Mark_Concannon's Blog

*****POOPED IN PRIME TIME-Red Sox manager Terry Francona would like to play some weekday matinee road games to arrive home earlier to get some rest for the next series, but his A-list Sox are playing mostly night games."Those teams aren't going to give us day-game getaway days because we're a big draw. We have to accept that. I don't know that it always helps."

*****RUB-A-DUB-DUB-Nationals first baseman Dmitri Young's season-long struggle with back pain is lessening thanks to the team's masseuse.Young, who had made virtually no progress over the last month in his recovery from a strained lower back, enjoyed a breakthrough moment Wednesday when Nationals massage therapist Tatiana Tchamouroff worked on his hip flexor for the first time. Young felt immediate relief and was subsequently able to hit balls in a batting cage with authority for the first time in weeks. Once she worked on my hip, that was it," he said. "It fixed everything. It made all the difference."

*****BEES BUZZING-The Salt Lake City Bees of baseball's Pacific Coast League started the season winning 21 of their first 22 games.

*****SERIOUS SMOKE-Kenn Kasparek tossed the 20th no-hitter in University of Texas history, lifting the Longhorns to an 11-0 win over Texas State last week.

*****SERIOUS SMOKE #2-There were six no-hitters thrown in local girls high school softball on Wednesday.

*****MAY SADNESS- The Dallas Mavericks are 4-12 in their last 16 playoff games.

*****SOME EXPERIENCE REQUIRED?-The New York Knicks were seriously considering former guard Mark Jackson for their next head coaching job and former guard and current TNT analyst Kenny Smith for the GM slot. Neither man has any experience coaching or in the front office.

*****A ROUGH ROOM-Former UWM and current Tennessee coach Bruce Pearl's divorce after 25 years of marriage has been finalized, spawning major traffic in internet chat rooms full of Volunteer-hating Memphis fans.

*****RACE FANS GASSED-The prospect of paying $4 a gallon to get to the track has some race fans reluctant to start their engines. Ticket sales have slipped just as May, the biggest month in motorsports, approaches. So track promoters are shifting into high gear to keep the grandstands full, offering all-you-can-eat packages and staging rock concerts.

*****BLADE BLUNDERS-Ever since they teamed up for their mega-star shaving commercial, Tiger Woods didn't win the Masters and needed knee surgery, Roger Federer didn't win the Australian open and dropped to 4th on the world tennis money list and Thierry Henry has been a bust at FC Barcelona which finished leaps and bounds behind Real Madrid in the Spanish Soccer League.

*****THE NAKED CITY-Penguins minor-leaguer Nathan Smith has been suspended for one game after being arrested for running naked in downtown Scranton early Sunday. Public drunkeness was among the laundry list of charges Smith faces.

We return, fully-clothed for more musings on Monday, May 12th