Whether you're at the end of your rope or merely the end of your week, welcome to Whitt's End:
*After the day-to-day teasing on here I hate to do this, but next week I'll have breaking local radio news that could re-shape the landscape you've known for three decades. And, yes, I'm talking about The Ticket. See ya Monday morning.
*I don't think there's a more dramatic play in all of sports than the relay throw to home plate trying to nab a runner in a 1-run game with two outs in the 9th. So many moving parts: Two throws, two catches, running, a slide, a convergence if not an outright collision and, of course, a tag. If you weren't standing and cringing as Elvis Andrus made a perfect throw to catcher A.J. Pierzynski to nail the A's Josh Donaldson in yesterday's 4-3 win, then you need a shot of 5hour Energy to wake your ass up. Gotta be the most exciting Rangers' win of the season, right?
*Watching the Heat beat the Spurs in Game 7 last night was nauseating, but wouldn't have been much easier to stomach watching Tim Duncan hoist another trophy. Reminds us how rare two summers ago was. The Mavs not only won their only title by beating the Heat in six games, but since then Miami has dominated the NBA. And, dang, doesn't Dallas' championship feel like 20 years ago instead of just two?
*Patriots' tight end Aaron Hernandez is in deep sh*t. Boston police issued an arrest warrant for him Friday morning in connection with the murder of Odin Lloyd, a 27-year-old who was driving an SUV in Hernandez' name and who was dating Hernandez' fiancee's sister. Lloyd was found in a field - shot in the head - a mile from Hernandez' home and so far cops have discovered that the Pro Bowl player was seen with Lloyd just hours before his death, smashed his cell phone, destroyed his home security system which included video surveillance, and hired a cleaning crew to his house Monday afternoon. Not good.
*I sincerely appreciate the feedback on this blog's curtain-lifter, "The Hard Lie 2". You guys devoured the series to the tune of - so far - 155,000+ pageviews since Monday morning's debut. Me - and my advertisers - thank you. If you missed any of it you can catch up right here with Parts
1 2 3 4 5 and check out
the accompanying photo gallery. Even after almost 10,000 words and 50+ documents some of you have lingering questions. Shoot them to me at
Richie@DFWSportatorium.com. I'll gather them up and next week post an item of your Q's and my A's. Deal?
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Hot.
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Not.
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*You guys know how hard I am to please. I'm a cynic and I'm stubborn and my standard for most stuff is irrationally high. But I'm telling ya,
This Is The End is one of the funniest, most creative movies I've seen in a loooong time. Actors portraying themselves? Genius! Triple thumbs up.
*When the Spurs' Ginobli jumped in the air without a plan and committed an ugly turnover with San Antonio down four and only 23 seconds left last night, would it be fair to call it a Manu-mental gaffe?
*Dead 'n Gone: Sad about the passing of
Sopranos' star James Gandolfini. But if you're shocked he died of a heart attack at only 51, you haven't been paying attention. You can't eat lasagna and drink a bottle of wine for every meal and live to tell about it.
*Now batting
seventh for the Anaheim Angels ...
Josh Hamilton. How delicious is that?! We're into late June and that over-hyped hypocrite is hitting an embarrassing .213.
*I've ragged on LeBron and I'll never forgive him for mocking Dirk Nowitzki's flu cough in 2011. But the dude just won back-to-back regular-season and NBA Finals' MVPs. Only other players to accomplish that feat are named Bill Russell and Michael Jordan. Facing elimination in Games 6 and 7, he produced a combined 69 points, 23 rebounds and 14 assists. Damn. No denying that greatness.
*Speaking of Dirk, once and for all let me win this debate. I don't care if you think you know the rules of the German language better than a German, if he pronounces his own last name
NoWitzki instead of
NoVitzki, then it's
NoWitzki! Right, Mr. NoWitzki?
