April 26

NBA Delivers
Well on a slow hockey day, with the only game being Washington's trouncing of a Rangers team that has completely melted down, the NBA cared and gave us 3 incredible games. Right now the Rockets and Portland are coming down the stretch exchanging threes' in a crazy 4th quarter. The only game that was no contest was the Cavs game 4 dismantling of a seemingly outclassed Pistons team, thus sweeping Detroit out of the playoffs. You'd think a team that still has 3 core players from their championship team a few years back would show a little more heart, but Detroit went down with barely a whisper. How horrible does that Billups/Iverson trade seem now? Billups is filling it up for Denver vs the Hornets.

Bulls/Celtics
Incredible game today. A sunday afternoon playoff classic that would rank right up there with the best. Ray Allen with a 3 to send it to overtime. Ben Gordon responds with a 3 over Paul Pierce to send it to double overtime (is it just me or are UCONN products really tough!). Gordon with that crazy runner at the end of the 4th, the hustle plays of Yannick Noah's kid, Kirk Hinrich missing the front end of pair a of foul shots after Chicken Scalibrani's intentional foul, Paul Pierce with a huge 3 and a crazy and1 that pulled the Celts close in the 2nd ot. In the end it was.....John Salmons (not pronounced like the fish) who was the hero, hitting a huge 3 and then blocking Pierce's 3 pointer at the buzzer to seal the win for the Bulls. Awesome. Can't wait for game 5 in Boston

Blackhawks/Flames
I wrote a few days back that if you're a Flames fan, you have to be dissapointed that Calgary is not winning that series, or even have it won. Their game 5 performance was unacceptable. How do you not come out with intensity for that game. How could their collective juices not be flowing for a game 5. Shameful.

Portland/Houston
This game is in the last minute, the Blazers have the ball down 2 with about 30 ticks left.
I always forget how huge Ron Artest is. Hard to believe a guy that big can be so quick and graceful. Brandon Roy got the clearout and drove to the basket...offensvie foul! Tough call. Game over, Rockets take strangle hold now up 3-1. A Houston/LA second rounder would be pretty sweet with the Kobe/Artest rivalry.

Doug Collins made a great point about the way the Rockets have added alot of high energy players that have made them alot more fun to watch. Lowry, Landry, the european dude with the soccer hair, good add ons to go with guys like Yao and Battier.....I love Jeff Van Gundy as an analyst. He calls it exactly as he sees it and does not seem to care what players will think of his comments. He was all over John Salmons late in the 4th for missing a key box out off a Ray Allen foul shot. Then he was on Glen Davis (maybe the wierdest body of any player in the NBA) for trying to make a steal on the much quicker Derrick Rose which led to a Scallibrani block call.....I'm really worried now about my Devils pick. I told Ryan Delong there was no way in hell that Carolina wins that series, yikes. Carolina looks like they have a little more speed and Brodeur does not look like himself....did you see the Viktor Cozlov goal today, as Bob Cole would say, "Oh Baby'! I love how he bulldozed Lundquist and put him in the net at the end of it.

April 21

Not a bad night for sports on the tube. A little miffed about CBC cutting away from the Pens/Flyers for Canucks/Blues. I'm assuming they are contractually obligated to show the Canucks, because they must know that most people east of BC would rather see that Pens game. Great series so far, heading into a pivotal game 4...Canucks have that Blues series pretty much wrapped up. Turns out the Pens won, now up 3-1.

Hurricanes scored the game winner with two tenths left on the clock to beat the Devils, 4-3. Brodeur went bananas after the game ( I love how goalies always have a hard time breaking their sticks, meanwhile a regular stick snaps on a wrist shot). He definitely got bumped but he was 2-3 feet outside his crease. I've got the Devils going to the Cup so hopefully they can recover back in beautiful Newark, New Jersey.

Can't wait for the Ducks/Sharks game. What an intriguing match up, especially with the Ducks winning the first 2 games. All those gritty former cup winners on the Ducks vs the president trophy winning Sharks with a recent history of folding in the playoffs. If you lose this playoff series, you're looking at a long 12 months before the 2010 playoffs if you are a San Jose Shark.

