Archive for the ‘basketball’ Category

How was your Week 7/12/14

Posted: July 12, 2014 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, basketball, sports, Uncategorized
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So LeBron James made a decision without us having to watch a decision special and I’m very happy about that. Not a real surprise move by James; he’s going back to Cleveland. You pretty much had to figure he was either going to stay with the Miami Heat or go back home to play for the Cleveland Cavaliers. I did throw out the Houston Rockets as a dark horse team in the show, but that was a long, long shot at best. I have no issues at all with LeBron going back to Cleveland; my biggest issue was the way this was covered. ESPN cancelled their regular programming to cover this story. Was it really that important? While I understand James is the best basketball player in the world and him switching teams is a big sports story with the way it was covered you would’ve thought the Messiah had returned to Earth. I was trying to find sports highlights last night and every show had the LeBron signing as the lead story; which it should’ve been, but did half to three-quarters of the show have been about it. I even ended up seeing the shot you always get of LeBron”s home in Cleveland. The weird thing though was all of the media outlets knew he wasn’t there and they still went to his house; so we could see the end of his driveway and the security gate. Was this really necessary coverage since James himself announced he was going to Brazil to watch the World Cup final. To be fair basketball is my least favorite of the 4 major sports and I’m sure that played into the fact that I thought this was incredibly stupid coverage. Let’s break this signing down into a sports perspective and not the major media garbage they turned it into yesterday. By signing James the Cavaliers automatically become a contender in the Eastern conference and to a lesser extent a contender for the NBA title. Remember the Cavaliers are a very young team and young teams don’t normally win NBA titles. James will play with point guard Kyrie Irving (22 years old), but Irving has had some trouble staying healthy. Also on the Cavaliers roster 2014 1st round draft pick Andrew Wiggins (19), 2013 #1 overall pick Anthony Bennett (21), Dion Waiters (23) and Tristan Thompson (22); Cleveland does still have veteran center Anderson Varejao on their roster with these young players. Now this roster and players I listed could all change through trades and there are already rumors of those out there, but if this roster stays intact this is a very young team with no playoff experience. Even with the greatest basketball player in the world on it can they win a championship. There three rumors I heard yesterday where. 1) a trade with Minnesota for Kevin Love. Love did say he would sign a long term with Cleveland if traded there. 2) Ray Allen would be signed as a free agent to rejoin James and 3) Mike Miller would be another free agent signing. There where some other NBA free agent moves yesterday even though you wouldn’t know it from the media coverage; remember only LeBron matters to them. I’ve been saying for weeks now that Chris Bosh needed to get out of James’s shadow and see if he’s still a top player in the NBA. While he didn’t sign with the Houston Rockets like I suggested he do he did get a 5 year $118 million dollar contract to stay with the Heat. While no one see Miami as the top team in the eastern conference they’re still a playoff team and now it’s up to Bosh and Dwayne Wade to keep them relevent. One of the under the radar free agents appears to be on the move as well. Isaiah Thomas agreed to a 4 year $28 million dollar deal and will be sent to the Phoenix Suns in a sign and trade. The next big NBA free agent show to drop will be Carmelo Anthony and while I bet he stays with the New York Knicks there where reports last night that the Chicago Bulls where still in the running to sign him. The Bulls are also the front-runners to sign Pau Gasol, but they both can’t be signed by the Bulls. If your favorite team hasn’t made a move yet there are still some quality players still out there as free agents besides Anthony and Gasol. Greg Monroe is a restricted free agent and while the Detroit Pistons could match any offer he gets a team could make him an offer to good to refuse; or that Detroit just can’t match. Paul Millsap is an unrestricted free agent and a good NBA big man if your team needs some inside help. Swing man Luol Deng is out there as well as Lance Stephenson. So your favorite team could still find a guy to help them this off-season.

It seems to be major injury week in Major League Baseball (MLB). The St. Louis cardinals lost starting Catcher Yader Molina for 8-12 weeks with a torn ligament in his thumb. The New York Yankees put Japanese import Masahiro Tanake on the disabled list (DL) with what turned out to be a tear in his UCL ligament. Also the Cincinnati Reds lost 2nd baseman Brandon Phillips for 6-8 weeks with a torn thumb ligament. It always hurts to lose a quality starting pitcher like Tanaka I’m not sure the Yankees where a playoff team with him, but in the cases of Molina and Phillips their teams are in the race for 1st place in the National League Central. St. Louis finds itself 1 game out of first place going into today’s game and Cincinnati is just a 1 1/2 games out of 1st. Molina is the best catcher in baseball and while his offense has been down this season there no way to replace what he does behind the plate. St. Louis is going to try to fill Molina’s spot from within the club, but you have to wonder if the recently designated for assignment A.J. Pierzynski might get a look from them. Cincinnati has Ramon Santiago who can fill in for Phillips for now and they also have Skip Schumaker who has plated 2nd base at the major league level before. Schumaker did just go on the 7 day DL for a possible concussion, but I still don’t think Cincinnati goes outside of the organization to fill Phillips’s spot.

So how was your week?

