Welcome to another edition of “Friday 4”, where I talk about the four things I’ve been thinking about the last week and the upcoming weekend in sports and the world.
ONE
I’m not paying much more than causal attention to the Boston Celtics series against the Dallas Mavericks, generally just looking up the scores the morning after the games and maybe checking out a highlight or two on Twitter. I’m not much of a basketball fan, but with the Celtics being the local team I feel I should at least know if they won or lost and what the score was.
That being said, it didn’t take too long for one of sport’s greatest conspiracy theories to start popping up in discussions on social media and in the real world. In fact, it took until exactly 5:31 am Thursday morning while walking into work for someone to say it to me:
“The league will find a way to make the series go five or six games because they want more money.”
Every single time I hear someone say this about basketball or hockey, I just shake my head. It’s absolute foolishness to think any legitimate sports league would instruct officials to intentionally cause a team to win. Do officials make mistakes, of course. Do they intentionally help determine a winner because a league tells them to? Absolutely not.
We know this doesn’t happen for one reason: not a single person involved in any league has ever even hinted it’s happened.
If it had ever happened the number of people who would need to know about it, especially considering all the possible occurrences of it the conspiracy theorists inevitably point to, would be a staggering amount. And not one of them ever spilled the beans?
Plus fixing a sporting event is a federal crime, so every person involved would be subject to jail time if they got caught. People smarter than this writer tell me that Whistleblower laws would trump non-disclosure agreements in this area, so there would be no risk to anyone reporting game fixing by leagues to authorities. But no one comes forward, because it doesn’t happen.
So if the Celtics don’t win game four and sweep, you’ll need to come up with some other reason why.
TWO
In all sports, there is no one position that determines the outcome of a playoff series more than the goaltender in hockey. Average players can beat goalies who are playing terribly, and elite players are often stymied by netminders who look like a sheet of plywood between the pipes.
One needs no further proof that Florida Panthers goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky, who is playing out of his mind right now.
Don’t get me wrong, Bobrovsky is a pretty good goalie. He’s a two-time Vezina winner with a career .915 save percentage on some not-so-good teams. But in the Stanley Cup Final, he’s been lights out. Remember in 2011 when Tim Thomas had a .967 save percentage for the Bruins against Vancouver, and we all thought that was amazing? Bobrovsky against Edmonton is better. How much better?
Through three games, Bobrovsky is .984. So far, it’s the best performance in NHL history.
The playoffs are all about goaltending, and luckily the Bruins have one in Jeremy Swayman, and he looks like the real deal. Hopefully, Don Sweeney sees this and takes care of his young goaltender right now as opposed to trying to wait out Swayman’s RFA status.
If he doesn’t, he might need a trip to Home Depot to get a sheet of plywood.
THREE
We’re approaching Father’s Day weekend, and for golf fans that means the US Open. This year it’s at Pinehurst No. 2 in North Carolina, one of a long list of golf courses I’d love to play if I had an infinite amount of money and time to do so.
The US Open is also one of those things that was always on the TV at my parent’s house, which included bringing out a small portable TV to watch on the deck. Back in those days, it was on just during the weekend, like all golf tournaments were, and we watched both days.
Much to the chagrin of my daughter, I might add, who was not and is not into golf at all. I’d always make sure I spent the day with her doing stuff, which when the weather was nice would mean hanging out at in the pool, but I’d always have one eye toward the television and the US Open.
It’s been a long time since I got to celebrate Father’s Day and watch the US Open with my dad, in fact, this year marks half my life since I’d be able to do it. But like the Monaco Grand Prix and Indy 500, the US Open is one of those things I’ll forever do because my dad and I always did it.
So Happy Father’s Day Dad…
FOUR
And, sorry, you only get three this week. I promise to do better next time.
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