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Crazy eights at Augusta
Posted by pblackwell | 04/05/08
We have arrived at the first golf major, the 72nd renewal of the Masters. Once you slog your way past the officially approved poetry about Augusta National, azaleas, dogwoods, Magnolia Lane, green jackets and patrons, some basic truths remain.
It’s an important tournament, perhaps the most important. Every player dreams of being a part of it. And if you accept both these truths, that means Tiger Woods is expected to win and, if he doesn’t, the story will be about how he screwed up, not about how the other guy prevailed.
Aside from that, though, this Masters should be memorable, if for no other reason that it falls in a year ending in eight. Each of the last five decades, under such circumstances, the climax at Augusta left deep impressions, both good and bad...
Memphis pain, Kansas gain
Posted by pblackwell | 04/09/08
Even now, as you read this, Derrick Rose, Chris Douglas-Roberts and Joey Dorsey are racked with indescribable internal pain. At the same time, Mario Chalmers, Sherron Collins and Brandon Rush are riding in the clouds.
So it is written, and so it shall be when young men battle for a national championship, and it gets decided by free throws that are missed, 3-pointers that fall, and a million other little details that sometimes get lost in the larger narrative.
For the record, Kansas prevailed over Memphis in overtime 75-68 in an NCAA title game as good as any in the last generation. What seemed, for sure, to be the Tigers’ first-ever crown slipped off the head in the last two minutes of regulation through a combination of factors that will haunt Memphis fans for a lifetime...
CATEGORY: Basketball
TAGS: Kansas, Memphis, Final Four
Daily Musings...
Posted by pblackwell | 04/10/08
Well, they've asked me to do a blog. What the heck were they thinking?
A lot is on my mind, all the time, when it comes to sports, or politics, or society in general.
The most important thing is to have a brain. Too often, we devalue something like that because it's not sexy, or worse yet, we echo the same points over and over again and think that, by repetition, we somehow become smarter. That's just not the case.
So what you'll read in this blog are musings about the day's events - sometimes relevant, sometimes irrelevant, a lot of times irreverent and, hopefully, never dull.
This is an exciting morning because the Masters is underway...
CATEGORY: General Sports
TAGS: Blog, introduction, Masters, baseball, playoffs
Weekend Thoughts
Posted by pblackwell | 04/11/08
It's raining a lot today, which means no baseball or softball - and a lot of teams are flying out to Florida or South Carolina, anyway, for a week of spring-break fun, hopefully G-rated.
Before they left, though, Solvay and Westhill's softball sides provided an eight-inning Thursday thriller full of escapes and questionable calls. The Bearcats finally took it, 2-1, when a squeeze bunt brought Chelsey Chavez-Egan home, but Westhill had to be encouraged by how freshman Tony Secreti (12 strikeouts) looked.
On Friday, lacrosse-wise, you've got West Genesee meeting Fayetteville-Manlius on the girls side, likely in mud. Maybe mud is the only way to keep the Wildcats from complete and utter devastation, but Tom Blackford is sure to think of something...
CATEGORY: General Society
A Move, Or Not?
Posted by pblackwell | 04/12/08
We move on to Saturday at Augusta National, and the winds have picked up.
Without many breezes, Trevor Immelman raced to 136 and Brandt Snedeker to 137. The cut fell at 147, leaving Fred Couples out by a shot and denying him a chance at breaking Gary Player's record for most consecutive made cuts.
Immelman and Snedeker are young, quite good and either of them could win. Yet you have to favor Phil Mickelson. Lefty is in roughly the same spot he was when winning in 2004 and '06. Phil even gets a Saturday pairing with a fellow southpaw, Steve Flesch, the winner here at Turning Stone last September. Flesch's 67 was the best round so far.
Wow, three whole paragraphs without mentioning Tiger. Somehow, we managed...
CATEGORY: General Sports
TAGS: Masters, Immelman, Snedeker, Mickleson, Tiger
Trevor's Time?
Posted by pblackwell | 04/13/08
Imagine you are Trevor Immelman this morning. Maybe you slept, maybe you didn't - and if not, then that's understandable. Leading the Masters going into Sunday will make any mortal a bit restless.
Then again, in the last 12 months, the South African has gone through plenty of adversity that makes golf a mere pastime. He fought illness first, then a tumor was found in his body - fortunately benign. It all led to poor play this year, at least before he went to Augusta.
For three days, it's been all serendipity - 68, then 68, then 69. No one at Augusta has ever shot four rounds in the 60s, but Trevor's got a chance as he carries a two-shot cushion over Brent Snedeker into the final day.
