June 2nd, 2014

Admit it.  You thought it was over.  You thought the Kings blew their chance in game 6 to close out the Hawks.  You also thought after they went down 2-0, 3-2, and 4-3 in game 7, it just wasn’t their year.  I admit it….I did.  The LA Kings are mentally, one of the toughest teams I have ever seen.  Even when their fans were ready to pack it in and have themselves a good cry, the Kings had an amazing, quiet, self-confidence.  Justin Williams was was clutch again in game 7, Dustin Brown and Tyler Toffoli were studs, and Drew Doughty could not be more valuable.  At times during this game, it felt like Jonathan Quick and Corey Crawford went out drinking together at Racine Plumbing the night before.  However, Quick still came up with some clutch saves at the end of regulation, and in overtime, to help send the Kings to the finals.  What a series!  It’s not supposed to be easy.  That’s why the Stanley Cup is the hardest trophy to win in sports.  But the Kings tenacity has given them the opportunity to win their 2nd cup in the last 3 years.

I don’t want to hear any of you say how the Kings are going to sweep the Rangers or rip them apart in 5 games.  Don’t you guys realize by now that the hockey gods don’t like this and strike down on you with a vengeance? The Rangers speed can cause the Kings problems, and Henrik Lundqvist is every bit as good as Jonathan Quick.  These are the two best goaltenders in hockey, and Quick will need to be much better if the Kings are going to raise the cup this year.  The  Rangers are also riding a wave of emotion with the death of Martin St Louis mother.  There’s no doubt that the Rangers have to feel like they are somewhat of a team of destiny given what they’ve been through.  LA has the talent and the will, but they better be on their game if they want to finish this thing off.

Steve Ballmer just paid $2 billion to buy the Los Angeles Clippers.  $2 billion???? At least he didn’t overpay or anything.  Has anyone told the former CEO of Microsoft that he bought the Clippers, and not the Lakers?  This deal is way more ridiculous than the $2.15 billion that Guggenheim paid for the Dodgers.  At least that deal included a stadium, the surrounding land, and a new regional sports network.  In any case, as long as Ballmer doesn’t find some sneaky way to move the team to Seattle, like Clay Bennett did with the Sonics a few years ago, then this is a great deal for the Clippers and their fans.  Barring any legal shenanigans, it appears as though Donald Sterling is out of the picture, which is bad news for this blog, because it takes away a good portion of my Clipper jokes.  I’m sure all of you Clipper fans are thrilled…aren’t you??….

What does this mean for the Lakers? The Buss family has long insisted that they have no plans to sell the team.  However, if the Clippers just sold for $2 billion, you’ve gotta think the Lakers could easily get $4 billion.  Regardless of what they are saying publicly, I’m sure any member of the Buss family has to be giving some thought about selling the team.  Any sane business person would do so, no matter how much they love what they do.  If that were the case, I have no doubt that Magic Johnson and the Guggenheim group would be the first in line to throw an astronomical number at the Buss family, to get them to sell the team.  I don’t even know why Forbes and other business organizations have valuations of these franchises, when they don’t even come close to the numbers that are published.

As for rumors, Timberwolves President Flip Saunders insists that the Wolves are planning on keeping Kevin Love for the foreseeable future.  This would actually be the best case scenario for LA, who needs Love to make it to free agency in 2015 to have a real shot at signing him, instead of committing long term somewhere else before that time.  Teams are also calling the Cavs about Kyrie Irving, however, it’s pretty hard for me to imagine Cleveland trading him until they are assured Lebron won’t be returning.  On the coaching front, the Lakers have now interviewed Mike Dunleavy, Byron Scott, Kurt Rambis, Alvin Gentry, and Lionel Hollins for their vacant head coaching position.  In other words, they’ve narrowed their coaching search down to the following candidates……

So we’re going to have another Miami vs San Antonio NBA Finals.  Take nothing away from the greatness of Lebron James, but there’s no way the Heat could ever hang with the Celtics and Lakers teams of the 1980’s, that made it to the NBA Finals four straight times.  The Celtics and Lakers also had to deal with much tougher opponents on their way to the finals in those days, such as the Pistons, Bulls, Rockets, and Blazers.  The Heat also would not be in four straight NBA Finals if they were playing in the Western Conference.

On to baseball, where it isn’t early anymore.  Were 1/3rd of the way through the baseball season, and the Dodgers are barely over .500.  Coming into Sunday, the Dodgers were 6.5 games back of San Francisco in the NL West.  The only thing good is the starting pitching.  The defense stinks, the bullpen is unreliable, and the overpriced outfielders haven’t earned their paychecks.  Last year, LA was in an early funk, then got energized by calling up Yasiel Puig.  This year, they don’t have any more Cubans to call up, especially since Alexander Guerrero just got much of his ear bitten of by Miguel “Mike Tyson” Olivo.  If the Dodgers are going to catch the Giants, Matt Kemp needs to stop sulking and get his game back.  The other option could be calling up Joc Pederson, and trying to trade Andre Ethier.  It’s a gamble, but either way, something has to be done to get this team on the right track.

Fortunately, most of you haven’t been able to see this disaster, because the majority of you don’t have Time Warner Cable.  The rumors that the Dodgers and TWC are considering legal action to get their channel distributed is laughable.  The Dodgers and TWC would be arguing that all of the other cable providers are colluding to bring their price down.  This sounds like a desperate move, and one that will only delay the distribution of the channel even longer.

Meanwhile, tough weekend for the Angels, who got swept by the A’s in a 3 game set.  The pitching just didn’t show up for the Halos this time.  Garrett Richards got blown up on Friday, Tyler Skaggs and the bullpen got beat up on Saturday, and Jeff Weaver got punked on Sunday.  This was also probably not the best time for Mike Trout to miss a couple of games with some back stiffness as well.  Jerry Dipoto is going to need to find some cheap help in the bullpen, or another starter by the trade deadline, if the Angels are going to make something out of this season.  On a more positive note….well maybe…..Josh Hamilton looks like he’ll be returning to the lineup in the next couple of days.

And finally, what an episode of Game of Thrones last night!  Spoiler alert for those of you who have yet to see it.  Let’s recap quickly.  Oberyn fights The Mountain, in order to avenge his sisters death, and also to save Tyrion.  Oberyn appears to have won, then taunts his victim while laying on the floor, then suddenly, The Mountain comes back to life and gouged Oberyn’s eyes out, and kills him.  Thus, Tyrion is now sentenced to death.  Sansa becomes an accomplice to Peter Baelish, as she lies to the panel of the Vale about how Lysa actually died.  She does so because she was afraid of her fate if Peter had died.  Daenery’s banishes Jorah, after she discovers that he has been feeding information about her to Varys.  The Wildlings invade the town where Gilly and her baby reside.  Sam is worried that Gilly has died, but the men of the Night’s Watch reassure him that she could have escaped.  However, Jon Snow is concerned that the Wildlings will come for them next.

What an arrogant fool Oberyn is!  The guy pulls off this crazy spinning dance prior to fight with  The Mountain, then taunts him after, before getting killed.  That dude deserved to die.  It seems inevitable that Tyrion is going to die, as I’ve mentioned before.  He’s one of the more like-able characters, which makes it all the more likely the show will find a way to kill him off.  Meanwhile, Sansa’s fear is forcing her to adapt to the evil world around her, and find a way to survive, no matter what she has to say or do.  I’m excited for the last two episodes!

May 26th, 2014

How did this happen?  The Kings are suddenly up 2-1 in their Western Conference Finals best of 7 series vs Chicago.  In the last two games, LA has completely imposed their will in the 3rd period, and their offense has exploded.  The Blackhawks are still more dangerous than Justin Bieber speeding through a neighborhood with kids, and are still the favorites to win it, but things are much different than last spring.  The Kings physicality is wearing down the Chicago defense, the Kings are scoring goals, they are healthier, and Jonathan Quick is much better than last year.  Still, the Kings need to approach tonight as a must win, because they will need three opportunities to close out this Chicago team.  Especially since the Hawks are much better at home.

I love the fact that Tyler Toffoli, Jeff Carter, and Tanner Pearson are now universally known as “That’s 70’s Line”, and were referred to as that on multiple television networks on Saturday night.  I never imagined that Pearson would make this kind of impact in the NHL so quickly after being drafted.  Has anyone noticed how great the Kings special teams have been so far in this series?  Has anyone also noticed how badly the Blackhawks power play has been?  That’s because the Hawks power play coach is Jamie Kompon.  The same Jamie Kompon who ran a horrendous power play with the Kings during their 2012 playoff run.

On to baseball and the Dodgers, where there’s some good and some bad to discuss.  Let’s start with the good, since Josh Beckett threw the 11th no-hitter in Dodger history yesterday against the Phillies.  I’ve gotta admit, I thought Beckett’s career was over after his season ending surgery last year.  I thought having him as our 5th starter would be a bigger mistake than marrying a Kardashian.  Instead, Beckett has completely re-invented himself by developing much more effective off-speed pitches, instead of overpowering fastballs, which have kept the hitters off-balance.  Beckett’s contract will be up at the end of the season, as will #4 starter Dan Haren, which gives these guys extra motivation each and every time they take the mound this season.  I think it’s pretty obvious that starting pitching isn’t the problem for LA.

