Just found this flyer this morning. I was cleaning out some papers and found it. They were passing them out at the Final Four. I was cracking up when I read it. Alas, I didn’t make it down there.

Go Gym Dawgs! Three NCAA Championships in a row! You guys must be proud. I guess this means that Matt will be making a bigger contribution to the Alumni Association so that he can get better seats when he renews his gymnastics season tickets for next year.

I made it to my first Rangers game of the year last night as they took on the A’s. Due to traffic issues, I was a little late getting to my seat near the end of the first inning. In the second, the Rangers starter, Brandon McCarthy, blew up, allowing 6 runs without recording an out. Former Tech student Bruce Chen relieved him and proceeded to give up two more runs. 8-0 after two innings does not a good ballgame make. Luckily, in the 4th after Oakland had spiked their lead to 10-0 and I had retrieved a beer and a hot dog from the closest concession stand, a little excitement came my way when Hank Blalock fouled a pitch behind me about 8 rows. Clutching my dog in my left hand, I turned to my left (I was on the aisle) to see the ball bounding towards me. With my right hand I reached for the ball and it landed squarely in the middle of my paw. Needless to say, if I had fumbled the catch someone nearby would have scooped up the souvenir. In fact, the guy in front of me attending the game with his two sons and wife let me know that he was chastised by said wife for failing to knock the ball out of my hand! His statement didn’t bother me nearly as much as his status as a dead ringer for Roy Oswalt. Anyway, it was an extremely lazy way to get a foul ball as I didn’t even get out of my seat. Pretty good for my first one ever.

The game was a real dog as Texas lost 16-4. The only joy was seeing Ian Kinsler rip a double and finish 2-4 as he is on one of my fantasy teams (some idiot cut him early in the year). I’ve got tickets to two of the three Astros/Rangers games here so I may not be out to the park again until then, which will be in late June, just in time to sweat. 

Why do Atlanta teams suck so bad against the God Damned Carpet Bagger Teams?

Supposedly, this is one of the new logos being considered.

Well, the Thrashers, and Philips Arena for that matter, are no longer Playoff virgins. For the first time in both of their histories, there was a meaningful game being played in April. Finally, the work of Waddell and Hartley has paid off and the team not only made it to the playoffs for the first time, but won the SE Division. What happens from here is anybody’s guess, but this is a huge night for the Franchise and hopefully the stepping stone to propel the team to a Stanley Cup, if not this season, then in the next few years. With Lehtonen, Ilya and Hossa in their primes, I think that we’re heading in that direction.

Ismail, Janet, Olivia and I made our way down to Philips a little earlier than usual because of the chaos that we thought would ensue with a sell-out crowd all converging on the Arena.   When we entered, we were pleased to find out that they were giving out awesome Thrashers scarfs. We all got one and they even gave us an extra one for Olivia. Steve and Al will each be the beneficiaries of one each since they’re in on the playoff tickets with me.

Unfortunately, the Thrashers were chasing the game all night; they found themselves for much of the game down by two goals. Every time they narrowed it to one, the Rangers would score again. They didn’t show much aggressiveness offensively for the first two periods and lacked the crisp passing needed to create opportunities. The third period was much better as the team started playing more focused and cut the Rangers’ lead to one. With about a minute to go in the game and Atlanta still down by a goal, the Thrashers pulled Kari and the Rangers earned a penalty, giving the Thrashers a 6-on-4 advantage. This time, unlike the game last week vs. the Caps, the Thrashers got several shots off. However, nothing came of it and the boys went down 4-3.