Switched over to the Cavs/Pistons game, Detroit has actually closed to within 8 points with 4 minutes to play! Can you imagine if the Cavs actually had 2 or 3 more decent players besides Mo Williams to go with Lebron. James got 66 wins out of a group that consisted of a dude who looks like Carlito the wrestler, and Willy Sczerbiak with a knee brace! Wow.

No way the Jazz beat the Lakers tonight. I'll be shocked if the Jazz win a game in that series. Is it just me or does L.A. go 12 deep. Their best player in game 1 may have been Trevor Ariza! You get the feeling that Cabbie could put a uniform on and put up 10 and 5.

GREAT SAVE LUONGO!! (love that Jim Hughson expression). Luongo just made a very special save with 5 mins left and game still tied.
Canucks/Blues now in OT, I wish they were showing the Ducks game but i think you can watch it on CBC website. Obviously an ot game is great and it's a canadian team, but I can't take a 3-0 series seriously until the losing team at least wins a game...especially now that the Sharks/Ducks are 2-2 in the 1st... that's it I'm going to the CBC website.

Just watched a great scrap in the Ducks game between 6'3" Doug Murray and 6'5" George Parros. However, it went about 20 seconds too long. Some punches were thrown and exchanged, but it reached the point where both guys were just hanging on, yet the linesmen did not step in. This has been a point of contention for me all season. The linesmen need to get in there and break it up when it's painfully obvious to everyone that both guys have got nothing left in the tank. Then maybe guys will stop getting dragged to the ice and banging their heads.

Earlier I posted a piece from the new Roger Clemens book, if you get a chance give it a lookover, it's really good. I just read a different brand spankin new book on the fall of the Rocket by Jeff Pearlman, entitled the Day the Rocket Came Back to Earth, and it was a great read as well. Although a little too similar to the book about the fall of Barry Bonds that Pearlman wrote 2 years ago, both in style and context, but still a great book.

Alex Burrows....scores! Thank god... tough angle shot, no way that puck should get by Mason. Canucks can rest up for round 2 and now we can settle in and watch Ducks/Sharks.

roger clemens book excerpt

Found this on the CNNSI website. It's a piece from an upcoming book about Clemens' steroid usage. I just finished a similar book called "The Rocket That Fell to Earth",

