Final Four

Women's Final Four? In Boston? Really?

2006-07-24T12:46:00.000-07:00

Okay, now, call me sexist, call me ignorant, hell, call me Bill Simmons . The fact is, I can’t stand idly by and pretend it’s okay anymore. Events recently took place this past weekend that made me question the validity of women’s basketball as a genuine sport, and I don’t think I’m alone in this. Let me explain.

Now, you have to understand, I am a pretty big sports fan. I am a Celtics Season-ticket holder. I was at Game 4 of the 2004 ALCS for Dave Roberts stolen base. I was at Game 2 of the 2004 World Series for Schilling’s bloody sock. I write for a sports blog. I have 6 fantasy baseball teams. I participated in 3 NCAA Men’s Tournament pools this year (all with the same bracket, because as we know, only indecisive losers fill out multiple brackets), and I even won one of them. I run the football pool at work. I play on a rec league basketball team. I read ESPN.com, Deadspin.com, Rotoauthority, and all the other links to your right with great regularity (my girlfriend would tell you too much regularity). The point is, I’m a big fan of all sports, especially basketball, and I consider myself very plugged in to the sports world, especially the Boston sports world. So what does this have to do with women’s basketball?

I had absolutely no idea this was taking place 3 blocks from my apartment. Literally, only a few blocks away the major sporting event in women’s college basketball was taking place, and I was completely unaware. How does that happen? Can you imagine living next to Ford Field and not knowing the Super Bowl was taking place? How about living next to Fenway Park and being unaware that a World Series game was taking place? It’s impossible. You’d know something was going on, or far more likely, would have heard something about it in advance. These are major events, right?

So how is it that we are expected to take women’s basketball seriously when a major sports fan (not to mention his friends, neighbors, and acquaintances) have no clue that the pinnacle of the sport is taking place in their backyard? Admittedly, this is anecdotal evidence, but it was pretty astonishing even to me that I was unaware of this happening. My only conclusion? It’s just not a big deal. At all. People don’t care.

Now, please, don’t let me be misunderstood. I know that these women work very hard and are great athletes. I know that, to them, it is a big deal. But by that same token, my rec league championship game is a big deal to me and the other people in my league, but I guarantee you won’t see a write up on it in Sports Illustrated or on ESPN.com (although you might in this blog). My point is just that if someone like me, an admitted sports-aholic, can have a “major” sporting event take place in not just my hometown, but only a few blocks from my home, can it really be considered a major sporting event? Or even a minor one? Isn’t it on the same level as, say, lacrosse? Or maybe skeet shooting? I’d venture that its popularity among most sports fans probably falls somewhere between the two.

So all I’m asking (and I’m talking to you ESPN) is that you don’t devote an entire web page worth of material to such an “event” and don’t waste my prime time viewing on it. After all, there’s finally baseball to be played!

Car 63 Where Are You?

2006-07-17T13:49:00.000-07:00

Late this afternoon we were wondering what to get for dinner. It's hot and very muggy so no one feels like cooking. The topic of pizza arose but we're getting tired of the pizza places that deliver around our area; the pizza isn't bad - but it's not terrific and I was in the mood for terrific pizza. So I thought of my favorite pizza place up on the Hill, Cosmo's Pizza. I occasionally go there for lunch when I'm in the University area but I have never taken the family there. The Hill is how the locals refer to Syracuse University because, well, it occupies a high area just east of the downtown section of the City.

I graduated from Syracuse University in 1971. Cosmo's was my hands down favorite source of pizza because he made it in a fashion that strongly reminded me of my Uncle Pat's pizza . Back in the late 1950's my uncle had an Italian restaurant in Babylon, Long Island. He had the red and white checked tablecloths and candles stuck in Chianti bottles covered with runny wax. And he had wonderful pizza.

Eating my Uncle Pat's pizza was a balancing act. As a hungry kid, I wanted to scarf it down as fast as I could but it was too hot to eat fast, so I would grab a huge bite, chew a little and swallow some soda to cool down the cheese. It was a sure recipe for burning the roof of my mouth. I knew it was a great meal when on the way home my tongue would explore the shreds of flesh hanging from the roof of my mouth. Cosmo's pizza does the same thing for me.

Most of the Hill was located in Beat 63 and was included in the Crime Control Team concept that deployed from 1968 through 1979. CCT used teams of cops to service a high crime rate beat. The team usually consisted of a sergeant and at least six or seven cops in each beat. We were divided into service and crime cars depending on training, skill and longevity. Since I was an SU grad and also worked in campus security as a student I fit right in.

Working 63 (pronounced six-three) was interesting in that it combined SU students and faculty with some rather nasty violent crime. Two of the city's biggest hospitals (Upstate Medical Center and Crouse Irving Memorial) are in 63 which means that their emergency rooms are also in 63. Take the ambulance traffic coming into the ER's (along with some craaaazy relatives and friends of the sick/injured) and throw in twelve thousand undergraduate students only two blocks away from the low income public housing projects and you get a volatile mixture that can blow up in your face very rapidly.

But the best part of 63 was Marshal Street. Marshal Street, or M Street, was the Hill's central business district. M Street was the melting pot for Towns and Gowns to eat, drink and fight together. M Street was also the scene for Syracuse Big East and Final Four sports triumphs and defeats, all usually accompaned by a general mobilization of uniformed cops who had to somehow find all that riot shit we hadn't used in years and which now lay all nasty and funky at the bottom of our lockers. That's if it was even there.