Then there’s the bad.  We’re more than a quarter into the season, and the Dodgers are barely over .500, and trailing the Giants by 5.5 games in the NL West.  LA has the highest payroll in baseball, but looks like one of the lowest baseball IQ teams in the league.  Only two teams in the MLB have made more errors than the boys in blue.  Hanley Ramirez looks like a major defensive liability at shortstop, and Matt Kemp has not been the same defensive center fielder we used to see.  Offensively, these guys are ok, but not doing nearly enough to make up for what they are giving up in the field.  This team also commonly makes silly base running mistakes that cost them.  This is not Dodger baseball.  I realize it’s early, but these types of mistakes are very concerning, and make me question whether or not this is really a championship team.

It’s definitely not too early to draw some conclusions about the Angels.  The Halos season has been over around this time, during the last two seasons.  After nearly two months, they lead the Wild Card and are only 1.5 games out of 1st place in the AL West.  It’s amazing what a little starting pitching can do for you.  The only bad news is that Josh Hamilton had a setback in his recovery from his thumb injury.  However, for a team that’s top 5 in the majors in runs scored, I think they can continue to survive for a little without him.   Other than Detroit, there isn’t really a team in the American League that scares me right now.  Oakland us vulnerable, the rest of the central division is a train wreck, and the AL East is overrated by all those New York and Boston honks that think the world revolves around them.  The Angels should be feeling pretty good about things right now.

To the NBA, where the Lakers got some bad news this week about their lottery pick.  They’ll be picking 7th in this years draft, which was one slot worse than their 6th worst record.  I’d like to thank Mike D’Antoni for being an ass hole and winning a few extra meaningless games when he shouldn’t have.  I’m not saying that the NBA lottery is rigged, but they sure aren’t doing much to prevent us from thinking that.  I mean the odds of Cleveland getting the #1 pick in the draft three out of four years has to be less than 1%.  This is basically the NBA’s form of welfare.  There is simply no way that anybody wants to play in Cleveland, so its the only way they can get good players to go there.  It’s not like the Lakers can’t get a good player at #7, however, it’s going to a much slower rebuild than if they had a top 3 pick.

As for the coaching search, I will never understand why the Lakers continue to interview Mike Dunleavy every time their head coaching job is available.  The guy hasn’t had success in the NBA in more than 20 years, and has been out of the game for a while.  Another brilliant idea by Jim Buss.  Let’s be loyal to the guy who took us to the NBA Finals 24 years ago, when we got crushed, but screw Phil Jackson, the guy that is responsible for our last 5 championships!  Makes perfect sense.  Glad to see Byron Scott getting an interview, who as I mentioned before, would be an excellent choice, as would Lionel Hollins, who will be interviewed later in the week.  Neither one of these guys are “splashy” hires, but would be very good choices that know how to coach.

Finally, the mid-season finale of Mad Men aired last night, or “season finale” if you want to look at it that way.  Either way, it was the last episode until 2015, when we’ll see the final 7 episodes of the series.  Spoiler alert for those of you who have yet to see the show.  To recap quickly: Bert passes away at the same time Apollo 11 touches down on the moon, Jim tries to oust Don for breaching his contract, Peggy steps up and wins Berger Chef’s business with a great presentation, while Rodger saves the firm and Don’s job by striking a deal with McCann-Erikson.  Bert’s death meant that Rodger no longer had the votes necessary for Don to keep his job.  Rodger was also worried about the direction Cutler wanted to take the firm, which is why he struck a deal with McCann to buy SC&P, even if it meant bringing Ted back into the business.

This was an interesting and somewhat surprising way to end the mid-season.  There were no major cliffhangers.  Bert’s death was sad for those who have followed Mad Men from the start, but very necessary for advancing the plot for the last 7 episodes.  This partnership that is forming to work with McCann is a complete band of misfits, and it’s highly questionable how they will function together.  They simply made it work because they are going to make a lot of money.  The phone call between Megan and Don is strange.  First we think Don is moving out to LA.  Then it seems Megan doesn’t want him to come.  Then it seems like they are done for good.  However, we thought this at the end of last season, yet they remained together.  I would not be surprised if Megan is tied to the Charles Manson murder in the last part of the show.  Either she dies, or someone she knows is killed.  I also thought the musical at the end of the episode was a nice tribute to Burt’s character, although a very surprising finish.  It’s going to be a long wait until 2015, but should be a great finish to the series!

May 19th, 2013

This weekend was a complete roller coaster ride for the LA Kings.  I’ve gotta start with the bad because that’s most relevant right now.  The Kings went into Chicago yesterday for game 1 of the Western Conference Finals, and lost to the Blackhawks, 3-1, who have simply owned them of late.  It doesn’t matter whether the game is up-tempo, or slowdown and grind-it-out, Chicago is skillful enough to play both, and they showed it again yesterday, with another win over LA.  The Hawks win came playing the Kings grind-it-out style, which has to be discouraging for LA.  Unfortunately, this is just a bad matchup for the Kings.  The Hawks have incredible speed and skill, which makes the Kings vulnerable, and on top of that the Kings are coming off of back-to-back emotionally exhausting series.  It’s looking like another nice run for LA, will ended once again by Chicago, this time in 6 games.

As for the positive, the Kings completely dominated Anaheim in game 7 at the Honda Center on Friday.  Step aside John Gibson.  You’ve just been shown how a real game 7 is handled by the real American hero, Jonathan Quick.  As talented as the Ducks are, they simply did not have the mental toughness of LA when it was all on the line.  Justin Williams is as reliable as it gets when there’s a game 7, as he started the scoring, and heck, even Mike Richards scored.  When that happens, you know it’s your night.  Friday was hardly a road game for the Kings, as there were about 5,000 Kings fans invading the Honda Center.  By the end of the first period, Ducks fans were pissed.  My co-worker, who is a Ducks season seat holder, refused to hang out between periods, after some friendly pre-game exchanges.  It was a great series, and great for SoCal hockey, and this is probably the beginning of many more playoff meetings.  Don’t cry Corey Perry……

As for Teemu Selanne, it was a tough way to end his career, losing in game 7 on his home ice. However, very classy move by the Kings, to bang their sticks on the ice in appreciation, as well as by the Kings fans, who also gave Selanne a standing ovation when the game was over.  Teemu had a great career, but for god sakes, it’s time to hang it up.  Don’t be the Brett Favre of hockey!  The Ducks don’t need to blow up their core, but they definitely need to figure out their goaltending situation, and get some more toughness and grit.

On to the NBA, where the Clippers ran out of gas earlier this week against the Thunder, losing in 6 games during their 2nd round series.  This series was lost in game 5, when the Clippers blew a 7 point lead with 45 seconds left, which was easily the worst 45 seconds of Chris Paul’s career.  I don’t want to hear about how the Clippers got screwed by the refs when the ball went off Reggie Jackson.  The referees, didn’t make the Clipps choke away the lead, and they sure didn’t make them collapse in the 4th quarter of game 6 either.  Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook were simply better than Chris Paul and Blake Griffin.  The Donald Sterling sideshow probably didn’t help things, but the Clippers just aren’t good enough yet.  We thought the Clippers improved, but they still haven’t taken the next step.  The question is still whether Blake Griffin’s prime will coincide with CP3’s.

Meanwhile, the Lakers are getting ready for the draft lottery tomorrow night.  However, the Kevin Love rumors are heating up.  Unfortunately, the Lakers are about to learn what I’ve been screaming from the mountain tops for over a year now:  they need to start collecting assets to make trades for star players.  Even one lottery pick isn’t going to be enough to acquire Love.  The Lakers have nothing on their roster to trade because they are putting all their hope into signing big name free agents.  Teams like Boston, Houston, and Golden State have far more resources to pull off a trade for the likes of Kevin Love, Kyrie Irving, and any other big names that might become available.  Coincidentally, Golden State is one of the teams Love is interested in playing for.  In the meantime, Laker fans can only hope for luck in the lottery tomorrow night, and for Jim Buss not to screw up the next coaching hire.

To baseball, where much of the talk about the Dodgers has been about their TV issues, as opposed to what’s happening on the field.  As one of the fortunate people who can actually watch the Dodgers (or maybe unfortunate because I’m a Time Warner customer), it’s probably a good thing you are missing this part of the season.  The Dodger pitching has been getting destroyed of late.  13 runs against Miami? 18 runs against Arizona?  I haven’t seen this kind of meltdown since Mel Gibson went drinking in Malibu.  It feels like the Dodgers can only beat the D’Backs.  Oh wait, that’s because they can only beat the D’Backs.  LA is 15-19 against the rest of the majors, but has been dominating against Arizona, although they didn’t even look dominant against them over the weekend.  Nevertheless, the Dodgers offense was crummy, and their pitching was great.  Now its the opposite.  Hopefully by the time the rest of you can actually watch the games, the Boys in Blue will get it together.