Excerpted from AMERICAN ICON: The Fall of Roger Clemens and the Rise of Steroids in America's Pastime, by Teri Thompson, Nathaniel Vinton, Michael O'Keeffe and Christian Red. Copyright © by Teri Thompson, Nathaniel Vinton, Michael O'Keeffe and Christian Red. To be published May 12, 2009, by Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc.
In their reporting for American Icon, the book from which this article was adapted, the New York Daily News investigative team of Teri Thompson, Nathaniel Vinton, Michael O'Keeffe and Christian Red reviewed thousands of pages of court documents, congressional depositions, police reports, medical files and transcripts of secretly recorded phone calls. They interviewed MLB players and executives, players' association officials, U.S. congressional leaders, law enforcement agents, attorneys, steroid suppliers, trainers, doctors and doping experts. Their repeated requests to speak to Roger Clemens were refused. The team's original reporting for the Daily News won the Associated Press Sports Editors award for Best Investigative Reporting in 2008.
Even to a former New York City cop, the question was jarring. "Can you help me?" Roger Clemens asked. "I can't inject in my booty."
This is how Brian McNamee, then the Toronto Blue Jays' new strength and conditioning coordinator, remembers it all starting. He glanced up at Clemens, whose broad frame blocked most of McNamee's view of the rest of the SkyDome clubhouse. A few other players milled about the room, preparing for the upcoming series against the Baltimore Orioles. Toronto designated hitter and occasional outfielder Jose Canseco was picking through his stall nearby, his back to Clemens and McNamee.
The trainer, who had come to baseball from the NYPD, was slumped in his own stall. Why, he wondered, was arguably the greatest pitcher of his era asking for help in sticking a hypodermic needle in his ass?
Clemens handed McNamee a small, white, opaque container resembling an aspirin bottle without a label. "What do you think of these?" Clemens asked. McNamee took the container and poured some white pills into his hand. They looked like oral testosterone, a substance he had only recently researched. "That looks like Anadrol-50," said Canseco, suddenly barging into the conversation. Before McNamee or Clemens could object, the burly Canseco took a couple of the pills and shoved them into his mouth.
McNamee wheeled around to face Clemens. "Don't take that," he told the pitcher. "That's really bad for you." Clemens then gave McNamee a bag filled with 50 to 100 glassine bottles and told him to get rid of them. McNamee later suspected that the bottles contained cypionate or enanthate: straight testosterone.
At 35, Clemens was Toronto's staff ace and highest-paid player, pulling in a cool $8.55 million. Two-and-a-half months into the 1998 season, however, his record was a pedestrian 6-6. He was less than a year removed from going 21-7 and winning his fourth Cy Young Award, but something was off, and his club was suffering as a result. Toronto was fading fast in the American League East standings.
During spring training McNamee had taken stock of Clemens's flabby physique. He didn't think the pitcher would continue to be successful without a change in his conditioning routine, even though Clemens maintained that his workout regimen was unequaled in professional sports. Now the Rocket wanted someone to help him with needle injections?
Clemens was aware of the recent strains in McNamee's personal life. At the end of spring training, a family emergency had called the trainer home to Queens. His one-year-old son, Brian Jr., was diabetic. McNamee and his wife, Eileen, spent the better part of a week being taught how to prick their infant's finger for a drop of blood, test it for hyperglycemia and then inject him with the appropriate doses of short-acting and long-acting insulin. McNamee learned to mix the insulin and draw it into needles for subcutaneous shots. It was a delicate process, getting the exact amount of the hormone into a pinch of fat so it could be released gradually into the bloodstream. The Toronto players and staff felt sympathy for McNamee. Clemens was among those who had expressed concern for Brian Jr., but now his motives seemed decidedly personal.
McNamee looked back at Clemens. "Yeah," the trainer said. "I think I can handle that."
"All right," Clemens said. "I'll let you know."
One of the perks of playing for Toronto was living in the luxury hotel attached to the stadium. Only five minutes after a hard game, an exhausted player could crash in one of the 70 rooms beyond the outfield. When the team was at home, Clemens lived in a SkyDome apartment with floor-to-ceiling windows looking out on the diamond.
Shortly after their clubhouse conversation that day in June, Clemens summoned McNamee to the apartment, and by the time the trainer arrived, the pitcher had already laid out some clear glass vials containing a cloudy white liquid. The labels identified the substance as Winstrol, an anabolic steroid. There were some large needles, too, and sterilizing alcohol.
There was one problem. McNamee had experience only with the small-bore subcutaneous needles he used to inject his son. He was now looking at wide-bore needles meant to puncture dense muscle and inject a thick fluid deep into tissue. His mind began racing. He had no authority to give injections to players, let alone to the face of the franchise. But Clemens had asked, and McNamee had agreed. There was no turning back. Anyway, McNamee figured, Clemens was more prone to hurt himself if he stuck needles into his own ass.
The pitcher bent over. McNamee dabbed Clemens's skin with alcohol so as not to cause an infection. Then he stuck the needle into the pitcher's buttocks and depressed the plunger of the syringe. Now they were accomplices.
From that moment McNamee and Clemens had the kind of relationship that can create the tightest bonds of loyalty -- and pave the way for a painful falling out. When they had first met, at that season's spring training in Dunedin, Fla., Clemens still felt remnants of the bitterness that had consumed him after his dismissal from the Boston Red Sox following the 1996 season. He'd poured his guts into that team for 13 years, only to be sent off with what he perceived as an insult: Boston general manager Dan Duquette said Clemens had reached "the twilight of his career." After signing a three-year, $24.75 million contract to play for the Blue Jays in 1997, Clemens shot back, "I could pitch till I'm 45 because of the conditioning I do, especially with my legs."

