My Predictions Were A Little Off

I pretty much went 1-fer on my predictions last night.

First to the ponies. I guess the odds makers do know what they are doing when handicapping horses. Odds-on-favorite Street Sense came back from 19th place after a quarter mile to win the Running of the Roses. We ended up watching the race at a bar that had 19 patrons, bartenders and wait staff. Each of us threw a dollar into the pool and selected a horse, based solely on name. Because of a name resembling hometown hero Carmelo Anthony, I took Stormello, who had a great early showing. Stormello was running strong early, in 4th place after a quarter-mile, only to finish out of the money. Actually none of the horses I predicted here finished in the money. In case you were curious, the 1 horse nobody selected (19 patrons, 20 horses) was the commonly named Sam P.

Next to the NBA Playoffs where I aptly stated that the Rockets would win because of "Too much T-Mac, not enough Boozer." Well I think Boozer's 35/14/5 kinda set me straight. Not that T Mac didn't show up (29/5/13), but he is going home again after just one round.

==The Fight to Save Boxing==
(Written in third person, as a tribute to the champ, Floyd Maywhether)
Strike Em Out, Throw Em Out (SEO, TEO) watched the De la Hoya-Mayweather fight last night and only agreed with one of the judges. SEO, TEO felt De La Hoya out boxed Mayweather and should have retained his title. SEO, TEO thinks that the fight was only mildly entertaining, and if it was supposed to save boxing on its own merit then the sport is doomed. What boxing needs is a big time Heavyweight to come in and rule the world. These smaller guys are fast and entertaining but chicks dig the long ball and KOs. The Oscar-Floyd fight needed someone to hit the canvas, or a rapid series of punches to make the fight worth the $55 PPV price.

SEO, TEO is convinced that even more entertaining than the fight was Floyd Mayweather Sr. SEO, TEO thought that Alien vs Predator was a ficticous action movie (that SEO, TEO actually never saw) but after seeing Floyd Sr in the ring with Larry Merchant after the fight, SEO, TEO is convinced that aliens have descended onto our planet.

A good conversation started brewing during the fight about the best Mike Tyson's Punchout character. Strike Em Out, Throw Em Out was a big fan of King Hippo. Sure, easy to beat, but the look on his face when he was jabbed in the stomach was priceless. Add in the fact that his fat ass could stand after getting knocked down once makes King Hippo the "Official MTPO Character of Strike Em Out, Throw Em Out."

==NBA Semis Predictions==
(Back to first person, that was tiring and gave me a headache)
East:
Pistons over Bulls in 6. This would have been my prediction before game 1, but the 95-68 thumping that Denver native Chauncey Billups (20 pts) and the rest of the Pistons put on the Baby Bulls just solidified my prediction.

Cavs over Nets in 6. I love watching the Nets play. Jason Kidd just makes his team better, which is saying a lot when you have greats like Vince and Jefferson on the court, but I think that LeBron and the Cavs will just be too much for New Jersey. The Cavs have been resting up after their first round series sweep, while the Nets just got out of an emotional, hard fought 6 game set against Toronto. I think that fresh legs and LeBron will make the NBA yell "Cleveland Rocks!"

West:
Suns over Spurs in 7. I think home court advantage is what will sway this series. Steve Nash is the most exciting player in the NBA and his supporting cast will help guide the Suns to the Conference Finals. Here is the one guarantee, if the scores are in the 80s and 90s, the Spurs will win the series. If the Suns can get out and run and winning scores are in triple-digits then Phoenix will advance.

Golden State over Utah in 5. Both teams are coming off of tough series, GS beating the Mavs in 6 and Utah finishing off Houston in 7, but I think that the "gun-and-gun" Warriors will be able to out pace the Jazz and head to the Conference Finals. This series doesn't tip-off until Monday, giving Baron Davis an additional day to heal his hammy.

By the way, if my Western Conference picks are correct, the Conference Finals will be some of the most entertaining games in recent history, with scores barreling into the mid 100s.

==MLB Wrap Up==
The Cardinals should start looking for delivery rates for their championship trophy, since it won't be staying in St Louis another year. After losing to the Astros 13-0 on Saturday the Cardinals learned that Chris Carpenter will be out 3 months. Hey, at least Mark Mulder will have a canasta companion on the DL.

Chien-Ming Wang takes a perfect game into the 8th for the first decent Yankee outing of the year. But with one swing of Ben Broussard's bat, the perfect game, no hitter, and shut out were all lost. (This is my second consecutive Yankee posting. Not sure why. I have no bias towards or against them, they have just been in the news the past two days.)

On a local note, it is good to see Todd Helton climb up to second in the the NL batting race, hitting a Helton-esq .390

==Chasing the Record==
While that one guy hit a baseball pretty far to move one step closer to the all-time record for balls hit pretty far, Matt Capps did not record a Hold. In fact Capps actually got roughed up for the first time all season giving up 2 ER while only tossing 5 pitches without recording an out. Capps is still at 10 holds on his way to breaking the record of 36 set last year.

==NHL Playoffs==
As far as I know they are still going on. I have not heard anything to the contrary. If I am mistaken, please leave a comment.

Taking the bike out for a spin,
- SEO, TEO