10 Awesome Things That Happened This Past Weekend (5/13-5/15)

10. ESPN’s Matthew Barnaby Arrested During a Domestic Dispute

            Barnaby was a fringe contender to make the 10 worst ESPN employees list, but no one in America cares about hockey, which doesn’t really make him relevant. I don’t want to make to much light of this situation (according to police there was no reports of violence), but when did ESPN begin to have more legal issues than the Cincinnati Bengals?

9. Carl Edwards Dodges Scary Crash in Nationwide Race at Dover

            Edwards was so concerned that he caused this last lap crash that he skipped his usual back flip after winning the race.

8. Matt Kenseth Steals Win

            A very boring race was given a bit of a jolt by an odd caution with 38 laps to go. Jimmie Johnson, Carl Edwards, and Clint Bowyer were the three fastest cars on the track, but they took four tires on the final pit stop (to put it simply for non gear heads, that was the wrong decision). Matt Kenseth elected to take two tires (again for non gear heads, that was the right decision). Kenseth cruised passed old-timer Mark Martin to take his second victory of the season.

7. Troy Polamalu Graduates From USC

            I’m not sure what Polamalu plans to do with a degree in history after his playing career, but good for him.

6. Chad Ochocinco Rides a Bull

            Of all of Chad’s antics over the past 10 years, this one is my favorite. It’s one thing to propose to a cheerleader, or Velcro a fake name to your jersey, or even legally change your last name. Riding a bull though is pretty serious business.

5. Lightning Smoke Bruins in Game 1

            Tampa scored three goals in 85 seconds of this one and never looked back. Boston looked very old trying to chase down Tampa’s top-3 lines (you’ll recall they had a similar issue against Montreal in Round 1).

4. Jose Bautista Hits Three Home Runs in One Game

            I’m not sure who is responsible for turning Bautista into the 1996 version of Mark McGwire (more than likely a rogue Canadian scientist), but it’s awesome. He smacked five dingers in the three game series at Minnesota, which isn’t the easiest place to hit a home run.

3. Thunder Finally Knock Off Grizzlies

            It’s strange to say it, but I’m going to miss the Memphis Grizzlies. They gave us an epic upset of the veteran San Antonio Spurs. They pushed a much more talented Oklahoma City team to a 7^th game, despite losing the epic triple overtime game 4. They didn’t put out their best effort Sunday, but what are you going to do when Kevin Durant drops 39 and Russell Westbrook gets a triple-double? Look out for Memphis next year when a healthy Rudy Gay returns.

2. Jorge Posada Refuses to Hit 9^th in Yankees Lineup

            What do you get when you mix a washed up player with an oversized ego that’s upset about his spot in the batting order? This story.

            I was planning on talking about how this is only the beginning of issues that New York Yankees will have with aging players, but ESPN’s Wallace Matthews (who actually gets paid to write) beat me to it here.    

1. Chicago Hammers the Heat

            This was a tie game at halftime, but the depth of the Bulls overwhelmed Miami in the 2^nd half. Unlike Boston, Chicago has plenty of big bodies to clean up the boards and shut down the boards. The only thing that held them back in the first half was some sloppy play by Derrick Rose. Miami is in big trouble if they can’t keep Chicago off of the offensive glass (the Bulls had 19 offensive rebounds).