Sports, Sports, Sports...

I'm going to broaden my scope a little bit to touch on some national stories as well...but, here's what's been on my radar in the sports world during the last week or so:

* Did you hear John Wooden died? You wouldn't believe this...but, Sid Hartman was a close personal friend of John Wooden.

* Stephen Strasburg strikes out 14 batters in seven innings of work with no walks. But, come on...Washington set this up perfectly for his first start to be against the lowly Pirates. It's a good confidence booster for a rookie making his MLB debut. Don't get me wrong...I think he'll still dominate, especially being in the National League...but, will he hold up healthwise, and how about mentally when he finally gets hit around a little bit.

* Got hooked on the NCAA Baseball Regionals (Fullerton Region) over the weekend, which also means I didn't get any sleep for four days. Four team - double elimination tournament...winner goes on to the Super Regionals. Gophers collapse coming out of the winner bracket and lose two straight to a tough Cal-State Fullerton team. A couple complaints about the coverage:

- Just because I'm watching ESPNU, doesn't mean that I'm a virgin to the game of baseball. Morgan Ensberg was horrible at doing the commentary. He spent more time on critiquing the "what if" plays that never happened than the plays that actually did take place. Please, just cover the game that we are watching. On the other hand, Morgan's play-by-play partner (Kutcher) was hilarious...although at times, he was encouraging Morgan's random tangents about nothing.

- They profile the Gophers' history and it lists that we've won 3 National Titles in baseball. Yet, we've never been to a "Super Regional" (which is another preliminary round before the actual College World Series). Is this what expansion is going to do to our NCAA sports...just create more stupid names for each level of accomplishment...if that's the case, I vote "NO" on everything expansion wise in any sport.

* I haven't told my wife, but I'm a closet soccer fan when the World Cup rolls around once every four years. I thoroughly enjoy the play/coverage...the only things I dislike are: the players flopping to extremes in order to draw the whistle and the reasoning that every four years an annoucer/TV personality will proclaim that, "U.S.A Soccer will really take off and grow after this year because of (enter a young promising player on the team)." No...it never happens...by the way, our 13 year old savior (Freddy Adu) that we found years ago (signed as a professional as a fourteen year old), is now 21 years old and is not good enough to make the squad.

* I'm rooting for the Lakers in the Finals. Mainly, because I'm done with Kevin Garnett. I'm so tired of him pounding on his chest and swearing f-bombs while running back on defense after he makes a shot in the 1st quarter...especially, now that he's just a complimentary player on the Boston squad. I used to love the "intensity" because half the players in the NBA are only there to go through the motions and collect their paycheck...but, his routine has gotten old quick now that's he on a different team.

SBG