What Were You Thinking?

During the school year, I, along with my good friends Pat and Sean, put on a radio show here in Boston, entitled "The Beantown Buzz."  We have a lot of fun with it, and get to talk with a lot of the prominent sports figures on the BC campus.  But one of our favorite segments is What Were You Thinking?, wherein we call out whoever committed the dumbest acts in the sporting world that week. Since we're done for the year with the radio show (and almost done with school, damn you to hell, finals), I figured I'd keep that tradition alive here over the summer.  The first recipients are The Kid himself, Ken Griffey Jr, and Annie Brophy.  

First, Griffey.  Much as it pains me to say it, I think it's time for the Mariners legend to hang up the spikes.  Kids in our age range were lucky enough to see him in the late 90s, when he was arguably the best player in the game.  Slugfest 64 was on constant rotation for many Nintendo owners; it's the best baseball game I've played to date.  He's amassed 630 career dingers despite being injured for much of his prime early last decade.  He'd definitely be over 700 at this point if his first 2-3 years in Cincy weren't basically wiped out due to leg/shoulder injuries.  Point being, his credentials as a first-ballot Hall of Famer are beyond reproach.  But when you aren't available to pinch-hit because you're asleep in the clubhouse, as Griffey, Jr. was last week, that juuuust might be a signal that time's up.  Ken Griffey, Jr, what were you thinking?

As for ND golfer Annie Brophy, this is just too easy.  The Golden Domer was playing the other day in the NCAA Regionals, and conspired with the people who put the scores up on the leaderboard to give her 5 birdies, an eagle, and a bogey at the turn.  This would have put her at 6-under for the day, whereas she shot an 85 and 81, respectively, the first two days on the par-72 course.  This little stunt caused several other teams, including Florida St, Kent St, and Oregon, to wait around to see if a playoff was needed.  Once the tourney officials found out what was going on, they pulled Brophy off the course at the 14th hole.  While she admits the stunt was ill-conceived and she always intended to report her true score at the end of the round, this stunt goes against all the honor embedded in the fine sport of golf.  She no doubt influenced the mental state of other players from other schools who would have been affected by her false scores, and for that, Annie Brophy, what were you thinking?

Meanwhile, back here in Boston, about the only thing to go right last night at TD Garden was the unveiling of the new Bobby Orr statue commemorating his famous, flying Cup-winning goal.  It's simply awesome, definitely right up there with the Jordan statue outside the UC as my favorite sports moments immortalized in stone.  The Bruins, however, fell completely flat, and much like the Blackhawks the night before, completely failed to put up a fight at home with a chance to move on the Conference Finals.  Killer instinct, in both cases, was severely lacking.  Now, road wins will be necessary to advance.

As for the Hawks, I feel pretty good about tonight.  They haven't lost back-to-back games yet this postseason, and they've played their best after the worst games.  See: Game 2 in this very series against Vancouver, Games 2 and 4 against Nashville.  I obviously can't guarantee a win, but what I can guarantee is that the effort level will be completely raised from two nights ago; the question is, will the Canucks be up to the task like they were in Game 5? Time will tell; good luck to the men of the four feathers, let's hope they can just fly a little farther south to San Jose after tonight.  

In other news: the Bulls' coaching search is nowhere, the Cubs can't buy a win, Jack Bauer's revenge train is barreling down the tracks, I'm three finals from home, and tonight's LOST promises to be the most mind-blowingly awesome installment yet.  See you on the flip side...