From early afternoon to late evening, the sports world on the first Saturday in May was worth looking into, whatever your taste.
Early afternoon brought the start of the Penguins-Capitals hockey playoff series with all the Sidney Crosby-Alex Ovechkin storylines front and center...
High school sports is not just about those few moments when, in the full glare of the spotlight, talented teenagers hear the screams from their parents and friends in the contests we all cover and enjoy.
For every cheer, there's weeks, months, years of silent sacrifice and sweat, done in full view of no one except a coach pushing, prodding, encouraging something more.
Most of the time, we don't see that exacting, life-altering process laid out in detail...
No one needs to be reminded that media companies of all stripes are struggling. And like everyone else, we at Eagle have gone through some changes in order to make it through economic struggles.
By far, though, the biggest hit has been taken by daily newspapers, once a fixture in every big city in America.
Now they only go online in Seattle. The Rocky Mountain News folded in Denver...
Now for a shameless promotion from the sports desk...
My entry last night was spent commenting on, and probably lamenting, what was happening to newspapers in America, or at least the big dailies - without really going into our situation.
Well, I still won't do that. But the fact that the Senate held hearings today, and folks on all side have offered opinions on what needs to happen, shows that it's a real concern that might reach critical mass pretty soon.
We didn't stay out of it, either. Our very own Dave Tyler appeared tonight on the 6 p.m...
It seems like they do everything right at West Genesee boys lacrosse - right down to the game times.
The Wildcats' Saturday battle with Liverpool began at 1 p.m. and ended around 2:30, mere minutes before storms crashed into the area. Finished, just in time.
Here, the news wasn't in the result - ho hum, another WG one-sided 17-4 victory - but in the fact that, with that win, Mike Messere reached 700 career wins.
Just ponder the number for a moment - 700 wins. How many coaches, at any level, never even get to 100? Messere's program casts a wide net over the entire lacrosse scene in the United States, much less a modest setting like Camillus.
Those 700 wins have come in 34 seasons, with just 48 defeats...
Thursday, midday, and the headlines went across the land. Manny Ramirez, clown prince and hitting savant, suspended 50 games, yet another Cooperstown-bound hitter disgraced by his indiscretions. All as Alex Rodriguez was slated to return, allegations trailing his every move.
You know the drill by now. Shock at the name involved, followed by the statement of remorse, followed by the universal condemnation of the entire sports universe over something we were completely unprepared to receive since it hadn't happened since, oh, two months ago.
Already, Manny's entire life and times are being called into question. He is being boxed into that same category of cheater already branded to Bonds, Sosa, McGwire, Palmiero, Clemens, A-Rod and others...
Sure it happened 23 years ago, exactly halfway through the current lifetime of the "Star Trek" entertainment franchise, but it deserves to be recalled.
There stood William Shatner, in a "Saturday Night Live" skit about a prototypical Trekkie convention, telling the faithful to get a life.
Not everyone was amused, but it was prophetic. At that time, there was just the short-lived TV show, cult status through reruns in syndication, and the movie franchise. A lot, for sure, but nothing compared to what would happen next.
You'd have "The Next Generation", "Deep Space Nine", "Voyager", the continuation of the movie series, sequels, prequels, the entire franchise completely run dry...
Sure, it had been rumored for weeks, anticipated, expected. But once it was made real at 10 a.m. this morning, the buzz took hold - and maybe they sold some tickets at the Carrier Dome box office, too.
Greg Paulus is now, officially, the prodigal son, making his way back home, doing something a lot of folks in Central New York wished he had done in 2005 when he graduated from Christian Brothers Academy - namely, go a few miles down the road and situate himself under center, taking snaps while clad in Syracuse Orange.
All those years ago, it seemed so inexplicable. Why would the nation's top-ranked quarterback not even give college football a try?
And many people held to that opinion even though Paulus logged four fine years at Duke University...
Getting to the conference finals in the National Hockey League required us to sit through four series that all proved riveting in their own way.
As far as centerpieces go, Pittsburgh vs. Washington lived up to it all - five games decided by one goal, three of them in overtime, Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin both hitting double digits in points, human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together, mass hysteria! (Okay, maybe not the last part.)
Which only made Game 7 such a letdown. Who knows how things change if Marc-Andre Fleury doesn't grab Ovechkin's shot out of the air in the opening minute...
One thing for sure about the NHL and the quest for the Stanley Cup - while a few certain teams might move the ratings meter a few tenths of a point, no hockey fan ever thinks it's rigged for them. Carolina or Pittsburgh, Chicago or Detroit, there's no pets - either you earn it, or you don't.
That is not the case in the NBA. If things were fair, one could look at the conference finals - Cleveland and Orlando in the East, Denver and the L.A. Lakers in the West - and see them as spirited battles, free from any suspicion.
Forget that idea, though. Since about January, everyone associated with the NBA has been downright salivating at the notion of LeBron James and Kobe Bryant on the same court in June...
Exactly one minute, 55 seconds was the amount of time it took a 1,100-pound filly to prove her worth to to the world.
Yes, Rachel Alexandra is the newly-minted 2009 Preakness States champion. Exactly 85 years since the last of her kind won the big race on Old Hilltop at Pimlico (Nellie Morse for you trivia buffs), Rachel went to Baltimore and beat 12 boys, including a game Kentucky Derby winner - which, of course, makes the whole thing harder to believe.
