The Ghosts of Babe Ruth

What is it with all those balls flying out of Yankee Stadium? What was considered an oddity at the beginnning of the season is quicky turning into a trend. Last season in old Yankee stadium there were a total of 161 home runs hit. This year as of this writing, there have been 85 home runs thus far in only 22 games. You can do the math but it extropolates to over 300 home runs at the current pace. This has been attributed to various phenomena including how air currents carry the ball further towards the outfields. Is it possible to build a stadium that is more conducive to balls carrying further? If it is it remains to be seen whether this is an advantage for the Yankees as their opponents seem to be enjoying the benefits of this venue as well. The Bronx Bombers are currently near the top of the league in homer production.

Canucks Face Decisions after Elimination

With their elimination from this year's NHL playoffs still stinging, the Canucks will now have to face some decisions regarding some key players in the off season.

Roberto Luongo is going into his option year and the Canucks will need to convince Luongo to stay. Mats Sundin will almost certainly not be back. He will either retire or the team will opt not to pay him his high salary. Mattius Ohlund will test free agency and the Sedins will command a big price tag that Vancouver may not be able to work under the salary cap. The fact that they prefer to stay together also makes it more difficult to market them. In short, there may be a Swedish exodus bigger than the last time someone pulled the fire alarm at IKEA.

Take Those Annoying Canuck Pennants Down

The Vancouver Canucks are out of the playoffs. They haven't won the Stanley Cup in almost forty years; in fact they have never won. Tonight they lost the sixth game of the Western Semi Final series to the Chicago Black Hawks in a very entertaining game which had practically everything.

The Canucks had come back from a 3-1 deficit and at one point led 5-4 and appeared to have the momentum; however, the young sharpshooters of the Hawks led by Patrick Kane proved too much in the end. Vancouver failed to hold 3 leads in the game.

Ryan Kesler and Alex Burrows had played over their heads all year and could not be expected to maintain their scoring and they didn't in this series. Roberto Luongo is flesh and blood when opponents simply make the shots. He is great when it's check, clutch and grab and bodies all over but as proven many times, good shots make him an average goalie. He was never really tested in the earlier series against St. Louis. Matts Sundin, although he managed a couple of key goals, was basically non existent as he was during most of the season. Certainly not worth the $90,000 plus per game he was paid.

Oh well, there is always next year.