Section 30

I’ll admit I wasn’t terribly disappointed by the whole hockey experience.  I have now seen six games in my entire life and I will lay off of it from now on because unabashedly, I actually enjoyed watching it (and I was only drunk four of the six games, that was the real test).  I was wrong, it isn’t “soccer on ice;” they hit hard and they skate fast and they run plays very similar to basketball.  With that said, I’ll go see a game if the tickets are free. 

There’s a certain enjoyment to the innocence of watching a new sport you have zero knowledge of; it’s quite emancipating.  I wasn’t analyzing the finer aspects of the game; hell, I was just trying to keep up with the puck.  I even had my own version of “Why do they run it up the middle everytime?” 

By Game 5 I was even commenting on how well they were “skating” and last night I made the comment that the RBC crowd standing the entire game was a local college thing a full three minutes before the announcer made that exact same parallel.  I still have no clue what icing is and I’m ok with that. 

Most importantly, it’s always rewarding to find additional ways of reminding Canadians just how inferior they are to Americans, particularly Southerners.  There’s good reason they’ve all moved down here.  “We stand on guard for Thee,” my fat, white redeneck ass. 

Oh yeah, I’m glad it’s over, eh.  Now take down your car flags yankees.

Edmonton comes back to Raleigh tonight to face the Hurricanes in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals. Edmonton brings the series back to Raleigh after completely dominating the Canes in Game 6. Choking seems to be the rave of late in sports, see Phil and the Mavs, so hopefully the Canes can put an end to this. After the Canes performance in Game 6, I’m guessing the Cup goes back to Edmonton, but that’s just my opinion (I’m a State fan, we’re negative by nature).

If the Canes win, it’ll be the first professional sports championship for the state of NC, if they lose, everyone goes back to waiting for ACC Football and Basketball.

The United States has played 2 games and scored one goal. They wouldn’t have scored that one if Manu Ginobli’s twin brother hadn’t booted the ball into his own goal, and the US is supposed to be the 5th ranked team in the world?

Based on my extensive knowledge of soccer and my keen observation of the World Cup this far, I have come up with my own “Futbol Top 10”

1. Germany – They have home field advantage in the biggest soccer tournament there is, they must’ve had some kind of regular season.
2. Brazil – Because they usually win
3. Argentina – My boy Pablo was from Argentina and he was the best soccer player I’ve ever known. Then again I didn’t have many friends that played soccer, mostly because I didn’t enjoy licking balls or getting my ass kicked.
4. Czech Republic – They beat the US so they must be the best EVAR!!!1!
5. United States – U S A U S A U S A!!!!
6. UNC-CH Girls Team – Thanks Beautiful
7. The Atanta Braves – They’ve kicked the ball around with such proclivity this summer.
8. Wilkes Central High School
9. Sisters of the Poor
10. My 4 year old cousin’s YMCA team

The US Open got underway yesterday and half way though todays play the biggest story has got to be that unless something crazy happens Tiger will miss his first cut at a major since turning pro. Tiger is coming off of a nine week layoff after his fathers death and his rust has shown. Phil was able to shoot and even par round yesterday and only trailed the leader by a shot as only one player was able to better par, Colin Montgomerie.

Edmonton was able to come to Raleigh and win game 5 on Wednesday night. The game went into overtime where Edmonton was able to score a short handed goal to send the series back to Edmonton. Game 6 is set for Saturday night.

The Heat have tied up the series with the Maverics at two games a piece after two great performances from Dwyane Wade and Shaq. Wade has finally realized that nobody on the Maverics team can stop him and he’s been taking complete advantage of the fact. The series remains in Miami with this stupid 2-3-2 format for game 5 and then will move back to Dallas for the remaining two possible games.

There have been some great games in the World Cup over the past week but the most important thing is that England has advanced to the second round with their 2-0 win over Trinidad & Tobago. The win wasn’t pretty but it got them through to the elimination round. Another spot of good news was the Rooney finally was able to play again for the first time since breaking his foot. With him on the pitch England is a different and much more effective team.