You can find Sports Time Radio on BlogTalk Radio and you can find me on Twitter @Burketime.

7/9/14 Let’s call it Wednesday

Posted: July 9, 2014 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, basketball, sports, Uncategorized
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The baseball trading deadline is at the end of the month, but the Oakland A’s and the Chicago Cubs got things started on July 5th. The Cubs traded two starting pitchers; Jason Hammel and Jeff Samardzija to the A’s and received shortstop Addison Russell, Billy McKinney, Dan Straily and a player to be named later or cash considerations. Living in the Chicago area this has been talked about quite a bit. I’ve heard a lot of baseball people say the Cubs got a great deal, but did they? Hammel and Samardzija are top of the rotation pitchers while the Cubs have potential. Straily started the season in the Oakland rotation and was so bad he was optioned to Triple A. McKinney is in Class A ball; that’s a long way away from being in the major league. The best player baseball people say the Cubs got in the deal was shortstop Russell; who was in Double A at the time of the trade and injured. For this trade to come out good on the Cubs end doesn’t Russell have to be a break out major league player? Shouldn’t McKinney at least get the majors and be a solid player. Shouldn’t Straily be a 4th or 5th starter for the Cubs. There are so many if’s involved in this deal for the Cubs I’m not sure you can say it’s good on there end to start with. Now it may work out to be a great deal for the Cubs, but can you call it that way right now or should you wait to call it a great deal. Remember you don’t always get John Smoltz for Doyle Alexander or Mark McGwire for T. J. Matthews, Blake Stein and Eric Ludwick. I gave Cubs fans a break there and they all know what I’m talking about. Or course having Hammel and Samardzija wasn’t going to get the Cubs into the playoffs any time soon; so they might as well move them for prospects who might be major league ready when and or if the Cubs ever improve. Does this trade have to get the A’s into the World Series for it to be a good deal for them? The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim also made a trade on July 5th. The Angels got left-handed pitcher Joe Thatcher and outfielder Tony Campana from the Arizona Diamondbacks for outfielder Zach Borenstein and minor league pitcher Joey Krehbiel. I’m not quite sure if this move by the Angels is equal to the move that the A’s made, but it should make the American League West fun to watch. The Diamondbacks made another trade the next day sending starting pitcher Brandon McCarthy to the New York Yankees for pitcher Vidal Nuno. You have to believe the Yankees where looking for a veteran starting pitcher since it looks more and more like C.C. Sabathia will be lost for the season. The Yankees still have a shot at being a playoff team and they’ll need a veteran starter like McCarthy in their rotation. As the deadline gets closer their will be more and more trades made as team try to get ready for a playoff run.

If you listen to the show you know I’ve been very tough lately on Chris Bosh. Bosh was offered a 4 year $88 million dollar deal by the Houston Rockets and hasn’t taken it yet because he apparently is waiting to see what LeBron James does. If you don’t remember Bosh used to be a Top 10 or maybe even a Top 5 player in the NBA now he’s an after thought in Miami. Bosh’s last year in Toronto he averaged 24.0 points per game. He’s never averaged over 20.0 points per game with Miami. I think Bosh needs to get out of the shadows of James and Dwayne Wade. While Wade isn’t the player he used to be he’ll always be the face of the Miami Heat. Wade was their draft pick and won a title before James and Bosh got their. I’m telling Bosh to go to Houston take that deal and try to win a title with James Harden and Dwight Howard. If Bosh passes up the Rockets deal and signs a veteran exception or whatever the NBA calls it then he’s a coward and he has no confidence in his own ability. It would be sad for Bosh if I thought he had more talent than he thinks he does.

You can find Sports Time Radio on BlogTalk Radio and you can find me on Twitter @Burketime.

Let’s call it Wednesday 7/2/14

Posted: July 2, 2014 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, basketball, hockey, sports, Uncategorized
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Tomorrow (Thursday) is the first Sports Time Radio outing. Mr. Fantasy, Dan the Man and I are going to the Kane County Cougars game. Schaumburg Stu was unable to make it this year as his son is in town for a visit. The Cougars are a Class A farm team of the Chicago Cubs and their playing the Peoria Chiefs who are the Class A farm team of the St. Louis Cardinals. Kyle Schwarber was promoted to Kane County by the Cubs a couple of weeks ago; so hopefully he’ll be in the line up tomorrow and will get to see him play. Schwarber was the Cubs #1 draft pick this season and is hitting .379 with 4 home runs for the Cougars. Schwarber was one of the best bats in this years draft and moved up to Class A very quickly. It will be interesting to see him live.The Cougars where 45-25 in the first half and finished in 1st place in the Midwest League Western division. The Cougars are off to a fast start in the 2nd half as well. They’re 9-2 and in 1st place a 1 1/2 ahead of the Peoria Chiefs. The Chiefs finished the 1st half with a record of 39-32 in 3rd place. The Chiefs have first baseman Justin Ringo hitting .354 with 4 home runs and second baseman Mason Katz has 14 home runs, but his batting average is just .212 so far this season. The pitching match up we’re scheduled to see is Chase Brookshire for the Chiefs and Daury Torrez for the Cougars. Brookshire has appeared in 19 games this season with 9 of those appearances being starts. He is 2-3 with a 4.92 ERA and 45 strikeouts in 53 innings this season. Torrez has 14 appearances all starts for the Cougars. He is 8-3 with an E.R.A. of 3.14 in 80 1/3 innings this season. Torrez has a complete game shutout this season as well. I’m hoping we get to see a good game and maybe this will turn into something we can do every season. It would be nice if we could hit some different minor league parks, but I think I’m reaching there. I guess for right now I’ll take this first outing and will see how it goes from there.

