I, like most Americans, really enjoy sports. This past week in sports was really a good one for me.
First, the Pittsburgh Penguins won the Stanley Cup. I'm from Pittsburgh and I have followed the Pens since they were established in the 60's. The young Pittsburgh stars overcame the talent and experience of the Detroit Red Wings in a great seven game series.
The Pittsburgh win reinforced one of the great lessons of sport for life; namely: that hard work and a will to succeed can carry you past long odds. On paper, Detroit should have handled Pittsburgh, but the Pittsburgh players did not throw in the towel.
The best thing about the series, though, was the great time I had watching the games with my son, Joe. We rooted for the Penguins, complained about the "home-town" calls that went against them, and jeered the traitorous Marian Hossa (the Arlen Spector of the NHL). We waived the "Lets Go Pens" towels our crazy aunt sent us from Pittsburgh and we tried to stay in the same seats we had when the Pens scored so as not to jinx them. It was great fun.
There was a second sports lesson for Joe and his little league team-mates from major league sports. The Yankees trailed the Mets 8-7 with two out and two on in the bottom of the ninth. A-Rod popped up to the Mets second baseman. Inexplicably, he dropped it. Jeter and Teixeira scored and the Yankees won.
The lessons? Teixeria was on first. The pop-up was "certain" to be a routine last out. Many ballplayers would have just jogged around the bases and called it a night, but Teixeira followed the rules of coaches everywhere and ran hard. Because he did, he was able to score the winning run.
There were a couple of other lessons, too. A-Rod, angry at his pop-up, did not run, instead, he smashed his bat on the plate. When the second baseman dropped the ball Alex looked foolish. And the second baseman? Well, he forgot a basic baseball rule. Use two hands to catch the ball. You never know who is watching.
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I enjoyed nothing more than seeing the look on Marian Hossa's puss after Pittsburgh beat Detroit. I laughed and laughed seeing him sitting so dejectedly on the bench while ths Pens were mobbing their goalie. The man is an albatross. Ottawa could not win with him. Neither could Atlanta or Pittsburgh. As long as Detroit keeps him they will not win again. He is a free agent again this summer. I hope whatever teams even thinking about signing him looks at his track record of stench. Pittsburgh made him an offer he should not have refused, which I am glad he did, last summer but he took less from Detroit thinking the Red Wings were his ticket to the cup. Too bad he did not recheck his ticket. He was the main reason I was rooting for the Pens to win the series. I would have paid a fortune to have been able to read his mind after the final horn sounded. I am seriously thinking about making him the next selection into the Moronica Hall of Fame.
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