Last season during the Stanley Cup Playoffs, I put out a morning “noteworthy” column in the style of Trey Kerby’s “Things Of Note” posts on The Basketball Jones. This year I’ll be doing something similar (I think with some upgrades on my own previous attempts) using the NHL’s morning press release (“Stanley Cup of Joe,” they’re calling it), my own opinions, and some videos, .GIFs and appropriate pictures. Quoted passages are from the NHL press release.

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Surprising

Last night the Detroit Red Wings took down the Chicago Blackhawks for a second straight game to move ahead 2-1 in the series.

Viktor Stalberg almost died

Or at least almost ended up paralyzed. He managed to play nearly 10 minutes in the contest, which isn’t so bad considering this happened on his first shift: Read the rest of this entry »

Miguel Cabrera is on a quite a tear as the second month of the 2013 season winds down. Last year’s American League Triple Crown winner is currently hitting .387/.457/.659 with 11 home runs and a .471 wOBA. It goes without saying, Cabrera is the best all-around hitter in the game today.

A former great, one with seven National League MVP awards to his credit, would agree that Cabrera is the best player in the game. It’s not even close, as Barry Bonds told USA Today‘s Bob Nightengale in a phone interview on Monday. Bonds just asks that we don’t get carried away and start comparing Cabrera to himself. There’s no argument to be made there, according to Bonds.

“He’s definitely the best. It’s not rocket science here. He’s the best. By far. Without a doubt. The absolute best. I don’t try to compare me to anybody. I was the best on the field. I did more things than he did. My game was different than his game. So comparing him, to me, there’s no comparison.

He doesn’t have my MVPs. He doesn’t have my numbers. Well, not yet, anyways. But does he have that ability? Yes, he does. Does he have that gift? Yes, he does.”

Read the rest of this entry »

Social media integration, y’all — the Cavs done have it. From Cavs.com:

Last Friday, May 17th, [Cavs owner Dan] Gilbert put out the call to his @cavsdan Twitter followers to produce and tweet a :30 second or less original video that creatively expressed why they should travel with him to New York for the lottery proceedings and help represent the Cavaliers. @RoyTateMoore did just that with a winning submission that demonstrated his positive karma to prove that he is “one lucky dude.” Below is the winning video @RoyTateMoore submitted. “I am so excited and thankful for this amazing opportunity. I can’t wait to be a part of this night and help represent the Cavaliers with Dan and Nick,” said Moore.

Between this kid and Lucky Nick Gilbert, the swaggiest bro of our generation, the Cavs are basically guaranteed to win the top pick this year. All they need now is a Greek in a shower and it’s a guaranteed victory.

(via Ananth Pandian)

Tony Pulis set to leave Stoke City #scfc. More details later

— John Percy (@John__Percy) May 21, 2013

That’s from the Telegraph’s man in the Midlands. Already the Twitter machine is awash in debate over just what the hell Stoke are up to. While people generally maintain Pulis’ 4-5-1, physical mid, banging up balls to a tall centre-forward approach was a choice demanded by pragmatism and necessity, the tactic was always one option among several. Pulis spent years fashioning Stoke in the image of the game he knew best. It’s hard to imagine another side that would welcome Ryan Shawcross and Dean Whitehead with open arms.

The thing is, Stoke is now modelled on Pulis’ approach, and the major question is if the club can withstand a significant change in footballing style without ushering out a core group of players and buying new ones. And if they want to maintain those wet nights at Stoke, who could fill Pulis’ shoes? Even Big Sam doesn’t play that game any more…

After weeks of virtually nothing happening, the Bryan Colangelo saga and ensuing search for a possible replacement has really ramped up this long weekend. With today being the deadline for Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment to make a decision on Colangelo, we seem to be reaching a climax…

The MLSE had been negotiating with Raptors president Bryan Colangelo over weekend on a return in a “significant” capacity, sources tell Y!

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojYahooNBA) May 20, 2013

The MLSE remains in full pursuit of Denver GM Masai Ujiri to assume full control of Raptors, sources tell Y!

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojYahooNBA) May 20, 2013

Colangelo’s finalizing agreement to move over to business side, leaving basketball ops. Ownership preparing major financial offer for Ujiri.

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojYahooNBA) May 20, 2013

(My favourite part of this is Woj referring to MLSE as “The” MLSE like The Iron Sheik would)

Read the rest of this entry »

Remember earlier this morning when I wrote about the great Rob Gronkowski problem of 2013? Now that his fourth forearm surgery is officially scheduled for next week, there was optimism that he’ll be fine for your fantasy drafts in August. Even though there’s still significant risk that comes with a Gronk pick, it’s balanced by the far more significant reward.

Yeah, about that.

Read the rest of this entry »

It’s times like these when sports and social media come together to make something awesome happen. Pro Golfer, rapper and avid Twitter user Ben Crane is participating in the HP Byron Nelson Championship and decided to give his regular caddy a day off and look for a replacement on Twitter:

Thinking of giving my caddy @joelstock the day off tomorrow at the HP Byron Nelson Champ ProAm. Anyone want to carry my bag for the day?

— Ben Crane (@bencranegolf) May 14, 2013

He got some good responses, but in the end, Twitter user Morgan Johnson, a former ACU golfer who was celebrating his birthday won.

@bencranegolf former acu golfer. Just graduated from college and live in Rowlett. Oh and my birthday is tomorrow. #caddyforcrane

— Morgan Johnson (@MojoGolfNG360) May 14, 2013

The pic and the tweet to prove it.

New tagline for @twitter: “Instantly connect to what’s most important to you…& hire a ProAm caddy” @mojogolfng360 twitter.com/bencranegolf/s…

— Ben Crane (@bencranegolf) May 15, 2013

During my summers off while I was in university, I had a range of horrible jobs: laborer at a gun factory, framer for a residential development, junior member of a concrete cutting crew. During breaks from the often exhausting and always demoralizing duties, I would sit around with the other workers, and together, we’d remind ourselves of the virtues of working with our hands and being able to work toward a visible accomplishment on a day-to-day basis.

While there is certainly some merit to believing such traits to be beneficial, we mostly elevated the glory of our menial tasks for the purpose of justifying our current state and forgetting the bad decisions that led us to physical labor as a livelihood. In addition to fooling ourselves in this manner, we’d mock office workers, imagining their professions to be less honorable than our own.

“How can they feel any measure of self-worth?” we’d ask ourselves.

Ten years later, as part of my job, I would embed a YouTube clip of a Callaway Golf executive putting a golf ball down two sets of staggered stairs and into a cup. If my former co-workers could only see me now.

A seat at the 19th hole for Shane Bacon of the Devil Ball golf blog.