ESPN’s new SportsCenter segment “Who’s Now” is trying to determine the current biggest sports athlete. This sounds like a good and interesting i
dea, but ESPN has done a terrible job creating the bracket and America voting. The way the voting works is three sports analysts each give their selection for the individual match up and that represents 30% of the vote. The other 70% is left up to the fans. In the bracket, there are four regions with each one named for one of the best individual sports athletes ever (Michael Jordan, Muhammad Ali, Billie Jean King, and Babe Ruth). The rankings in each division go as follows: Continue reading “Who’s Now? America Doesn’t Know”
Category NHL
Let the Off Season Begin
As the NHL off-season begins, teams have been quick to jump on marquee free agents, especially the New York Rangers. On the first day of free agency, Glen Sather (GM of the Rangers) signed Scott Gomez and Chris Drury to a seven-year, $51.5 million deal and a five-year, $35.25 million deal respectively. Both are tremendous players with Stanley Cup experience and will make a huge impact immediately. These two terrific acquisitions make the Rangers a favorite for the Stanley Cup next year. Yet, the amount of money and the length of these contracts are astounding. Gomez had 60 points last year, and is entering his prime, but the Rangers are going to be paying for a long time. For over seven million a year, Gomez better have a phenomenal season. The same can be said for Drury who is also making over seven million dollars a year for the next few years. Whether the money is worth it or not, both Gomez and Drury will make huge contributions to the Rangers next year. Though their defense may have its holes, the offense does not as New York now has two of the game’s premiere centers to accompany stars Jaromir Jagr and Brendan Shanahan (if they re-sign him). That has to be considered the best offense in the NHL. With Hendrik Lundqvist in between the posts, this team looks like the top of the league going into the 2007-2008 season. Continue reading “Let the Off Season Begin”
Alfredsson Deserves a Suspension
Though I’m not an NHL fan, the Red Sox did not play until late last night and the NBA Finals don’t start until Thursday, so I was left watching Game 4 between the Ottawa Senators and the Anaheim Ducks. The Ducks thoroughly dominated the second period and were leading by a goal with about two minutes remaining. The Senators got a late goal from Dany Heatley and found themselves going into the third period tied. Unfortunately, an idiotic play by Ottawa captain Daniel Alfredsson gave much of the momentum to the Ducks. With mere seconds left to play in the period, Alfredsson held the puck in the neutral zone with no chance of scoring. Instead of taking a last second shot like most players would, Alfredsson turned toward Ducks captain Scott Niedermayer and drilled the puck directly at him. The puck ricocheted off Niedermayer’s leg. Anaheim players immediately noticed this and started going after the Ottawa captain. My questions is: What in the world would make Alfredsson that? His team had been dominated throughout the period, yet they had managed a late goal to even the score. They had all the momentum. All the Senators had to do was finish the period strong and get off the ice. Alfredsson couldn’t do that. To make matters worse, he is the Senators captain and is the last player anyone would expect to do such a thing. Alfredsson deserves a one game suspension for this ridiculous, unsportsmanlike act. Duck player Chris Pronger was suspended for the game for an elbow to Dean McAmmond in Game 3 and if Pronger’s play deserved a suspension, so does Alfredsson. Enough said. Cheap shots do not belong in sports in any way and I cannot think of a worse time for Alfredssson to pull one.
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Danny Vinik 