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.

Quick Hits #5

Chicks Dig the Long Ball:   The New York Yankees have set a club record with 27 home runs in their first 14 games.  They have 6 different players that have at least 4 home runs each. That's an impressive achievement given the storied history of the club - their nickname is not the Bronx Bombers for nothing!

Jorge Posada has contributed to the Yankees record start by
slugging 4 home runs from the DH slot.

The 2011 version of the Bombers is on pace to hit 310-315 home runs this year.  Somewhere the Feds who worked on the Barry Bonds steroids perjury case are gathering evidence and conducting depositions.  Come on, everyone deserves a second chance.

Sixth Man of the Year - An E! True Hollywood Story:  Lamar Odom, who is married to reality-TV "star" Khloe Kardashian, was named the NBA Sixth Man of the Year on Tuesday, which is the award given to the best player who is not quite good enough to be one of the 150 starters in the league.  The only requirement to win the award is that a player must come in off the bench as a reserve more games than he starts.  Odom started 35 games and entered off the bench in 47 games.  I've never understood the reason why the NBA has this award.  In my opinion, Odom should have won this award last year when he finished sixth in the voting for the Sixth Man of the Year Award.

Lamar Odom and Khloe Kardashian are taking Hollywood and the NBA by storm.
Odom's "unbreakable" season earned him the honor as the NBA 6th Man.

But Lamar Kardashian is enjoying yet another moment in the spotlight...when asked what he planned to get for his teammates as a thank you gift after Bryant handed out expensive watches to the team following his MVP award, he responded, "Maybe I'll get them a bottle of me and Khloe's fragrance ("Unbreakable")."  I have two observations from Lamar's comments: 1) Apparently correct English not a requirement for winning the award and 2) What he really should do is give watches to just the Laker starters for being better than him so he could be considered for the award to begin with.


Imagine the April Awesomeness?!:  Can you imagine if the NBA playoffs was a little bit more like March Madness?!  Like I wrote about here, the NBA playoffs just don't have the same excitement level that other playoff formats do.  If the NBA playoffs were like the NCAA tournament, then these would be the second round games based upon the results of the first game of each series:  Chicago vs. Atlanta, Miami vs. Boston, Memphis vs. Oklahoma City, and New Orleans vs. Dallas.  The Lakers, Spurs, and Magic would all be out!  The Memphis Grizzlies would have a huge fan following, insane media coverage, and Zach Randolph jerseys would be flying off the shelves!  Don't worry, they'll lose to the Spurs in 5.  Sorry, Memphis, but the only basketball team that has a shot to play for a Championship anytime soon is the University of Memphis.


Put it on the Calendar:  In one of the biggest demonstrations of optimism we have seen in a long time, the NFL released its 2011 schedule today as if one of the ugliest and dirtiest lockouts in recent history was not well into its second month.  The marquee games of the opening weekend, which will fall on Sunday, September 11, will feature the New York Giants visiting the Washington Redskins, two teams from the two cities that were most significantly impacted by the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2011.

September 11, 2011 could be a memorable day for the USA and the NFL if
the owners and the players can end the lockout so the NFL season can start on time.

The New York Jets will host the Dallas Cowboys on the 10th anniversary of 9/11 at home in New York (New Jersey).  The always outspoken Jets head coach, Rex Ryan, said this of the significance of opening the season at home on 9/11: "The stadium is going to be full of emotion, not only the people from the area but in the entire country.  The fact that it's the 10th anniversary of 9/11, that's where the focus should be."  Well put, Coach.  Let's just hope your players and owners can put aside their greed and hatred towards one another in order for it to actually happen and let the nation enjoy it.