Bye Bye Basketball (and Hockey)

Its finally summer. In the annual sporting seasonal cycle, it indicates the end of the hockey and basketball seasons. What a couple of post-seasons its been for both the sports.

I'm actually glad basketball is over. It kinda sucks that my team (the lowly warriors) didn't make the playoffs (....not even close). An my second favorite team the Bulls made their exit after the first round after a valiant performance against the reigning champs. So my interest in the postseason ended right there. Its been a loooong post season, to put it in perspective, the regular season ended in mid April and the finals got over just yesterday ...mid June..... two grueling months of postseason basketball .... overkill anybody? I really do think it is especially for someone without a horse in the race. It probably was a great show of basketball quality-wise, but the two months of all the hype is overrated. If only I got a nickel for every time I heard "Kobe can (or cannot) do it without Shaq." or "Lebron is the second coming of MJ" or about how Houston are better without T-Mac (which is BS). Dont get me started on the never-ending barrage of Kobe-Lebron puppet adds ....it was kinda funny in the beginning ...but please ...enough is enough. I really am happy to see the end of the NBA season. Although I probably have a couple more weeks about all the Laker gloating,the "Kobe is one of the greatest" hype and the "Will Phil Jackson be back next year?" debate to put up with.

The hockey post-season was not all that great for me either. My beloved San Jose sharks had one of the greatest regular seasons ever. But ended up doing a dramatic choke job in the first round of the playoffs. Granted the ducks were probably a better team than their 8th seed indicated and also riding a hot streak over the month entering the playoffs. But you don't tank if you are supposedly the best team in the league ....and sharks ended up doing just that....that's right ...Patrick Marleau... (choke!! choke!!) ......Joe Thornton...(choke!! choke!!)......and of course Evgeni Nabakov .... how could you be a brick wall during the regular season and then just be a miserable goaltender during the playoffs? ....do i hear "choke!! choke!!". Hopefully, there will be some overhaul in the off-season and they will comeback strong next year.

So overall disappointing ending to the NBA and NHL seasons for me. But I have a pleasant surprise in the form of the SF Giants. Before the baseball season started, even the most optimistic homer for the giants would not have predicted this. As of now they are a whopping 6 games above .500. Do I smell playoffs??? I should probably keep my hopes lower because we hardly are past the 40% stage of the season and leading the NL wild card standings (albeit by 1 game) probably doesn't mean a lot. Will have a better idea in a month I think, when they face tougher opponents than they have been in the past month or so.

The pitching has been terrific. Tim "the freak" Lincecum has been great after a rather rough first 2 games (after all expectations are high for the reigning NL Cy Young champ). Matt "the caner" Cain has become the Timmy of this year (do I hear All- Star starter???). He was prabaly this good last year except that he had to cover for the infamous lack of run support. The Big Unit has been alright for his age. The biggest surprise to me has been Zito. He has been pretty good on the mound more often than not. No way does he explain the big bucks contract he has, but at least he is above average. Jonathan Sanchez has been a dissapointment though. At times he displays electric stuff...but then suddenly blows all and looks lost on the mound. If he can put together a few good games he could be a good trading pawn to get a bat. And the Giants definitely do need a bat or two. It says a lot of Bengie Molina is your best hitter (no offense to "Big Money" Molina .....but wouldnt it be great if he was hitting 7 or 8 instead of cleanup??). Pablo "the Panda" Sandavol has been good of late and Rowand has been in a hot streak too. So they are not in a crisis situation in terms of offense. But to remain in contention, they will have to add a little pop to the line-up sonner or later. Lets wait and watch what happens ...... Go Giants!!