Chris Spielman voted into College Football Hall of Fame
April 30, 2009Browns Take Advantage of Waiver Priority, Claim LB Bo Ruud from New England
May 1, 2009While We’re Waiting aims to be the round-up of the recent WFNY-esque information for your morning viewing. Have something you think we should see? Send it to our tips email in the sidebar.
“There’s a lot going on with the Indians this week. Cliff Lee had a solid outing throwing (8) shut-out innings on Monday, only to have new closer Kerry Wood blow the game in the (9th). On Tuesday, the Tribe came back, though, and took advantage of a few misplayed bounces by the Bo-Sox to get a win. Then Travis Hafner went to the DL again afterwards. And on Wednesday the Indians knocked Jon Lester all over the park, all the while Fausto Carmona put a solid start of his own together. Despite all that, the only thing I could focus on last night is this guy.” [JD Shaver]
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Hardball times projects Matt LaPorta’s “Prime” season (likely 2012): .308, 42 HRs, 129 RBI. I’ll take it. [Matt Hagen/Hardball Times]
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I can’t say I disagree: “Whatever you are looking for in a playoff series is here. Buzzer beaters, gutsy performances through pain, young players stepping up, cagey veterans never letting up, “playoff fouls,” good (and bad) coaching, the list goes on. …and on, and on… This series has included 7 overtime periods. Seven. This is history happening right here. Someday in the future you’ll be having a conversation with someone about some future playoff series and how close it is or how many overtimes it includes. You will laugh and say, “that’s nothing, I remember when…” and you’ll describe this series.” [Celtics Blog]
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“Things in the NBA are fragile, which makes the future difficult to forecast. But one season in, there can certainly be an argument that “getting Mo” was the best player-for-player trade in Cavs history. Considering what the Cavs gave up — just Damon Jones in the end because Joe Smith ended up back in Cleveland — it may even outrank the Kevin Johnson-for-Larry Nance deal in 1988. Nance became an All-Star like Williams, but so, too, did Johnson.” [Brian Windhorst/Plain Dealer]
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No link…just a thought: Can the league now review Rondo’s elbow to Hinrich a la Dwight Howard and proceed to add to the punishment? Discuss.
26 Comments
time to update the ‘all i learned’ post to include rondo’s dance with hinrich last nite. definitely one of the most shared posts on wfny. it’s out there on my facebook.
what punks the celts are… but the bulls seem to have no clue on how to close out games. in a way, i’d like the celtics to meet up with the cavs; but moreso, i want the bulls to win this because they deserve it. main thing in their way is their coach.
Can the league do it, Scott? Yes. Will they? Of course not. The NBA has made it clear that they will not do anything to negatively affect the C’s chances of winning this series by allowing Rhonda to play last night, not to mention letting him stay in the game after he swung and missed in the scrap with Heinrich last night. Sad, but not surprising–the NBA is easily the shadiest pro sports league this side of the WWE (if that can be considered a sport).
I usually hate Joakim Noah, but when he picked off that pass and streaked down court for the dunk +1, that was sick.
B-bo: Rondo was able to play last night because of the fact that the foul on Miller was not deemed flagrant. The league doesn’t review every foul of every game, so they definitely couldn’t start doing it now. The fact that he received a flagrant last night (lucky it wasnt a ‘2’) may work against him…
that guy with the neon hats is a strange bird… come forward dude and tell us your story!
@EZ — and how stupid was pierce’s foul on noah’s dunk??? you’ve got five fouls and there is no way you’re stopping the play. dumb.
and another thing –> did anyone else find joey crawford’s T on miller to be egregious? like he was making himself bigger than the game?
It seems like Rando was made from a bunch of spare body parts lying around. –
my friends and i have been talking about the neon hat guy for about 2 years now. anyone know his story?
Turned on the Celtics-Bulls with app. two minutes left in regulation, with no idea I’d be sitting there transfixed for another hour. What a game. Ray Allen’s performance over 58 minutes will probably be forgotten because his team lost, but oh my goodness … Derrick Rose is a rookie and in his first playoff series, but this one is worth about 3 years of experience.
I was absolutely shocked when Noah threw that down. I didn’t think he’d go up that strong, and I don’t think Pierce thought that either. He was clutch as can be down the stretch for the Bulls, along with Brad Miller.
David Stern probably didn’t see anything wrong with Rondo’s swing at Henrich.
I loved hearing Chuck talk about it at halftime – “those are two guys who aren’t gonna fight. Rondo’s running away, and Henrich is too skinny to fight”.
Neon hat guy just doesn’t wear neon hats… he changes hats every inning. My dad and I noticed him back during the playoff run in 1997 – we used to ask each other about the bag that he must have carried to the park with at least 9 different hats and potentially more for extra innings. If you study him from inning-to-inning, his hats get less zany and ugly and more Tribe related.
As for the Celts game, Rondo should have been tossed. He literally hooked Henrich’s arm and chucked him into the scorer’s table. The initial call was flagrant 2 on Rondo with a T on Heinrich – that should have stood. I don’t know what Joey Crawford saw on that monitor that made that foul look less egregious than it was. The fact of the matter is the Celts are a dirty team who always look to take a cheap shot. Notice how Pierce was grabbing Noah’s jersey after he initially stole the ball? Refs could have called that one too and it would have been a clear path foul (2 shots and the ball). I’m also torn – I’d love for the Cavs to take out the Celtics (I’m more confident that ever that they would), but the way the Bulls have fought, they deserve to win this series. The Bulls actually scare me a lot more than the Celtics do – younger, more talented and at times, immune to the largeness of the situation (this works both for and against them I should add). In my mind, whoever wins this series likely beats Orlando, unless they’re too tired.
