which is so sad.

3. Baseball's mid-season trade deadline, which should really be a very exciting week, dominated by stories like the Braves' trade of Mark Teixera to the Angels. But instead, we get more of Manny Ramirez, more of Barry Bonds (no, seriously). In other words, rather than the pages being full of interesting and strategic moves intended to set teams up for the rest of the year or for next season, we get stories about disgruntled stars wanting out of their teams, or disgruntled former stars wanting on to any team... and I find it all distracting to the onset of serious playoff races, especially when those stories are the SAME stories we read last year.

Who's Up and Who's Down

I haven't done this for a while, so today, when the sun is shining and the birds are finding our new feeder (yay!!), seemed like a good idea to touch base, once again, with who's up and who's down in the world of sports.

Who's Up? :)

1. The Detroit Red Wings

2. The NBA: Gearing up for the beginning of an absolutely dream of an NBA finals between the Los Angeles Lakers (and Kobe Bryant) and the Boston Celtics (and Kevin Garnett). I'm not much of a basketball fan, but this matchup has even me excited. Two great teams with great history and great leading players - who could ask for anything more? Here's hoping they live up to all the hype.

3. The MLB Draft: Or perhaps not the draft itself, but rather a touching and fitting tribute just before the draft itself begins. Each major league team will draft one surviving player from the Negro Leagues this afternoon in advance of the "real" draft, as a tribute to the many excellent ball players who never got a chance in the major leagues because of the colour of their skin. The part of me that believes that Josh Gibson was probably the greatest baseball player of all time gets all teary-eyed at the thought of it.

Neutral Ground:
I can't decide where to put the the US Open: I saw an article announcing that Tiger Woods (#1) and Phil Mickelson (#2) and Adam Scott (#3) will play together for the first two rounds of the US Open at Torrey Pines this year. While this is entirely an exciting announcement, and will, I'm sure, produce lots of intrigue and story lines and excitement, I just hope that TV stations find some time to cover other players as well, while they're following these three around the course like greyhounds after a rabbit.

Who's Down? :(

1. Hockey Night in Canada: Canadians are very attached to their hockey (duh), and more specifically, to their hockey traditions. In that spirit, I would like to say: "What the hell?"

2. The Seattle Mariners: I know I have Seattle-based bloggy friends out there... what the heck is going on over there? It's not good folks; it's not good at all.

3. I'm struggling to come up with a third one this week, so the New York Yankees, just because I can.

Who's Up and Who's Down

After a one-week hiatus, we're back with more ups and downs in the world of sports.
Who's Up? :)

1. Dany Heatley, who is playing great hockey for Team Canada at the World Hockey Championships in Halifax. Through three games in the first round, Heatley has 6 goals and 4 assists, and scored a crucial last-minute goal yesterday afternoon to defeat the team from the United States. That all being well and good, if I was Brian Murray, coach and general manager of the Ottawa Senators, I would be wondering what changed between the end of the NHL season, for which the Sens offense disappeared, and this tournament?

2. Marty Turco and Evgeni Nabokov, the goalies for the Dallas Stars and San Jose Sharks, respectively, who combined for an unbelievable pair of performances in Dallas's quadruple overtime win in game 6 of the 2nd round of the NHL Playoffs. Hunt the highlights down on YouTube if you can; they are worth seeing.

3. Sportsmanship, which was in ample display at a women's softball game between Central Washington and Western Oregon last week. You can read about it here, and thanks to Towanda for drawing my attention to this fantastic story.

Who's Down? :(

1. The Chicago White Sox: Swept by the Blue Jays to extend a dreadful losing streak. A profanity-laced tirade from the manager, whining about lack of respect. A clubhouse display built of blow-up dolls and questionably placed... um... bats. I COULD NOT MAKE THIS STUFF UP IF I TRIED!!

2. Hot off the presses, Paul Maurice, who has been fired by the Toronto Maple Leafs. I've always liked Maurice, and I've always thought that he was doing the best he could with what he had, but realistically, the team is a mess, and needs a fresh approach. I would be surprised if he doesn't get picked up by someone else soon though.

3. Roger Clemens. I just wish he would shut up and go away.

Who's Up and Who's Down

Who's Up? :)

1. Game Seven Winners: The teams that brought their lunchboxes, gave 110%, just wanted it more, had their back agains the wall etc. in decisive games in the NHL playoffs' first round: The Montreal Canadians, Philadelphia Flyers and San Jose Sharks.

2. Danica Patrick: With her win this weekend in Japan, became the first woman to win an Indy Car Race, officially dissipating any comparisons anybody might have thought about making between Ms. Patrick and a certain Russian tennis player of old. And honorable mentions to all the women who came before her, in all racing leagues!

3. John Smoltz: Last night, became the latest to be added to a very short list of MLB pitchers to reach an impressive 3000 strikeouts in his career. The more sordid and ugly sports headlines are these days, the nicer it is to see a story about a hard-working guy just playing good baseball for a long, long time.

Who's Down? :(

1. Game Seven Losers: The teams that were out-played, out-matched, stunk up the joint, gave it away, beat themselves, lacked playoff experience, etc. in decisive games in the NHL playoffs' first round: The Boston Bruins, Washington Capitals and Calgary Flames.

