Did Kirilenko Flop?, Dodger Blues, And Andruw Jones Was Signed to Make Juan Pierre Look Good…Right?
Part 3 of the weekend blog will have to wait a night.
Quick-hitters:
- For you people that play sports—recreationally, or organized, no matter—don’t you love it when you hit “The Zone?” Nothing can go wrong: every shot you make falls, every swing you take is pure, every pass you make is on the money, every catch you make is crisp. Don’t you just love the feeling?
I wish I knew what that feeling was like 
My sister and I “played” some tennis earlier today, and I use the term “play” loosely. We sucked. Bad.
I think I’ll stick to Wii Tennis.
- First, let me revisit the hot topic of a few nights ago: the Kirilenko flop (item #7). Most opinions I’ve heard insist that Kirilenko flopped, and that the call was so outrageous, the NBA should consider an “unsportsmanlike conduct” penalty on any player that flops so egregiously.
Rumor has it that Big Wilting Cactus Shaq O’Neal would be in favor of this rule change.
I’ve since seen the replay several times, and yes, Kirilenko absolutely flopped. That does NOT change the fact that Scola’s arm was extended when it made contact with Kirilenko. My point is, if illegal picks are offensive fouls, then Luis Scola committed an offensive foul. If Scola didn’t commit a foul, then what was the purpose of the extension of the arm? I find it hard to believe that Scola did not attempt to gain some advantage by the arm extension.
As far as penalizing flopping is concerned, I don’t see how the NBA could ever do this, unless they add a fourth official to the court. The three officials have enough trouble as it is with calling games (with some exceptions, of course; any time LeBron James is breathed on, that’s a foul, e.g.); how are they going to determine whether or not a player intentionally flopped?
Long story short, Houston should probably have pulled out game 2, and now they are in serious trouble.
- I took advantage of a JetBlue promotion to score LA Dodger tickets for Wednesday night’s game @ $5 each (Lower reserve, AKA one step below nosebleeds) + all of TicketMaster’s bullshit fees (more on this later).
Unfortunately, I didn’t find out until Tuesday that the Denver-Lakers game was scheduled at 7:30PM that Wednesday night. I decided that I wanted to record the game, but because I don’t have TiVo, I decided that I was going to use an ancient technology—one that my parents used!—to record the game.
You young folks may or may not have heard of this technology, but I was forced to use a VCR to record the game. What’s a VCR, you ask? Go look it up yourself
It took me twenty minutes just to set up the damn thing, plus another ten minutes to figure out how to program the VCR to record TNT.
(I’m watching the game right now, and I am crying over the fact that the recording is not in HD…)
The game itself was pretty good—Dodgers won!—but it went seriously downhill after four innings, when I’m guessing that “Couples Night” officially started. Three pairs of loudmouth couples sat in the two rows of seats almost directly in front of us, and when they started boozing up, they got even more obnoxious. They were text messaging, kissing, hugging, cursing, and generally being jerks.
Dodger fans, for the most part, ARE jerks, but it’s one thing to be jerks to the other team, and it’s completely another to be jerks to the patrons around you.
(A bit off topic…midway through the game, the scoreboard flashed the Lakers-Nuggets half time score, and the crowd gave a standing ovation at the sight of 59-49, Lakers. The roars got even louder when the final score was shown.)
- Speaking of the Dodgers, is it OK to cut a player in late April who makes $18 million a year? Seriously, I didn’t expect the Andruw Jones of old to show up when we signed him to that now-ridiculous two-year, $36 million deal. On the other hand, I wasn’t expecting Jones to hit .150, get horribly booed every time he makes an out, and get a sarcastic (or maybe not) standing ovation when he ends a hitless night with a single in his fifth at-bat.
Seriously, $36 million for a guy that should be hitting ninth? $36 million for a guy that can’t hit a fastball, and compensates by chasing pitches out of the strike zone? $36 million for a guy who I expect to make out each time he comes up, to the point where I had to beg him to just not ground into a double play? Why the hell did we sign this guy?
After his second strikeout of the game, it finally came to me: the Dodgers signed Andruw Jones to make Juan Pierre look like a viable everyday player! That HAS to be the reason, right? Sooner or later, Torre’s going to realize that Juan Pierre needs to be out there every night, right? I’d rather have Juan-for-four Pierre with 1 SB playing than Andruw “$19 million a year for a defensive stalwart in CF” Jones, that’s for sure.
Is it too late to write-off Jones’ salary as a charitable contribution from the Dodgers?