Sports thoughts

1) Maybe I miss the 90's and early 2000 brand of baseball. It seems like the hitters today are at a severe disadvantage. Teams have a much harder time scoring runs.

2) Why did the Marlins hire Jack McKeon? He's too old to be an effective major league manager at age 80. Give the job to someone younger, please. I don't want to see anyone over 65 manage if possible.

3) The Jack McKeon story, broken by the four letter word that controls sports today, is a good example of why I try to ignore them and their opinions. Some of their "experts" think that McKeon is good for the Marlins. I disagree. We need to get rid of these older east coast white sports analysts who miss the good old days of the 70's and 80's.

4) San Francisco is really good and they could repeat if they can add one or two bats in the next month. Their pitching is amazing. Boring to watch, but effective enough to win today.

Nucks another 94 Sonics

After watching the Canucks lose tonight against the Boston Bruins, I see Vancouver as the 1994 Seattle Sonics, a good regular season team who will lose in the playoffs. They have an ordinary coach and an ordinary goaltender in Roberto Luongo, whom the Canadians see as Patrick Roy rather than a decent goalie who can be beat. I would love to see the Blackhawks face them in the first round again and see Chicago beat Vancouver.

Northwest Teams just not elite

In my humble opinion, the two good basketball teams in the State of Washington, Washington and Gonzaga, are good not great and will never go to the Final Four as long as Lorenzo Romar and Mark Few are coaching. They don't seem to have the fire or spark necessary to win the big road game, that all good teams do, as part of being championship caliber teams. In a state like Washington, we need all of the advantages possible in order to win. I really think that Romar should have been criticized more intensely for losing last Saturday at Arizona. He should OWN the Pac-10 and his team has let the Wildcats pass them as the Best in the West.

Getting to Gonzaga, Sam Dower is a good player who deserves more playing time and should be ahead of Robert Sacre and Steven Gray, seniors who aren't as good as their predecessors. That's why St. Mary's may pass Gonzaga in the WCC.

Champs

The Chicago BlackHawks won the Stanley Cup tonight in Philadelphia, 4-3 in overtime. What a great game and great feeling for the Hawks and the fans of Chicago.