It doesn’t look like TWC will strike a deal with other cable providers anytime soon, however, stop blaming the Dodgers people.  You all complained when you had Frank McCourt as your owner.  Now we have the highest payroll in baseball, and a TV deal to support a competitive product on the field for years to come.  If you don’t like it, go move to Milwaukee, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, or some other third world country, where you can enjoy a team with a lower payroll.  You’ll then be able to watch them on TV, enjoying a mediocre product.

One team you can see on TV that is playing good baseball, is the Angels.  The Halos took 3 out of 4 from Tampa Bay over the weekend, and continue to be in the thick of the playoff race early on.  The Angels are in 2nd place in the AL West, but 5 games over .500, and leading the AL Wild Card.  I know you all want to hate on Albert Pujols and his $250 million contract, but the dude is getting it done while Mike Trout is slumping.  Things only figure to get better when Josh Hamilton gets back, so Angel fans can feel good about what they are seeing thus far.

Let’s talk TV.  Starting off with Game of Thrones, which aired the 7th episode of Season 4 last night on HBO.  Spoiler alert for those of you who have yet to see it.  Let’s recap quickly: Tyrion tries to convince Jamie and Bronn to defend him in his trial by combat, but both of them decline.  However, the Red Viper decides to fight for him, in order to avenge his sister’s death, which was at the hands of the Lannisters.  Littlefinger admits to Sansa that he is in love with her mother, but then proceeds to kiss Sansa, which Lysa witnesses.  Her jealously leads her to threaten Sansa, by throwing her out of the Moon Door.  However, Littlefinger stops Lysa from doing this, and eventually throws Lysa out the Moon Door, and she falls to her death.  Daario makes sexual advances at Daenery’s, but she sends him out to recapture Yunkai.  Jorah then serves as the voice of reason, by convincing her to give the slave masters one last chance to live in her world.

This turned out to be a very exciting episode, with some nice plot development.  The death of Lysa was somewhat surprising so soon, but now it’s entirely unclear what Littlefinger’s plan is.  Now he has Sansa Stark, seems to be in love with her, but who are his other allies that will help him get what he wants? Oberyn (The Red Viper) is quickly becoming a great character, who everyone likes, because he’s trying to take down Cersei and Tywin.  The Daenery’s situation is beginning to make me nervous.  I don’t trust Daario, but she is putting a lot of trust in him, even with the advice given to her by Jorah.  I’m most worried that Daario, or somebody in her camp that is working with the Lannisters, and will try to kill her before the season’s over.  It’s really a shame that we have to wait another two weeks  to see the next episode, but it’s going to be an exciting last 3 shows.

Didn’t get to see Mad Men folks…..it’s waiting for me on my DVR.

May 12th, 2014

For three and a half quarters yesterday, the Clippers looked like front runners.  They looked like a talented team, without the mental toughness to advance in the playoffs.  Then, Darren Collison ignited a fierce rally, and the Clippers were right back in the series.  Doc Rivers made a brilliant move, going small, which sparked the comeback from 16 points down in the 4th, and as large as 22 points in the first quarter.  In three of the last four games, the Thunder have looked like the more experienced team, and the better team.  However, the Clippers have some fight.  This series could go 7, but unless the Clippers can consistently defend and rebound, it’s going to be tough to advance to the conference finals for the first time in franchise history.  Anybody still think Westbrook and Durant can’t play together?  No way the Thunder breaks up that duo anytime soon.

Off the court, the side-show continues.  Shelly Sterling continues to show up to games, and publicly campaign to retain ownership.  I think it’s fair to say that the entire NBA Players Association is putting up with her still being a part of this for now, but want her out when the season is over, and rightfully so.  Meanwhile Donald Sterling apologized to CNN, and claimed that he was entitled to making one mistake after so many years as an owner.  Actually Donald, this is one of many mistakes you’ve made, and nobody is willing to put up with your racist crap anymore.    We all know you’re only asking for forgiveness because you’re about to get your franchise ripped from you.

As for the Lakers, their coaching search is moving slower than a Kenley Jansen fastball (more on that later), as no candidates have actually been interviewed yet.  In the meantime, Kobe Bryant is speaking his mind on the coaching search, Mike D’Antoni, his health, and the Lakers future.  Kobe appeared on Jimmy Kimmel earlier in the week to discuss all this.  It’s pretty clear that when you get older, you just don’t give a crap, you have no filter, and you speak your mind.  Kobe is at that point in life after listening to his comments on Kimmel.  Kobe actually said he “didn’t care” when D’Antoni got fired, and that he was not consulted on the last two Laker coaching decisions.  Weird, because it’s probably a good idea to make sure your best player and your coach can work together.  Are you listening Jim Buss?

Let’s talk puck.  The Kings and Ducks are locked up in a hell of a playoff battle.  After the Ducks 2-0 win on Saturday, the series is tied at 2-2, but it’s the Kings who are blowing it.  LA was up 2-1 in the series, and facing rookie goaltender John Gibson in game 4.  Instead of welcoming him to playoff hockey with a beat down, they made the kid look like the next Patrick Roy, by not putting any real pressure on him.  They never got any traffic at the net, never bumped him, and their power play was shit.  The Ducks went from being totally frustrated, to soaring with confidence, headed back to Anaheim for game 5 tonight.  The road team has won every game in this series.  You honestly think that trend is going to continue?  I think not, which is why the Kings are screwed, and are going to lose this series.

To baseball, where the Dodgers are getting owned by the Giants.  After LA’s bullpen imploded again yesterday, the hated rivals from the north have handed the Dodgers 7 of their 19 losses this season, resulting in a 4.5 game division lead over the boys in blue.  Kenley Jansen just isn’t getting it done.  Yesterday, he allowed 5 of the first 6 batters he faced to reach base, including a wild pitch.      Jansen claims he’s healthy, but his velocity is down, and he isn’t fooling hitters like he used to.  The Dodger players claim they are starting to play good baseball, and that they will be fine but that’s not how I see it.  LA has given those snobby, organic bastards in the north, the confidence that they can play with them.  The most key pitchers  in the bullpen aren’t pitching well, and that’s a scary thought for the Dodgers.  By the way, why don’t the Giants change their name to the “San Francisco Brandons”?  How many more Brandons can they add? Brandon Belt, Brandon Hicks, Brandon Crawford?  There’s obviously not enough of them on their team.

As for the Halos, they dominated in Toronto this weekend, and will be going for the sweep today.  Amazingly enough, the Halos are now two games over .500, and who actually remembers the last time that happened?  The Halos starting pitching has been sturdy, and their offense is explosive, even without Josh Hamilton.  Even more amazing is the fact that the Halos younger players like CJ Cron and Hank Conger are coming up big.  Not bad for a team that has been ranked as having the worst farm system in baseball.  The Angels are right in the thick of things in the American League race, and that is definitely not something we could have said at this point in the last two seasons.

Let’s talk TV.  Game of Thrones returned for another episode last night, and it was another good one.  Spoiler alert for those of you who have yet to watch it.  Let’s recap quickly: Stannis and Davos pleaded the Iron Bank to take their side, but their efforts were unsuccessful.  Theon’s sister tried to rescue him, but failed, then Theon pleaded for mercy from Ramsay Snow.  Daenery’s sat on the throne at Meereen and heard requests from peasants and and lords.  In Kings Landing, Tyrion stood in chains and was on trial, judged by his father.  By the end of the episode, Tyrion demanded a trial by combat, since he knew he would be found guilty.

The highlight of the episode was Tyrion’s angry outburst when he knew his trial was more of a show, that was set up for him to be guilty.  The irony of all this is that he probably would have lived, even if he was guilty, since Tywin told Jamie that Tyrion would be sentenced to The Night’s Watch in The North.  Tyrion’s angry outburst seemed heroic, except since this is Game of Thrones, and he’s more of a good character, he’s probably going to die.  Looking forward to the last 4 episodes of the season!

On to Mad Men, where last night was the 6th episode of this 8 episode half season.  This episode was pretty eventful.  Spoiler alert if you haven’t seen it yet.  To recap quickly: Don’s niece, Stephanie, is pregnant in LA.  Don tells her to go see Meghan for support, and that he’ll come out and see them the next day.  By the time Don gets there, Stephanie is gone, right after Meghan had given her a check of $1,000 for support.  While in LA, Meghan throws a party, and afterward, she and another woman have a threesome with Don.  Prior to that, Don meets Harry at the party, they escape for a drink, and Don learns that Jim and Lou are pursuing Philip Morris. If they can get it, Don is out.  With this knowledge, Don crashes a meeting Lou and Jim are have with Philip Morris, where he tries to convince the tobacco company that he is the guy they’d want on the account, and even subtly threatens to work for the competition if he leaves the firm.

The Meghan storyline to Mad Men is getting extremely boring.  Her life in LA is really not that exciting, and there are many more characters that are more interesting.  I suppose Meghan was using the threesome as desperation to save her marriage, but Don was hardly even interested.  Don’s genius is obvious by the end of this episode, and I think we are all starting to get the feeling he’s going to end up back on top when it’s all said and done.  Notice I completely left out the Michael Ginsberg part of the episode. Who cuts out their nipple?  What a weirdo!