The Wufpack got their season started last night with a big come from behind win. They put together a run in the second half to get back into the game after being down eight points and with the help of the Grizzlies poor free throw shooting were able to get the game tied with 19 seconds left. Scott Frank got the ball up the floor and found Chris Hasse in the post where he was able to work one on one against his man and scored the winning basket with one second left on the clock. The Grizzlies missed a shot from half court and the Wufpack started the season 1-0.

MJ has become part owner of the Bobcats. I’m not sure what to make of this, I just hope he doesn’t lose the team in a card game.

J.J. Redick, the most over-hyped college basketball player since the last great Duke player, sometime around 2001, was arrested for driving while intoxicated Monday night.  His blood alcohol level was 0.11.  The officer charges that he had glassy eyes and strong odor of alcohol on his breath.  Redick regrets it and apologized, of course.  Krewshdjdkksjski supports him, of course.  He’s of fine outstanding character, blah blah.

This stayed on the front page of ESPN.com for all of about two hours, which is suprising, since he was not wearing a helmet.  Or maybe they just needed the space to shove Bono’s precious World Cup down our throats.  Apparently, the whole world should be in total harmony until whenever this thing ends.

Personally, I care more about having Pujols healthy and back on my fantasy roster.

Actually, there’s really no point to this post. 

The Hurricanes are now only one win away from winning the Stanley Cup! After taking one of two games in Edmonton the Canes are coming back to Raleigh with a shot to win the Cup on home ice. No NHL team has ever come back from a 3-1 deficit in a finals series to win and the leading team are 19-7 all time in game 5’s. Hopefully the Canes can follow suit and take care of business on Wednesday night.

The World Cup is under way now and both England and the USA played poorly. However, England was able to walk away with a very important 3 points with the help of an own goal to take a 1-0 victory, while the USA took a 3-0 beating by the Czech Republic. Both teams are going to have to play much better if they hope to move on past group play but the USA is definitely going to need some help. Cup favorite Brazil finally takes the pitch today against Croatia, which should be an easy victory for them. If you want to watch the worlds best you should definitely watch this match.

The Miami Heat look to be in some serious trouble in the NBA finals. They lost a close one in game 1 and then got absolutely destroyed in game 2. Shaq managed all of 5 points in game two and is now making a scorching 12% of his free throws. I said earlier in the playoffs that Shaq was done and then he came back with a 30 and 20 game to shut me up, for the Heat to do anything in the next couple of games he’s going to need a similar type of performance. While Shaq is fading, Dirk is becoming one of the top players in the league right now. You could easily make an argument that he’s one of the top 5 players in the league now, a big change from even the beginning of the playoffs. One more thing about the playoffs, does anyone else thing this 2-3-2 series format is completely stupid?

The US Open starts on Thursday from Wingedfoot Golf Club in NY. Tiger is making his return to playing after his fathers death and Phil is going for his third major in a row after winning the PGA last year and the Masters earlier this year. Will have more on this later in the week.

Glad to hear that Ben Roethlisberger is OK after his crash but seriously, WEAR A DAMN HELMET! Much easier to get up after a wreck when your face isn’t broken. Hope he’ll be OK for the start of the season.

The World Cup 2006 from Germany gets under way today when the host nation takes on Costa Rica in the opener from Berlin. The World Cup is the largest sporting event in the world and one billion people are expected to watch the opening match around the world. However, most of those viewers will be outside of the USA.

It’s a shame that more people in the USA don’t understand the magnitude of the World Cup because the US team could be considered one of the 5 favorites to win the Cup this year. They’re actually ranked in the top 5 in the world at the moment. Which is much higher than they are historically. They did get a tough group draw with the Czech Republic but they should be able to at least finish second in the group which is good enough to advance to the next round.

Since none of the other authors here give a damn about the World Cup, Section30 will be routing on England who’s also one of the favorites to win the Cup. It’s been 40 years since they won their first and only Cup so hopefully they can play up to their potential.

Standing in their way is perennial Cup favorites Brazil who’re in search of their record sixth Cup. Brazil is by far the favorite to win the Cup again but after the group matches it’s lose and you’re out so anything can happen.