Ah, the final day...
CATEGORY: General Society
TAGS: Masters, Immelman, Tiger
Breezing to a Jacket
Posted by pblackwell | 04/14/08
At times, all of us in the sportswriting profession are as bad as politicians, especially when we take a given result and spin it the way we like.
Thus, Trevor Immelman's well-deserved victory at the Masters becomes Tiger Woods' defeat, the end of the Grand Slam, he didn't putt well, etc.
But let's get back to the crux of the point - Trevor Immelman was the best player all week long, the first Masters winner to spend all four days at the top since Seve Ballesteros in 1980.
Much was made of Gary Player's contention that Trevor hit the ball as anyone he'd seen since Ben Hogan...
CATEGORY: General Society
TAGS: Immelman, Masters, Cleveland, Ochoa, Draft
Bees Sting Cats
Posted by pblackwell | 04/15/08
Ah, spring break, a time for the high school kids to relax, travel to the South and soak in the warm sun - wait a minute, it's supposed to be warm and sunny here all week! You could have saved a few hundred dollars and worked on your tan right here in CNY. That's rather stunning.
So was Baldwinsville 6, West Genesee 5 in boys lacrosse Monday afternoon at Pelcher-Arcaro Stadium. The reason that result provided such a jolt goes beyond the obvious West-Genesee-Got-Beat angle. You see, this was the same B'ville defense that got torched for 15 by Fayetteville-Manlius last Friday.
Yes, WG doesn't have Ryan Barber, but every other high school lacrosse team in America would trade its problems for those Mike Messere might have...
CATEGORY: General Society
TAGS: Baldwinsville, lacrosse, West Genesee
Make no excuses
Posted by pblackwell | 04/16/08
So now we find out that Tiger Woods was fighting a knee problem all through the early part of this year.
Yeah, it really seemed to affect his performance level - four wins worldwide, a fifth (what?) at Doral, and a second at the Masters while hardly making his fair share of putts.
Two days later, and in secret, Tiger had arthroscopic surgery on that knee. So you won't seen him defend in Charlotte or appear at the Players' Championship, and might be back for Jack's Memorial before the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines, where he's won a mere six times.
You have to admit, Tiger does a good job keeping these things secret, and he does so for a simple reason - he doesn't want any excuses. Ever.
The great athletes are more than just talented, or perform at a high level...
CATEGORY: General Society
TAGS: Tiger, softball, lacrosse
Prime-Time Travesty
Posted by pblackwell | 04/17/08
Here we were, all excited for this last debate before Pennsylvania, ready to see Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton clash on the issues that mattered most to Americans, things like a bad economy, Iraq, education, health care, obscene gas prices - the important stuff.
And we got to that stuff - but only after ABC gave us an hour of tabloid-style nonsense where old, tired Obama controversies (the "bitter comments, Jeremiah Wright, flag pins) were resurrected for the 4,567th time. They also went after Hillary, again, for the Bosnia snafu.
What grabbed me, and shook me, was the reaction from viewers and bloggers alike - pure anger and outrage. It didn't seem to matter which side you were on, the amount of time spent on pure political nonsense really rubbed people the wrong way...
CATEGORY: Commentary & Debate
TAGS: Debate, ABC, Obama, Clinton, outrage
A Week To Be Humble
Posted by pblackwell | 04/18/08
As it turned out, West Genesee's defeat at the hands (and sticks) of Baldwinsville on Monday afternoon only began a week where the boys lacrosse powers-that-be took it on the chin, often.
LaFayette? Beaten, 9-8, by Cazenovia, a team that had never conquered the Lancers before. Combine Coleman Koesterer's won faceoffs with hat tricks from Chris Nourse, Ben Dewan and Seth Goldacker (Dewan hit the game-winner), and you had the biggest win in the Lakers' brief history.
Skaneateles? Also taken down, 12-11, by CBA, though it erased an 11-5 deficit in the second half. Ben Ashenburg's rocket with less than two minutes left proved to be the game-winner. CBA was supposed to be down after its coach and much of its starting lineup from title teams in 2006 and '07 departed...
CATEGORY: General Society
TAGS: lacrosse, upsets, unpredictable
A Hot Time
Posted by pblackwell | 04/20/08
It got to 87 yesterday here, a record, and it wasn't any cooler down in Pennsyvlania, where I got a first-hand look at the battleground for Tuesday.
In summation, well, it's a battleground. You have those strong for Hillary Clinton, and those strong for Barack Obama. This should mean a close result when the votes get counted.
And that's not what Hillary wants. She needs a rout, a game-changer, something profound that puts doubt into superdelegates' minds about Obama's ability to win seven months from now.