May 5th, 2014

What a sports weekend we had, especially for our So Cal teams.  Starting off with the Clipp Show, whose week was more tumultuous than Lindsay Lohan’s acting career.  The Clipps overcame the Donald Sterling drama, and got by the Warriors in game 7 at Staples Center, to win their first round series on Saturday night.  Chris Paul was ailing, but he gave the Clippers enough to win.  Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan were animals in the paint, while JJ Redding looked like the 2nd coming of Reggie Miller.  If Vinny Del Negro were watching, he probably would have realized that you can actually win a game 7 by playing Jamal Crawford as well.  Now it’s on to Oklahoma City, where the Clippers are going to have their hands full with Kevin Durant and the Thunder.  I’m not sure how an injured Chris Paul will be able to contain Russell Westbrook, so Blake and DeAndre better start taking their game to a higher level if the Clipps are to have a chance.

As for the off the court drama, I’m not sure why Shelly Sterling thinks its appropriate to continue to attend Clipper games.  The players are pissed off about it, and even if she owns the team moving forward, that won’t be an acceptable solution for them.  Now, sources close to Sterling believe that he will sue the NBA for trying to force him to sell the team, which would prevent the franchise from being sold well into next season and beyond.  In that case, the real punishment for Sterling would be to make all his players free agents, and have Doc Rivers walk away, so he’s forced to operate a business taking losses, and eventually lower the overall value of the franchise.  The irony of all that would be that the Lakers might actually have a chance to sign CP3 this summer.

Speaking of the Lakers, the fans couldn’t be any more excited that Mike D’Antoni “resigned” earlier this week.  As I said last week, why keep a coach around for another year, when you already know he isn’t the guy?  The bottom line is that this was a disaster from the start.  D’Antoni had a great team to work with his first year, and managed to drive it into the ground.  This season, he had a mediocre team, that he managed to make terrible.  Now, who do the Lakers turn to?  LA claims they are looking to make “a splash”, which sounds like a ridiculous New York Knick move.  However, a fine choice would be former Laker Byron Scott.  Scott has won titles as a Laker player, has plenty of experience, knows what it means to be a Laker, and has coached teams to the Finals twice.  This may not be as “splashy” as the front office is hoping, but it is someone that can lead the Lakers while they rebuild, and when they are contending for titles again.

Magic Johnson sometimes forgets to think before he tweets.  He wrote “Happy days are here again! Mike D’Antoni resigns as the Lakers coach. I couldn’t be happier!”.  Really Magic?  As a former Laker owner, and one with aspirations of becoming an NBA owner again, have some professionalism!  What do you think this is Magic? Jock Talk LA?  

Ok, I admit it, I was mistaken, but boy am I happy about it.  The Kings not only survived game 6,  but they rose from the dead to beat the Sharks in 7 in round 1 of the NHL playoffs.  If that isn’t exciting enough, the Kings and Ducks finally met for the first time ever in the playoffs on Saturday, in a series that will determine who is going to the Western Conference Finals.  The Kings didn’t play anywhere near their best game, but they did force the Ducks to play their grind it out style throughout the game.  The Ducks looked like they were going to beat the Kings at their own game, until Marian Gaborik tied it with 7 seconds left, then won it in OT, which propelled the Kings to a 3-2 victory, and 1-0 series lead.  This is probably going to be a long series, but the Kings have an edge in grit, goaltending, and coaching.  In fact it was Daryl Sutter’s creation of the Kopitar, Gaborik, and Carter super line that led to this game winner….

The Kings fans are also traveling well to the Honda Center for the road games, so there isn’t much of a “home ice advantage” for Anaheim.  It’s absolutely ridiculous that we are stuck with listening to Ducks analyst Brian Heyward on NBCSN for this series.  For god sakes, he’s broadcasting from the Ducks bench! Why even hide the fact that he’s a Ducks homer?  I thought during the third period the guy was going to come out dressed as the Ducks Wild Wing mascot.  I also like how Anze Kopitar played a brilliant all-around game with three assists, and Heyward said Kopitar hadn’t done much all night.  Also, memo to Jeremy Roenick: his name is “Alec Martinez”, not “Alex Martinez”.  Seeing all the Ducks fans wear those ugly orange T-shirts makes me feel like all of Orange County lost a bet to someone.

To baseball, where the Dodgers are having their issue.  They may have swept the Twins earlier in the week, but their bullpen made every outing a damn adventure, then completely wet the bed over the weekend in Florida.  Friday, Jose Dominguez stunk it up.  Saturday, Brian Wilson continued to suck, and Chris Withrow completed the collapse.  Yesterday it was Jamie Wright.  Kenley Jansen has been struggling too.  Are there any reliable relievers left?  To make matters worse, the only outfielder that is earning his paycheck is Yasiel Puig, and he just slammed his grill into a wall yesterday.  Matt Kemp can’t find his swing, Carl Crawford is nothing like the player he once was, and Andre Ethier’s hitting is underwhelming.  The Boys in Blue will need to correct these issues fast, or else the Giants will widen their lead in the division.

As for the Angels, things really aren’t so bad.  The Halos are actually at .500, which is a huge positive from what we’ve seen the last two years.  Even though the Angels got pounded by the Rangers this weekend, the pitching is far more serviceable, and the bullpen even showed a slight improvement the last 3 games.  Hopefully now that David Freese has broken his finger, when he gets back, maybe he’ll remember how to swing the bat like a major leaguer.  Now the Yankees are coming to town, and even though they are in 1st place, they aren’t too much better than the Halos.  Will Hector Santiago ever win a game?  If so, the Angels might actually sweep this series.

Let’s talk TV, as Game of Thrones returned last night for another episode.  Spoiler alert for those of you who have yet to see it.  Let’s recap quickly.  At Kings Landing, Tommen was crowned King, and Cersei approached Margery about whether or not she would be interested in being Queen again.    Cersei also admitted that Joffrey had his shortcomings.  In Mereen, Daenery’s decided against continuing on to Kings Landing, and instead elected to further strengthen her rule in Astapor and Yunkai, by trying to free others who have been enslaved after she left those communities behind.  Sansa and Littlefinger arrived at The Vale, where we learned that Littlefinger aligned with Lysa.  Lysa is in love with Littlefinger, and intends to marry him, although its clear he isn’t in love with her.  Lysa’s intention is to have Sansa marry her demented cousin Robin, but she also accused Sansa of sleeping with Littlefinger, which she adamantly denied.  Aarya continued to recite the names of her enemies, including The Hound, and we see her practicing her water dancing sword fighting technique.  The Hound ridiculed her for this.  Jon Snow and his forces invade Craster’s Keep, and eventually kill Craster and his men.  Bran and his friends escaped, and Bran considered meeting up with Jon, but his friends convinced him otherwise, because he would never let him find the three eyed raven and fulfill his destiny.  Meanwhile, Jon and his men burned down Crater’s Keep at the request of the women that live there.

This episode was a clear reminder of what this show is all about.  Sometimes Game of Thrones teases you into thinking you’re going to get what you want as a viewer, or that you might get a happy moment for the good characters, and then it pulls it away from you.  We thought that Sansa was going to some place better than Kings Landing.  Instead, she has simply exchanged one prison for another.  We also thought Jon Snow and Bran would be re-united.  Then we realize that Bran has been brainwashed by his loony bin friend, who tells him to continue on his journey.  I was also disappointed to learn that Daenery’s will not be conquering Kings Landing anytime soon, because she needs to go back to further establish her dominance.  More than anything, this episode was a reminder that the show just isn’t about happy endings for good characters.

Mad Men also returned last night as well.  Spoiler alert for those of you who haven’t seen it yet.  To recap quickly, Pete and Ted find an opportunity to pitch to Burger Chef.  It seems as though they want to put Peggy on this, however, Lou doesn’t like the idea, and sticks Don on her team.  Peggy thinks she is really being given Burger Chef when Lou offers her a $100/hour raise.  Later on she sees that she was set up to fail, as Don refused to do the work.  A computer is also being installed in the office, which was likely discussed by the partners, but excluding Don.  After Don has an interesting conversation with Lloyd from LeaseTek, he goes to see Cooper about pitching to LeaseTek, but his suggestion is brushed aside, as is Don’s importance to the firm.  Don gets angry, and then gets drunk in the office.  After a heart to heart with Freddy, he convinces Don to actually do the work, otherwise it is the other partners that will win.  Rodger and Mona also spend much of the episode trying to get their daughter from her “hippie house”, but by the end of the episode, are unsuccessful.  Roger is guilted by his daughter over leaving her every day he went to work.

This episode just showed how difficult it was going to be for Don to get back to the top of the firm.  It’s clear that the partners are looking to make life as difficult as possible for him, and set him up to fail, even if there is collateral damage involved, like being unprofessional towards Peggy.  However, the most symbolic portion of the episode was the 1969 Mets pennant that Don found in his office.  For those of you unfamiliar with who they were, they were a relatively unknown Major League franchise that came out of nowhere in 1969 to win the World Series.  This has to be symbolic of Don coming out on top at the firm, when this season is over.

