Hawks Making This A series

Joe Johnson and Josh Smith combined for Atlanta's last 34 points to spirit the Hawks to victory. Johnson, a former Boston first-round draft pick, poured in 20 of his game-high 35 points during the final period. Johnson might have been the biggest difference-maker for the Hawks during crunch time, but Smith enjoyed the better all-around night on both ends of the court. The fourth-year forward finished with 28 points and six rebounds and his game-high seven blocks helped neutralize the Boston offense while setting an appropriately aggressive defensive tone for the undersized Atlanta frontcourt. Atlanta coach Mike Woodson has gone with a reduced rotation in this series. After winning the first two games of this best-of-seven series by 23 and 19 points, respectively, the shell-shocked Celtics must limp back to Beantown for Wednesday's pivotal Game 5. But even if Boston holds serve on its home court and survives this first-round series, the Hawks have done a whole lot to undermine the aura of invincibility the top-seeded Celtics carried into these playoffs in the wake of a 66-16 regular season. Atlanta hasn't necessarily put down a blueprint for beating Boston, but it's proved the Celtics can look merely mortal against athletic, resilient teams capable of taking a punch and punching back.

Just Like The Babe?

This Micah Owings guy is the real deal. Just when matters looked bleakest on for the Diamondbacks against the Astros, their savvy-hitting, right-handed pitcher was plucked off the bench again by manager Bob Melvin to pinch-hit with two out in the sixth inning, a runner on second and his club down by two runs.
Owings homered for the fifth time in 79 big league at-bats, but for the first time as a pinch-hitter, nailing the first offering from reliever Dave Borkowski over the right-field fence to tie the score and help send the D-backs on to a come-from-behind 8-7 victory. This guy is a great hitting pitcher and this is similar to how Babe Ruth started his career. He was an acceptional pitcher but his bat was so great they moved him to the outfield. I do not believe Owings will be moved but he fun to watch and it will be interesting on what they do with him.

Dwight Howard the New Shaq?

The Orlando Magic are well on their way of winning the series against the Raptors and their young star in Dwight Howard is filling the seats. The magic have sold out their home play off games and many are comparing Howard to a young Shaq when he was with the Magic. He has the same kind of star power and the team is similar to Shaq's magic of the early 90's. This young star is performing at a high level and hear is a clip of his dunk at the All Star game.

22 Innings!

The recent game between the Rockies and the Padres that went 22 innings was a controversial topic the next day with the media. On many sports talk shows, reporters discussed how there should be a limit on the game like in Japan. In this case especially, with players flying to the east coast the next day and having no time to gather their things. I agree with some of the reportes especially in a 22 inning game that had no big highlights. It was boring and many fans left the game not interested in one of the longest games in major league history.

Big Fight in Vegas

Joe Calazghe gained universal recognition as the light heavyweight champ of the world with an ugly, but hard-fought split-decision over Bernard Hopkins at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas Saturday night.
Calzaghe, who improved his undefeated record to 45-0 had to get up from a first-round knockdown and overcome the lunges and grappling of the 43-year-old master boxer in order to win the closely contested match on two of the official scorecards.
In the 10th round, Hopkins was hit with a borderline low blow and the grizzled vet went into theatrics behaving as though he had been nailed cleanly on the cup. The excellent acting job bought him a few minutes rest from referee Joe Cortez, but it didn’t prevent Calzaghe from out-hustling him in the championship rounds. I was personally disappointed in Hopkins acting like this and it cost him on the score card as Calazghe edged him out.

A New Curse?

A crafty Red Sox fan working construction on the new Yankee Stadium has tried his best to sabotage future seasons for the team from New York. The die hard member of Red Sox Nation reportedly buried a Red Sox jersey under the visiting team's clubhouse. At least that's the story being told to the New York Post.
According to two construction workers who told their story to the Post, the deceitful feat happened back in August, while concrete was being poured for the clubhouse floor. Now those workers fear they witnessed a curse being cast on their Yankees. The Yankees take on the story? They're calling it all a scam. In a statement released Friday the team said, "We noticed that the NY Post wrote a fun and interesting story about a t-shirt today - but it never happened. Yankee fans know that burying something in concrete in the basement is never a good thing. The owner of the New York Yankees Hank Steinbreiner has already went public about filing a law suit on the man. I agree with Hank and he should be prosecuted!