Don't bother trying to predict it. Some say Hillary will win big. Others figure Barack will make it ultra-tight, or even pull it out.
The message? Don't listen to any of them...
CATEGORY: General Society
TAGS: Pennsylvania, playoffs, NHL, Office
Scared, But Still Standing
Posted by pblackwell | 04/21/08
That sound you heard sometime on Saturday afternoon was the whole West Genesee girls lacrosse family exhaling.
When the Wildcats invited Skaneateles, plus a pair of teams from the Philadelphia area, to its inaugural tournament last weekend, it did so to increase the level of competition. They had no idea just how much.
Archbishop Carroll had WG all but beaten, 14-10, late in the second half of Saturday's opening-round game. But with Carly Motondo pouring in four straight goals as the capper, the Wildcats rallied and won it, 15-14.
From there, you just knew WG would also win Sunday's final, as a shaky first half against West Chester-Bayard Rustin turned into a 14-6 romp. Skaneateles, for its part, lost to Rustin 13-12 in OT and 16-7 to Carroll in the consolation game...
CATEGORY: General Society
TAGS: West Genesee, scare, playoffs, Pope, primary
Turf Trouble at CNS?
Posted by pblackwell | 04/22/08
It just was an item in passing, that Cicero-North Syracuse had to move its girls lacrosse game against CBA from its usual home at Bragman Stadium to Archie Hall Stadium at North Syracuse Junior High School, where the girls soccer team plays in the fall.
But when we found out that the boys lacrose Northstars had to do the same thing with tonight's contest against Oswego, and the reasons behind it - well, things just got troubling.
It turns out that CNS is testing the Bragman turf to see if dangerous chemicals are contained within the surface. It's a safety precaution, but if the results are bad, it could have huge ramifications.
Just think about all the events that take place at CNS...
CATEGORY: General Society
TAGS: CNS, turf, questions, safety
And The Battle Goes On..
Posted by pblackwell | 04/23/08
So Hillary Clinton prevailed in Pennsylvania. She had to. But is a 55-45 margin enough to alter the math in her quest to catch Barack Obama?
Yes, in that Hillary won by a solid margin and will get all the accolades in the days ahead. No, in that she didn't put much of a dent into Obama's sizable delegate advantage.
Seven states, plus Guam and Puerto Rico, remain. In all likelihood, they'll get split, and Obama will still have a lead of at least 150 pledged delegates, plus the most popular votes.
If the superdelegates then went for Hillary come convention time, Denver in 2008 would make Chicago in 1968 look like a Sunday picnic, and John McCain could waltz into the White House.
Not that Obama is blameless in all this...
CATEGORY: General Society
TAGS: Pennsylvania, Clinton, Obama
More CNS Turf Talk...
Posted by pblackwell | 04/24/08
It turns out that the company that laid down the now-shut-down turf at Cicero-North Syracuse's Bragman Stadium, Southwest Recreational Industries, went out of business in 2004. Also, the school district may be in a bind about how, and when, it can replace the surface closed because of possible lead contamination.
This will mean, of course, that the Section III boys lacrosse finals, plus state regional playoffs and semifinal games in June, will move to other facilities. Fortunately, there's plenty of Field Turf surfaces, from Central Square to SUNY-Cortland, that could be used.
As for the stuff on the field that doesn't make you sick...
- We omitted, from the Tuesday-night lacrosse report, Baldwinsville getting a big 12-7 win at Auburn...
CATEGORY: General Society
TAGS: Turf, CNS, problems, issues
Go Figure....Then Repeat
Posted by pblackwell | 04/25/08
File Thursday's high school sports activity under the term "go figure", as in, whatever was happening before, it sure didn't happen on this day.
You had CBA's baseball team busting out double-digit runs in each of its first three games...then going to Marcellus and getting whacked, 20-3.
You had Homer, 9-0 in boys lacrosse, meeting Jamesville-DeWitt, who it beat earlier in the month...and losing 17-5. Yeah, J-D is the defending state champs, but a 12-goal margin?
You had Carthage, also unbeaten, ready to win again at Canton...then giving up seven goals in the fourth quarter to take a 15-13 loss.
You had Phoenix's softball team, 8-0, undefeated, having just pounded once-unbeaten Homer 9-2...then losing 1-0 in eight innings to East Syracuse-Minoa...
CATEGORY: General Society
TAGS: Surprises, playoffs, Wright, Office
Saturday Edition
Posted by pblackwell | 04/26/08
Everyone looking for deep, profound opinions on myself turning 33 - well, I feel the same as yesterday, a day older and quite occupied. Now, on to the stuff that matters...
