Sunday, May 20, 2007
We Interrupt This Game To Bring You...Garish Hats
The Buffalo Sabres and the Ottawa Senators were locked up in a 2-2 tie after the third period of Game 5 of their Eastern Conference Final series on Saturday afternoon. If Ottawa were to be the first to score in overtime, it would advance to its first-ever Stanley Cup Finals.
Having just returned home from an outing, I texted a friend, asking him to tell me if the game was over so that I could stop the recording I was making of the game and go back and watch it. Well, he said it was still going on. And since it was well over three hours since the game started, I knew it was in overtime. So I stopped the tape and decided to just watch the overtime.
And on the screen was the pre-game show for the Preakness Stakes.
Naturally, I just assumed they would cut back to the game once it resumed.
Nope.
Here comes Bill Clement with a "Sports Update": "The Sabres and Senators have begun overtime, and we'll inform you once we have a result."
What???
The president hadn't been assassinated. There was no plane crash or mass shooting on some college campus that might warrant cutting away from an overtime hockey playoff game.
No, it was the pre-game show for the Preakness Stakes. A horse race. That wasn't going off for another half-hour, at least.
Apparently, the network Vs. was now showing the game. Which is a treat for me, since I don't yet have cable in my new apartment. And I didn't even know this was going on. I didn't even get an opportunity to head over to a local bar to catch the rest of the game.
Nope. They just stopped covering the game so that we could look at a somewhat muddy horse track and old women wearing silly hats. While the Senators scored and celebrated their first trip to the Finals. And I couldn't see it.
Seriously. Could hockey be disrespected even more? Unacceptable. Thanks, NBC. Hey, NHL, do something about this, eh?
• This is the eleventh year of interleague play in Major League Baseball, and I must say its time has come and gone. Oh, sure, we get the White Sox-Cubs and the Yankees-Mets game. But really: I'm not all jazzed about having the Giants play the A's. And where's the thrill in a Marlins-Devil Rays matchup? The novelty has worn off.
• I'm still reading columns by indignant writers who say that they don't care about Barry Bonds' chase of Hank Aaron's home run record and then prove it by writing 500 words on the topic.
Look, folks, if you don't care, shut the hell up already, so that those of us who do care don't have to listen to you squawk about it and bring us down.
• Last Sunday being Mothers' Day, MLB players wore pink wristbands to call attention to...what, exactly?
I don't care what the cause is. Men should never wear pink. Ever. Ever, ever, ever, in the history of forever and ever. And don't get me started on pink bats either. Good heavens.
Having just returned home from an outing, I texted a friend, asking him to tell me if the game was over so that I could stop the recording I was making of the game and go back and watch it. Well, he said it was still going on. And since it was well over three hours since the game started, I knew it was in overtime. So I stopped the tape and decided to just watch the overtime.
And on the screen was the pre-game show for the Preakness Stakes.
Naturally, I just assumed they would cut back to the game once it resumed.
Nope.
Here comes Bill Clement with a "Sports Update": "The Sabres and Senators have begun overtime, and we'll inform you once we have a result."
What???
The president hadn't been assassinated. There was no plane crash or mass shooting on some college campus that might warrant cutting away from an overtime hockey playoff game.
No, it was the pre-game show for the Preakness Stakes. A horse race. That wasn't going off for another half-hour, at least.
Apparently, the network Vs. was now showing the game. Which is a treat for me, since I don't yet have cable in my new apartment. And I didn't even know this was going on. I didn't even get an opportunity to head over to a local bar to catch the rest of the game.
Nope. They just stopped covering the game so that we could look at a somewhat muddy horse track and old women wearing silly hats. While the Senators scored and celebrated their first trip to the Finals. And I couldn't see it.
Seriously. Could hockey be disrespected even more? Unacceptable. Thanks, NBC. Hey, NHL, do something about this, eh?
• This is the eleventh year of interleague play in Major League Baseball, and I must say its time has come and gone. Oh, sure, we get the White Sox-Cubs and the Yankees-Mets game. But really: I'm not all jazzed about having the Giants play the A's. And where's the thrill in a Marlins-Devil Rays matchup? The novelty has worn off.
• I'm still reading columns by indignant writers who say that they don't care about Barry Bonds' chase of Hank Aaron's home run record and then prove it by writing 500 words on the topic.
Look, folks, if you don't care, shut the hell up already, so that those of us who do care don't have to listen to you squawk about it and bring us down.
• Last Sunday being Mothers' Day, MLB players wore pink wristbands to call attention to...what, exactly?
I don't care what the cause is. Men should never wear pink. Ever. Ever, ever, ever, in the history of forever and ever. And don't get me started on pink bats either. Good heavens.
PLEASE, NO PINK
