Mother's Day Magic and Misery

Every year on the second Sunday of May, husbands and children everywhere buy flowers, cards, and chocolates for dear Mom to show her how much she means to them and to thank her for everything she does for them.  Baseball players break out the pink bats in order to raise awareness for breast cancer, baseball teams have honorary "bat girls" in the dugouts, and SportsCenter anchors start their broadcast with a classic "Hi Mom!".  Mother's Day can be a really good day for you and the special Woman in your life...or not so much.  You can either be a winner or a loser.  Here are some of the winners of Mother's Day 2011 followed by the losers (hopefully you were not one of them, too):

Winner - Derek Jeter:  The 36-year old Captain snapped out of his early season funk and silenced the doubters by doing his Mom proud with a four-hit, two home run day against the Rangers in a 12-5 Yankee win on Sunday.  Jeter's two home runs were no-doubters, landing deep into the right-center field bullpen - both shots estimated at over 400 feet.  Said Jeter, "Everybody needs a day like this."  Yes, Derek...including Mom.

Derek Jeter is all smiles after his performance on Mother's Day.  Derek, Yankee
Fans, and of course, his Mom, hope that it is a sign of things to come in 2011.

Winner - Dallas Maverick Bench Players:  In completing their four-game sweep of the Los Angeles Lakers on Sunday, the Dallas Maverick bench stole the show in the 122-86 demolition of the world champions.  Jason Terry went 11-14 from the field, including 9-10 from three-point range.  Peja Stojakovic turned back the clock to go 6-6 from three-point range, and even little JJ Barea went 9-14 as the Dallas Maverick bench outscored the entire Laker team against, ironically enough, the NBA Sixth Man of the Year, Lamar Odom.  Although maybe Lamar is still kind of a winner since his reality show hasn't been canceled...yet.

Winner - The #5:  Even useless stats and numbers are winners on Mother's day as all American League games finished with either the winner or the loser of the game scoring the same number of runs - you guessed it, 5!  According to STATS LLC, it was the first time in 18 years that such an odd and coincidental occurrence had taken place when all 7 National League games had a team with exactly 2 runs.

Fives were wild on Sunday in the American League when every game involved
a team that scored five runs.

Loser - Andrew Bynum / Los Angeles Lakers:  Andrew Bynum's mid-air shove of JJ Barea in the series-ending loss to the Dallas Mavericks was one of the biggest cheap shots I have ever seen in a professional basketball game.  Bynum, clearly frustrated by his worst performance of the playoffs (6 points, 6 rebounds), unfortunately ruined legendary coach Phil Jackson's potential final game of his career.  The Lakers were the seventh defending NBA champion to be swept in a playoff series and their 36-point loss was the largest margin of defeat to end any of those sweeps.  Each of the Lakers should offer a sincere apology to their coach for their pitiful and classless performance on Sunday - not to mention their mothers, too.

Andrew Bynum will have to answer to his Mom after his performance and
classless flagrant foul against JJ Barea.

Loser - Disruptive Airplane Passengers:  A man who has been working as a New York City cab driver was taking a flight on Sunday to California when he decided to grab the cockpit door and start banging on it approximately 30 minutes before landing.  Another passenger on a plane en route to Chicago tried to open a cabin door in midair.  A fellow passenger choked the man into unconsciousness and later told authorities that the disruptive passenger told him that "he had a rough Mother's Day".  Reports have confirmed that the apparently suicidal man was not a member of or a fan of the Los Angeles Lakers.

Opening Day!

Baseball players and fans should expect to bundle
up in many parts of the country for this year's Opening Day.

Today is Opening Day in Major League Baseball...on March 31!  It seems rather odd that Baseball games are taking place in March, but it is Major League Baseball's attempt to avoid playing regular season games in October, which results in the possibility that the World Series will extend deep into November when weather can play a significant role in the outcome in many parts of the country.  In 2008, for example, a World Series game spanned three days thanks to extended rain storms in Philadelphia when the Phillies ended up besting the Rays for the World Series title.  However, if you were in cities such as New York, Washington, and Kansas City today, fans and players still had to endure 30 degree weather for 3+ hours.  On Opening Day, which is probably the most exciting day in the regular season, New York and Washington fans only filled their respective stadiums to only 92% capacity.  It is better that weather affect March / early April games than World Series games, but can't MLB figure out a way to play the majority of March / early April games in domed or good weather venues such as Florida, Texas, California, and Arizona? There is a reason Spring Training games take place in Florida and Arizona, right?   Unfortunately, the weather won't change just because the games begin to count.

CC Sabathia expects the Yankees to be
holding up the trophy in 2011.

Opening Day means a new sense of excitement for fans everywhere when all the teams are 0-0.  From Pittsburgh to San Francisco, the fans, players, and coaches dream of the possibility that this could be "Their Year".  The addition of the Wild Card playoff slot in each league extends that dream well into the season, but all teams with the exception of 8 will end the long regular season looking forward to next year's Opening Day.  So why was it such big news when New York Yankee starting pitcher CC Sabathia made headlines yesterday when he declared the Yankees the favorites to "win the whole thing" and that they might be able to "sneak up on some people" this year?  Shouldn't every team and player believe that?  Many experts are picking a Red Sox / Phillies World Series in 2011, so has the team with the $200M payroll become the underdog this year?  Apparently.  But that's what great about Opening Day: every team has a shot whether they are the favorites or not.  Injuries will happen, good teams will go through long losing streaks, and teams with high payrolls will underperform, but even a fan of the Chicago Cubs, who haven't won the World Series since 1908, can honestly say: "Our 103-year drought ends now!"

You know, CC?  He might be right....or not.