Sports Time....

Okay, foodies, take a seat.

Most of the available eating/dining time over the weekend was taken up with watching bouncing orange balls (the threeeeeeeeee balllllllllll). The only homage to food was First Friday in Leonardtown (a growing “must” on your monthly calendar) with gallery browsing, wine sipping, live music listening, and whatever level of dining suits your fancy. MFO and I wound up with a couple of offerings from the “hot dog guy”.

Anyway, after that, our Saturday morning was spent in the garden beds by the gray lagoon, terminating the lives of some very vigorous weeds, and generally sprucing things up. Kind of rewarding work. Then in the pm, I went down and “chapel sat” at historic St. Mary’s City. I enjoy that a lot. You never know who’s going to come through the doors, what their interest is, and how much they want to hear. Once again, I reiterate that if you have not seen the reconstructed Brick Chapel of 1667, you should. Besides, the City relies in good part on admissions. There’s a lot of other stuff to see as well.

So after being a decent docent, I zipped home and settled down to watch the first of the two men’s basketball semi finals, probably the about my third favorite sporting event to watch. What followed was a couple of hours of agony as I watched my Spartans turn the ball over 16 times (resulting in 20 points), and lose (by two) to a team that shot 30% and couldn’t score a field goal for 10 minutes of the second half. I will freely admit that the Spartans probably shouldn’t have been there, but they sure went out on a low note. Now the media darlings, the Butler Bulldogs find themselves in a game for the national championship. Oh, in case you haven’t heard it a million times already they are only 6 miles from their campus!! Zowie. How cute! The second game which should have been the marquee game turned into a blowout as the Dukies sent the mountaineers home with their tail between their legs. As I write this before tonight’s game, I can see the headlines either way: “Butler completes a story book season undefeated and wins the National Title!”. (and what exactly is a mid major anyway?) Or, “After a drought of (N) years, Coach K returns Duke to glory!”. Pick your poison.

Yesterday saw the same evolution on the distaff side with Stanford overcoming a plucky Oklahoma team, and Connecticut marching inevitably on to their National Championship (most likely). That Brittney Griner is certainly worth watching, but one can’t beat five. One report I saw included "The Huskies get a real scare!" Five points up with a long time to play? I don't think so. Anyway, I’ve sort of come to grips with an issue I’ve had for a long time with women’s “basketball”. I am not trying to get into trouble with this, but the ice may be getting thinner. There is such a disparity between the level of play of the men’s and women’s game that maybe I have to stop “comparing” them and judge each on their own merits. A player missing an uncontested layup, or shooting an airball from 6 feet, or can’t make a third attempt at tipping in a rebound is just part of that game. So what? Final scores of 90’s to 30’s? Part of the game. And I certainly can’t deny that there are opportunities for a college education that might otherwise not exist.

And why the networks arrange to have tonight’s game TIP at 9:20 is obvious, but geez, I guess I’ll have to record it...gimme a break. Oh, and I won't get into those inane "on court" interviews.. "what did you tell your team...." gag.

Then on top of that, this morning we get the news that the Eagles are casting off their quarterback of many years and he’s heading here. The Redskin circus continues – get your super bowl tickets now! Again. I really feel sorry for Jason Campbell who’s had to play behind an offensive line that is as porous as a sieve, suffered a different coach almost every year, and pretty much acted civilly will most likely be sent packing. Good luck Donovan, keep those feet moving kid, they’ll be chasing you all over the field.

And lastly I watched the “Tiger” news conference today. I am not sure what to think. He certainly answered (for the most part) every question, seemed very sincere, and appears to be relieved to get back to playing golf. I suppose there are those that will believe this is just another sham, he’s playing a role, but I would hope not. I have in the past joined the Tiger Bashers for all his fist pumping, and stoney faced play, but he did make a remark about no more outbursts for bad play (although watching a lip read F bomb was sort of pleasing) and toned down exuberance. We’ll see. Does he deserve a “second chance”? Maybe. Will there always be the unspoken asterisk on his records? Maybe. I’m rooting for Lefty (ha ha) or Freddie this weekend.

Okay enough blabbing, will get back to food next..at least so I can us my favorite tag line

DFD