The way around it was was to steal a gas mask from someone else at the mustering point when no one was looking. Someone did that to me after the NCAA Championship game between Syracuse and Indiana in 1987. Indiana won 74 - 73 on a last second 16 footer from the baseline by Keith Smart. And it literally was a last second shot! The game ending buzzer sounded when the ball hit the basket and I remember thinking that we might be in for it when that shot went in.

I never did get that gas mask back and the armory sergeant was looking for it when I retired eleven years later. Oh well.

M Street was where I encountered one of many lunatics throughout my career. One night I stumbled across what we called a 9:41 (the section of the NYS Mental Health Law that authorizes a LEO to bring a nutjob in for psychiatric evaluation)and called it in. I asked the dispatcher for assistance in investigating, "a very large black male wearing a red plaid shirt, jeans, tin foil, hamburger grills and carrying a large axe." The tin foil and hamburger grills were wrapped around his calves. And I confronted the Master of the Moonbat BBQ right in front of Cosmos Pizza.

When I walked into Cosmo's with my wife and daughter it was like stepping back almost forty years. For crying out loud Leon was still making pizzas in the front window right by the oven! Leon is getting on in years and only works two days a week now. I asked him how long he has worked there (I first laid eyes on him in 1967). He replied "When we opened in 1959." Almost fifty years making pies. The owner, George, wasn't there but Leon said he still works most days and he is now 80.

A few of the table juke boxes still worked and some of the hits from the sixties were still listed; and they played three for a quarter! We listened to the Beach Boys, the Mamas and Papas, the Zombies, Steppin Wolf, Patsy Kline and Johnny Cash. But the best part was the pizza.

It is funny how some experiences have the power to transport us. Right now my tongue is exploring the burnt part of the roof of my mouth.

Tonight I feel like a kid.

Conference Final Four Starts Tonight

2006-07-06T19:21:00.000-07:00

If you had told me a month ago that Anaheim would be the odds on favorite to win the Western Conference Finals, I would have laughed in your face and said, “Yeah, and they are probably going to play Edmonton for the Title.” Laugh no more.

Two teams I didn’t even give a chance out of the first round are now serious contenders for the Stanley Cup. Did I miss something here? In a Conference that was a “you have to see it to believe it” tournament for a chance at the Cup, Edmonton and Anaheim prove that the NHL has changed for the better and talent can no longer carry you into the finals.

For example, Ottawa has problems. It is now their second attempt to get high talent and literally push their way to a Stanley Cup final. That didn’t happen. Buffalo was on a different spectrum, and no one even knew if this Sabres team was worth the price of admission. But Buffalo was a stronger, more team-orientated club and in the end spelled doom to a well financed machine in the Ottawa Senators.

Talent can only take you so far alone, it is the system in which that talent plays that has teams winning.

Now that I have to dismantle my predictions in the Western Conference, let’s recap quickly my picks from before.

Eastern Conference

Prediction: Buffalo defeats Ottawa in 6 games. Reality: Very close, Buffalo wins in 5.

Prediction: Carolina defeats New Jersey in 5 games. Reality: Dead on, Carolina wins in 5.

Western Conference

Prediction: San Jose defeats Edmonton in 7 games. Reality: WRONG, Edmonton wins in 6.

Prediction: Anaheim defeats Colorado in 6 games. Reality: Close, Anaheim sweeps in 4.

Okay quick notes, Colorado didn’t even show up for this series, only taking one game to overtime. Other than that it was all Anaheim. Edmonton has a way of proving me wrong. Buffalo looked a little too good in the series against Ottawa.

Okay down to fearless predictions.

Eastern Conference Final

Buffalo Sabres at Carolina Hurricanes – The battle of young goaltenders. Buffalo looks good, no doubt about it, but the Hurricanes now have confidence. I expect that the team that wins the first game, will win the series. Confidence will play into the goaltenders heads, Cam Ward must play well against an offensive nightmare that is Buffalo. In the end these two teams will have lost all respect for each other.

Result: Carolina defeats Buffalo in 6 games.

Western Conference

Edmonton Oilers at Anaheim Mighty Ducks – What to do, what to do… Frankly I never expected for the Oilers to get this far, which makes me root for them as underdogs. But Anaheim looked so good against Colorado that I can’t seriously discount them. Edmonton must find their legs to be effective and this series will be physical. I would imagine some carnage with these two teams.

Result: Anaheim defeats Edmonton in 7 games.

It’s actually kind of funny when I look back at Edmonton’s run. It was San Jose that got the Oilers into the playoffs by defeating Vancouver. Irony is a funny thing.

2005 NCAA Final Four - Edward Jones Dome - St. Louis, Missouri

2006-05-07T20:24:00.000-07:00

The St. Louis Local Organizing Committee will be hosting the 2005 NCAA Final Four at the Edward Jones Dome on April 2 and 4, 2005. The committee is a partnership between the Missouri Valley Conference, St. Louis University, the St. Louis Convention and Visitor's Commission, and the St. Louis Sports Commission.

The City of St. Louis, which is hosting it's third Final Four in 2005 has played a prominent role in the development of the NCAA Division Men's Championship. In 1973, Bill Walton and UCLA met Memphis at the old St. Louis Arena in the first ever Monday primetime national championship game.

Here's a list of FREE activities that will be taking place on Laclede's Landing throughout the four-day Championship Weekend, April 1-4, 2005:

Final Four

2006-02-21T19:58:00.000-08:00

Final Four is a sports term that is commonly applied to the last four teams remaining in a playoff tournament. The oldest, and most common, use of the term is in reference to the final four teams in the annual NCAA basketball tournament. These are the champions of the tournament's four regional brackets, and the only teams remaining on the tournament's final weekend. (The term has been applied retroactively to include the last four teams in tournaments from earlier years, when only two brackets existed.)