Random Musings

Here are a few random thoughts from the past few days in sports:

• The Penguins 4-2 victory in Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Finals last night will hopefully add some juice to the series. The NHL Playoffs had seemingly peaked a few weeks ago at the conclusion of the 2nd round with three great 7-game series and an equally entertaining 6-game series. The conference finals and the first 2 Stanley Cup Final games had been lacking drama and been somewhat anti-climatic. Game 3 was an entertaining, back and forth game and it at least gives the impression that the outcome of the series is in doubt. The Penguins netted 2 power play goals and rode their raucous home crowd to the big victory. Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby even got on the scoring sheet for the first time this series with 3 assists and 1 assist respectively. If the Pens can win Game 4 on Thursday night to tie the series, we should be headed for a quite a finish to the series.
• Mark Teixeira caused a bit of ruckus last night during the Rangers-Yankees game when he threw a hissy fit after being hit by a pitch for the 2nd time of the game by Rangers pitcher Vicente Padilla. Teixeira thought it was intentional and proceeded to stare and jaw at Padilla before finally walking to 1st base. Teixeira, noticeably agitated, then broke up a potential double play by sliding hard into shortshop Elvis Andrus. While I would usually encourage plays like that, Teixeira's slide was borderline dirty. This was now the 2nd time in the past few weeks that Teixeira had a temper tantrum. He was upset when Carlos Gomez of the Twins made contact with his arm on a couple of plays at first base. How dare anyone make contact with the immortal Mark Teixeira. Do Padilla and Gomez know that Teixeira will be making $180 million over the next 8 years? I also love Teixeira's postgame quote last night when he said "We did the talking with our bats." Not really Mark since you were talking trash at Padilla as soon as you were hit. Teixeira has quickly blended in with New York to become an easily hateable Yankee.
• The semifinals of the French Open are set with Roger Federer being the only one of tennis's Big Four remaining. Federer has now reached the semifinals in 20 consecutive grand slam tournaments which is an extraordinary achievement and one of many reasons that I believe he is the greatest player of all-time. Federer had an easier than anticipated match with Gael Monfils in the quartefinals and will play Juan Martin Del Potro in the semifinals, a guy who he has dominated in the past. Federer has won all 12 sets he has ever played against Del Potro including the 6-3, 6-0, 6-0 whipping he administered in the quarterfinals of this year's Australian Open. With the other semifinal featuring surprising Robin Soderling and Fernando Gonzalez, Federer has an excellent chance of completing the career Grand Slam and tying Sampras' career grand slam record of 14 titles. A Sunday morning championship match at Roland Garros with Roger Federer seeking history would be must-see television for even casual sports fans.