- You just figured Liverpool's baseball Warriors would run out of good fortune somehwere. After two one-run wins eariler in the week, Liverpool, 10-0, got its first blemish Friday at Rome Free Academy, a 4-3 decision where Black Knights ace Garrett Baker pitched well.
- No boys lacrosse teams are left with unblemished marks, and just two remain on the girls side. West Genesee, you know about (19-1 over Oswego the latest rout), but Watertown ought to get some credit, too, for starting 8-0. The Cyclones won three times this week, culminating Friday with a 12-6 conquest of Mexico...
CATEGORY: General Society
TAGS: Liverpool, playoffs, Wright
Wright's Real Story
Posted by pblackwell | 04/27/08
On an otherwise quiet Friday evening, I made sure an hour was set aside so that I could tune into PBS and see Bill Moyers sit down for an hour of enlightening conversation with the Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright. It was about time the whole truth about this man came out.
I knew the outline of the Wright story. As a young man in Philadelphia, Wright quit college and joined the Marines, then worked his way up to corpsman and tends to an ailing president Lyndon Johnson. Then, he went back to college, followed by seminary school, before taking over as pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ...
CATEGORY: General Society
TAGS: Wright, Church, remarks, Obama
Weekend Look-Back
Posted by pblackwell | 04/28/08
Do not expect the same kind of massive volume of high school sports events this week as we get used to the fact that, yes, it still does rain around here.
Still, the Monday girls lacrosse game between Cortland and Chittenango packs a good punch, and the Tuesday-night boys affair between West Genesee and Auburn carries even more weight.
Never in 48 previous tries have the Maroons beat the Wildcats. Yet you have to feel the time is now, especially with three WG attackers still out for illness (Mike Fetterly) or injury (Ryan Barber, Jordan Rogers.
Without that trio, the Wildcats lost to Saint Albans, a power team from the Washington D.C. area. If it doesn't happen here for Auburn, when will it?
This comes after a sports weekend where.....
CATEGORY: General Society
TAGS: Sports, weekend, playoffs, golf, Tampa Bay
Overtime Pays..
Posted by pblackwell | 04/29/08
So the Syracuse Crunch has figured out the secret to the AHL playoffs - just go to overtime, and things will go well.
Four wins over the Mantioba Moose, all in the fourth period, the last one a 3-2 decision Monday night in a jam-packed War Memorial.
Trevor Fischman did the honors, 8:35 into OT, putting in his own rebound after Derek Dorsett forced a turnover deep in Manitoba ice.
Following years of cellar-dwelling, or the occasional early exit, making a deep playoff run is a nice change of pace for success-starved Syracuse hockey fans.
Many of those fans will now motor to Toronto for the second round, which starts Saturday. Word of advice to Toronto - get the Crunch in regulation...
CATEGORY: General Society
TAGS: Crunch, playoffs, Celtics, lacrosse, Hobart, Wright
Auburn's Albatross, Lifted
Posted by pblackwell | 04/30/08
Sometime around 9 p.m. Tuesday night, Auburn's 32-year quest to beat West Genesee reached its end.
Yeah, the Wildcats have been racked by injuries, especially on the offensive end. But that didn't take one ounce of sweetness away from the Maroons' 5-4 victory in Camillus.
Everyone in Auburn was sick and tired about hearing that it hadn't beaten WG in 48 previous tries, dating back to 1976. Even when the Maroons won its lone sectional title in 2001, the Wildcats won their regular-season meeting.
But that's all gone now. Combine a short-handed attack with a terrific Auburn defense, and the result was WG getting just one goal in the first three quarters and falling behind 5-1 as time ticked down...
CATEGORY: General Society
TAGS: Auburn, lacrosse, playoffs, A-Rod
A Necessary Break
Posted by pblackwell | 04/30/08
In this same exact space three days ago, you’ll recall that I gave an eloquent defense of Jeremiah Wright and his life’s work. All of the things I said at that time were true, and would have stayed true had Wright limited his public reemergence to that Bill Moyers PBS interview.
Turns out, I wrote too soon, and too much. What took place in the ensuing days threatened to completely undermine the entire 2008 presidential race – not just the quest of Barack Obama, but also the attempt of all the candidates to try to get to the actual issues of this thing.
Both at the NAACP convention in Detroit, then in front of the National Press Club in Washington D.C., Wright gave us his greatest hits – all the theories and opinions that caused him to get ripped in the first place...
CATEGORY: General Society
TAGS: Wright, Obama, separation, pain
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