That's On Point: The Web Site

Good riddance

The sun is shining for the first time in days. It's the eve of Memorial Day weekend. Aside from a slew of blisters on my right foot, I'm healthy as a horse. I do not have to live in fear of things like the Marburg virus or Iraqi insurgents lobbing RPGs at my convoy.

By darn, we just crowned a new 'American Idol' this week too!

Yet, today I am miserable.

Instead of grilling some Bubba Burgers, sipping a brew and preparing for the USMNT vs. England friendly, I live with the reality a portion of my Memorial Day will be spent inside a casino covering a WNBA game. Yes, the very league and team (Connecticut Sun) I prayed would never become a reality.

Kaiser Stern can push the league down our throats, but it's not working. A recent midweek against between the Mercury and Sting drew a rousing crowd of 4,049. That's venturing into Bridgeport Bluefish/New Haven County Cutters territory.

So instead of self mutilating myself or faking an injury to get out of the assignment, might as well channel my anger into the realm of fantasy.

What if I had the power which sports leagues would I have disappear with a snap of my fingers. Well, maybe not wipe off the map, but at least cut back on the media coverage to what the sports deserve.

I'll try not to turn this into anther pro-soccer rant, but consider that I work in the sports department of a fair-to-decent sized daily newspaper. Wednesday, I humbly requested to watch the penalty kicks of the Champions League Final of Liverpool vs. AC Milan. One old salt almost started yelling at me for the audacity of putting it on. Yeah, I suppose I'm crazy. It's not like countless millions across the globe were riveted to their sets watching it. Roughly the same amount that care about the LPGA tour event my colleague covered the previous weekend.

I will say this, as immigration continues to mount in America, most of these people are fans of the beautiful game. Networks, newspapers and magazine are leaving a lot of ad revenue on the table ignoring these facts.

Without further pap, here are the leagues/circuits that should be relegated to obscure late-nite cable television.

1. The LPGA Tour -- Sports Illustrated and other mainstream sports media have tried to pump up the exploits of Annika Sorenstam. She's good, I'll give them that. But pursue the leaderboard. Mi Hyun Kim, Catriona Matthew and Shi Hyun Ahn...yeah household names. If you ever find yourself watching these events, may God has mercy on your soul.

I'd love to say ditch all golf in general, but that an argument for another angry day. (I'm about 34 percent finished with my 13-volume tome of why golf, for lack of a better term, sucks asshole.)

2. Pro Tennis -- One minor cachet, we'll keep the US Open and Wimbledon. Like golf, does the average person care about this elitist sport? Is it possible to sit through an entire tennis match, either in person or on television? Yes, if you are the kind of person that looks forward to reading The New York Times. This week's French Open has been top news on various American sports websites. Aside from the courts of Roland Garos do any other clay courts exist in the world?

3. College baseball -- It's been my long standing theory that the College World Series is the largest sausage-fest in America. It does afterall, held in Omaha, Neb. a city famous for its steaks and meat packing.

That might not be a legitimate reason in and of itself. But every time ESPN likes to hype it up they show faded, 20+ year old clips of Roger Clemens at Texas and Barry Bonds at Arizona State.

What do these current MLB stars have in common: Alex Rodriguez, Dontrelle Willis, Derrick Lee, Jake Peavy, Milton Bradley, Gary Sheffield, Carl Crawford, David Wright, Adam Dunn, Richie Sexson, Roy Halladay, Cliff Floyd and Josh Beckett. Yep, none played in college.

That doesn't even take into consideration international stars like Bobby Abreu, Miggy Tejada, David Ortiz, Johan Santana, Ichiro et al.

Future stars are more likely to be found on the streets of San Pedro de Macoris, Dominican Republic than Omaha's Johnny Rosenblatt Stadium.

4. The Indy 500 -- True story, a couple summers ago I was on a cross-country trip and happened to camp outside Indianapolis on Memorial Day weekend. My curiosity (some call it weirdness) was piqued since the Indy 500 is always listed as one of the greatest American sporting events. However, the locals we bemoaning the fact that Indy had lost almost all its gusto to NASCAR nation. Various businesses couldn't even dump tickets off.

The race has been run since 1909, so it has history on its side. But let's face it, in 1909 the majority of Americas were still using outhouses.

Not that I care, but it's sad that a "great" race has had to count on a semi-attractive women racer to create any buzz.

5. Horse racing -- I'll leave it to a better writer, Dan LeBatard to explain.

6. The NHL -- Thankfully Gary Betteman took care of this. Does anyone realize we'd be in the midst of the Stanley Cup playoffs right now? Didn't think so.

Thankfully in this day and age, we don't have to be held by the short and curlies by aging sports editors and what network execs deem good for ratings. With the Internet and satellite television a sports fan can follow just about any other there sport he or she desires. The above list are just a few examples of sports that have been accepted as things that need to be covered and or reported on. Let's realize its not 1965 any more.

Oh wait, the Yankees and the Red Sox are playing this weekend so every other place were a ball is put into play might as well be on the desolate German fields of NFL Europe.