Tonight was supposed to be the crowning of Dice-K as the next great Red Sox pitcher. The validation of all the money he has received. The confirmation of all the hype ever since his signing. The Fenway crowd was supposed to give him their stamp of approval tonight; it’s one thing to pitch in Kansas City against the Royals. Fenway is a completely different story.
And it was just like the media to forget about the opposing pitcher. All we heard about was how great Dice-K was (just like all we’re going to hear about is how ok he is). All I read on ESPN was about the Dice-K vs. Ichiro matchup (at least Dice-K won that one). They all forgot about one person.
Felix Hernandez.
Hernandez, the freshly turned 21 Venezuelan sensation, the ex-phenom who came off a tough year. If one was to listen to everything that the media fed them, Hernandez would have (and was) an afterthought.
How about a complete game shutout. Add a one-hitter and six strikeouts. You have yourselves a classic performance at Fenway. Now I didn’t watch the game due to my semi-apathy towards baseball (more on that later) but reading ESPN.com and the box score the stats do not lie. Now lets not go and crown him King again (he’s only 21) but that is a moment that he and Mariners fans will never forget.
Other thoughts;
- I can’t be the only one who didn’t know that the Stanley Cup playoffs started tonight? It’s almost sad what has happened to the NHL. I was a huge Mario Lemieux and Wayne Gretzky fan growing up. NHL 94 was one of my all-time favorite games on SEGA. And this is where the league is at now? Banished to a network where they play second fiddle to the Tour de France and Mountain West Conference basketball. People not even knowing when the playoffs are? I couldn’t even name a player from each team…I used to at least be able to do that. I feel bad, maybe I’ll watch a few games.
(On second thought; nope. I’ve still heard that there is no experience like a live hockey game.)
- Denver maybe one of the hottest teams in the league right now. Unfortuantely they are about to be hit by a freight train from San Antonio.
- This whole “Race for 8th” in the Eastern Conference is more sad than anything. Indiana is 1 game out of the playoffs. No one wants to be forced to see Indiana four more times. God forbid they won a game. Philadelphia and New York are pretty much eliminated, how disgusting would those series have been. I’m going for Orlando, solely because of Dwight and the potential that they could bust out old school Magic throwbacks all series. And Grant Hill could somehow morph into 94-95-96 “I’m the Next Coming” Grant Hill against his former team. It can’t be too much to see him carrying them to one win right?
- Out West there is a race…which is incredible. A week ago I thought the Clippers had it all wrapped up. And Golden State just went out and took it. I am very happy about this development. As much as I love Elton Brand (he is getting negative help right now) I would rather watch the Warriors against Dallas. What a track meet that would be. That would give the West four legit good series in the first round.
(And yes I would be 10x more excited about the playoffs if it weren’t for ESPN’s absymal playoff ad campaign. Dirk and LeBron, looking like they would rather be doing anything else, doing horrrrrrrrible ‘clutch’ moments. This will comeback and bite them both in the ass. It just has to.)