The Sports Pages

A couple of sports-related items caught my eye today that I thought worth sharing.:

Lord knows I've been critical of Sportsguy when I thought he needed it. But the criticism largely comes from the fact that Sportsguy really has made an enormous contribution to the way we understand sports journalism. And when he is on, he can be great. Well, in his latest piece for ESPN: The Magazine he reminds us of that greatness. The article's premise actually comes from one he fully acknowledges borrowing from someone else, but he articulates it well by using Celtics great John Havlicek, almost inarguably the most overlooked top 15 or 20 player in NBA history. He argues that we are too quick to devalue past stars when we elevate the new generation's sporting heroes. I would categorize this as a must-read.

I also should note that I enjoyed Sortsguy's latest blog entry. I think this sort of approach plays to his strengths -- brief commentary on several topics plus some reader emails and lots of links. I think the one thing that I have concluded about Sportsguy is that I have the most issues with him the more self-indulgent he gets. When he plays to lots of his srengths in small doses it is more palatable than reading 5000 words worth of reader emails and responses because after a certain amount of time the forced jokes and the emailers trying to write just like Sportsguy gets annoying. This blog entry had just the right balance, and I would encourage him to keep the blog going after basketball season.

Meanwhile Thunderstick sent me Joe Lemire's recent SI.com column on former Red Sox fan favorite, Rich Garces, known around Red Sox Nation as "El Guapo." Guapo is making a comeback and is currently pitching for the Nashua Pride in my home state, New Hampshire. Thunderstick lives in Nashua, and writes, "I am determined to find out where Guapo lives and to run into him at a Nashua bar." Oddly, stalking becomes the Thunderstick. I would go so far as to say that El Guapo is one of the ten most popular Red Sox non-stars in the team's history.

Finally, belated props to the Cavaliers. I know that Tom is going insane (and I presume the same of Donny Baseball, except he manages to maintain some shred of dignity in his comportment) and he happens to be arriving tomorrow in San Antonio for the big dcat wedding, and his arrival coincides with game one of the NBA Finals here in the River City. Suffice it to say that we are navigating all options to be at the AT&T Arena tomorrow night. Spurs supporters are pretty good fans, though, and so we will have to shell out some coin for the privilege.

But like Meatloaf (who sucks), Tom would do anything for love, and so when the announcers mention something about a scuffle in the upper deck involving a frothing Cavaliers fan and two dozen ordinarily slow-to-anger Spurs fans after a borderline call against the Cavaliers, that'll likely be us. Good times. And Spurs fans: No hitting the face. Because on Saturday I'm gonna get married on top of a mountain, and there's going to be flutes playing and trombones and flowers and garlands of fresh herbs. And we will dance till the sun rises. And then our children will form a family band. And we will tour the countryside.

And you're all invited. (Please don't tell Ana I invited you all.)