April 28th, 2014

So wait a second…..you mean to tell me you all just figured out that Donald Sterling is a racist?  Where have you people been? I guess nobody was paying attention when he got sued in 2003 for racial discrimination, or 2006 for housing discrimination, or when Elgin Baylor sued him in 2010 and claimed he had a “plantation mentality”.  It has amazed me that for over thirty years, the NBA never forced this guy out.  Even more amazing is the fact that when David Stern knew all about this, he handed him Chris Paul, and created a suddenly marquee franchise for an owner that didn’t even deserve to have one.  The blame starts with the NBA.  Now, you “Clipper fans”, who are really Laker haters, look like morons for supporting this guy, while those of us that didn’t start watching the NBA yesterday knew better.  Although I do feel for the Clipper players, in many ways, Chris Paul and Doc Rivers also had their heads in the sand when they decided to commit to a franchise whose owner had this well documented history.  Now everyone is outraged at the alleged recording of Donald Sterling’s argument with his girlfriend.  In case you haven’t heard it, here it is:

On the floor, the Clippers were a disaster yesterday.  There’s no question the team just wasn’t focused on basketball when the game started.  There was no defensive intensity, and the mere fact that Doc Rivers said before the game that he wasn’t sure what his future with the team would be if Sterling were still the owner, really told you where their focus was.  This series was going to be tough enough to win without the Sterling distraction.  Now they have to deal with it?  I’m not even sure if the Clippers are going to have a real home court advantage come Tuesday night at Staples, if the fans are going to boycott going to the games.  There’s so much uncertainty surrounding this team right now, its difficult to imagine them playing too much longer in the post season.

So what’s Adam Silver going to do now?  At the very least he’s going to have to fine and suspend Sterling from his involvement with the team, but long term how can he make him sell the team? This isn’t a Frank McCourt situation, where Sterling doesn’t have the money to run the team.  Still, keeping him around the Clippers would insure many fans won’t show up anymore, players and coaches won’t want to be there, and the franchise would be bombed back to hell.  This is a pivotal point in Los Angeles Basketball history.  If the Clippers end up with a new owner, it could further elevate them as a new elite NBA franchise, and further the gap between the Lakers and Clippers.  However, if Sterling stays, we could see the Clippers quickly erode back into a the crummy franchise they were previously.

Meanwhile, according to several sources, the Lakers have internally decided that they are going to bring back Mike D’Antoni for the third year of his contract.  D’Antoni is actually requesting that his 4th year team option already be guaranteed as well, to insure his success, which the Lakers are reluctant to do.  By bringing D’Antoni back, the Lakers have insured that Pau Gasol will not re-sign, and that no real game changing free agents like Carmelo or Lebron will be signing with the team this summer, even if the chances were remote anyway.  Mind you, the chances were remote the Lakers would end up with Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Shaquille O’Neal, and Pau Gasol as well, and it happened.  Jim Buss has already declared that he is on the clock to turn this team around, and gave himself three to four years to get it done.  Why not get rid of D’Antoni now if you know he isn’t going to be the guy after next year?  The Lakers are planning on being a lottery team next year, but when Lebron and Carmelo opt out of their contracts this summer, their front office is going to look stupid for not having a recruiting plan, and still having D’Antoni as their coach.

On to the NHL Playoffs, where I most certainly did not expect to be writing about the Kings getting ready for game 6 against the Sharks tonight.  San Jose completely dictated the style of play in games 1 through 3.  In the last two games, the Kings have turned the tables, and slowed down the pace of the game, playing their own physical style.  The problem now is, the Sharks have discovered the Kings weakness: an inability to score against mediocre backup goaltenders.  The Sharks will likely start Alex Stalock in game 6, since he has shut down the Kings so far in his relief appearances.  Look, the Kings are mentally tough as hell, and this is a team to be proud of.  However, LA has played a lot of playoff hockey the last 3 years, and it has taken its toll on them.  The reality is, they’ll be shaking hands tonight at Staples Center, and their chances of winning this series are about as good as my chances of dating Kate Upton.

As for the Ducks, they had an amazing comeback last night in game 6 vs the Stars, which launched them into the 2nd round of the playoffs.  With two minutes left in the third period, it looked like Anaheim was on their way to another game 7 at home, and another Bruce Boudreau choke job.  Instead, Nick Bonino pulled the Ducks within one goal with 2:10 left, then Devante Smith-Pelly tied with 24 seconds left.  In overtime, Bonino struck again, to clinch the series.  There’s definitely moments where I question the Ducks coaching, grit, and mental toughness, but they sure are talented.  The win is also huge, because it buys the Ducks an extra day or two of rest before they have to play the Sharks.  Last year it was the Ducks who robbed us of a Kings vs Ducks 2nd round matchup.  Unfortunately, it’s the Kings who will disappoint us this year.  Here’s Bonino’s winner…

To baseball, where the Dodgers seem to be struggling against everyone other than the Diamondbacks and Padres.  They lost 3 out of 4 to the Phillies, whose entire roster has an AARP card, then they dropped two out of three to the Rockies.  The offense has been wildly inconsistent. Only three teams have struck out more times than the Dodgers, they haven’t been clutch with runners in scoring position, and they are very dependent on the long ball.  Then there’s the defense, which has made appalling 23 errors in 25 games.  The starting pitching has been phenomenal, and figures to get better when Clayton Kershaw gets back, but the back end of the bullpen has been shakier than a Malaysian airline.  It’s early, and the Dodgers issues aren’t disastrous by any means, but they need to be careful, or else they could find themselves needing to make up ground in the NL West soon.

You know what I learned last night?  No, not that the Angels bullpen sucks.  We already knew that. It’s that Masahiro Tanaka isn’t that good.  How good can he be when he’s giving up a home run to David Freeze?  Despite getting crappy production at third base, things aren’t so bad for the Angels.  They are third in the majors in runs scored, and 1st in home runs.  Their starting pitchers have been decent too, giving them lots of innings.  Relief pitchers are a dime a dozen, and as long as the Halos can stay in the race for a while, they may be able to find some bullpen arms at the deadline or in their farm system later in the season.  At least it’s better than what we’ve seen to this point the last few seasons.

Bad news for UCLA basketball this weekend.  Jordan Adams changes his mind more than a 16 year old girl, and he decided to enter the NBA draft.  Now, the Bruins have lost arguably their 3 best players to the NBA in Adams, Kyle Anderson, and Zach Lavine.  The irony of it is, if the Bruins really had that many NBA players on their roster, they probably would have gone further than the sweet 16.  Get ready to see a lot more of Bryce Alford UCLA fans.

Game of Thrones returned last night for the 4th episode of the 4th season, called “Oathkeeper”.  Spoiler alert for those of you who still haven’t seen in.  To recap, Dany opens the episode by getting Grey-Worm to convince the slaves of Meereen to revolt against their masters.  Once they are free and join forces with Dany, she then punishes all the masters by nailing them to crosses.  She did so because the masters did this to numerous children.  Jamie goes to visit Tyrion and realizes that he did not kill Joffrey.  Tyrion also assures Jamie that Sansa could never kill anyone.  We then learn that it was both Little Finger and Lady Olenna that plotted to kill Joffrey, done by placing a poison crystal from Sansa’s necklace in Joffrey’s wine.  Cersei is angry with Jamie for visiting Tyrion and thinking he’s innocent, as well as not keeping closer watch over Tommen.  Margery sneaks into Tommen’s room in the middle of the night to begin to build a secret bond with him.  Jamie sends out Brienne to find Sansa and protect her, although Cersei wants her head.  Jon recruits members of The Night’s Watch to go to Craster’s keep to get re-inforcements, but he has a hunch Bran is there too.  He’s right, because Bran and his buddies were captured and held hostage there.  Finally, in the last scene, a White Walker takes Craster’s baby, lays it on some ice and another White Walker picks it up.  The White Walker touches the baby and its eyes turn blue.

This episode was much more interesting than the previous one.  As I suspected, Lady Olenna was involved in the murder of King Joffrey, although I didn’t see Little Finger’s involvement coming.  His motives still aren’t fully clear to anyone.  I love the fact that Dany’s army is getting bigger, because she is getting that much closer to interacting with the people of Westeros.  It figures that Jon and Bran will soon be re-united, or one of them will probably die, given the way the show goes.  It’s amazing how slowly, Jamie Lannister is becoming a far more lik-able character than before.  After he said goodbye to Brienne, I do wonder if at some point, the two of them will kindle some type of romance.  That might have sounded crazy before, but not so much anymore.  It’s amazing how all Margery cares about is being The Queen, and will do whatever she has to in order to have the throne.  As for The White Walkers, they look scary, but they are so far north, I’m just not seeing where they will play a factor.  Can they even survive in a warm climate?

