Armchair Weekend in Review (June 9-11, 2006)

by user JB82

NBA Finals From the Armchair

After the near-pantsing they got in Game 1 early this past week, the Miami Heat were looking to get a better performance in Game 2 on Sunday night. However, Shaquille O'Neal turned in a sucky-sucky-five-dolla performance, scoring a measely five points and adding on to his equally sucky free throw performance. By the way, the Dallas Mavericks won 99-85 and thus took a two games to none lead in the series.

NHL Stanley Cup Finals From the Armchair

For those of you who missed or didn't bother to catch Game 3, the Edmonton Oilers got a unusual yet lucky break in this game. In the closing minutes, Oilers forward Ryan Smyth played a carem and beat Carolina Hurricanes goalie Cam Ward for the game-winning goal. The Canes thought Smyth had interfered with Ward, but after further review, the goal stood and the Oilers notched a win in their belt.

MLB Weekend

It was a weekend of polar opposites for the New York teams. The New York Mets swept the Arizona Diamondbacks in the desert, while their American League counterparts (the New York Yankees) were on the other end of the broom against the Oakland Athletics for the first time in 12 years. Watching Sunday's game with my family – including my father and brother-in-law, both of whom are sworn Yankee Haters – I felt like a port-a-john at a construction job site: I was catching crap all day.

Speaking of my brother-in-law, his favorite team, the Los Angeles Dodgers woke up this morning to find themselves in first place in the National League West, coming back against the Colorado Rockies to win 6-5.

Into the minors we go for the Rocket watch: Roger Clemens fanned 11 batters in his start with the Houston Astros' Double-A affiliate, the Corpus Christi Hooks. Clemens is in fine form leading up to his June 22 return to the bigs, but the fans were the real winners, picking up free tacos for his performance. Sort of ironic, considering their ballpark's naming rights belong to a chain of burger joints (I'll leave you to guess which one. HINT: It's neither Burger King nor McDonald's.)

Condolences to family and friends of prankster pitcher-turned-1966 World Series hero Moe Drabowsky, who passed on Sunday at age 70.

¡Oléééééé, Olé-Olé-Olé, Olé, Olé!

Which can only mean one thing: It's time to head to Germany for a recap of the first weekend of the FIFA World Cup 2006!

The host Germans got a 4-2 win over Costa Rica, while the France-Senegal of this World Cup was Ecuador's 2-0 defeat of Poland.

Saturday saw two bouts of unusual history involving the England squad. The Three Lions didn't score a goal in the entire match, getting their only notch on the big board via a header own goal from Paraguay's Carlos Gamarra. It was the longest a 1-0 lead was held in tournament history, while it was also the first and own goal was the only scoring in a match. Thirdly, it saw the fastest goalie substiution in tourney history, as Paraguay's Justo Villar was injured in the eighth minute.

Togo's head coach quit the team in a dispute over salary, proving that no matter how big the competition, it's all about Das Benjaminen. MONDAY EXTRA: He decided to come back and coach in tomorrow's game against South Korea.

While FIFA clamped down on their coach's smoking habit, Mexico's Omar Bravo was the only entity setting the field on fire, scoring two goals in their 3-1 win over Iran. In a nice gesture before the game, goalkeeper Oswaldo Sanchez recieved the gift of a bouquet of flowers from his Iranian counterpart, as the former's father passed away days earlier.

Odds and Sods

Jazil won the Belmont Stakes. Just thought you were interested.

Is it just me, or can you believe that the AFL is all of 20 years old? A league that once included a team in my neck of the woods (and has a team currently in its developmental league) played its 20th championship game on Sunday in Las Vegas. By the by, the Chicago Rush defeated the Orlando Predators 69-61 with a late-season rally comparable to that of the Pittsburgh Steelers this past NFL season.

Rafael Nadal defeated Roger Federer won the French Open men's championship, all but ensuring that the Nadal-Federer feud has become this generation's Borg-McEnroe. On the women's side, Belgian Justine Henin-Hardenne won over Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova.