Sunday tidbits at The Confluence

• The Cardinals won the World Series Friday night, despite the prognositications all of those "experts", who basically said the Cards were even lucky to make the playoffs. Perhaps this is a good time for ESPN to take a step back and see how their once-formidable sports coverage has turned into tabloid journalism. Their top stories, rather than substantive issues of the sports world, are nothing more than a sports version of Hard Copy. If that wasn't bad enough, then you combine that with a slew of ex-mediocre athlete blowhards (sub-medicore if you include Sean Salisbury) that constantly preach to us, as if their opinions are not opinions, but rather facts, and must be heeded as such. Want my advice ESPN (silly question, I know) ?? Cut WAY down on the over-analyzation and the lousy prognostications, and get back to what once buttered your bread, that being good, substantive sports news.
• And while we're on the subject of the World Series, don't you think it's time American sports leagues stopped referring to their respective champions as "World Champions" ?? The Cardinals did not play the Japanese champion, or the Korean champion, or the Venezuelan champion. I've always been kind of irritated at that arrogance for some reason.
• Hey, did you notice how MLB snuck that new Collective Bargaining Agreement in on us ?? Gene Collier from the 'Burgh PG writes an excellent column today on how Kevin McClatchy's tune has shockingly changed over the past year. I guess now that the '06 All-Star game is over, and he and his cronies got a nice profit this year after 1.8 million Pirate fans came for constant bombardment of bobbleheads and fireworks, that he's content with the new CBA. Don't worry of course about the on-field product, you know, the one that lost 95 games this year. I'm sure their will be more Jeremy Burnitz' and Joe Randa's floating around this offseason.
• USC finally came back to Earth last night, losing to that PAC-10 juggernaut Oregon State 33-31. You're blind as a bat if you didn't see this coming. Barely winning against Washington St., Washington, and Arizona St. in the three weeks before yesterday, it was just a matter of time.
• Speaking of coming back down to Earth, the Buffalo Sabres finally lost a game last night, in a shootout to the much improved Atlanta Thrashers. Atlanta reminds me a lot of the Penguins, with their improved defense a major reason for their upswing. But back to Buffalo, I can't wait until the Sabres and Penguins play this year, that should be some exciting hockey.
• For as much as I would love to piss some more on the Flyers' grave that they're digging, I have give some props to Bobby Clarke (I know, he wants to be called Bob now, screw him). He had the courage to fall on his sword, stating that he was burned out, and that the new NHL had passed him by.
• In what eventually is going to be one of the most awkward moments in sports heirarchy, I'm interested in seeing how the Wayne Gretzky SNAFU is going to end up in Phoenix. As a part owner of the Coyotes, it's not like anyone in the organization is going to tell Wayne to pack sand. But one thing's for sure, as great a player as Wayne was, he's nowhere near that level of an NHL coach.
• This just in, ESPN just reported that Tony Romo took a dump at Cowboys practice, and Drew Bledsoe was not happy at all about how long he took, nor the smell he left in the bathroom afterwards. [[ Just a bit cynical, but you'd think there's nothing else going on in the NFL nowadays by the way this crap is top story material. ]]
• I for one won't be surprised in the least if Jake Plummer pulls another one of his choke jobs today at home vs. Peyton Manning and the Colts.
• The Steelers are the biggest enigma in the NFL today. I can't figure these guys out. One thing I know for sure, they lose today in Oakland, they better start planning for next year.
• Condolences today for the family of Red Auerbach, who passed away yesterday at the age of 89. All those championships. That cigar. The one thing that really struck me as I was watching his accomplishments the last day was the deal he made before the 1980 NBA draft. The Celtics owned the first overall pick, he engineered a blockbuster trade that traded his No. 1 pick and a later 1980 first-round pick to the Golden State Warriors in exchange for the No. 3 overall pick and a young center named Robert Parish. Then at the #3 pick, he grabbed Kevin Mchale. Wow, now that's a draft.
• That's about the extent of NBA posting you'll see me do, the playground NBA of today completely bores me.

Until tomorrow.