*Think about the stunt the Heat pulled off to win this title. David Blaine ought to be impressed, because in Game 6 Miami somehow escaped handcuffs inside a Straight Jacket under six feet water with a block a cement tied to their ankles. On Tuesday the Spurs led 93-89 and had the ball with 28 seconds remaining. Lots of things have to go wrong to lose that game in that situation, and they did. Ginobli and Kawhi Leonard missed free throws, the Spurs coughed up two offensive rebounds and Miami nailed two 3-pointers to force overtime. San Antonio must just be sick at how it let this series slip away.
*Speaking of collapses, the Rangers are back in St. Louis this weekend for the first time since 2011 and the ... oh, you know. As a primer, Nelson Cruz yesterday made a fantastic catch in right field after sprinting back on a well-hit ball and gloving it on the warning track just before the wall. Ring a bell?
*As a reminder, I've developed ridiculously thick skin over the last 27 years in this market. I don't mind being a pinata, as long as you're consistently buying what I'm selling. I've never blocked anyone on Twitter (
@RichieWhitt) and I will allow anonymous comments on here. But, to be honest, I'm much more likely to respond and engage commenters if you have a legit profile. I set one up, and it's just lazy/chicken sh*t to rip me without a name or a face attached. Just sayin'.
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*Hey, guess what day it is?
You're welcome.
*If you're at 635/Preston this weekend: 1. God help you, because I bet you're stuck in traffic; 2. Look up at the northeast corner ... and honk at our billboard!
*The Dallas Stars have hired Lindy Ruff as their head coach? What The What?! Wasn't he the Sabres' coach when the Stars won their Stanley Cup in Buffalo in '99? Yes, yes he was. And he led the "No goal!" cries in the aftermath. I guess, even after 14 years, if you can't beat 'em ... join 'em? Sports works in mysterious ways.
*So I got my guy Tom from
XFusion Software helping build and maintain this web site. He's at my house one day painstakingly trying to teach me about HTML code, and 10 times faster than I can learn a <Div /> from an <i />, he picks up a jumbled Rubik's Cube and solves it. "I don't love code," he says. "But it's my gift. My brain just sees things in a certain way." No, I don't understand.
*Received some decent media attention this week re: the launch of the blog. From
D Magazine. From the
Dallas Observer. Coming this afternoon, from the
Fort Worth Star-Telegram. And Sunday night at 10 I'll be under the intense grilling of Mike Doocy on Fox 4's
Sports Sunday.
*Looks like I'm not the only one with
Greg Williams issues. Drinking beer? No way?! Yeah, way.
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*Bad news: They're baaaack. As you may remember, I despise squirrels almost as much as Dwyane Wade. They're rats, with cute lil' tails as a disguise. They gnaw on my roof. They poop in pellets. They torment our dogs. And now they're back in my attic for the first time in four years, scurrying around right over my bed at all hours of the night. Hope I'm as successful in the sequel as I ultimately was in the original. Game on.
*I love me some tennis, but this time of the year is just stupid. It was just two weeks ago that Rafael Nadal beat David Ferrer to win the French Open, capping a two-month clay-court season. Now, just like that, Wimbledon begins Monday on, of course, grass. Because of the the cramped scheduling, the sport's most prestigious tournament is played with a relatively minuscule 15-day ramp-up. The surfaces are so different, it'd be like a track star competing in the mile one day, then having to run the 100 meters the next.
*The fallout from what happened on April 15? No, not
RAGE's firing fool, the bombings at the Boston Marathon. Now organizers at Addison's annual "Kaboom Town" fireworks show say they'll check bags and limit attendance as a
security measure. Considering several marathon runners had their legs blown apart by the bombs and ultimately amputated, would it be okay to call it The Boston Knee Party? No? Of course not! I didn't think so. How insensitive.
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"Touched" by VAST isn't new. But it's new to me. And it's bad ass.
*This weekend? Tennis in the morning on Saturday, followed by a buddy's afternoon wedding in McKinney. On Sunday I'll make my regular bi-weekly Unemployment filing (yuck), then head down to Dallas to talk shop with Doocy on Fox4 at 10 p.m. (yay). Welcome and, as always, don't be a stranger.