I have all of our major league baseball All Star votes, so Saturday’s blog will have the 2nd annual Sports Time Radio All Star team in it. Mr. Fantasy, Dan the Man, Schaumburg Stu and I all picked our teams. We picked three players at every position with six outfielders and six starting pitchers. A player gets 8 points for a 1st place vote, 6 points for a 2nd place vote, 4 points for a 3rd place vote and so on down the line. I’m going to get everything totaled up and have it all ready for you by Saturday. I know one position that will be different for sure and that’s shortstop in the American League. Being that it’s Derek Jeter’s final season he’ll win the fans vote to start at shortstop, but I doubt your picks will go that way. Mr. Fantasy hates the fan voting because of this type of situation, but I don’t have a big problem with it when it’s for a player like Jeter. Jeter is hitting a solid .276 so far; with 2 homers and 20 runs batted in and 5 stolen bases in 72 games this season. Since there aren’t a ton of great shortstops in the American League Jeter is a good of choice as any to start what will be his final All Star game. You’ll see your starting shortstop on Saturday; who’s your American League starting shortstop?

The NBA and NHL free agent frenzy started this week. While the NBA got off to kind of slow start with just a few minor signings and everything being focused on players like Carmelo Anthony and LeBron James. The NHL had a flurry of signings with some big name players moving to new teams. The Colorado Avalanche made a big move signing Jarome Iginla away from the Boston Bruins. Thomas Vanek is leaving Montreal to play for the Minnesota Wild and goaltender Ryan Miller is leaving St. Louis to play for the Vancouver Canucks next season. The Blues did go out and sign center Paul Stastny. Those are a few of the signings that were made on day 1 of free agency. How did your favorite team do on day 1 of NHL free agency? Or are they waiting for LeBron and Carmelo to come visit your NBA city.

You can find Sports Time Radio on BlogTalk Radio and you can find me on Twitter @Burketime.

How was your Week 6/28/14

Posted: June 28, 2014 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, basketball, hockey, sports, Uncategorized
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While we don’t talk a lot of NASCAR on the show I have to say I like this new “win and you’re in format” for the Chase they have set up. Wins should be important and I don’t have to hear a driver interview at the end of a race where he’s talking about it “was a good points day”. While you can still get into the Chase on points a win pretty much gets you in. Right now Matt Kenseth is the first driver without a win; he’s in 11th place at this point of the season. They also bumped the number of driver in the Chase from 12 (twelve) to 16 (sixteen) drivers. Just that 1 (one) win is so important to a driver that I think the drivers without a win are going to really start pressing for a win as the regular season schedule winds down. There are 10 (ten) races left before the Chase starts. It’s a Saturday night race tonight for the drivers in Kentucky; so will see if a driver without a win can get one and a spot in the Chase.

Both the NBA and NHL drafts were held this week. The difference being when your favorite NBA team drafts a player he’s pretty much expected to come in and contribute right away. When your favorite NHL team drafts a player there’s a chance you may not see him for two (2), three (3) or even four (4) seasons. Top draft picks can and have come in and contribute to the team that selects them right away. The Florida Panthers are hoping this is the case with defenseman Aaron Ekblad. Ekblad was the #1 overall pick in the draft by the Panthers. With the 2nd pick the Buffalo Sabres took centerman Sam Reinhart. At #3 the Edmonton Oilers picked another center Leon Draisaitl. With the 4th pick the Calgary Flames took another center Sam Bennett and rounding out the top 5 (five) the New York Islanders picked left winger Michael Dal Colle. By position there where 9 (nine) centers, 9 (nine) right wingers, 7 (seven) left wingers and 5 (five) defenseman were drafted in the 1st round. No goalies; 0 (zero) where drafted in the 1st round. Does it surprise you that no goalies where drafted in round 1?

We covered the NBA draft in Wednesday’s blog; the day before it happened. I don’t think there where any really surprises maybe with the exception of the Orlando Magic making Aaron Gordon the 4th pick in the draft. Did any of the 1st round picks surprise you? We discussed the draft one yesterday’s show with Mr. Fantasy and Dan the Man. Dan was explaining how he dislikes the way trades our made during the draft and didn’t think it made sense. He didn’t understand and I don’t think myself or Mr. Fantasy did either. Why can’t a team who make the trade for that spot make the pick? Here’s an example; with the 10th pick the Philadelphia 76ers took point guard Elfrid Payton. There was a lot of discussion among the panel of experts covering the draft before one of them finally mentioned that their might be a trade. They even had an interview on the draft show with current 76ers point guard Michael Carter-Williams; who actually questioned of he’d still be with the 76ers. Interesting comments by Carter-Williams and if you’re a 76ers fan you couldn’t have been too happy with the way he was talking. Of course all of this was for nothing in the end. With the 12th pick the Orlando Magic took power forward Dario Saric. It was then announced that the Magic and the 76ers had agreed to trade Payton for Saric. Now if this was done before the 10th pick was made why couldn’t have Orlando of made that pick? I would love to say that they where trying to get a story out of Carter-Williams, but I really don’t think that’s what it was. I think they just caught a break their with his reaction. Their where a couple of trades during the draft and they where all handled this way. I don’t get it; can you explain it to me.

