Tuesday Water Cooler – April 6th, 2010
Here we go with today’s sports water cooler talk. Here, you won’t just find the straight news; you’ll find the stuff everyone is talking about – the ice breakers, the Twitter Sports Picks and topics…well, basically all the stuff you discuss at the water cooler.
Enjoy!
I’ll assume you watched Duke break Butler’s heart, so let’s skip to the other big news of the day – starting with the Tiger craze and continuing with some stunning debuts in Major League Baseball.
PGA News: Tiger speaks candidly at press conference
To kick off the circus of Masters week, Tiger Woods finally held a press conference yesterday to address everything from infidelity to performance-enhancing drugs. For the most part, he was open, explaining that he “lived a lie” and vowing never to miss his son’s birthday again. He refuted any rumors that he used PEDs or HGH and openly explained his connection to Canadian doctor Anthony Galea, who is under investigation for providing PEDs to athletes. Tiger also commented on how touched he was when the fans gave him polite applause at the tee during a practice round yesterday.
As for golf – Tiger’s confidence hasn’t wavered, at least on the outside. He smiled and said he’ll “try to win this thing.”
MLB news: Heyward, Halladay shine in debuts
Jason Heyward, arguably the National League’s most hyped hitting prospect since Albert Pujols, did nothing to calm the hype machine in his major-league debut with the Atlanta Braves yesterday. In fact, he ignited it. Heyward homered in his first at-bat, smashing a mammoth 400-plus-foot bomb off Carlos Zambrano, and finished the game with four RBI.
Also impressing in a debut: Roy Halladay, who looked dominant as ever in his first start with the Philadelphia Phillies. Doc got touched up for a run in the first inning but got mad after that, holding the Washington Nationals off the board and leaving the game with nine strikeouts in seven innings.
Not so impressive: President Barack Obama’s opening pitch for the Nationals. After all the footage of him playing basketball, could he really be this bad at throwing a baseball? My grandmother could throw better than – wait. Too cliché. How about this: blindfolded Barbara Walters could throw better than Obama did yesterday.
NBA news: Bucks lose Bogut for season; Malone, Pippen to Hall of Fame; No Coach K in Jersey
The Milwaukee Bucks look pretty solid to make the playoffs this season but their chances of doing any damage took a huge blow this week when standout center Andrew Bogut was confirmed as out for the season with a dislocated elbow. Ouch. Bogut was emerging as a stud, particularly on defense, and probably should’ve been an All-Star this season.
Along with veteran Boston Celtic Dennis Johnson, former NBA superstars Karl Malone and Scottie Pippen have gotten the call to the Hall of Fame. Malone, The Mailman, is a 14-time All-Star, two-time MVP and the second-leading scorer in league history. Pippen was a seven-time All-Star and key component of the Chicago Bulls’ six NBA championships during the 1990s.
The Mike Krzyzewski-to-New-Jersey-Nets rumors are swirling but we shouldn’t expect a big shocker this offseason, even after Coach K won an NCAA title with Duke yesterday. Reports indicate that (crazy) Russian billionaire and new Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov would offer Coach K $12 million to $15 million per season.
But we shouldn’t get our hopes up. Krzyzewski said Monday that “you would be flattered if someone would offer you a job, but I would not be interested.”
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