Blues Win!

There's a lot of good things going on right now if you're a St. Louis sports fan. The Cardinals are continuing their hot streak winning series after series, and the St. Louis Blues just won their first playoff series since 2002. Not only that, since Vancouver was knocked out of the playoffs, the Blues now have home field advantage throughout the playoffs as they are the #2 seed.

The Blues will face the LA Kings next, which is quite convenient for me, since they will air the games on local TV here and though it's a long shot, might be able to snag some tickets to a game, which would be super fun. I actually like the Kings, but the Blues are my team. I really have liked what I've seen from the Blues this season and hope that they go all the way to the championship. It would be so much fun to watch, and fun for Blues fans who have not seen a Blues team this good in a very, very long time.

It's only April, but am definitely liking what I'm seeing from the Cardinals so far, for the most part. It's comforting to see them continuing to win and so so without their top ace pitchers. Carpenter is still out, and Wainwright is struggling to get his control back after recovering from Tommy John surgery. I am sure Wainwright will continue to get better and be the ace we know he is but wow, it's been a rough April for him so far.

The Cardinals still have a star in Carpenter though, Matt Carpenter that is. Lance Berkman has been fighting injury so Matt Carpenter was brought in to start at 1st. This kid is exciting. He is now 2nd in RBI's for the team behind David Freese.

It seems to me that this Cardinals team is just solid. There is something about this team, I can't figure it out. But it feels really good. Am looking forward to see how the season goes. #12 in 12!

The Cardinals aren't the only team that's hot though. The Rangers have been super good so far and so have the Dodgers. Now that the Dodgers have all of the Frank McCourt drama behind them perhaps they can turn this season into something really exciting. The Yankees are also doing pretty well, but they're kind of expected to, right?

How about the Angels? Well...it's been a slow start for them. Albert Pujols has yet to hit a home run and after today he is hitting just under .250. Ouch. Karma's a bitch, right? I kid, I kid. Pujols had a rough start last year at this time with the Cardinals and he picked it up and became the guy we all know and love. He'll get there. Once he gets into his stride there will be no turning back.

The NBA season is almost over and it got ugly today between the Lakers and the Thunder. Not only was the game tough going into OT with the Lakers finally winning, but Metta World Peace smacked Thunder player James Harden with his elbow after celebrating making a basket. It's hard to tell from the footage if it was intentional or not but one has to wonder how could he NOT know that Harden was standing right there?

Check out the video below for yourself and decide for yourself. Looks suspicious to me.

This wouldn't be anything new for Mr. World Peace, aka formerly known as Ron Artest. Artest made quite a big name for himself during the infamous brawl between the Pacers and the Pistons. I still remember walking around Indianapolis at that time and seeing someone wearing a "Free Artest" shirt (as he was hit with quite a hefty suspension after that debacle).

Thought he had learned from that and changed a lot (and I do think he has). But his actions tonight definitely stirred up some memories. I would guess that Metta will likely be suspended through the first playoff series, but we'll see.

If you haven't seen the epic Pacers-Pistons brawl, you have to check it out. Not the best quality, but you get the idea.

Finally, the NFL Draft is this week. It feels like we've been talking about the draft for years and now it's finally almost here and we can be done talking about it. Don't get me wrong, I love the NFL. But the draft has never really excited me all that much, at least all of the speculation beforehand. And you really have no clue how these guys are going to pan out. Andrew Luck could be the next Peyton Manning, or the next Ryan Leaf. I doubt he will be a Leaf but the fact is, we don't really know how most of these guys are going to be until they have the chance to play an NFL game.

We all know that college football is so different from the NFL. You can be awesome and top notch in college but utterly fail at the NFL. We've seen this over and over throughout the years. So, I guess what I'm saying is, I'm interested in the draft as I want to know who my teams pick, but beyond that, I just can't get into the whole speculation talk.

But, I can say this with certainly. The Colts are going to pick Andrew Luck. The Redskins are going to pick RGIII. The rest we will all know by the end of next week. And then we will wait until September to see how everyone's choices pan out for their teams.

I think that is all I have for this week. We're entering that period of time where both the NHL and NBA playoffs are going on, which won't end for another 10 years. Or at least it feels like it. It took almost the whole month of April just to get through round 1 of the NHL playoffs. Even the MLB manages to get through their playoffs and the World Series in about a month give or take a week or two. The NHL and NBA finals won't happen until June. Longest. Playoffs. Ever.

All right, that's it for me sports fans! More updates in the exciting world of sports coming your way soon,

Baseball is Back!

What does Carlos Beltran, David Freese, Yadier Molina, Matt Holliday and Shane Robinson have in common?

They all have at least one homerun (Freese, Beltran, Holliday & Molina have 2), which is one more than Albert Pujols has. Albert's first at bat as an Angel? Hit into a double play, which I couldn't help it, I laughed.

Albert won't be like that all season, he'll get back into true Albert form. But, part of the reason why the Cardinals lead the league in double plays last season was due to Albert. So it was a bit of poetic justice to see him hit into a DP after bailing on the Cards to join the Angels.

I know, as a Cardinals fan, I shouldn't really care about Albert. And I don't, really. However, it is nice to see that the Cardinals are doing just fine without him so far, and proving to the critics that this team is good and will do just fine without Albert.

The Cardinals have looked fantastic so far, sitting at the top of the NL Central at 4-1. Hitting, starting pitching and defense have all been solid. And this is without Carpenter and Craig. This is good news. Granted, it is still very early in the season and things will change. You never know what will happen with injuries, players get into slumps, etc.

