The World Series doesn't start until Saturday, we don't even know which team is going to represent the National League, but I'm calling the Detroit Tigers the Champs right now.
The NL is a joke, I think all of my friends outside of LA would admit it. (The LA friends bleed Dodger Blue (Pantone 294) and think the AL is inferior in every way shape and form. It's sad, really.)
Let's look at two fun facts. This year during interleague play the AL went 154-98. The NL had a 38% win average. But more damning, the last two World Serieses have been four game sweeps by the AL - the White Sox over the Astros in 2005, and some team called the Red Sox over the Cardinals in 2004.
Thus it's time to turn our sporting attention to ... ice hockey.
Now, I know what you're thinking, you're thinking, "Josh, I know you, you're not an ice hockey fanatic!"
And you're right. But this family into which I have married is a rather huge hockey crowd. So when in Rome ...
Up until this point in life my entire knowledge of the NHL has been somewhat limited. I know Paul Kariya played for the University of Maine Black Bears when I was in high school, and now is in the NHL, possibly with Anaheim. I know a bunch of names of former the Boston University Terrier teams from the late 1990s (in 1995 when we won the National Championship, baby, whoo!) - people like Chris Drury, Mike Grier, Jay Pandolfo. They um, were, you know, good players and might play in the NHL or something.
And other than my forty page thesis paper in college describing the history and intricate details of "icing", that's all I know about hockey.
Thus lately I've been reading up about the NHL. Did you know the Quebec Nordiques, Winnipeg Jets and Hartford Whalers aren't teams anymore? Instead they've moved on to such hockey-friendly towns as Raleigh, North Carolina and Phoenix, Arizona. Yes, Phoenix, Arizona, where the average temperature is only slightly cooler than the surface of the sun. Seems like a great place for an ice rink.
Because seriously, who really thinks "hockey" when they think "Winnipeg"? And "ice" certainly doesn't come to mind when I think "Quebec". But when I think Miami, Tampa, Nashville, San Jose, Anaheim ...
Speaking of Anaheim, apparently now that they're no longer owned by Disney the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim have realized how embarrassing it is to be named after an Emilio Estevez movie (I was going to say "an Emilio Estevez trilogy", but I'm not really convinced the second two movies even exist, as I don't know anyone who's ever seen either of them).
So this season they've changed their name and now will be known as simply the Anaheim Ducks.
Also Arrowhead Water (a Nestle brand, like Poland Spring) no longer sponsors the arena, so the formerly cool named "Arrowhead Pond" is now going to be known as the lame-o "Honda Center".
In other hockey news, the Buffalo Sabres have retired their lame mascot of a red-eyed white-and-black buffalo for a better looking blue and yellow buffalo, and Buffalo fans are upset about it. It seems to me that if my favorite team went from having a logo that looks more like a chewing tobacco mascot than an ice hockey team to a dynamic and stylized glyph (while retaining the red eye, natch) I'd be happy.
But then again, I don't live in Buffalo.
Thankfully.
Speaking of, can someone please explain to me why their logo is a buffalo and not a sabre? I mean, that'd be like the Blues having a depiction of St. Louis as their logo instead of a ... blue. Okay, bad example. It would be like the San Jose Sharks having Saint Jose instead of a shark. Or Phoenix having a phoenix as a logo instead of coyote ...
Anyway, hockey season is here. It's just too bad Mike Grier left Buffalo before the new uniforms. Oh well, they still have Chris Drury ...
(See, it was all a joke! Well, at least some of it was ...)