Mad Men also returned last night for episode 3 of Season 7.  Spoiler alert for those of you who have yet to see it.  Let’s recap quickly.  Don receives a phone call from Megan’s agent, about her frantic behavior in auditions, and immediately flies out to see her.  Megan confronts him about why he’s still living in New York, and reverting to his “old ways”, but then Don admits he hasn’t been going to work.  Megan kicks him out, and Don flies back to New York to meet with a rival agency.  After getting a formal offer, he takes it back to Roger in his hotel room, who lets him have his job back.  When Don arrives at work, it’s as awkward as can be.  Nobody is prepared for his return, as Roger didn’t tell anyone.  Everyone from Joan, to Peggy, to the rest of the partners are not comfortable with Don returning, but they agree to bring him back because it’s too expensive to let him go.  They also give Don some humiliating terms upon his return: he reports to Lou, can’t be alone with clients, can’t drink outside of client meetings, and must stick to the script.  He agrees.  Meanwhile, Betty takes a field trip with Bobby, but is infuriated when he trades her sandwich away for some candy.  Betty takes her anger to the dinner table after the field trip, and expresses her displeasure to her husband.

This was a great episode.  What is Don thinking?  Why would he take his old job back under such humiliating conditions, when he can just take a job in California and fix his problems with Megan? I’m sure Don’s competitiveness is driving him, and he believes that when it’s over, he will be back on top.  Also, seeing Betty snap at Bobby has to be a reminder that you probably aren’t as bad a parent as you think, if you have kids.  Betty once again, let’s her selfishness ruin the bonding opportunity with her son, and further damages their relationship.  I felt like the theme of the episode was women not taking news well.  Peggy and Joan hate the fact that Don is coming back, Megan handles her Hollywood rejections badly, and Betty just can’t seem to handle a simple bonding experience with her son.  An entertaining episode, and looking forward to seeing more of season 7.

April 20th, 2014

What the hell have I been watching from the LA Kings?  I could swear I stepped into a time machine, and I’m watching the 1980’s Kings teams taking a beating from the Oilers and Flames.  Where the hell is the team that was the #1 defense in the NHL this season?  LA is making the Sharks 3rd and 4th line players look like the 2nd coming of Wayne Gretzky and Mark Messier.  Where are the Kings goal scores? Paging captain Dustin Brown?  Hello Mike Richards?? Care to show up Anze Kopitar?  I realize the Kings were down 2-0 to the Blues in the first round last year, but keep in mind, they narrowly lost those games.  If the Kings are going to come back in this series, they are going to have to start by being more physical.  The Kings have been knocked around more than if they were dating Bobby Brown.  We better see a completely different Kings team on Tuesday night at Staples, or their season will be over on Thursday night.  Yesterday my nieces nephews went searching for eggs.  Meanwhile, the Kings laid one.

Meanwhile, the Ducks haven’t had too many problems with with Stars.  Anaheim jumped out to a big lead in game 1, got a brief scare, but held on for the win.  In game 2, the Stars tried to bring the heat, but the Ducks had too much fire power.  I think it’s safe to say Ryan Getzlaf has had a wild week.  He took a slap shot to the jaw, attended the birth of his third child, then scored a goal to help the Ducks win game 2.  Then there’s Frederik Anderson, who is refusing to give the starting goaltender job back to Jonas Hiller.  Anderson has been pretty solid through the first two games, and as long as the Ducks keep winning, there’s no way Bruce Boudreau can go back to Hiller.  The Stars may be able to steal a game in Dallas, but this series shouldn’t take longer than 5 games.

Those LA Clippers sure know how to disappoint.  Here they were on Saturday afternoon, with a chance to completely steal the Jock Talk LA headlines, as well as the LA sports spotlight.  Instead, they drop game 1 to the Warriors in disappointing fashion, losing home court in their best of 7 first round series.  I realize that Blake Griffin and Chris Paul were in serious foul trouble, but that wasn’t the problem.  The Clippers execution at the end of the game looked a lot like the last two seasons. In other words, give the ball to Chris Paul, and hope for the best.  The Warriors knew this, and immediately double teamed CP3 every possession in the last minute.  Now that Doc Rivers is the Clippers coach, I think most of us thought the offense would be a little less predictable down the stretch.  With game 2 at home and down 1-0, it’s really a must win for the Clipp Show.

Thank god the Lakers season is over.  Can anyone really blame Kobe Bryant for leaving a day early to go on vacation with his family?  Maybe he should apologize to his all his bum teammates, most of whom won’t even be on the team next season?  Not really.  Jim Buss has proclaimed that if the Lakers aren’t contending for championships within 3-4 years, he will step aside from basketball operations.  I’ve got news for you Jim, if you don’t fire Mike D’Antoni now, make a fantastic lottery pick this summer, and find a way to acquire a superstar or two, they’ll need to find your replacement.

My goodness…..what has happened to the Indiana Pacers?  Five road teams ended up winning game 1 of the NBA Playoffs.  This is starting to feel like the NHL Playoffs.  Then again, maybe the higher seeds are a little overrated this year.

On to baseball, where the Dodgers keep rolling, and abusing the Diamondbacks.  The Dodgers took another two out of three from Arizona over the weekend.  Yesterday was the Yasiel Puig show, when the Cuban sensation made a spectacular play by throwing out a runner at 2nd base, and then hit a 3-run home run.  None of the Dodgers outfielders have really gotten it going yet. When that happens, LA is going to run away with the division, because they have a war chest of pitching, that has been lights out.  The Dodgers even got 5 shutout innings from Josh Beckett yesterday.  There are 5 guys on the Dodgers who are capable of winning and MVP.  As long as everyone is healthy, there’s no reason this team shouldn’t be contending for a World Series crown.

As for the Angels, they had a tough weekend, losing two of three in Detroit.  The starting pitching hasn’t been all that bad, but the bullpen is pretty horrendous.  It’s going to be all about the offense for this team, and that is something to feel good about.  They lead the majors in slugging percentage, and are 2nd in runs scored.  Unfortunately, 12 of the next 15 games will be against the Nationals, Yankees, and Rangers. The fans are giving Mike Scioscia a lot of heat these days, but I’m still not really sure why.  He’s doing the best he can with the cards he’s been dealt by Dipoto and Moreno.  It’s gotta be awkward for Scioscia to be managing a team that doesn’t have a pen, not a lot of team speed, and isn’t great defensively.  It just isn’t part of his identity.

There is definitely some important to TV shows to recap this week, starting with Game of Thrones. In the aftermath of the death of King Joffrey, we see Sansa escape courtesy of Lord Peter Baelish, and we find out that he was involved in the plot to kill the King.  Margery wonders if she’s still the queen, and Lady Olenna convinces her that she still is, while showing some sympathy for Joffrey’s family.  Joffrey’s little brother, King Tommen is lectured by Tywin about what it’s going to take for him to be the next great King.  Meanwhile, as Cersei weeps over the loss of Joffrey, Jamie tries to console her, and ends up returning to his incestual ways by screwing Cersei right by the coffin.  Aarya and The Hound find shelter, then The Hound mugs the farmer the took them in.  The Wildlings wage war against Northern peasantry in hopes of drawing The Night’s Watch away from the wall.  Then Danaery’s gives the speech of a lifetime in an attempt to win over another community.

This episode was a bit slower after the death of Joffrey.  Clearly, Lord Baelish was in on the plot to kill Joffrey, but it couldn’t have been just him.  I still think Lady Olenna helped him do it.  There’s plenty of incentive for Baelish to want Sansa by his side, and for Lady Olenna to want a new King by Margery’s side.  King Tommen has the feel of a better King than Joffrey, but he’s a Lannister, which still makes him a villain in most people’s minds.  We also see a return of the unlikeable, incestual version of Jamie Lannister.  Danaery’s still feels like one of the last few “good guys” in the show, but she has the same leadership qualities as Rob Stark, and we all know what his fate was.

Mad Men also returned for the 2nd episode of the final season last night.  To recap this Valentines Day themed episode, Peggy is greeted by flowers at the office, and she thinks they are from Ted.  Later on she discovers the flowers weren’t for her, and after some other secretaries claimed the flowers weren’t for them, eventually Shirley admits they were from her fiance, which angers Peggy.  Sally loses her handbag, and eventually looks for her dad at the office.  She awkwardly learns he isn’t at the office, and wonders what happened.  Eventually she meets him at home, and then confronts Don about his lies about his job.  The two eventually go to dinner and have a good heart to heart.  Don drops Sally back at school, and they are both pleased with how the evening went.  Other office drama during the episode included Lou being upset that Sally came by to inquire about Don while Dawn was out.  Peggy asks Joan that her secretary be removed, and Pete starts to feel useless.  Don is also attracting interest from other firms.

In many ways this was really a feel good episode.  It started out looking like like a bigger fallout between Sally and Don was coming.  However, by the end of the episode, not only is their relationship strengthened, but you wonder if its a moment that actually help Don get his life back on track.  Meanwhile, Peggy simply can’t work with any of these secretaries, let alone Shirley, after her complaint to Joanne.  I’m beginning to find the Peggy story less and less intriguing as the show goes on.  It’s been a slow first two episodes, but I’m curious to see how Don’s character evolves as the show winds down.