2. Hank Steinbrenner is following closely in his father's footsteps by meddling in the day-to-day on-field operations of the New York Yankees, remarking this week that changes needed to be made in the starting rotation. He even made a veiled and distant reference to his new manager as an Idiot. Welcome to the Yanks, Joe Girardi! These kinds of incidents make those of who hate the Yankees laugh and laugh and laugh.

3. Frank Thomas gets my idiot of the week designation this week, although I'm reluctant about it. Look, I have a lot of respect for Frank and for the great things he has done in a long career in the majors. I hope he gets elected to the Hall of Fame. But last week, he got benched, and instead of remarking on his pallid .167 average, on the need to hit better with runners in scoring position, on any of the elements of his poor performance to that date, Frank immediately tore into the Blue Jays, accusing them of trying deliberately to keep him from getting the number of at-bats he needed this year to secure a $10M bonus next season. So the next day, the Jays released him. I just wish that he had kept his mouth shut, and recognized that he needed to play better, that maybe, just maybe, he needed to EARN the $10M, you know, by playing baseball well, and stuff.

4. Poor, poor, poor John Arne Riise.

Who's Up and Who's Down

Who's Up! :)

1. The Canadian Women's Soccer Team, who last week qualified for their first Olympic Games. The team also came very close to winning the Olympic qualifying tournament, eventually losing to the US in a shootout in the final.

2. Trevor Immelman, who became only the second South African to win the Green Jacket at Augusta, following in the footsteps of his idol, Gary Player.

On this subject, just a quick word about Tiger Woods. There has been a lot of negative press about Tiger this week, about his inability to putt when it counted, about the seeming disappearance of the competitive spirit for which he's known, about his failure to dominate in his usual manner. Just a quick thought... HE CAME SECOND. Yes, he putted badly, and he didn't close the gap when he had the chance on Sunday, but he still. came. second. I appreciated so much the commentator who said that this is what makes Tiger special: when he is playing well, there is really a negligible difference between him and other top players who are playing well. But when he's playing poorly, he still grinds out 71s and 72s where other golfers log 75s and 76s (cough cough Phil cough cough). Just sayin'...

3. Frank Thomas and Ken Griffey Jr.: No really special accomplishment this week, but I wanted to draw attention to this article, which details how these two players have been successful big hitters in the major leagues for many years without a hint of drug-related suspicion.

4. Kevin Martin, who's Canadian rink won the Men's World Curling Championships last weekend!

Who's Down! :(

1. The Ottawa Senators: This team is really starting to get on my nerves. On the verge of being swept out of the NHL playoffs with a whimper, this team is full of rich guys with enormous talent, and they play like babies. BIG RICH BABIES.

2. Eating Competitions: Maybe this one is unfair because it's more based on personal dislike than on anything this "sport" or its competitors did, but I figure this is my list, and I can put who/what I want on it. Eating competitions are disgusting. And wasteful. And in a week when grain prices rose, worsening the already-horrid food crisis around the world, this guy put away THIRTY-FIVE DOZEN OYSTERS to win a stupid belt. Gross.

3. Sean Avery, our idiot of the week.

Who's Up and Who's Down

This may turn out to be a regular feature here in my little bloggy kingdom, and may take on a variety of subject matter, but for right now, here's my look at who's up and who's down this week in Sports.

Who's Up! :)

1. College Basketball: I hear that March Madness is over now for both men's and women's basketball, and that the games were very exciting, and the tournament is viewed as having been an exciting success.

I don't watch, follow, or care about college basketball, partly because I find basketball hard to sit through, but also because fundamentally, I think that March Madness places stress and attention on very young athletes, and it's pressure that they are often ill-equipped to handle. See the interesting story of Joakim Noah's first year in the NBA.

But I think I would be remiss in not recognizing what appears to have been a great tournament, on behalf of bloggy friends for whom I know that college basketball is a passion.

And by the way, I did fill out a bracket, but I did so by flipping a coin. My bracket said Duke would win. I gather that they didn't.

2. Lorena Ochoa: I believe that we are seeing only the very beginning of what should be the greatest career in the history of women's golf. Another major win for her last weekend.

3. Trevor Linden: All signs point to his retirement after a great 19-year career in the NHL. The fans in Vancouver, where he has arguably been the most popular hockey player in their history, gave him the kind of send-off a classy player like this deserves.

Who's Down! :(

1. The Detroit Tigers:
Bajillions of dollars spent in the offseason.
Two superstar players signed.
Oodles of optimism during the pre-season.
First week's record = no wins, 7 losses.

And yes, there are 162 games in the season, so in the grand scheme of things, 7 games shouldn't matter. But one of the interesting things about baseball is that 7 games do matter, very much so. I remember a couple of years ago that the Jays started the season with considerable optimism and were swept in their first series. Never recovered. Les Tigres are in trouble.

2. Jose Canseco: Idiot.

3. The American Women's 4x100 m relay team from the Sydney Olympic Games: All set to have their medals revoked because of Marion Jones' cheating. A difficult pill to swallow, I imagine, for those on the team who trained hard and ran clean.