So Edwin Encarnacion of the Toronto Blue Jays, Nelson Cruz of the Baltimore Orioles and Jose Abreu are all tied for the American League lead in home runs with 25. Would you like to see these three (3) players compete for the American League in the Home Run Derby? How about on the National League side. Do you want Miami Marlins outfielder Giancarlo Stanton on your team? how about Todd Frazier of the Cincinnati Reds. I know they’ve changed to a bracket format for the home run derby, but it still doesn’t make me want to watch it. I know Major League Baseball (MLB) is trying to make this interesting, but it’s just to long for me. I can remember watching the old Home Run Derby; in black and white. It had two (2) players facing off against each other and they got three (3) outs per inning. With as many players involved in the Home Rune Derby now I’m not sure they could use that format, but for me they need to find a way to make it shorter. I understand it’s done for television and I’ll check in on it to see what’s happening, but I just can’t sit down and watch the entire thing all the way through. Can you watch it from start to finish?

So, How was your week?

You can find Sports Time Radio on BlogTalk Radio and you can find me on Twitter @Burketime.

6/25/14 Let’s call it Wednesday

Posted: June 25, 2014 by Sports Time Radio in basketball, sports, Uncategorized
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So the NBA draft is tomorrow (Thursday) and the Cleveland Cavaliers have the 1st pick. It looked like a lock that the Cavaliers would take Joel Embid a 7 (seven) foot center out of Kansas. Of course Embid broke a foot and required surgery that will keep him out anywhere between 3 (three) to 6 (six) weeks and one doctor said it might be better for him to miss the entire 2015-16 season. Cleveland appears to have moved on from Embid and has it’s choice of Andrew Wiggins and Jabari Parker the top two (2) players in this draft now. There was a statement attributed to Parker that said if given the choice he’d prefer to play for the Milwaukee Bucks rather than the Cavaliers. Milwaukee has the 2nd pick in the draft and should take the player not taken #1 be it Wiggins or Parker. In the last couple of days there have been some trade rumors involving the #1 pick. The Orlando Magic and the Boston Celtics have been two (2) of the teams mentioned in trying to deal for the 1st pick. Both teams have to fairly earlier 1st round picks. Orlando has pick #4 and pick #12; plus it’s been reported they’d include Aaron Afflalo. The Celtics have pick #6 and pick #17, but don’t really have a player the quality of Afflalo to include in there deal. So it’s possible Cleveland takes one of these deals and still selects Embid in the 1st round where there won’t be such an uproar by Cavalier fans. They’d also have a second 1st round pick to get a player who’s healthy to start training camp. I think Cleveland will go with one of these trade offers and move down in the draft. The team that may turn out to be the biggest loser in this draft is the Philadelphia 76ers. The 76ers pretty much tanked all of last season to have the chance to get Wiggins and it looked like the plan would work until Embid got injured. It seemed like Wiggins would be sitting their at #3, but now it looks more and more like Wiggins will go #1 overall to Cleveland or to a team that trades into that spot and then Parker will go #2 to Milwaukee. There is always the chance that these players will flip-flop with Parker at #1 and Wiggins coming off the draft board at #2. Either way Philadelphia loses out on a player projected to have a very good NBA future. I’ve seen some mock drafts that have the 76ers taking Embid, but if you remember they selected Nerlens Noel with their 1st round selection last season. Noel sat out the entire season with an injury, but he plays the same position as Embid. Would the 76ers double up at the center position? in back to back drafts. Besides the top three (3) guys in this draft there are some interesting players that will be drafted tomorrow. Dante Exum is a guard out of Australia who’s been compared to Russell Westbrook and Kobe Bryant. Exum is 19 years old and their may be some growing pains for the team that takes him, but he’s a top 5 pick in this draft. Noah Vonleh is another player who has made some big jumps up draft boards after the college season has ended. Vonleh played one (1) year at the University of Indiana and is a solid rebounder with a nice outside shot for a player his size. There are so many guys that I could go over that will be drafted that I don’t want to end up giving you another mock draft to read. A couple of players I’ll be interested to see where they get picked are Marcus Smart and Doug McDermott. Smart is listed as a point guard, but I’m not sure if he’ll play that position in the NBA. Of course at 6’3 it would be a good spot for him. McDermott can shoot the basketball and will fit into the right system. The biggest issue he might have in the NBA will be getting his own shot, but like I said in the right system he’ll be able to score. I’d look for the foreign players after Exum to start coming off the draft board in the 20’s. Dario Saric from Croatia, Clint Capela from Switzerland, Bogdan Bogdanovic from Serbia and 7’3 center Walter Tavares from Cape Verde are four (4) of these players. What does your favorite team need in this draft? Is your team in a position to draft that player?