Since i’m writing this on Sunday morning and after game #2, I know that the Thrashers are down 0-2. I’m very worried, but I know it’s not impossible. In the 2004 Finals between the Flames and Lightning, it went seven games and every game was won by the visiting team. So, I know it can happen, but i’m not too optimistic about their chances at this point. Another positive for the Thrashers is that they had the second best record at MSG this year, so who knows what might transpire on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The Braves were giving out Hank Aaron statues so I decided to get tickets for this otherwise uncompelling match-up.  (3 statues produced in some sweatshop in western China and ship overseas for < $1 each got the Braves two $34 tickets and a $10 parking pass.)  Christina was supposed to go with me, but she decided she didn’t want to go all the way to Turner Field just to help me add to my steadily growing Bobblehead/Statue collection.  Dave came along instead and he brought Quin with him.  The highlight on the trip was using Dave’s new GPS to take back roads and avoid the bad traffic on the connector.  The downside was not being able to use the green lot parking pass I had bought online.   We got to the gate about a 1/2 hour before first pitch and there were still plenty of statues available.   Dave, Quin, and I each got one.  At that point, the night was a success, but I figured wathing the Braves sweep the lowly Nats would be gravy.  I had field level seats on the first base side.  It was a great view of the field and the weather was perfect…clear skies and temps in the 60s.  Smoltz pitched a gem through seven innings…no runs and one hit.  Unfortunately, so did the Nats pitcher.  In typical Cox fasion, He left the starter in one inning too long, and Smoltz gave up two runs in the 8th.  We left in the top of the 9th with the Braves still down two runs.  By the time we got back to the car, the Braves had loaded the bases with two outs.  I hoped I would continue my string of leaving games early only to miss walk-off homers by the braves, but it wasn’t to be.  Thorman struck out.  Oh well…7-2 is still the best record in baseball so far. 

With the Southeast Division Championship in the bag, tonight’s game was more of a celebratory affair than a battle for the Division. This game has been sold out for weeks as fans had anticipated that this game would be for all of the marbles. Thanks to the Thrashers’ win over the Canes last night and Tampa’s choke vs. the Panthers, the Thrashers clinched the Division and tonight’s game would have no bearing on the Thrashers’ playoff positioning.

Being that this week was Spring Break for Ismail and I, we were able to go to two Hawks games and two Thrashers games over the course of the vacation. Additionally, I was able to go to the NCAA Championship- a great sports week overall. Janet and Olivia also came along for tonight’s game- we benefited from it being Easter as both Dave and Steve gave up their tickets because of familial responsibilities. It pays to be an one of the ” Un-Saved”.

We arrived a few minutes late and Tampa was already winning 0-1. I thought to myself, “Oh great, the team is going to have a hangover (figuratively and literally) and they’re going to be real flat tonight.” For most of the first period, this seemed to be the case.

The second period had more intensity from both sides and the Thrashers had several shots miss by inches. The Lightning scored on a face-off to go up 0-2, but the Thrashers continued to press hard for a goal. With three minutes left in the period, it finally came when they had a Power Play. Some skillful passing found Ilya alone on the backside of the net and he had all of the time in the world to lift the puck in the upper left-hand corner to make it 1-2.

The last period had a playoff atmosphere as both teams pressed hard to take control of the game. Only one minute in, Kozlov found the puck in front of the net and slotted it home to make it 2-2. The Thrashers had another goalscoring chance that hit the bottom of the crossbar and looked to go in at first glance. The replay showed that the puck never crossed the line, but the fans weren’t too happy with the decision to disallow the goal.

The game went to OT and had end-to-end excitement. Both teams had several great shots and equally great saves by the goalies. The game couldn’t be decided in the five-minute OT period, so it went to the shootout. The shootout would go six rounds. There was a lot of tension and drama as both teams had chances to win the game but the shooters either missed or had their shots saved. The shootout was delayed in the 5th Round when Eric Belanger missed his shot high and put a hole through the glass. The maintenance crew had to come out and replace the glass before play could continue. In the 6th Round, Jon Sim went low on Tampa’s goalie Holmqvist to make it 3-2. On Tampa’s next turn, Perrin’s shot was blocked by Lehtonen and the Thrashers came out on top 3-2 to win their season finale and show that they’re are playoff ready.

Playoffs begin on Thursday and Al, Steve and I have tickets for the whole thing. It was awesome to receive them the other day and find Stanley Cup Finals tickets; I hope that I get to use them.

No one was even remotely interested in going to this game. I had four tickets from our unused ticket swap, but no takers. Both Dave and Mike opted out, so I had two more for a total of six (I ended up giving the extra three away to someone that was waiting in line to buy tickets). Janet, Ismail, Olivia and I went down to the game to see two of the worst teams in the league try and show who’s more inept and see who would gain more lottery balls in this year’s much heralded Lottery drawing. The winner would be the loser and the loser would be the winner.