Police work was the McNamee family business, and Brian had had his share of big moments during his three years and four months on the force. Working undercover, he had patrolled Manhattan in a Yellow Cab; he locked up 77 people and won numerous commendations. One day in 1991, while on foot patrol, he got a call to head to a five-story walk-up near Lexington Avenue. What he found there would remain vivid in his memory: the body of four-year-old Conor Clapton embedded in the tar on the roof. The boy, the son of rock star Eric Clapton and Italian actress Lori del Santo, had fallen from a window in the high-rise apartment building next door.
Now McNamee's gig with the Blue Jays was his foothold in the glamorous world of professional sports. He was 31 and not getting paid much, but he was close to fame and glory. He'd played baseball for Archbishop Molloy High in Queens and had been a good enough catcher to play for St. John's University, helping his team upset defending national champion Stanford in the 1988 NCAA tournament. After college McNamee had played a little semipro ball in the New York area, and after leaving the police department in 1993 he had worked briefly as a bullpen catcher for the Yankees.
Despite their differences in accent and income, Clemens, the swaggering jock from Texas, and McNamee, the sardonic ex-cop from New York, shared a passion for baseball. Clemens was determined to prove he wasn't fading, and McNamee, having just arrived at the Show, was committed to staying there. So there would be other injections, but with the first one the two men crossed a stark line into territory they would never escape: Clemens became a cheater, and McNamee became his enabler.
DECEMBER 2007
Only days before the release of the Mitchell Report on performance-enhancing drug use in baseball, Clemens sat on the patio of a casita in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, after receiving a phone call from his agents, Randy and Alan Hendricks, that would change his life. McNamee had told federal law enforcement agents investigating a steroids distribution network run by former New York Mets clubhouse attendant Kirk Radomski that he had helped Clemens use steroids and human growth hormone over a period of several years beginning in 1998. McNamee had also been cooperating with former senator George Mitchell's investigation.
In the weeks to come Clemens would attack McNamee on 60 Minutes and in a defamation suit, and his attorneys would smear McNamee's character. They would secretly record McNamee in conversations he thought were private. But Clemens would never mention the moment of truth in Cabo; he would say that he didn't know about McNamee's accusations until days later, in Houston, and that he'd been blindsided by his trainer's betrayal.
In Cabo, Clemens tried to absorb the news, but to friends who were with him there -- ballplayers and businessmen -- he didn't seem panicked. He'd spent a lifetime cultivating an ability to control his world. In Clemens's mind this situation was just like any other game in which he had gotten behind in the count. He could gut his way through it. He just needed to throw his opponents a little chin music.
FEBRUARY 2008
With the confident stride of a baseball legend, Roger Clemens arrived at Capitol Hill on the morning of Feb. 5 for his deposition before investigators for the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. He wore a gray pin-striped suit buttoned tightly across his wide chest. He carried a small vinyl briefcase in his left hand, and in his right hand -- the one with which he collected 354 big league wins -- he carried a large paper cup with a tea bag label hanging out.
Flanked by his lawyers, Rusty Hardin and Lanny Breuer, Clemens entered room 2157 of the Rayburn Building, took the oath and promptly declared, "I have not used steroids or growth hormone." He repeated this denial, in various formulations, six times in the first 30 minutes of the exceedingly awkward meeting.
These were probably the most important sentences Clemens had ever uttered. The sworn statements were direct and unequivocal, and they were recorded verbatim. From that moment forward, if it were ever proved that Clemens had used steroids or HGH, he could be prosecuted for lying to Congress. For much of the deposition he sat silently while his lawyers spoke to the investigators, clarifying the pitcher's answers and bashing the methodology of the Mitchell Report. Clemens had eagerly looked forward to testifying. It was his chance to demonstrate resolve and, it seemed, to blow off steam.