April 14th, 2014

The Dodgers look pretty damn good.  The Boys in Blue swept a 3 game set from the Diamondbacks over the weekend.  Adrian Gonzales is killing it, with homers in 4 straight games.  Dee Gordon looks like the best 2nd baseman in baseball right now.  Dan Haren has been a very solid starting pitcher, and the bullpen has practically been lights out.  Wait until Matt Kemp starts hitting home runs on days of the week other than Sunday.  Oh, and who could forget that LA is off to a 9-4 start with Clayton Kershaw and Brian Wilson on the DL.  This team is very good, and probably going to get a lot better.  Oh, and don’t be fooled by the Giants 8-4 start.  Tim Lincecum, Matt Cain, and Ryan Vogelsong have had their problems in the early going.

Meanwhile, things aren’t so bad for the Angels either.  They took two out of three against the Mets over the weekend, including a 14-2 beat down of New York yesterday.  The Halos are an unspectacular 6-6 so far.  However, the good news is that they are scoring plenty of runs, and nobody else in the American League is setting the world on fire right now.  The bad news is that their ace, Jared Weaver, is declining faster than Tom Cruise’s acting career, and the bullpen is still terrible.  Here’s to the Halos continuing to light up the scoreboard, because I doubt their pitching is going to hold up.

Let’s go to the hardwood, where there is a critical basketball game in the NBA tonight in Utah.  The Lakers will be taking on the Jazz, in what I would definitely call “a must lose” for both teams. That’s right folks.  The Jazz and Lakers are tied for the 4th worst record in the league, and both of these teams badly need to lose this game, to improve their chances at getting the top pick in this summers NBA draft.  Hopefully LA won’t do anything stupid, like try to win tonight’s game.  I’m sure the players will be trying very hard, but good thing Mike D’Antoni will be coaching, or the Lake Show might have a real shot to win tonight.

Classy move by Lakers center Robert Sacre last night.  The first thing he said in his post game interview was, “I have to thank the fans, because our games have still been sold out despite our tough season.”  That’s nice of you to say Robert, but we’re actually a bunch of suckers, who bought our tickets at the beginning of the season, but just haven’t been showing up to most of the games.  You probably didn’t notice because you’re just excited to be getting minutes in the NBA, let alone for the Lakers.

As for the Clippers, they are gearing up for the playoffs, and have the #3 seed locked up in the Western Conference.  The Clipp Show will match up against either Dallas or Golden State in round 1, but it probably won’t matter, as they’ll likely dispatch of them quickly.  The real test will begin in round 2 vs Oklahoma City, which we got a taste of last week.  The Clipps came up on the short end, but LA has to like its chances if Blake Griffin keeps elevating his game.  Speaking of Blake, he will likely get screwed out of a 1st team all NBA selection, since you can only vote for two forwards and 1 center.  That means Lebron James and Kevin Durant will take it, and the center will go to Joakim Noah or Dwight Howard.  How does the NBA let the fans vote for 3 front court players of any kind for the all-star game, but not for its all NBA selections?  Blake is clearly an MVP candidate this year, and should be a first team all NBA player.

To the ice, where the Kings are ready for their playoff matchup with the Sharks this week.  LA won’t have the benefit of home ice against San Jose this year, but something tells me they won’t need it.  The Kings forwards are far bigger, and more physical than the Sharks defense, and I expect LA to impose their will several times.  The Kings will also have a huge advantage in goal, not just because they have the new Jennings Trophy Winner, Jonathan Quick, but because Anti Niemi has been pretty crappy of late.

The Ducks managed to clinch the top seed in the west, with a shootout victory over the Kings on Saturday.  I don’t see Anaheim getting upset in the first round this year, with their matchup against Dallas.  The Ducks are simply too skilled, and too talented, to get upset in the early going.  Great to see Teemu Selanne get a nice farewell tour in his last regular season game yesterday against the Avs.  Selanne’s role has diminished quite a bit this year, however, he deserves to be honored for his brilliant career.  Although Teemu has become the Brett Favre of hockey with his constant retirement talk, part of me wants to see him have some playoff success in his last year, because he just seems like a pretty good dude.

Game of Thrones and Mad Men are on DVR.  Boy do I have a lot of TV to catch up on!

April 7th, 2014

The start of the 2014 baseball season has a similar feel to it as last season for the Dodgers.  Despite last night’s win, the Boys in Blue came out of this weekend black and blue from their battle with their hated rivals, the San Francisco Giants.  LA lost two out of three.  Pitching is supposed to be the Dodgers strength, but Hyun-Jin Ryu was sliced and diced like sashimi on Friday, and Paul Maholm got knocked around like a battered housewife on Saturday.  Some early injuries combined with that trip to Australia, could make this a very slow slow start for LA.  It’s no wonder the Dodger players were bitching about the trip to Australia.  The trip gave Clayton Kershaw a back injury, which he’ll need a month to recover from.  It gave reliever Brian Wilson and elbow injury, and it clearly fatigued Ryu.  On top of that, Josh Beckett can’t even walk through the clubhouse without slamming his thumb in a door, adding to the injury woes.

Then there’s Yasiel Puig.  As great as this dude is, he’s got more drama surrounding him than a high school teenage girl.  He shows up late on opening day and gets benched, then suffers an injury the next day, and earlier in the week was calling team meetings to ask his teammates how he can be better.  I’m suddenly getting “Puig fatigue” from this circus.  This whole week is just more proof that the Dodgers need not 4, but 5 solid outfielders on their roster.  You never know what the Puig circus brings, nobody really knows if Matt Kemp can stay health and beast like he used to, Andre Ethier can’t hit lefties, and Carl Crawford is still pretty fragile.  In any case, there’s plenty of at bats for all of these guys, but hopefully they start making the most of them, or the Dodgers will be playing catch up in the division against the Giants.

As for the Angels, I’m thinking they should have been the team to sign a new cable deal, so that 70% of their fans couldn’t watch their horrendous games.  I realize “it’s early”, but I also said this after seeing the same crap early on the last two seasons.  After 6 games, the Halos are already in last place in the AL West, and their team ERA is in the bottom third in major league baseball.  It’s one thing for the back of the rotation and the bullpen to stink, but if Jared Weaver and CJ Wilson are going to get lit up, then the Halos season will be over by the end of the month.  The pitching isn’t the only problem either.  Albert Pujols and David Freese have yet to produce at the plate, and to really rub salt in the wound, Mark Trumbo leads the majors in home runs and RBI’s in Arizona.  Sorry Angel fans, we’ve seen this movie before, and it doesn’t have a happy ending.

On to the NBA, where it baffles me why ESPN and TNT continue to put the Lakers on national television, when the team is nothing more than a pile of bird crap.  The Lake Show got dominated once again by the Clippers yesterday at Staples Center, 120-97  The Clippers need to finish the season strong, to be sure they maintain at least the #3 seed in the West.  If the Clippers were to fall to the 4th seed, they would likely face San Antonio in the second round of the playoffs, and probably get taken to school.   The Clipps stand a much better chance against Oklahoma City in round 2, and might even get lucky, and have Houston knock out the Spurs before the Western Conference Finals.  Then again, Tim Duncan will probably make Dwight Howard cry before that series is over, so it’s probably wishful thinking.  Good thing the Clippers have another week to get Jamal Crawford and Danny Granger healthy.

As for the Lakers, they have just over a week left in their disastrous season.  With only 5 games left, LA will be very fortunate to finish with the 5th worst record in all of basketball.  It’s a virtual certainty that the Lakers won’t finish with a worse record than Boston, Orlando, Philadelphia, or Milwaukee.  However, their battle with Utah in a week will be critical for lottery position.  This means the Lakers will have to get lucky in order to get one of the top 3 picks in the draft.  Off the floor, most season ticket holders should be outraged at the fact that the Lakers are asking for renewal payments in mid May this year.  This is even before the lottery, before free agency, and possibly in the midst of a coaching search.  Usually, these payments happen in July, so the fans have even more to complain about, in addition to Jimmy Buss.

Yesterday, JR Smith broke the NBA record for 3 pointers attempted in a game, with 22.  Honestly, I’m shocked that it took him this long to attain the record.

On to the ice, where the Kings have clinched a playoff spot, but have lost their last two games.  With 5 games left, this is the point of the season, where I’m going to be unhappy with the results whatever happens.  If the Kings are winning these meaningless games, I’m going to be wonder if they are peaking too soon.  If they lose these games, I’m going to be pissed because they aren’t building enough momentum for the playoffs.  These last 5 games also make me extremely nervous that some of LA’s key players could go down with some injuries, which nearly happened when Drew Doughty suffered a shoulder injury the other night.  Fortunately, the injury wasn’t serious.  What was amazing Saturday, was the fact Slava Voynov scored.  The last time that happened, Malaysian plans were still landing at their destinations.  This Matt Greene injury looked painful…

Meanwhile, the Ducks have two games in hand on the San Jose Sharks, so they will probably hold them off to finish 1st in the Pacific Division.  However, this team has looked very unimpressive the last 3 games.  They were down 4-0 against Winnipeg, and needed a miraculous rally to win.  They needed to rally from 2 goals down to beat the Oilers, and they got destroyed by Nashville, then lost to the Oilers last night.  The Ducks aren’t going to be able to come from behind against playoff teams.  We’ve seen this time and time again from Bruce Boudreau’s teams: amazing regular seasons, followed by late season collapses and playoff failures.  I’m not saying this is going to be another year of the same story, but I’m saying it might be another year of the same story.