The NBA draft is a little easier for me to watch. It’s just two (2) rounds and the clock is shorter than an NFL draft type of deal. Will you be watching?

With that; let’s call it Wednesday.

You can find Sports Time Radio on BlogTalk Radio and you can find me on Twitter @Burketime.

Let’s call it Wednesday 6/18/04

Posted: June 18, 2014 by Sports Time Radio in basketball, sports, Uncategorized
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Since the followers to this blog seem to be increasing I figured I’d try to start writing a 2nd blog during the week and Wednesday seemed a good a day as any to do it. The plan is to get a blog up every Wednesday along with the Saturday blog and we’ll see how this goes.

While I wasn’t surprised to see the San Antonio Spurs beat the Miami Heat to win the NBA championship it was the way they beat them that surprised me. Game 1 was a 15 point win 110-95. Game 2 of course was the only game Miami won during the series. A 2 point Heat win 98-96. Game 3 of course went to San Antonio 111-92. Game 4 saw San Antonio win 107-86. San Antonio won the championship with a Game 5 victory 104-87. While I never made a prediction in this series; I just said I’d like to see the Spurs win. The majority of the experts I heard predicted the Heat to win this series; actually come to think of it I didn’t hear anyone pick the Spurs to win the series. While the experts thought the Spurs would keep the series close and some even said it would go seven games none of them thought San Antonio would win it let alone win it in the fashion they did. No one had Miami winning only one game in this series and no one had them being beaten the way they where. Going into the series I thought Miami was the better team, but San Antonio dominated Miami in winning the championship. Kawhi Leonard was the Spurs player who broke out in the finals. He averaged 17.8 points per game for the series, but in the final three games he went for 29 points in Game 3. 20 points in Game 4 and 22 points in Game 5. Leonard actually posted double-doubles in Games 4 and 5. He grabbed 14 rebounds in Game 4 and then 10 rebounds in Game 5. For his play Leonard was named NBA finals MVP. While Leonard was the breakout star San Antonio’s big three did their part to win this championship. Tim Duncan had double-doubles in three games; Game 1, Game 2 and Game 4. Tony Parker made a case for himself being the best point guard in the NBA. Parker averaged 18.0 points and 4.6 assists during the finals. Manu Ginobili averaged 14.4 points and 4.4 assists during the finals. When Danny Green struggled shooting the ball in Game 5 it was Ginobili who stepped up and went 3 for 6 from behind the three-point line. Green was held scoreless in Game 5 and the Spurs needed Ginobili to come up big like he did. Will this be the Spurs last title with this big three no one can be sure. Duncan is 38 years old, Ginobili is 36 and Parker is 32. Head coach Greg Popovich has said he plans on coaching next season after some rumors came out that he might retire if the Spurs won the title. There was also that same rumor floated out there about Duncan, but nothing has been confirmed. Ginobili as well may retire from the NBA and return to Argentina and play for their team. Will have to wait and see what these Spurs do, but they’ll do it as champions.

Let the NBA off-season rumor mill start. Will LeBron James, Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh all stay in Miami? Where will Carmelo Anthony be playing next season? The Houston Rockets and the Chicago Bulls are the reported front-runners if Carmelo does opt out of his deal and become a free agent. All reports have indicated that he will opt out, but remember the New York Knicks can pay him more than any other team out there. How would interest in Carmelo change if LeBron opted out of his deal in Miami and became a free agent? Could a team Like the Los Angeles Clippers who are on the verge of winning a title make the moves they’d need to make to bring in a player like Carmelo. The Clippers are a team that could be a dark horse for a guy like Anthony. Can Kevin Love force the Minnesota Timberwolves to trade him? and where would he end up. Love has mentioned the Bulls as well as the Golden State Warriors as two places he’d like to go. Could Carmelo be a sign and trade player for the Knicks? Could LeBron end up playing in Cleveland next season? Is there a team that’s willing to pay the price Minnesota would want for Love? Plus the NBA Draft is right around the corner; Thursday June 26th. All this and more will be answered in the NBA off-season.

You can find Sports Time Radio on BlogTalk Radio and you can find me on Twitter @Burketime.

How was your Week? 6/14/14

Posted: June 14, 2014 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, basketball, football, hockey, sports, Uncategorized
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Did you stay up to watch the Los Angeles Kings beat the New York Rangers in double overtime to win the Stanley Cup? I can say that I did. While I didn’t watch the entire game; I go back and forth between the hockey game and the different baseball games o that where on. Once overtime started I was locked on as the Kings where one goal away from winning the Stanley Cup and the Rangers where one goal away from going to Game 6. Schaumburg Stu had this series right on; he had the Kings in five games while I thought the Kings would win the series in six games. Alec Martinez scored the Stanley Cup winning goal for the Kings in the 2nd overtime. Martinez scored 14:43 into the second overtime on a rebound off of Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist’s pads. It’s the second Stanley Cup win for the Kings in three seasons; they won in 2012 as well. This is also three Stanley Cup wins in a row for the Western conference and four out of the last five as well.