"Brian McNamee did not make me as an athlete, despite his ongoing claims," Clemens said. "I had a great workout ethic before I met him." Clemens's legacy was at stake. For nearly two months people had been wondering what drove him to deny McNamee's stories, even after his longtime friend and teammate Andy Pettitte had confirmed McNamee's allegations to Mitchell Report investigators about Pettitte's use of HGH. Clemens didn't want anyone to think he had cheated -- that he had taken the easy route to the unprecedented success he'd enjoyed late in his career.
"I have never smoked a cigarette, I have never smoked dope, I have never done cocaine," Clemens said about halfway into the five-hour deposition. "I would not put anything -- allow anybody to put anything -- in my body that's going to be harmful to me. That's who I am as a person."
Clemens claimed it had been "shocking" to learn that Pettitte had used growth hormone. "I would think that we were close enough to know that if he was thinking of doing it, or did it, that I would have known," the Texan said. He could not explain why McNamee might have lied about him yet told the truth about Pettitte. "This man has me being a drug dealer," Clemens said. "Very upsetting...if you have seen my interviews. Very upsetting."
The committee's investigative staff had, in fact, seen Clemens's interviews. They had watched his denials on YouTube, 60 Minutes and at a press conference in Houston. Clemens had boxed himself in with the claim that McNamee had injected him with B12 and lidocaine, not steroids or HGH. Now he was forced to repeat and explain those claims under oath. He had to testify about his wife's use of HGH, which had come up in Pettitte's deposition to investigators. (Two days after Clemens's testimony, McNamee would tell the investigators that in the winter of 2002-03, at Clemens's house in Houston, Clemens had summoned him to the bedroom, pulled a vial of growth hormone from a shaving kit in the bathroom and instructed him to inject Debbie Clemens.) Clemens also had to discuss a decade-old medical report that described a "palpable mass" on his buttocks where an MRI revealed a "collection of fluid deep within the subcutaneous fat, likely related to the patient's prior attempted intramuscular injections."
A week after his deposition Clemens returned to Capitol Hill for the Feb. 13 hearing that laid waste to his legacy. Ten minutes before the hearing the ranking Republican on the House committee, Tom Davis of Virginia, offered Clemens a chance to back out, but the Texan waved him off as he would a catcher who'd called for the wrong pitch.
Two weeks after the hearing the committee referred Clemens's testimony to the Justice Department for a possible perjury investigation that has since led the FBI into the darkest corners of the pitcher's life. McNamee had seen it all coming; during the hearing he sketched a game of hangman on his notepad.
SPRING 2009
Roger Clemens has been keeping a low profile, like a soldier caught behind enemy lines. Charities once proud to feel his embrace have cut their ties. At the final game at Yankee Stadium last fall, Clemens's accomplishments were not recognized, while Pettitte had the honor of starting the game. Clemens's defamation suit against McNamee was all but gutted by the presiding federal judge on Feb. 12. In the course of their perjury investigation, FBI agents Heather Young and John Longmire interviewed Clemens's friends and business associates, as well as gym owners, doctors and former teammates, looking for connections between Clemens and the steroids underworld.
While Clemens has put himself on the verge of a federal indictment, McNamee is trying to pick up the pieces of a broken life. He contributes to a website started by some friends in Boston, SportsImproper.com, and is rebuilding his training business. He is preparing to sue Clemens for defamation. He has met with prosecutors in Washington, D.C., and been told to be prepared to testify before a grand jury. Members of Congress -- including ones who once defended Clemens and attacked McNamee -- now say they expect to see the Texan indicted.