Back in Louisville, many had thought the best horse didn't run in the Derby...
They filled the stands tonight at Wildcat Stadium in Camillus, 1,500 strong, for the big lacrosse game involving West Genesee and Baldwinsville, the nation's top two teams - at least if you believe the laxpower.com rankings.
Time Warner came to televise it. Large student sections from both schools showed up. The action was intense and physical from beginning to end, and the effort never ceased until the final horn.
And this was a girls lacrosse game.
For one magical night, the girls Wildcats and Bees got to experience what has been denied for them too long - the big-time atmosphere...
Ah, the Wednesday night where another "American Idol" is decided. Pardon me if I yawn.
This decade, musically, has been a story of decline. Thanks to the "Idol" obsession and IPods, the value of whole pieces of music - albums, CDs, records, whatever you call them - has gone down. Why bother making an artistic statement when all a customer sometimes wants is to download one song and forget the rest?
So you appreciate every single performer willing to expose themselves (figuratively, not literally) and show a little heart.
A good argument can be made that the decade's most essential and extraordinary rock album came out in the fall of 2004, from a band absolutely no one thought could pull it off.
Green Day was gone, finished...
Pardon Central New York lacrosse fans, of all stripes, if they're not pounding their chests a little bit these days.
Name a level of college competition, and chances are, a CNY team has won, or has a chance to win it - or at the very least, has athletes from the area contributing to the quest.
The whole nation got to see it on Saturday. Syracuse making the NCAA men's final is no big news, though the way it devoured Duke was impressive enough.
Look, though, as how Cornell did the exact same thing to the nation's no. 1 team, Virginia. A few may have thought 15-6 would be the score - but that it would be the Big Red, not the Cavaliers, heading home from Foxboro.
A long time - 21 years - has passed since Cornell has reached a title game...
We've already seen plenty of Section III playoff action in golf and tennis, setting up our teams that will go to Cornell University (golfers) or Queens (tennis players) this weekend for the first state tournaments of the spring season.
Now, a further sign of the season, as sectional baseball and softball playoff brackets are out.
In baseball, they will be playing Section III finals at Alliance Bank Stadium after two years in Rome - the AA and A finals are June 2, the B and D finals June 3, and the C final June 4.
Utica Proctor is going for a three-peat in Class AA, and is the no. 3 seed in a 12-team tournament where it's hard to find a favorite. Liverpool is the top seed, but was uneven in the regular-season homestretch...
Twice, in the span of less than a week, graduating classes at two vastly different universities in two vastly different parts of the country heard the most memorable words of Barack Obama’s young presidency.
Come May and June, as young men and women don caps and gowns and receive their college and high school diplomas, they will inevitably hear words of wisdom and advice from fellow students and famous guests.
Most of those addresses are good, but few are memorable, and it’s difficult to avoid the cliches that pop up, beseeching newly minted graduates to go out into the world and make a difference, or variations to that theme.
A lucky few get to hear the leaders of this country, like Syracuse University did when Vice President Joe Biden came earlier this month...
Certainly it was over.
Late fourth quarter. NCAA Division I Men's Lacrosse Championship Game. Cornell leading Syracuse by three, the Big Red bleeding minutes off the clock with a disciplined possession game that was driving the Orange batty.
Watching the ESPN telecast when it was 9-6, it sure seemed like they were handing out the trophy early. Perhaps Cornell's players thought that way, too. If so, that will haunt them forever.
For all that followed in Foxboro, the real key to SU's comeback was the goals Stephen Keogh and Cody Jamieson scored, less than a minute apart, to get it to 9-8, with loads of time to pull even.
That still didn't seem to be enough, though, when SU turned it over with 28 seconds left...
In just a couple of hours' time, action begins in the Section III lacrosse playoffs with all the Class C girls teams getting underway.
That's a good place to start. It will take just seven days to settle the sectional titles, from the opening round to finals played June 2 at SUNY-Cortland, because they'll all have to go through two regional rounds late next week in advance of the June 12-13 state final four on that same Cortland turf.
Due to the odd enrollment situation, we have 16 teams in the girls Class C sectionals and just three in Class B, where Watertown and Fulton will meet to see who gets East Syracuse-Minoa in the finals. You have to favor the Spartans here.
By stark contrast, Class C could go in a lot of directions...
Here, on one blue line, stand the champions of the National Hockey League. They possess just the right blend of talent and experience. They know what it’s like to win, and just proved it a year ago when they worked their way to yet another Stanley Cup title.
And here, on the other blue line, stand the challengers. They put the puck in the net better than anyone in the league, are a sheer joy to watch as they zoom up and down the ice. They overwhelm you with their vast array of skills. They are ready to win it all.
Of course we are talking about the New York Islanders facing the Edmonton Oilers, circa 1984...
So we sit in the middle of the Section III playoffs, closer to the end than the beginning, with still a lot of mysteries yet to be revealed...
Of course, in boys lacrosse, absolutely nothing mysterious has taken place. They played 12 quarterfinals - and every time, the home team won, pure chalk.
The suspense begins with the semifinals, right? Well, certainly with F-M and Corcoran in Class A, though Liverpool would have to be perfect to dethrone West Genesee. The same with East Syracuse-Minoa against Jamesville-DeWitt in Class B, although New Hartford has a real shot at Carthage...