With the NHL season over there is only one playoff series left. The San Antonio Spurs lead the Miami Heat, 3 games to 1 in their NBA finals series. After a win on the road by Miami, San Antonio bounced back and won both games in Miami this week and I don’t think anyone would’ve predicted that. We talked on the show about San Antonio being able to go into Miami and split games, but I didn’t think they would win both games. The Spurs have their 1st chance to close out the series tomorrow (Sunday) in San Antonio. Kawhi Leonard has been the breakout star for the Spurs especially the last two games. Leonard has drawn the defensive assignment of guarding LeBron James and has done a solid job. Let’s face it no one player is going to shut down James and Leonard has done a better than average job. James is also guarding Leonard and part of the reason for Leonard’s success on defense is he’s making James work to cover him. Leonard has put up 29 points on Game 3 and then 20 points and 14 rebounds in Game 4 both Spurs wins. Do you think the Spurs close out the series tomorrow night?

Besides the NBA finals there’s a lot of talk about where a couple of players will be playing next season. Carmelo Anthony has been saying for a while now that he’ll opt out of his contract and enter free agency and Kevin Love has told the Minnesota Timberwolves that he won’t sign an extension and will enter free agency after next season. It seems like Anthony has been linked to every NBA team since he announced he’d opt out. There;s been a lot of Carmelo to the Chicago Bulls talk, a little Carmelo to the Los Angeles Lakers talk, but the new one if Carmelo to the Miami Heat. This talk started when the Heat got into trouble in their series. This could be done in Miami, but it would take some doing. I believe LeBron James, Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh would have to opt out of their deals and then agree to resign at lower salaries than they have right now. Carmelo would also have to agree to a much lower salary than he could get from another team. This is the main reason I don’t see this happening, but if some how Carmelo ends up with Miami it will kill the NBA for me. Now in Love’s case he has a contract for next season and the only way he’s going anywhere is if Minnesota agrees to trade him. Love has mentioned the Bulls and the Golden State Warriors as two (2) teams he’d like to play for. It would be a blockbuster trade if Love is moved, but would a team take him without an agreement on a new contract. Love would be a great fit for either the Bulls or the Warriors, but there’s no guarantee that he’ll end up with either of those teams. Minnesota hasn’t mentioned anything at all concerning Love, but it’s very early and as we get closer to the draft and then the season things should pick up.

If you’ve been listening to the show; Sports Time Radio
you know that Dan the Man and Mr. Fantasy with help from Schaumburg Stu every now and then have been predicting games not well, but they’ve been predicting games. It started as just selecting winners in the playoff games, but as the playoffs got smaller other picks have been added. They’ve had a bad week and going into today (Saturday) they are 32-41 overall. Mr. Fantasy made the picks for today and he went with Uruguay to beat Costa Rica in Group D of the FIFA World Cup. He has Shelby Miller pitching more innings today than Steven Strasburg; they’re pitching against each other today. His 3rd pick was Robinson Cano to get an extra base hit in the Seattle Mariners game tonight. You can tune in tomorrow (Sunday) at 11:00 a.m. and hear us discuss they struggles they’ve had or just follow along with their picks.

I woke up this morning to find out that former Pittsburgh Steelers coach and Hall of Famer Chuck Noll passed away. Noll went 209-156-1, including the postseason. He also led the Steelers to four Super Bowl titles. Noll was the Steelers head coach when their defense had the “Steel Curtain” nickname. Noll is seventh on the NFL’s all-time list for regular-season wins by a coach, and in 23 seasons he went 193-148-1 during the regular season. Noll was 82.

You can find Sports Time Radio on BlogTalk Radio and you can find me on Twitter @Burketime.

So how was your week?

6/7/14 How was your Week?

Posted: June 7, 2014 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, basketball, football, hockey, sports, Uncategorized
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So we’re into June and finally the NBA and the NHL seasons will be coming to an end. While I’ve enjoyed the NHL playoffs quite a bit this season and Game 1 of the Stanley Cup finals was an overtime thriller the season is just too long. The same goes for the NBA. These finals can be great, but it’s June and it’s baseball season with football mini camps right around the corner. There has to be a way to end these seasons soon than they do, but I’m not sure either league would be will to try to do those things. I still don’t understand why the playoff series games aren’t every other day. I know television has a lot to do with the scheduling and the leagues aren’t going to turn down that money, but you’d think the networks would be willing to work with the leagues. I’m under the impression that the NBA and the NHL think the playoffs going longer are a good thing and maybe I’m the only guy who’s lost some interest in them. I guess it’s one of those issues someone will have to let me know about.