NBA Draft - New Policy A Good Thing?

Last Year the NBA set up a new bargaining agreement which prevented high school seniors from entering the NBA draft. There are many critics that disagree with this for numerous reasons. Some say it can ruin a players chances of making the NBA if they have a signficant injury while they are playing for college. In many situations, players entering the NBA draft are not financialy stable and who is deny them of a multi million dollar contract? This is how some players think but it is not all bad for the players or for Basketball. This years class of Freshman dominanted the collegiate level and filled college basketball with future NBA all stars. The NBA also believes the players benefit from a year at college experiencing new things and maturing more for a man's game. I disagree with not allowing the players to jump to the NBA when they finish High School and this video clip shiows that Oj Mayo has the star power and game to play in the NBA.

Why Do I Bet?

Last week my fraternity aranged for most of us to go to the Yankee Game. It was a Friday night game against the Tampa Bay Rays and I decided to make the game a little bit more interesting. I bet an undisclosed amount on the Yankees to win by more then one run. I have been an addictive gambler for the past year all stemming back to last years NCAA tournament where I won a large sum of money and basically gave me the confidence that I can not lose. Well the money I won from the tournament has gone and so has my luck. I am basically admitting to you that as much as I love sports I can not get excited unless my money is riding on the game. As we watched the game the Yankees of course broke my heart again and I lost my wager. I did realize though that even after I new the Yankees had no chance of winning (which was in the 4th inning) I enjoyed myself so this may be the turning point I needed to maybe give up gambling for a while. Heres a picture of us at the game.

Hockey or Boxing?

Hockey has never been one of my favorite sports but I have really enjoyed watching it since the new rules were introduced in 2004. The shootout has been one of the most exciting events in sports and now if the score is tied at the end of a five minute overtime then each time has three shots on a one on one against the goalie. This is an exciting event but I have to say that the best part about the NHL is that the players are aloowed to engage in a good old fashioned fight. This is the only sport where the pros can get their anger out on eachother in a bare knuckeled brawl. Here is a nice clip that I enjoyed and hopefully you will to.

The Toughest Conference Ever?

An Expert from Sports Illustrated has recently put out an article about hoo this years Western Conference from the NBA is the toughest the competition has ever been. The possibility of a team being held out of the playoffs with 50 wins has never happened before and this year seems like that is likely to happen as the season winds down. Two of the most exciting teams in the west include the Denver Nuggets and the Golden State Warriors both fighting for the eighth and final playoff spot in the western conference. These teams are very marketable and a recent discussion on a popular sports show had a debate on whether these teams should take over a playoff spot in the weaker eastern conference where each of these teams would be in the top 4in the playoff seeding. I personally would love to see the Warriors back in the playoffs because they are exciting and fun to watch. The NBA would benefit from this fast paced team making the playoffs helping the ratings. This is a clip of a playoff game the team was in last year and how much hype there was around this team. I believe they should be in the playoffs just so everyone can watch them.

Baseball Manager Goes Crazy

I have always been a sportsfan but I truly enjoy when a coach argues with an umpire. A Lot of my friends have just recently got into umpiring baseball including Lou Musto who is in our class. I have seen some outburst from managers and coaches in every sport but when i came across this one I just had to share it with everyone. This clip got me thinking about how Lou might handle a situation like this one.

New Topics

I have recently decided to expand to more interesting topics and not to just focus mainly on Staten Island Events. I am a big Sports fan and I will begin to focus more on that field. I am also going to continue to write about some events that have been going on in Staten Island. Im basically just going to write about what I want to write about on the day I post a new blog. I have also enjoyed humoring people so I am also going to try and write about funny topics that has happened recently.