I'm going to make a bold prediction here. This team reminds me a lot of the 2004 Cardinals so far, only this team seems to almost have a better vibe overall as far as the players getting along, working together and having fun. So, with that said...I think this team will get 100 wins. I think they win the NL Central but it will be a close race with the Brewers.

Really excited about the season and can't wait to see how things turn out this fall.

This week starts the NHL playoffs, which lasts about a millenia. At least it feels like it. The NHL playoffs lasts at least 2 months. Round 1 starts Wednesday and doesn't end until April 25th. Then there's 2 more rounds before the Stanley Cup. Baseball and Football both manage to get the playoffs done in about a month. The NBA is just as bad as the NHL when it comes to playoffs.

Oh well. The Blues have a a solid chance at making it far into the playoffs. They are the #2 seed and will face The Sharks, which won't be easy but they have home field advantage and hopefully get their first playoff win since...I think I heard 101 ESPN say this morning since 2002. Wow. That's a 10 year drought. Time to break that trend boys.

The NBA season is winding down too, and soon we'll be knee deep in NBA playoffs as well. The big talk seems to be about the Bulls, the Heat and the Thunder, but odds are the Lakers will make it to the playoffs and could be a potential contender. Both the Lakers and the Clippers are neck and neck right now. Should be interesting to see how it all turns out.

At least they aren't Charlotte, who I saw has only won 7 games. OUCH. Sometimes it's easy to take for granted what you have. The Lakers may not win a title this season, but fans still saw a lot of good basketball. If you live in Charlotte, or New Orleans for that matter, you probably aren't buying tickets to basketball games unless LeBron or Kobe is in town and you want to watch them, because the hometown team isn't going to do squat.

And that's all I have for now. Very excited about baseball. It's so nice to be able to listen and watch games again.

Is It Baseball Season Yet?

Seriously. Opening day cannot come soon enough for me. Good thing I only have to wait until Wednesday! While I'm disappointed in the news about Carpenter for my Cardinals, I still am very excited about their season. And baseball in general.

Speaking of which, congratulations to Guggenheim Partners, or as everyone in LA keeps referring to it, Magic Johnson's group, on winning the bid on buying the LA Dodgers. Now that the sale is done, they can focus on the team and making it the franchise that it should be.

No, I'm not becoming a Dodgers fan. But this whole debacle with Frank McCourt - the divorce, the bankruptcy...it hasn't allowed for good development and growth for the Dodgers franchise. I may be a Cardinals fan, but at the core I love good baseball. It's good to have competition in the league. If there's no competition and the same team keeps winning and winning over and over again, people lose interest.

So hope the Dodgers are able to overcome this and I look forward to seeing the Dodgers-Cardinals matchup live at Dodger Stadium this season.

NCAA Final Four was this weekend and the only real surprise? Kansas upset Ohio State by coming back from behind at the half to win by 2 points. I guess I understand now why Mizzou had problems beating KU this season. They are one tough team.

Kentucky beat Louisville, so that means tomorrow night's championship game is Kentucky vs Kansas. As a Mizzou fan, I just find it so difficult to root for KU, even if they are in the Big 12. Kentucky's been the #1 since the beginning of the tourney, so KU's the underdog. I think I may just have to say this: I look forward to watching a good game.

The Tebow-Sanchez drama has really gotten...well for lack of better words, quite ridiculous. Every sports pundit is reporting on their thoughts about whether this was a good move for the Jets, whether Sanchez should feel like his job is on the line, and so forth.

Okay, yes. The move brings up a lot of questions. But it's April. NFL season doesn't start until September. The draft hasn't even happened yet. A lot of things will change between now and then. I don't have any clue what the reasoning is for the Jets picking up Tebow but Tebow doesn't seem to sound like he's going to be a back-up. He clearly wants to fight for the starting QB job. Well, I guess one thing's for certain. Hard Knocks shouldn't even question what team to choose for their show this season.

In NBA news...honestly, other than Jeremy Lin being out for the season with injury, I haven't kept up with it much. I told you, the NBA is not my forte. Kobe had a rough week this week, but he's Kobe. He's picked it up and in today's game was the leading scorer.

In NHL news my St. Louis Blues clinched the Central Division Title, albeit not exactly in the fashion that they had hoped as they lost to the Blue Jackets 5-2 last night. As the NHL season starts to wind down, it'll be interesting to see how the playoff picture turns out. None of the national sports peeps (at least in LA) seem to care about hockey, but I imagine once the playoffs come around it'll be "oh, did you hear about this?"

Growing up in St. Louis, had no clue how little respect the NHL gets on a national scale. Now that I'm in LA, who has 2 NHL hockey teams? Wow, yeah I get it. The NHL gets such little coverage on a national scale. In LA, when it comes to sports talk on the radio in the morning, I have Dan Patrick, Colin Cowherd, or the San Diego sports station. It is uncanny how often Dan and Colin are talking about the same thing...at the same time!

If I had to guess, I think that most national sports coverage focuses on the following primarily: NFL, MLB and NBA. Everything beyond that is included because it's topical. We aren't hearing much news about NCAA football, are we? Nope. We're hearing about NCAA basketball because the tourney is still going on. But what about after? No.

The NHL should get more coverage, but they don't. It's a shame. I'm not just saying that because The Blues are doing well. The LA Kings are doing well too, and no one out here seems to care. It's sad.

And...that's all I've got for tonight folks. More updates soon on my thoughts on the world of sports.