Bartl’s Blog – instead of questions, 5 “Congrats” to hand out today
Congratulations all around! There are five teams or individuals who deserve a round of applause this morning… and not all of them are for proud reasons.
5. The Los Angeles Dodgers – Congratulations for finding a way to stay in the news, this time with the arrest of a suspect in the near-fatal beating of Bryan Stow, who allegedly has an alibi. Not content with being the 4th worst team in the league and constant published reports about their boring games pitchers duels, the Dodgers have had more off-the-field news stories than any team in recent memory.
Just doing a Google search, typing in “Dodgers stadium” pulls up searches for “address,” “seating,” “beating” and “attack” in that order. Nice.
4. The Alaska Aces – Congrats for winning their second Kelly Cup Championship in the last six years over the weekend, defeating the Kalamazoo Wings 4-games-to-1. It was their third trip to the finals in that stretch and they became just the fourth team to win 20 or more playoff series in Kelly Cup Playoff history. They have the highest all-time playoff win percentage in ECHL history, and they are also second in all-time ECHL playoff wins – after only eight seasons.
3. The idiot under-informed person guest-hosting the Dan Patrick show on Monday – Congrats to you, forgettable radio personality, who went out of your way to prove ignorance on the air. Well… you made your point.
He admitted that he had “no clue” what was happening in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, when a more informed listener called in to bag on the Bruins for blowing a big lead in a weekend game. Hockey is the only sport that mainstream media loves to admit they know nothing about, as if since they don’t care, nobody else should. He was actually bragging about being ignorant, like a bully on the schoolyard in 7th grade making fun of the kids in the advance science class.
He followed it up by saying that nobody in the Fox Sports newsroom could name one player on every NHL team. Which is remarkable considering almost half of all NHL teams are televised by a Fox Sports regional network in their markets. Way to stay brushed up on your sports, buddy. You don’t have to be an expert, but not having “a clue” about what’s going on in the NHL playoffs isn’t really something you should be proud of.
If you don’t know what you’re talking about, just move on to discussing the NBA playoffs like every other radio show, rehashing the same conversation over and over. Really, who’s fault is it that you don’t know anything? Because it sounded like you were trying to chastise hockey fans for your lack of interest and laziness… you sure showed us (and inspired me to change the station)!
2. The Vancouver Canucks – Congrats will be in order when they dismantle the Sharks tonight in Game 5 in Vancouver, which will technically be their fourth home game of the series, after a pitiful turnout of Sharks fans in Game 4 in San Jose (all night long you could hear Vancouver fans cheering and chanting “Looooooooo!” after big saves by Luongo).
The Sharks have had a little bit of luck on their hands all throughout the playoffs: they were lucky the Kings couldn’t score any goals, they should never have gotten past the Detroit Red Wings and now they’re about to be rolled in the Conference Finals.
The Canucks have quietly been outstanding since surrendering a 3-0 series lead to Chicago in the opening round. In fact, other than those hiccups they have been the most dominating team in these playoffs. They trashed Chicago in the first three games of that series. They may have had a stumble against the pesky Predators the last round, but did anybody really think Nashville WASN’T outmatched? And did anyone really think after it was 3-0 against the Blackhawks that Chi-town’s crew could POSSIBLY come from behind to win that series? And does anybody think that Niemi & Co. can rally against this team? Your answers are no, no, and no. The Sharks are toast, whether it happens tonight or not (it will happen tonight).
1. J.D. Corbin – Congrats for finally getting to go home. The last player to leave town, J.D. had to stick around for further medical evaluation from team doctors, and left on Saturday. It was a difficult run for Corbin this season, sustaining two concussions on hits from behind (which netted a combined one-game of suspension time) and limiting him to just 16 games.
While his wife had a job here locally, J.D. did not, and has been spending many of his days in the Condors office calling fans, thanking them for renewing their season tickets. He was supposed to be done with that after only a few days, but he kept coming in anyway and calling more people. J.D. was a really well-liked guy on the team this season, and is probably captain-material should he re-sign with the Condors for 2011-12.
Kevin Bartl is the Vice President of Communications for the Condors, entering his ninth season with the organization. His blog comes out ever Tuesday on BakersfieldCondors.com. Do we need to mention that his opinions are his own, and not necessarily a reflection of the Condors organization? Follow him on twitter @KevinBartl.
