I should apparently go away more often. This weekend was monumental (assuming that the “weekend” for everyone stretches to late Monday night). You had the Cavs forcing the Celtics to Game 7, Big Brown running right towards the triple crown, the Mets taking 2 from the Yankees at the stadium, me being there for one of the games, the Celtics winning a classic Game 7 at home, Jon Lester pitching a no-hitter, the Sox winning 3 games in 26 hours over the Brewers, the Spurs winning a 7th game in New Orleans, the Red Wings and the Penguins winning their conferences, and the start of the WNBA season. I don’t know where to begin…so I’ll just begin at the start of the list:

Boston @ Cleveland (Friday): I actually don’t remember this game. Saturday, Sunday, and Monday were excruciatingly long days, which makes Friday seem like it was, oh, about 3 years ago. I remember being very angry about this game afterward. But I don’t remember what happened and I don’t want to look at the score to remind me of how angry I was. I’m very excited, however, at Sam Cassell’s new role as “guy who lays on the floor and looks like an alien.”

Big Brown (Also known as the Preakness): Every year I watch horse racing. Every year I get excited about a potential Triple Crown winner. Every year that doesn’t happen. Every year I wonder why I get so excited about this. Saturday was no exception. Except for one thing: Big Brown is so dominant. Now, I don’t know if the field was weak. They’re friggin horses! We don’t really know what they’re capable of. Or how they feel. So all of the interviews with Randy Moss (not that one…ESPN’s horse analyst), Hank Goldberg, assorted trainers, owners, and jockeys, and all the rest mean nothing to me. All that matters is the race. NBC thinks otherwise. They aired about 3 hours of pre-Preakness coverage. I watched at least an hour of it. I learned nothing. However, watching the race, I learned that no horse in that field had a shot in the world at winning the Preakness.

The Mets swept (sort of) their rain-shortened weekend series with the Yankees. Neither team is frankly very good. The Yankees without Alex Rodriguez, and getting no positive contribution from Ian Kennedy or Phillip Hughes are in a far worse situation, though, honestly, they’re the Yankees, they won’t finish in last place. As for the Mets, they’re mediocre at the moment and I don’t have a lot of faith in their offense. Until Jose Reyes starts really hitting, and they get some contribution from Alou and Delgado, I can’t envision them winning the NL East. Ryan Church however, is growing on me very quickly.

Sunday night was my first venture to Yankee Stadium and my first game that involved the New York Yankees. This is quite the statistical anomaly. I have seen the Marlins play 3 times, twice in Miami. I have seen the Nationals/Expos play 5 times. I had never seen the Yankees. The Stadium is just that. An enormous stadium in the middle of a garbage dump. The Stadium, however, is the site of so many lasting baseball memories in my lifetime and long before. It was very exciting for me to sit inside of Yankee Stadium, albeit way up in Tier Reserved Section 33 in row X (the last row). The atmosphere at Yankee Stadium is unlike many I have experienced, as everyone was drunk, and fist fighting, and so quintessential New York. Later this week I will rank the ballparks I have been to in terms of “overall awesomeness.” Yankee Stadium will not be number 1.

The Celtics/Cavs Game 7 could be written about at length. However, it’s a little important to have some perspective and realize that it was only the Eastern Conference Semi-Finals and not the NBA Finals. LeBron put forth a Jordan-esque effort, just with worse shooting. It was, however, Paul Pierce, who I will never warm up to, I feel, who shocked me with his 40+ performance. Paul will never be my favorite Celtic. Too often he decides that he’s one of the best players in the NBA and tries to take a game over. Most of the time, he’s not capable of that. We saw that last season. However, he took Sunday over. I’m sure everyone would like more on this game, but I want to reserve my thoughts on this team for a more appropriate time. So I’ll move on.

Jon Lester’s no-hitter, to me, should be most notable for the fact that it was Jason Varitek’s 4th no-hitter caught. The list of pitchers whose no-hitters he has caught is also notable, because it doesn’t involve Pedro, or Curt Schilling, or Josh Beckett, etc. It does involve Hideo Nomo. I rarely compliment ‘Tek, but you’ve got to be a great catcher to work 4 no-hit games in your career with zero future Hall of Fame pitchers (at the moment). The Lester story is fantastic and I’d be lying if I said that I wasn’t a little teary-eyed last night, but lets stop and acknowledge Jason Varitek today too.

The Milwaukee Brewers stink, at the moment.

For the New Orleans Hornets, the 2007-08 NBA season could have been more successful. They could have advanced to the conference finals for the first time in franchise history. They could have beaten the Lakers in that round and played for an NBA title. Heck, they could have won an NBA title. However, none of those things are going to happen, as they were eliminated by the Spurs in Game 7 last night in Louisiana. All year, every pundit said, “This team’s too young. This team’s not deep enough.” And every pundit was proved dead wrong, in my opinion. Their problem was ultimately their head coach, as I thought it would be. In the fourth quarter when the Spurs decided to let Jannero Pargo take all the shots in the world, Byron Scott did nothing to counter, assuming that a low-to-mid tier player could take a game over, even taking the ball out the MVP’s hands late in the game. Why Chris Paul wasn’t driving to about 10 feet from the basket and dumping the ball off to Tyson Chandler on every play in the 4th last night was beyond me. The Hornets are a surefire title contender next year, in my opinon, however, they would be wise to explore other coaching options, much like a team about 1600 miles northeast of New Orleans. Team success does not always indicate great coaching in the NBA. Coaches can often hinder their teams. Byron Scott is one of those coaches.

I’ll take the Penguins to topple the Red Wings in 6 games in the Stanley Cup Finals. I’ve stopped watching hockey in favor of the NBA. This has nothing to do with the NHL and everything to do with the best NBA Playoffs since the death of Michael Jordan.

I watched some WNBA on Saturday. The Sparks look great. Candace Parker nearly had a triple-double.

Tonight is the NBA’s Draft Lottery, a personal favorite of mine. For the hell of it, let’s see if this is how it plays out:

14. Golden State Warriors
13. Indiana Pacers
12. Portland Trail Blazers
11. New Jersey Nets
10. Charlotte Bobcats
9. Sacramento Kings
8. Milwaukee Bucks
7. Los Angeles Clippers
6. Chicago Bulls
5. Memphis Grizzlies
4. Seattle Sonics
3. Minnesota Timberwolves
2. Miami Heat
1. New York Knicks

Conspiracy Theory, anyone?

In the NBA’s Conference Finals, I see this happening:

East: Detroit over Boston in 6. If the Pistons win tonight, like with the Cleveland series, I can’t envision the Celtics winning the series. All that Boston has right now is their home invincibility. Past that, they’re confidence has to be diminishing. I’d prefer a C’s sweep, but we’re in the same position we were before the Cleveland series. This can’t go on another round, can it?

West: Los Angeles over San Antonio in 5. Please.

Game O’ The Day: Detroit @ Boston. The Pistons win an 8 point game. And we weep a little.