I wasn’t looking forward to going down to the game but i’m glad that I did. The game was one of the most entertaining games of the year. Despite the Bucks having only having nine players and missing Redd, Bogut, Villanueva, Williams and Skinner, the game was wide-open with a lot of scoring and fast break opportunities. The Hawks went down by double digits early, thanks to the incredible shooting of Earl Boykins, who had 19 first half points and 36 overall. The Hawks battled back, despite the worst half i’ve ever seen from Josh Smith. He looked like he was drunk on the court- he was sloppy, not getting back on defense and losing the ball with minimal pressure from the Bucks. He was so bad that Woody pulled him out for a good eight minute stretch. The Hawks were able to get back in the game thanks to Salim Stoudamire who had 4 threes in the first half and a career-high seven overall in the game. Lue and AJ also hit some clutch shots to pull the Hawks within two points at the half. The score was 62-60 at the break; obviously, very little defense was being played.

The second half was just as open as the first and the game was really close throughout the 3rd Quarter. In the 4th Quarter, as I predicted to Janet, the Bucks ran out of gas playing only seven players and the Hawks pulled away for good. A big part of the Hawks’ surge was the play of Josh Smith as he made up for his terrible first half by having one of his better halves of the season. He scored 21 points and had nine rebounds in the half, finishing with 28 points, a career-high 18 rebounds and five assists. Also performing well was the aforementioned Salim, Tyronn Lue (15 pts and 9 assists) and Shelden, who finally had a decent performance with 12 points and 16 boards. The game ended up being 115-102 and I  enjoyed every minute of it;  a satisfying experience for once.

During the game, I was doing a lot of scoreboard watching as the Thrashers were taking on the Canes. I brought my radio to listen to the game, but I discovered that it doesn’t work inside Philips. The Thrashers really needed a win to contend for the Division title and answered the call by winning 4-1 to put all of the pressure on Tampa to win. Much to the crowd’s delight, the Panthers trashed them in Tampa with 6 unanswered goals and a final of 7-2. The Thrashers officially became SE Division Champs for the first time and earned the first sort of accolades for Philips Arena teams since it opened in 1999.  Tonight’s game vs. Tampa is largely meaningless, but will be more of a celebration of last night’s (and the season’s) accomplishments.

The Spin: Janet- a Free Coke; Me-Enter to Win. FYI- No more free ticket vouchers on the board

Janet, Ismail, Olivia and I went to the Thrashers game on Wednesday night vs. the Capitals. I got the tickets with vouchers, my last ones of the season. We ended up being late because of traffic, a hard time finding a parking spot and the need to get dinner before going into the game. We got to our seats during the first Intermission with the Thrashers up 1-0.

With Tampa winning the night before, the Thrashers only held a one point lead in the Southeast Division with three games to go. A win tonight would’ve put them up by three points with two games to go. I’m sure that everyone was optimistic after the first Period that the Thrashers were going to handle their business. However, the 2nd Period ended up being one of the worst periods of hockey all season. The Caps scored three goals in the period, including 2 from Alexi Ovechkin. I’ve seen five goals from him in two games this season at Philips; he must love playing here. The Thrashers looked terrible and had problems even completing simple passes; they looked like they were the team out of the playoffs, not the Caps. ATL went into the locker room down 3-1 after being up 1-0 only twenty minutes earlier.

The Third Period pretty much followed 2nd Period form until finally, with about ten minutes left, the Thrashers started to string some passes together and created some chances in front of the net. Their efforts were quickly rewarded when they scored a second goal with seven mnutes left; however, there was a phantom “High Stick” call that negated the goal and caused a chorus of boos to rain down on the referees. Some people took to throwing debris on the ice in disgust. The high stick earned the Thrashers a 4 v. 5 situation for the next four minutes. Despite the one-man disadvantage, Andy Sutton was able to intercept a pass to create a breakaway which he slotted home, putting us a goal down with 3 1/2 minutes to go.

In the last minutes of the game, there were a flurry of chances not finished by the Thrashers. It looked like they might finally have their perfect opportunity when, in the last minute of the game, the Caps picked up two penalties, giving the Thrashers a 6 v. 3 situation since Lehtonen had already been pulled out for an extra skater. For some reason, the Thrashers chose to overpass the puck in the last minute, trying to find that perfect shot instead of really peppering the net and looking for rebounds. The 3 man advantage ended up being all for naught and the Thrashers were punished for their overall poor play.

Two games to go, one point ahead and Carolina and Tampa on the schedule. Saturday night vs. Tampa could be for all of the marbles. Let’s hope that they show up for the whole 60 minutes if it is.