Shots on goal

Last spring, I was cautiously optimistic about baseball, but even though I was close to the end of my rope with my favorite baseball team (even under the stewardship of a living legend I've personally spoken with), I could at least look forward to baseball. And then my team was even worse than expected. And then the Blue Jays broke my heart into a million pieces and it seems unrealistic to expect anyone other than the Dodgers to be good at baseball at any time in the foreseeable future.

The Dodgers aren't just a team comprised entirely of All-Stars; they can call up any random pitcher or hitter from the minors at random and they're lights-out; the All-Stars of the future. The Giants traded one of their recent top draft picks to the Red Sox to acquire an all-world hitter last year. That hitter immediately stopped being good at everything that made him desirable. The Giants will be paying him lots of money for like seven more years. That draft pick they traded? He's tearing the cover off the ball now in the minors. For the Dodgers. The other big piece of the trade to the Red Sox is now pitching lights-out for the Brewers. (Yes, the Red Sox have already divested themselves of all of the players they got in a trade for their most popular player in less than a year. No one is really clear what the Red Sox are doing, now or ever.)

I opted not to renew my MLB.tv subscription for the first time in many years this season, and it's one of the best decisions I've made. After an offseason where the Giants did basically nothing of note beyond being the first team to ever hire a manager with no professional baseball experience directly from a college managing gig, they've shit every bed in the tenement. They also sold an ownership stake to a Kushner. (Not that Kushner, but a Kushner, and really awfulness is just a matter of degree, isn't it?) I've tried for several years to make my brain and my heart stop caring so much about the Giants, and last season and this season are probably the ways to do it. I want my son to be able to grow up knowing sports happiness in the even he cares about sports, and have always been nudging him toward being a Dodgers fan and keeping at least one side of the family happy all the time. Maybe if I push long enough I can also bring myself to root full-time for the good team. Must be nice, right?

To distract me a bit from my bad baseball team and from the tragedy that is the collapse of the Warriors dynasty (and the regrettable way that the Packers and 49ers seasons ended), my hockey team – the Montreal Canadiens – has ended up in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. They wound up matching up against one of the most odious teams in the league, the Tampa Bay Lightning, and for a time it seemed they had the series well in hand. Then they blew a lead and coughed up a game at home and it seemed inevitable that they would eventually lose in seven games. I turned on Game 7 and saw that somehow the Habs had a 1-0 lead in the second period despite only having single-digit shots on goal, while the Lightning had almost two dozen. Sure enough, the Lightning equalized in short order. Given how sports always goes for me, I turned it off rather than suffer. The Habs ended up going the entire second period without a shot on goal.

And then they won. With only nine shots on goal the entire game. That's simply not possible. I mean, the winning goal itself was impossible.

I'm assuming the Canadiens will get bounced in the next round, but what a way to win a Game 7.

It's so unusual for one of my teams to come through that I'm still processing all of this, and I'm choosing just to enjoy it while I can. It sure beats thinking about the Giants!

Oh, and my Premier League team, Arsenal, has not yet bottled it. Moreover, the loathsome Manchester City hilariously choked on Monday, having to fight tool and nail just to draw Everton, putting Arsenal in the driver's seat for the home stretch of season after everyone assumed City would coast to an easy win and a points lead. Whoops! I hope their eyebrowless Norwegian homunculus has a real bad week.

I also hope the Lakers lose their playoff series.

That's it for me! See you next time.