Kentucky vs UConn?  Yes, I’m sure we all had that in our brackets.  I’m taking the Wild Cats tonight.  Shabazz Napier has been phenomenal, but the Kentucky freshman have been gelling at the right time, and I trust the experience of John Calipari over Kevin Ollie.

And finally, the season four premier of Game of Thrones took place last night on HBO.  Spoiler alert for those of you who have not seen it yet.  To recap quickly, Tywin Lannister begins the episode by melting Valerian steel onto a sword.  We learn that this sword belonged to Robb Stark, who was murdered in the last season.  Jamie Lannister’s ability to remain in the Kings Guard is questioned by Tywin and King Joffrey.  Cersei is angry with Jamie for leaving her for so long.  Sansa is still miserable, and a maid discovers there is drama between Tyrion and Shae, and the maid reports this back to Cersei.  In the north, the wildlings are planning to march on Castle Black, and we are introduced to the Thenns, who are cannibals.  Jon Snow faced some type of discipline for his actions, but is spared his life.  Daario tries to get back into Khaleesi’s good graces, and Arya gets revenge by killing the man who killed her friend, with the help of The Hound.

It’s great to have the show back.  This episode really made the viewer have to re-evaluate where all the threats to the Lannister’s empire were coming from.  Interestingly enough, there aren’t too many people in the Lannister family that can see these threats, other than maybe Tyrion.  The threats seem so far away at this point, that its very difficult to see how this is going to play out.  Khaleesi seems a world away from everyone, and Stanis Baratheon doesn’t even have an army anymore.  I often struggle to follow what is going on in the North, but that also seems like a world away, so it’s hard to even imagine a war taking place with the Lannisters and the far North.  It’s a great start to the season, and looking forward to the next episode.

March 31st, 2014

The Bruins got exactly what they paid for in Steve Alford.  They got a Sweet 16 appearance, and no further.  Not too long ago, it was Steve Lavin who was delivering such consistent mediocrity.  Just a few years later, another Steve has been hired, and the mediocrity is back.  Of course UCLA rolled over the #12 and #13 seeds to get there, before once again, getting owned by Florida.  The Bruins defense was completely non-existent, Alford made no halftime adjustments, and his rotations were completely bizarre.  The Bruins closed within a point of the Gators, and Alford pulled out Kyle Anderson, his best player, in favor of his son, Bryce.  This is exactly why Alford gets no credit from me.  He’s playing with Ben Howland’s recruits, and when he had the chance to take the Bruins to the next level, he reverted back to the coach we all knew he was: A post season underachiever.

Now, for the next few months you’ll get to hear things like, “wait until Alford gets his own recruits in there, and the program will really take off!”  That’s gonna be tough now that Zach Lavine and Kyle Anderson are leaving for the NBA, and the Wear Twins are graduating.  Alford’s “own recruits” will mostly consist of his two kids getting more playing time, which should keep the Bruin basketball program from being elite anytime soon.  Say what you will about how Lavine not being ready for the NBA, however, he knows it’s going to be hard for him to develop with Steve Alford playing his son more minutes than him for the next few years.  In any case, the NBA and the NCAA need to agree to increase the age limit for kids to turn pro.  It will only improve the NBA game, and the college game.  I’m not sure it will help Steve Alford be a better coach though.

On to baseball, where the Dodgers had their season opener in the U.S. last night, and boy was it disappointing.  The Boys in Blue wasted a perfectly good performance by Hyun-Jin Ryu, and lost to the Padres 3-1 at Petco Park.  Not only did Ryu pitch well, but so did every other Dodger pitcher, except Brian Wilson.  Wilson might have left his game in Australia last week, but hopefully he’ll figure it out soon, since LA is paying him $10 million this year.  Wilson isn’t even the biggest pitching concern LA has right now, as their ace Clayton Kershaw is on the disabled list for the first time in his career.  Even if this seems like a minor injury, any time your $215 million pitcher gets a scratch on him, Jock Talk LA is going to freak out.  If you just bought a Ferrari, and it got just a small scratch in it during the first week you owned it, you’d be pissed.  The Dodgers can’t be happy their new Ferrari just got dinged up.

As for the Angels, they have several reasons to celebrate on the eve of their season opener against Seattle.  First, they finally locked up Mike Trout, to a 6 year, $144.5 million contract.  This is a great deal for both sides, and if anyone tells you otherwise, they need their head examined.  Mike Trout has now guaranteed himself more than $145 million for the next 7 years, regardless of whether he gets hurt or not.  He also sets up himself up for another massive payday at 29 years of age, when he can become a free agent again.  The Angels get themselves some cost certainty, and don’t have to worry about hurting Trout’s feelings in arbitration hearings for the next 7 years.  As if that isn’t exciting enough, the Halos released pitcher Joe Blanton, who has been complete garbage for more than a year.  This guys fast ball wouldn’t get a speeding ticket on the highway right now, and he was simply too much of a liability to put on the mound.  The city of Anaheim should be throwing a parade for the Blanton news alone.

Let’s go the NBA, where the Lakers are finding all kinds of new ways to disappoint their fans.  The Lake Show continues to win meaningless games, and hurt their draft status, as they have now have only the 7th worst record in the NBA.  What the hell are these guys doing?  Mike D’Antoni is probably telling his players “ok guys, let’s just keeping winning these games.  It will be great for morale, even though none of us will be here next year!”  On the bright side, Laker fans must be thrilled at the fact Marshall contacted D’Antoni recently about their vacant head coaching spot.  I was so excited when I heard this, I will even volunteer to pack D’Antoni’s things, and drive him to the airport as well.

With the Lakers visiting the Timberwolves earlier in the week, Kevin Love was again a hot topic.  ESPN’s Marc Stein reported that the Lakers will try to flip their lottery pick this summer, in a package for Love.  If this is true, this would be a terrible decision.  The Lakers are more than one player away from winning a championship, and more than one year away too.  With that being said, acquiring Kevin Love and pairing him with Kobe might improve the team, but not enough to be a championship contender.  LA desperately needs young talent, so keep the pick, then try to find other assets to trade for Love.  Besides, if he really wants to come to LA,  he can sign here as a free agent in the summer of 2015, and the Lakers don’t have to give up any assets.

As for the Clippers, they got a big scare on Saturday night when Blake Griffin left the game with back spasms. Griffin has been an MVP candidate this season, and the Clipps have no chance in the playoffs without him.  Actually….nevermind.  They have no chance in the playoffs with him either.

The Kings are on fire right now.  Winners of 6 straight games, as well as 8 in a row on the road, which ties a franchise record.  Frankly, I’m surprised the Kings aren’t British, because they have completely owned Canada all season long.  LA isn’t likely to move up or down in their last few games of the regular season, so Anaheim and San Jose are battling hard to win the division, and avoid the Kings in the 1st round.  Anybody see Jonathan Quick’s “scorpion save” on Saturday night? Wow was this a thing of beauty…..

And finally, the season finale of the Walking Dead took place last night.  This episode kept me on the edge of my seat, and was exciting and terrifying at the same time.  To recap quickly: Daryl’s new crew holds Rick and Michonne at gunpoint, and they threaten to rape Carl.  Daryl tries to save them by telling the captors they are “good people”.  The crew doesn’t care, and they start beating Daryl.  Before they can beat him to death Rick snaps, grapples with his captor, then bites right through the guys jugular zombie style.  While everyone else is shocked in disbelief, Michonne grabs her captors gun, and shoots him.  Rick then stabs Carl’s captor.  The next morning, Rick, Michonne, Carl, and Daryl go to Terminus, and it’s exactly what most viewers predict: a cannibal fortress.  The crew eventually realizes this, and tries to run, but eventually they are captured.  The episode ends with the four of them placed into confinement with Glenn, Maggie, and the other group of survivors.

This episode symbolized the re-birth of Rick.  Honestly, prior to this episode, I felt like the show could stand to lose Rick, because the strength of his character was fading.  However, he showed he was willing to go to whatever lengths necessary to protect Carl, Michonne, and Daryl.  He suddenly transformed into the bloody, ruthless hero, that is necessary to survive in this world.  After discovering that Terminus is a place of cannibalism, I think the one thing that is very clear after four seasons is that there is no sanctuary in the world of The Walking Dead.  There was no sanctuary in Woodbury, at the Prison, or even that research center at the end of the first season.  It’s presumed that Tyreese, Carol, and Judith are still on the road, and I suspect they will eventually meet back up with Rick and his crew if and when they manage to escape Terminus.  I’m still not really sure about the fate of Beth though.  It appeared as though her character was building quickly, but it may have been to make her death more dramatic.  The answers won’t come until the fall, but I am excited for Season 5!