http://sportscurmudgeon.com/blog Don't Get Me Wrong, I Love Sports... Fri, 03 Jul 2009 14:44:11 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en According to news reports this week, FOX will discontinue Best Damned Sports Show after almost eight years on the air. The final new show has been taped and the network will put on re-runs through mid-August. I must say that its absence from the airwaves will not bring ... http://sportscurmudgeon.com/blog/2009/07/03/best-damned-sports-show-bites-the-dust/ When I was a kid, my grandfather, who had come to this country as an immigrant with a tradesman skill, believed that education was the way to a better life for his kids and grandkids. Nonetheless, he held onto the idea that one should always have a trade/skill to ... http://sportscurmudgeon.com/blog/2009/07/02/job-stability-in-detroit/ The Montreal Canadiens have a new owner. Someone in the family that brews Molson beer paid something north of $500M to buy the team and the arena they play in. The previous owner, George Gillett, is a 50% owner of the Liverpool soccer club in England - - ... http://sportscurmudgeon.com/blog/2009/07/01/sports-finances-nhl-style/ To say that some of the elite athletes in the sporting world are pampered should not be a surprise to most folks. In addition, the thought that an elite athlete might be in a situation where they were not allowed to do as they please and that situation might ... http://sportscurmudgeon.com/blog/2009/06/30/wimbledon-woe/ I had the opportunity to watch yesterday’s USA/Brazil soccer game in the presence of two avid and knowledgeable soccer fans - - parents of a collegiate level player. When Clint Dempsey scored to put the US up 1-0, we agreed that would not be enough for the US to ... http://sportscurmudgeon.com/blog/2009/06/29/usa-versus-brazil-good-tv-yesterday/ In addition to yesterday’s NBA trade of Shaq to Cleveland, which got all the publicity, there were other trades. Perhaps the oddest was the Wizards sending Etan Thomas (mediocre) and Darius Songalia (mediocre) and Olekisy Pecherov (who’s he?) and the #5 overall pick in last night’s draft to Minnesota ... http://sportscurmudgeon.com/blog/2009/06/26/lots-of-strange-doings-today/ Shaquille O’Neal will join forces with LeBron James in Cleveland next year. On paper, that would seem to alter the league dynamics and the balance of power. After all, when Shaq was in Miami with Dwayne Wade, that was good enough to bring a championship to South Florida; ... http://sportscurmudgeon.com/blog/2009/06/25/shaq-to-cleveland-another-mistake-by-the-lake/ First, I need to correct an error from a couple of days ago. I said then that my math had the Red Sox record at 306-194 during their 500-game sellout streak. The “Houston gentleman” who is a font of sports stats sent along the following e-mail: “Going back to ... http://sportscurmudgeon.com/blog/2009/06/24/job-opening-at-mlbpa/ Ralph Waldo Emerson said that one gets to paradise “…by the stairway of surprise.” Given some of the surprising events in the sporting cosmos in the past few days, it looks as if it will be a long climb indeed to paradise. The first surprise came over the weekend when ... http://sportscurmudgeon.com/blog/2009/06/23/here-a-surprise-there-a-surprise/ Manny Ramirez remains on baseball’s suspended list through July 3. Maybe I’m just dense, but I would think that a “suspension” through July 3 would mean that he would not be able to play baseball for any US professional teams associated with MLB until then. He could certainly ... http://sportscurmudgeon.com/blog/2009/06/22/why-is-manny-playing-already/