We’ve been having some fun on the show (Sports Time Radio)) as Dan the Man and Mr. Fantasy have been picking the playoff game winners and some other random games that I’ve been throwing at them. Schaumburg Stu even picked some games when he filled in for Dan. Mr. Fantasy had a rough Friday as he went 0-3 and their record fell to under .500 at 24-25. Now since Saturday is an off day for the show I did have Mr. Fantasy make some picks for Saturday. He selected Maria Sharapova to win the French Open woman’s title. The match is actually being played as I write this. He took Mark Buehrle to get a win in today’s game for the Toronto Blue Jays. Now if Buehrle takes the loss or gets a no decision that will be a loss for Mr. Fantasy as Buehrle has to get a “W”. His third pick was the Los Angeles Kings to win Game 3 of the Stanley Cup finals. Not only have Dan the Man and Mr. Fantasy to pick the NBA and NHL playoff game winners they’ve had to select winners in WNBA games, NASCAR races and as you read a sentence or to ago professional tennis. Along with, if certain baseball players themselves will do certain things during a game. A couple of predictions they had to make was, would Nelson Cruz or Jose Abreu homer in the game they where playing that night. As you see somethings it doesn’t boil down to just winners and losers, but what will happen in a game. Like will Mark Buehrle get the win today? Of course the tag line for Sports Time Radio is any sport any time and we’ve proved that.

It’s been reported by ESPN that former University of North Carolina basketball player Rashad McCants has said while playing at the school that he rarely went to his classes and that his tutors wrote his papers for him. McCants was the 2nd leading scorer on the North Carolina team that won the national championship in 2004-05. McCants also said that he made the Dean’s list in 2005, but didn’t attend any of the four classes he received A’s in. Those are just a couple of the statements McCants made about his time at North Carolina. None of his former teammates have come out to back up these statements and North Carolina’s head coach Roy Williams has denied knowing anything about these allegations. While I had never heard much about academic issues with the North Carolina men’s basketball team the football team did have some issues with this. The NCAA sanctioned the football program for improper benefits and academic misconduct involving a tutor, but the athletic department’s sports programs largely emerged from the academic scandal penalty-free. As sad as it is to say I actually do believe that this goes on in big time college sports programs, but that doesn’t mean that McCants is telling the truth in this case. I’m sure there will be some type of investigation and will have to wait and see what comes out of that.

I was happy to see the Baltimore Orioles call up two time Cy Young award winner Johan Santana even though he had to go right on the disabled list. Santana has been recovering from arm issues that forced him to under go two major shoulder surgeries. While he wasn’t ready to pitch for the Orioles his contract had a set call up date in it and the Orioles had to either call him up or let him go. As we know the Orioles called Santana up and placed him on the disabled list. Santana was in extended spring training in Florida when he suffered another injury. This time it was a torn Achilles tendon that will end his 2014 comeback attempt before it even gets going as Santana will have season ending surgery on the torn tendon. I hope he’s healthy and given another shot to make a comeback for the 2015 baseball season.

You can find Sports Time Radio on BlogTalk Radio and you can find me on Twitter @Burketime.

So how was your week?

How was your Week 5/31/14

Posted: June 2, 2014 by Sports Time Radio in basketball, football, hockey, sports, Uncategorized
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The New York Rangers have advanced to the Stanley Cup finals by beating the Montreal Canadians 4 games to 2 games in the Eastern conference finals. With the exception of one bad game in the conference finals Henrik Lundqvist has carried the Rangers in the playoffs. Now Lundqvist and the Rangers will get a chance to play for the Stanley Cup as they wait for the winner of the Chicago Blackhawks/Los Angeles Kings series. That series is tied at 3 games each with Game 7 being played tomorrow (Sunday) in Chicago. The Kings had a 3 games to 1 game series lead, but the Blackhawks found ways to win Game 5 in double overtime on a Michal Handzus goal and last night (Friday) got a game winning goal from Patrick Kane. Kane has always been considered one of the top players in the NHL, but has really shown his worth against a tough Kings defense. On the show I actually thought the Kings would win last nights game, but did mention if the Blackhawks found a way to win Game 6 they’d win Game 7 at home and go to the Stanley Cup finals again. No matter which way Game 7 goes the Rangers will be facing a team that has won the Stanley Cup recently. The Kings won in 2012 and the Blackhawks won it just last season.

The NBA playoffs are in the same situation as the NHL playoffs. One team the Miami Heat has closed out their series against the Indiana Pacers and are waiting to see of they’ll play the San Antonio Spurs or the Oklahoma City Thunder. San Antonio leads this series 3 games to 2 games with Game 6 being played this afternoon. The game has a 2:30 p.m. Central Standard Time (CST) which is where I live. The home team has won every game in this series; so can the Spurs be the first road team to win a game in this series and close out the Thunder or does Oklahoma City hold serve and go back to San Antonio for a Game 7. Serge Ibaka wasn’t the factor in Game 5 like he was in Games 3 and 4 and some reports have mentioned he’s injured again, but Oklahoma City has denied those reports. While the Miami Heat struggled in Game 5 against Indian they bounced back and closed out the series with a 117 – 92 win in Game 6. It’s looked like through the playoffs that we would get a rematch of last seasons finals, but can Oklahoma City change that outcome or id it Spurs vs. Heat again for the title.

