Sports Updates
Some quick notes on recent sports happenings:
Michele Tafoya, pride of Minneapolis, will be taking the reins from Lisa Guerrero as Monday Night Football’s new token woman/sideline reporter. Unlike Guerrero, Eric Dickerson, and Melissa Stark, however, Tafoya knows her stuff, enunciates clearly, and is blessed with classy good looks, rather than bimbo good looks.
Kevin Garnett rocked the NBA MVP voting by getting 120 of 123 first-place votes. It’s the first MVP award for a Minnesota player in any of the four major sports since Rod Carew in 1977 (read: in my lifetime), though Kirby Puckett’s 1988 season was pretty damn good, as well. Unfortunately, Kevin and crew will be losing to the Spurs in the Western Conference Finals. I’m also peeved by the recent trend of quasi-announcing the winners of these awards. First Lebron James won the Rookie of the Year about three days after it was reported. Now this. Maybe we should announce the Spurs as NBA Champs sometime next week, and wait until the middle of June to actually hand them their trophy.
Manny Ramirez offered to defer $5 million a year to keep Pedro and Nomar on the Red Sox. I don’t know where Manny’s sudden maturity, generosity, or ability to speak the English language came from, but I’m happy he made the offer. Unfortunately, the Player’s Union may have something to say about it.
Lastly, don’t look now, but the A-Rod-less Rangers have the best record in baseball. This marks the second time in Alex Rodriguez’s young career that he has proven himself a prime example of The Sports Guy’s “Ewing Theory” (good player leaves team after never having won anything significant, and team gets loads better).