And watching that game last night, was anyone else thinking – “I sort of hope the Hawks win on Friday so we can get back to watching the Cavs”? It’s been so long since they’re played that I have to remind myself they’re still in this thing!
2 thoughts:
1. Rajon Rondo is the Dustin Pedroia of basketball. He’s considered scrappy and wonderful by the national media, but really, he’s a punk that wouldn’t be half as punk-ish if he was on a mediocre team. Put him on the Bucks and he’s forgettable at best. Plus, he looks like a frog.
2. What the hell is a playoff foul? Why is it suddenly more acceptable to try and take someone’s head off in the playoffs? Because you’re in an elimination round? I call shenanigans. The playoffs shouldn’t be an excuse to play recklessly and possibly seriously injure someone.
**BONUS THOUGHT** That guy in the neon hats is probably like the grounds keepers from Major League: “They’re still sh*tty.”
# 3 EZ Says:
May 1st, 2009 at 9:20 am e
I usually hate Joakim Noah, but when he picked off that pass and streaked down court for the dunk +1, that was sick.
This is literally what I would going to write. I hate hate HATE that guy, but that play was pretty frickin awesome.
@amc
Im not so sure you can write off the orlando magic just yet. after last nights gutsy performence the team might have learned a thing or two about what makes them good. its not all dwight howard.
still, i love our path through the east. it seems like everyone is playing on their heels and the cavs are the big nasty monster lurking in the horzion that no one wants to face. its been the longest we’ve gone without seein bron and the cavs play since october!
@ # 5 adam
“that guy with the neon hats is a strange bird… come forward dude and tell us your story!”
Something tells me he isn’t the blogging type….
Hey Adam,
I think the Orlando Magic are still a horrible match-up for us. No doubt in my mind that they will take care of the exhausted baby Bulls or the dying Celtics. Just look at what happened in Game 6, where they went into Philadelphia without Dwight Howard and Courtney Lee (who through 5 games averaged 36.6 points combined) and destroyed the 76ers by 21. It took them a couple of games to get going against the mediocre Sixers team that we laughed at on Fan Appreciation Night, but they are still a really good team.
The Bulls/Celtics series has taught me that I am not scared of either team. Just look at the numbers, the Celtics are reliant upon Rondo/Allen for scoring and I think I can take my chances with that. The only reason they were able to beat us in Boston was their production from Perkins/Garnett/Powe. In addition, the Bulls are still a very young team that has made a lot of mistakes in this series. Look at how many bad shots Gordon has taken, or how many turnovers Rose has, or how many key free throws they have missed (bloody lip or not). I’m not scared of either of these teams, the only two match-ups I am not looking forward to are the Magic and Lakers.
Vince from Cleveland Scene here.
Re: neon hat man.
I wrote a piece on him for Uni Watch back in the day. Link below. (His name is Tom O’Toole and I’ve got the screencaps from every inning and every hat in the story. He’s been doing it since 1994 when he realized his seats were on TV every time a lefty came to bat.)
http://www.uniwatchblog.com/2007/10/12/man-of-many-many-hats/
The guy in the hats is a mainstay of my viewing of the Tribe, although he wasn’t here in the early part of this season. That must be the reason for the slow start.
Anyway, keep an eye on him, different hat each inning (not sure if he’s prepared for extra innings though). I believe the one with Chief Wahoo on it is a new addition though as he only had plain neon in the past.
Here’s the story on Neon Hat guy:
http://forum.ebaumsworld.com/showthread.php?p=3926316
im kind of shocked at the number of people just starting to notice “neon hat guy” (i’m not trying to put you down or anything). hes been profiled a number of times, one of them by vince from scene magazine for uniwatchblog.com (as mentioned in the comments section of the blog linked up there):
http://www.uniwatchblog.com/2007/10/12/man-of-many-many-hats/
my wife and I love the neon hat guy and his wife! it is like hearing tom hamilton and mike hegan, just signals that summer is here!
He’s easier to pick out when there are less people in the seats, unfortunately.
i hate neon hat guy.
and yeah, rondo should have been tossed for what he did, even more than fishookhing brad miller the game before. if you throw a guy into the scorer’s table, you can injure him. there was intent there.
and where are the other bull players? stand up for your teammate? you think that would go unnoticed with the cavs? if delonte west was thrown into a scorer’s table, lebron, z, andy, ben wallace, even sasha would be in the dude’s face.
then again, rondo would never pull that against cleveland. he knows better.
Rondo is a punk and Noah posterizing Pierce was one of the best things I have seen all playoffs.
You guys should all go check out Terry Pluto’s article in which he rips the Tribe a new one. He kind of lets Wedge off the hook but I agree with his assessment. It’s seriously worth the time.
Rondo is the player I hate the most in the NBA, so I’ll admit that I am biased against him.
The way he whipped Heinrich around looked like something you’d see on Roller Derby. In my opinion it was flagrant and he should sit a game. But it won’t happen, and that’ll only make me hate him more. I haven’t hated on a Celtics player like this since Danny Ainge.
Del Negro should put Lindsey Hunter in and tell him to just make a fist and punch rondo right in his face. Put the onus on the refs. Will they toss Hunter? Probably. But then it will just seem all the more ridiculous that Rondo has now gotten away with two flagrant fouls to the head.
And he has got to have the longest arms I have ever seen in my life. when he walks up the court I swear his fingers are almost dragging on the ground.
Boston is going to win game 7. The bulls have more talent and are deeper than the c’s but they make so many mental mistakes. They will meltdown in the 4th quarter if they are somehow still in the game at that point.