Johnny Manziel went to Las Vegas over the Memorial Day weekend. What did you do? They showed Manziel in the crowd at the UFC fight and you just knew the media would try to turn this into something and they did. Now he didn’t miss any practices with his new team the Cleveland Browns and even if he wanted to go to the Browns facilities he couldn’t because they were closed for the holiday. New Browns coach Mike Pettine pointed out that other players went away for the Memorial Day weekend as well mentioning that South Beach was a destination for some of the players. Was there any media coverage of these players in South Beach? I didn’t see any; so why is Manziel’s trip news? I get it he’s Johnny “Football” or now Johnny “Cleveland” but maybe we should find out if he can play in the NFL before we start reporting every single thing he does. I did find it odd that this story really didn’t start getting reported until the Tuesday after Memorial Day. I guess all the media people where away for the holiday weekend.

On the show yesterday (Friday) I let Mr. Fantasy pick a line up for me that I entered under my Fanduel account. He end up finishing 3034th out of 3910 entries. Sadly not the best showing for Mr. Fantasy, but not ever entry can be a winner.

You can find Sports Time Radio on BlogTalk Radio and you can find me on Twitter @Burketime.

So how was your week?

5/24/14 How was your Week?

Posted: June 2, 2014 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, basketball, football, hockey, sports, Uncategorized
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I think that the NHL playoffs have been pretty exciting this season. The problem I’m having now is the scheduling with the Western conference finals. For some reason they went away from the every other day format and now seem to be working with two days off in between games. In a way I guess it’s good for the teams as players get an extra day of rest, but this will stretch out the playoffs until June. By the time the Stanley Cup finals rolls around I’m not going to care who wins the cup. Now that would be sad because like I said the playoffs have been exciting. The Blackhawks/Kings series is tied at 1 game apiece with the series headed back to Los Angeles for Game 3 tonight. The New York Rangers have a 2 games to 1 lead over the Montreal Canadians in the Eastern conference finals with Game 4 tomorrow in New York. In the Rangers/Canadians series the home team hasn’t been able to win a game in the series.

The NBA playoff scheduling is just as bad if not worse than the NHL’s. The Miami Heat and the Indiana Pacers played Game 2 of their series Tuesday night. Then the teams were given three days off to travel to Miami for Game 3 tonight. The series is tied at 1 – 1 and the extra rest might help the Pacers more. Paul George got hit in the back of the head by Dwayne Wade in Game 2 and suffered a concussion. Now with the extra rest George has been cleared to play tonight. Even with George playing the Pacers will have a tough time beating the Heat. In the Western conference finals the San Antonio Spurs have looked like the best team in the playoffs. They have a 2 – 0 lead in their series against the Oklahoma City Thunder. I think everyone thought the loss of Serge Ibaka would be a big issue and the Spurs have taken advantage of this situation. There’s been some reports that Ibaka will be available to play in Game 3 tomorrow. If Ibaka isn’t completely healthy I don’t think he’ll be able to help the Thunder, but just his presence might make a little difference on the mental side for the Thunder. The Spurs/Thunder series resumes Sunday with Game 3 in Oklahoma City.

If you’re a fantasy baseball player injuries are a big concern for you right now. Of course I guess the injuries would be a big concern for major league baseball teams as well. Off the top of my head there where some big name players that ended up on the disabled list (DL) this week. The Cincinnati reds got Jay Bruce back from knee surgery, but Joey Votto went on the DL the day Bruce came off the list. Ryan Braun is on the DL for the 2nd time this season. The Brewers played okay with Braun out the first time, but you can only be without your best player for so long. Prince Fielder went on the DL for the Texas Rangers with season ending surgery on his neck. Fielder has been bothered by a herniated disc in his neck and has opted for surgery to correct the problem. Then just to add to the Rangers injury issues top prospect and projected starting 2nd baseman for this season Jurickson Profar had a set back in his injury rehab and the reports are saying he’ll be out 10 – 12 more weeks. Profar hasn’t even had an at bat this season. Those are just some of the injuries I thought of off the top of my head and I didn’t even get into the injuries pitchers have suffered this season. Just going over the list of pitchers who need Tommy John surgery this season is a long one. Dan the Man, Mr. Fantasy and I are in a couple of large fantasy baseball leagues. One league has 18 teams and the other has 20 teams; this makes injuries tough to deal with. You can’t go out and pick up a star player on the waiver wire when one of your top guys gets injured. To me it makes the leagues fun to play in, but it also will drive a lot of fantasy players away. A lot of fantasy players want the easy smaller leagues to play in where if you lose a player or a guy is having a bad year you just drop him and there’s an all-star out there on waivers waiting for you to pick him up. Dan the Man has told the story on air before where two people he knew got in our 20 team fantasy football league a couple of seasons ago. These guys ended up meeting in the leagues Super Bowl that season. Then the next year neither of them came back to play in the league because 20 teams was too hard and they where looking for easier leagues to play in. This is the first time ever that I’ve been in any type of fantasy league where the top two teams didn’t return the next season. I guess it’s to each his own when it comes to fantasy sports.

Have a great Memorial Day weekend.

You can find Sports Time Radio on BlogTalk Radio and you can find me on Twitter @Burketime.

So how was your week?

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