This year has certainly brought its share of surprises. I don’t know if they did the same to you, but here are ten things that caught me off-guard.

Chicago Blackhawks and Boston Bruins: Okay, am I dreaming or what? Neither of these teams could do anything right over the last decade or so and now the Blackhawks are in the playoff hunt and the Bruins are at the top of their division! Got to love long time AHL goalie Tim Thomas who made it to the bigs just a few seasons ago with the Bruins. He’s one guy who has gotten better with age.

Continue reading “What I’m Surprised By” →

I’m what I would call an enthusiastic amateur horseplayer. I absolutely love going to the races, and I love the puzzle that races present, but I don’t put in the time or effort that it takes to be good at picking winners over the long term. Regular winners at the tracks are magicians. Because I’m not a hardcore ‘capper I have to rely on tricks to spot winners from time to time. My favorite such trick is to look in the past performances for a horse that loses ground compared to the leader at some point in the race, and then gains it back later on. That shows a couple of things – the horse is in good enough shape to be ready for a late charge, and he has the heart and determination to pick himself back up when he is down. If a horse has done that at least twice in his last five races then he’s certainly worth a real look.

Continue reading “An Angle on the Cards?” →

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Yes, hype week is here and that means that the biggest of a big football games is less than a week away. The Pittsburgh Steelers are seven-point favorites and you’ve got to wonder if that fact will simply fuel the Arizona Cardinals in their quest for respect. The Cards have gotten no respect due to the fact that they won a weak division with a 9- 7 record and, in doing so, lost four of their last six games. Three of those loses were to the playoff bound Giants, Vikings and Eagles and the other was to the Patriots. Many felt going into the post-season that the Cardinals were, at the best, lucky and not good enough to be there. But now, it seems to me, that no one has bothered to see what they’ve done in the post-season. I mean don’t they play the game for a reason?

Continue reading “Super Bowl Breakdown and Keys” →

The teams have arrived in Tampa Bay and we are, mercifully, getting closer and closer to the game. Every year I forget just how painful these two weeks are – too much time and not enough news to fill it. We’ll get into the nitty gritty of some specific analysis over the next couple of days, but let’s start the week with some more general thoughts and observations:

Continue reading “Super Bowl Thoughts To Start The Week” →

I did something this weekend that  recommend to every sports bettor from time to time – I completely unplugged from the sports world for a couple of days. I picked my wife up after she was done work on Friday and we headed to the mountains of Banff. We ate well, tried to stay warm in the incredible cold, caught a concert (Ian Tyson – a true Canadian legend), saw a movie (Benjamin Button – I loved it), and generally wandered around doing not very much. What I didn’t do was watch any sports, think about any sports, or do anything even remotely related to sports. No TV, no computers, no radio, nothing. It was brilliant.

Continue reading “A Much Needed Break” →

It seems strange, but there is a surprising amount of interesting coaching news percolating around today. Here’s a look:

Dan Reeves is reportedly interviewing to become the offensive coordinator for the 49ers. Though I like the Niners and Reeves, I don’t get this at all. Reeves is 65, he has a radio gig that keeps him busy enough, and he has spent some time working to establish a football program at Georgia State University. He hasn’t been in the pro game since he left Atlanta in 2003, and hasn’t been a coordinator since 1980. It’s hard to figure out why he would be inspired to get back into this game, and why he would want to take a risky job like this one if he did. I can only imagine that nothing will ultimately come of this one.

Continue reading “Friday Coaching News” →

As I’m sure you have seen, my colleague posted a list of important sporting dates coming up in the next couple of months. I like the idea, so I thought I would add some of my own as well. These are some of the dates circled on my calendar that weren’t on the other list.

Continue reading “More Big Dates” →

Ricky Hatton and Manny Pacquiao couldn’t agree on money, and their fight that was supposed to be on May 2 has been called off. It sounds fairly permanent, but I am hopeful that they can get over themselves and get the deal done. This one was going to be a great fight, and boxing needs all the big fights it can get. These are quite likely the two best fighters out there right now, and they clearly don’t like each other, so this thing could have ended with a corpse. Hatton is looking for a new opponent after pulling Pacquiao’s contract, but there is no one he can find who will be any better. Unless, of course, Floyd Mayweather can be coaxed out of retirement for a rematch. That would be one to watch. Actually, the only thing better than that one would be Pacquiao – Mayweather.

Continue reading “Wednesday Notes” →

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