Past my Bedtime...

These triple-overtime games are going to be the death of me. The Bulls are certainly capable of giving the KG-less Celtics all they can handle. Exciting though to see the growing maturity of players like Rondo and "Big Baby" Davis. And sad to see Paul Pierce compound this 3OT TO with a stupid, frustration foul at the other end, which also just so happened to send him to the bench with his sixth. And BOY did Ray Allen light it up! But the Bulls, the Bulls...there's just no quit in those kids. And with seven OTs so far this series, they've already played the equivalent of all but the last three minutes of a game seven. As for me, I need to rest just from watching....

Stealing Home and Sweeping a Series

Well, I was planning to post the video of Red Sox center fielder Jacoby Ellsbury stealing home against the Yankees last weekend, a bonehead play for which I would have been tempted to strangle him also, but still quite a spectacle which certainly sent the crowd at Fenway out of control and must have taken some of the starch out of the boys in pinstripes.

But apparently there's some hassle about Major League baseball and the "broadcast, descriptions, and accounts" and all that other legal copyright stuff...so instead I'm stuck posting a movie of this Dramatic NASCAR car crash instead. (The whole idea of watching car wrecks for entertainment was distressing enough before some blogger added in the extra music. Just another reason not to like NASCAR, I guess).

Meanwhile, back at Fenway, it just makes me feel good to see a fellow Oregon State University Beaver doing so well in the Major Leagues. I'm told Ellsbury is the only Native American playing in the Majors. Not only does he have blazing speed, a hot bat and a great glove, he also has an amazing vertical leap, and apparently (like a lot of kids who grew up on the Rez), he really likes to hoop it up, and in High School would often jump center (and win!) against players 8 inches taller.

Oh wait, maybe THIS LINK might work.

Team Nickname Trivia

My brother Erik had an interesting trivia question today at lunch. Can you name five NCAA Division I teams whose nicknames do NOT a) involve a color, or b) end in the letter "S"?

Here is an example of a favorite team of mine that fails on both counts:


The University of Minnesota Golden Gophers

And here is the one that no one EVER seems to get:

*correct answer appears below

Now, are you ready for the quiz?

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The "Fighting Irish" of Notre Dame


The United States Naval Academy Midshipmen


The North Carolina State University Wolfpack


The "Thundering Herd" of Marshall University


The University of Massachusetts Minutemen


And missing this last was truly an embarrassment to those of us who live here in New England, even if we did grow up and attend college on the West Coast, where the teams have names like Ducks, Huskies, Beavers and Cougars, leaving leaving terminally-educated alums like myself with the uncomfortable choice between quacking, barking, or simply slapping the surface of the pond with my tail and diving as deeply underwater as I can....

* Answer to the unidentified team image above: the University of Illinois Fighting Illini