Dom's Dish - Incomplete Dish edition

Thursday, April 19, 2007

I would be remiss without mentioning the horror that happened down in Blacksburg, VA this week. It again reinforces how short life is and how there is so much more to this world and the billions of people in it, than we can all fathom. Any college, any town, anywhere that could have happened and in the blink of an eye, 32 innocent are dead (why do they include the idiot shooter in the count?). The only thing that irks me is the whole display that goes on afterward - the tons of reporters on campus there, but more related to sports, the hat thing. I just worry that sometimes it's taken too far and it becomes the "hip" or "in" thing to do - much like the NYPD and FDNY hats that are still worn. I still worry that sometimes people treat them as something to make them cool as opposed to what it should be - a reminder. Sometimes saying "we will never forget" goes a little overboard in my mind. The USA Today had a list of tragic events in "their lifetime" (the current VT college students) that included Challenger, Waco, Oklahoma City, the Atlanta Bombings, Columbine, 9/11, Columbia, the Tsunami and Hurricane Katrina, and now this. Those aren't all things I think of each day, but they're things I'll never forget. Some other things that will serve as a reminder, regardless: any mention of Oklahoma City, the word tsunami, and most obvious - I will never not think of 9/11 when seeing a 767-type plane bank on a turn. If you saw it live on TV or the tape of it hundreds of times, to me, it is the biggest reminder or symbol of them all. That being said the VT logo will never be seen the same.

Mark Buehrle (pronounced bur-ley) of the Chicago White Sox pitched a no-hitter Wednesday night! The first one of the season. Great accomplishment - he walked one base runner then threw him out - Sammy Sosa at first base. One corked-bat away from a perfect game!

Charlie Manuel is fired up! Trying to fight Howard Eskin during/after the postgame news conference? Good for him - that jerk needs a good whopping! Hopefully that will fire the team up? I mean something needs to happen soon, right?

The Joey Crawford / Tim Duncan incident is pretty funny. This isn't the first time Joey Crawford, the ref, has been accused of "gunning" for a player. After 31 years, maybe it's time to hang it up - and now that David Stern aka the God of basketball, has made his decision to suspend - maybe we'll see Joey Crawford refereeing some celebrity baseball game on MTV this summer?


Around the balls:
Giant-orange- The sixers won six of their last 10 games. I'm going on the record to say barring any major injuries to the new AI - the Sixers will make the playoffs next season and finish second in the Atlantic Division, if not better. With their pick and two others in the first round, likely around a #12, a low 20 and a high 20 pick (Denver and Dallas respectively), look for them to trade up or move one of them - the Andre Miller experiment worked and all the other talent has picked up. Then again, this is Philly - look at the Phils this season...
White-leather-stitched- Speaking of the Phils...how about Alex Rodriguez? Hit his 10th HR in 14 games! Now as much as I still don't really like Barry Bonds - he's up to 738 now and he actually is running the bases and playing the field. Who knows, maybe June 3rd at the Phils we'll see history?
Rubber-non- The Devils almost gave us all in Jersey a scare. Huge difference between going down 3-1 versus the even 2-2. Even 2-0 isn't bad to come back from. Brodeur has looked pretty bad this series - something about the Lightning - hopefully the home game Friday night is the one to get him back on track - close out strong in the Continental Arena!
Big-brown-oblong- Brian Urlacher was fined $100K for his wearing of a hat and drinking something at Super Bowl media day. In case you missed it - the NFL has decided to fine him and is now made public (possibly because of an appeal?) 2 months after the Super Bowl. He wore a "Vitamin Water" had and was drinking the stuff during media day - Vitamin Water is not an approved NFL sponsor, so they're not allowed to be displayed. I understand both sides of this, and I hope his sponsor gives him the $100K to cover the fine - all of the sudden I want to try one of them - their ploy worked!