Stay tuned for more.

Raleigh, NC – With the summer season getting ready to tip off in the next week the Wufpack have finally got their roster set. With the loss of Kirk Kruger for the season, due to his hiatus to finally try and pass the NC bar, there was an opening for GM Scott Frank to fill. After much deliberation Frank finally decided to sign free agent Chris Hasse. Frank said that “Chris was just the perfect fit for what we were looking to accomplish with this team.” Frank failed to mention that Chris was the only available option as he was the last remaining free agent in the pool.

With the addition of Chris there will have to be some position changes to make room for the addition. The most noticeable moves will be Shawn Willams to small forward, Scott Frank (player) to shooting guard, and Matt Edwards to point guard. Frank (GM) thinks that the moves might put a burden on the teams ball handling but he feels that Matt will be up to the challenge – “If Matt can handle the ball the way he has been making layups we have nothing to worry about.” Williams and Frank (player) will be able to help with the ball handling as long as they remember to pass the ball, look up, and not dribble into triple teams.

Rounding out the team this season are some familiar faces with some new looks. Geary Knapp is up in weight and has added a mullet in homage of the Carolina Hurricanes quest for the Stanley Cup. Ben Crawford is back but has his changed his nick name from Big Slow to Medium Fast after his wife stopped feeding him and he lost 50lbs. Shooting guard Shaun Taylor discovered that guards could go past the three point line in the offseason and hopes to add this to his game. Chris Langdale was unable to be reached by the time this article ran we can only assume he’ll be playing because he’s still on the roster.

All Wufpack games will be played at the JC Community Park off of Wade Avenue this summer. Please come and show your support.

APEX — The Big Dogs were eliminated from the Apex Men’s Softball C-League Tournament in dramatic yet typical slaughter-rule fashion Tuesday night, falling 19-7 in six innings to the Rebel Alliance.

The Big Dogs jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first, but the Empire indeed struck back, tying the score with two runs in their first at bat and one run in their second, while buckling down on defense.  They took the lead 5-3 in the third and never trailed afterwards.  They added a two-out two-run homerun in the fifth inning, and then the floodgates opened in the sixth.

In a season marked by excessive fielding errors, mindless and uninspired base-running, and impotent bats, it was fitting that the season would end in similar fashion for the Dogs. 

Storming back from a 7-3 deficit in the top of the sixth to even the score, the Big Dogs perhaps caught a whiff of momentum hanging in the chilly, damp late-night fog. 

But their unlikely rally would just as quickly prove premature, as they soon collapsed miserably under the pressure of facing elimination, giving up 12 runs in the bottom of the inning to fall victim to their tenth salughter-rule game of the season.  Perhaps even less remarkable was their inability to record even a single out while facing 15 batters.

Double, E4, single, E5, E6, texas-leaguer, E4, E4, E8, E4, single, E5, E6, single…then the season was on the line with the bases loaded. 

Having a baseball mind and knowing the runner on third was all that mattered when trailing by 11 in a “slaughter” inning, 1B/DH Lucas Miller immediately called for the outfield to come all the way in and form a “wall” around the infield; there was only one play: at the plate.  He tried to hastily explain that nothing could get through and that any fly ball scores the runner from third, so they had to play for the ground ball or line drive out at home.  But they just didn’t get it. 

Not that it would matter.

The last pitch of the Big Dogs season turned into a sharp, high liner down the right field line, easily scoring the runner from third and leaving these unlovable losers to contemplate what they would have to do differently in the fall to find that elusive second victory.

It must start with the simple principles of baseball: middle infielders that aren’t scared of the ball and actually try to get in front of it, pitchers that don’t deliver “meat,” leading off with speed rather than power, making contact with the damn ball at the plate, and not trying to make impossible plays on base hits where balls end up in left or right field.  Other than that, the spring season showed tremendous promise. 

They rallied twice in their last two games of the season, proving they had the tenacity to come up with big innings when most needed; this could prove to be a moral victory that a 1-16 record just doesn’t reflect.