Canucks/Flames

Can The Canucks Go All The Way?

On CKDU Sports today, Chris Trembley said that the Vancouver Canucks will not be a factor as the NHL playoffs continue.
“Vancouver is not playoff ready, they’re not built for the playoffs. When push comes to shove, is Vancouver tough enough?”
Chris’ question may have been valid in the several years following the Bertuzzi/ Naslund/ Morrison era, but I’m not sure the ‘Nucks are really that soft.
Roberto Luongo certainly isn’t. St. Louis has only put 3 pucks past him in 3 games. The Sedins appear to be much stronger than years past, and guys like Alex Burrows (51 pts) and Ryan Kessler (59) have emerged as top 6 forwards, The roster has allot of size throughout the roster (only 2 players are below 6’0”). On the point they still have venerable plus/minus guys like Mattias Ohlund and Sami Salo alongside rugged youngsters Alex Edler and Shane O’Brien.
Chris knows allot more about hockey than I do, but I would not be surprised to see the Canucks make a run.

Flames/Hawks

Watching game 3 of this series, the Flames down 2 games to none, but leading 4-1. I think if you’re a Calgary fan, you have to be really disappointed if the Flames do not win this series. The Flames have a really balanced team, even without Robyn Regehr. They have the better goalie, more size, comparable speed, and more experience. The Blackhawks should still be a couple years away, the Flames window of opportunity is now.
For a guy who never played in the playoffs before this season, Olli Jokinen sure knows how to play playoff hockey!

Canucks vs Flames?
Just in case you are wondering, the Flames playing the Canucks in the next round is very possible...if the Flames can get past the Hawks.
Assuming the first round match ups play out the way they are looking now, the Red Wings would play the Ducks, and the Canucks would get the Flames. That would be alot of fun!

Remembering Dyrick Mcdermott....MSVU moves "Forward".

Dyrick Mcdermott (1968-2009)

Mark Forward Named Head Coach of MSVU Women's Basketball

Mount Saint Vincent University took the first step towards moving forward after the unexpected death of basketball coach Dyrick Mcdermott 2 months ago, appointing Mark Forward as their new head coach of women's basketball this past week.

Forward is a gradute of the Mount and was the school's first CCAA all star in 1991 as a member of the Men's basketball team.

As a coach, Forward had several successful years in the late nineties coaching the men's program at Dal Tech, before joining Rick Plato with the men's team at the Mount where he has coached the last nine years.

Forward was a close friend and former teammate of Dyrick Mcdermott's. He takes over the reigns of the program with a heavy heart. Speaking on CKDU Sports this past monday, Forward commented on his personal struggle with the loss of Mcdermott. " It's hard to talk about..it' surreal. There were not too many days over the past 20 years where I did'nt see or talk to Dyrick. That void that's there is very difficult. He was my best friend, our little boys were best friends. I'm sad for his family, it was just so unexpected."

After asking Coach Forward about following up on Mcdermott's legacy of unbelievable success on the basketball court, Forward suggested his old friend was sticking it to him one more time. "A mutual friend of mine and Dyrick's have joked that Dyrick is still managing to give us a hard time!"

Forward admitted to feeling pressure taking over the traditionally strong program, having been involved for nearly a decade with the dominant Mystics men's team. "I feel the pressure, but that's what drives you to succeed. I'm going to give it my best effort, and I have Dyrick as motivation to keep the winning going," said Forward over the phone.

I'm sure Coach Mcdermott would be very pleased that his best friend is taking over his program, and I'm pretty sure the entire basketball community will be cheering for Coach Forward and the players at the Mount, who called Coach Mcdermott their friend and mentor.

I was not a friend of Dyrick Mcdermott, but I wish I had been. I have a feeling my life would have been that much more richer. Although, if I had been, that late April weekend would have been even more heart breaking than I already found it.

I met Coach Mcdermott in January when he agreed to let me do a story on his women's basketball team at MSVU. Not only was he courteous and helpful, he was a great interview.

Over the winter he bacame a regular on my CKDU sports show and always gave me great insight and thoughtful opinions.

I found out about Coach's death just before I went to work that night. Concentrating on my job was very difficult, and as I went from emotion to emotion, thought to thought, I realized how hard his death must be for people who actually called him a coach, friend, father or husband.
This guy was a great man. A far better man than me, and probably a better man then most of us. His death is tragic and sad, and a lesson for all of us to enjoy every day we have on this planet, and make the most of it. Because at any moment, it could all come to an end.