CRAZY HORSE

My coach of the year in the NBA, Nate McMillan , leads the Blazers into the 1st round of the playoffs tonight. The opponent is the Houston Rockets ...a formidable group that are big and talented ...and have Yao to contend with...the defining moment of the series is how PDX handles him ...it's a best of 7...so... OMG the Padres pulled one out of the hat yesterday at Philadelphia ...down 5 in the 1st...the Pads came storming back and beat them in the 8th ...another save for HBell ...everyone is hitting but ...you guessed it... Kooz ... The Celts without the Big Ticket are just another team ...I would not be surprised if Chicago beat them... Wrapping up our stay in the great northwest and looking forward to heat ...

Just like I ranted all last season the Padres were sitting on their closer and sticking him as the set up guy... in lieu of releasing or trading Trevor Hoffman , they stuck by him and suffered the horrible year. A new year, and a new dimension, led to the Pads coming to their senses and giving the job to THE closer , Heath Bell . He already has been magnificent earning 5 saves , but he strikes fear in the opponents with the heat he brings... Not to be lost in the series win at the Mets yesterday, was Chase Headley going 4-4 , a career high...now it's off to Philadelphia ... another tough test in this early season. In the NBA, the playoffs are just a day away and already there is a major blow for the Celtics ...the Big Ticket is out for the post season ...probably puts the Cavs in a stress free direct line to the finals ...the east is weak...tomorrow I'll talk about the talented west... Where's the sun ?

to tell you that I think the Kevin Kouzmanoff experiment is a bust . I was hoping that he would clear his demons o ut...but he appears to be the only Padre that has not made a significant improvement in his play...I have tried to have a belief that he has gotten better... please make me change my mind ... The Portland Trailblazers are back in the playoffs! 1st time since "03 and the city is going wild ...When it is the only game in town making the playoffs becomes a huge thing...The youth and depth is a wonderful thing and may prove to be a winning factor in their 1st round match with Rick Adelman's Houston Rockets . By the way, did you see Mike Dunleavy got ejected in the final Clipper's game? How does he keep his job ? Somebody has to tell the Mariners that they are not supposed to be winning . In fact the national broadcast made mention to how the leaders in most of the divisions were teams that were not supposed to be there ...they kept saying it is ear...

So you are sailing along playing a sport, let's say MLB , and you stop hitting so well...and then management comes to you and says that you are on our 25 man roster and we don't want to send you down to the minor leagues ...and you just stare at him and say it's early and I've only had 19 at bats...and he says that he knows that and it would be best if you just took some time off to find yourself...so let's put you on the DL (disabled list)...well and you say but I'm not disabled and there is nothing wrong with me... and he says yes there is you have a hurt wrist and we need to put it in a cast ... So just exactly what is a DL ? It is a method of harboring and adjusting a MLB lineup ...for sure there are guys that are on it that are really hurt, but there are just as many who are not ... The NBA has this and it is much more blatant than MLB 's...every team has a couple of guys on theirs... I'm just saying ...

As you know, Carly Simon says it best ... A ...rousing performance by the Padres in their inaugural stint at NY ... N ...oise heard around SD when Jody Gerut christened the Mets park with a lead off tater ... T ... errible judging by the Dancing With the Stars group last night...what? I ...ncredible effort by the Blazers in the thumping of the Thunder ( Supersonics )... C ...oming of age, the youth movement in the bullpen of the Pads... I ...nevitable the NBA finals of the Lakers and the Cavs ... P ...lease leave the gay thing out of the American Idol competition... A ...nd is there a classier guy in sports than Kenny Perry ? T ...rump (the Donald) actually has a decent competition going this time around... I ...can't believe that the pundits aren't falling all over themselves at the Padres start... O ...h my God, did you see the latest hair do, by the now convicted Phil Spector ? N ...uggets clinched the PDX league, but Portland must win to get a home court adva...

What an Easter feast! The Masters took so many turns it was dazzling and confusing at the same time. The super pairing of Lefty and Tiger provided much of the drama of the day. In fact, Lefty should have won the tourney ...he missed two 4 foot putts that were game changers on the back...and Tiger tried to make a charge, but 7 strokes is too much even for Superman ...but...the 2nd phase of the drama was the dismantling of the sweet swinging Kenny Perry ...he lost his deft touch at the 17th and couldn't recover...the Duck, Angel Cabrera , waddled by Perry and won in OT...just a minute, I love the speed of play by Angel ... Let's be honest here...who saw the Padres going 5-2 out of the gate? And sweeping the Giants ...anywhere? Yesterday it was Nick Hundley's turn to show the fire power...going 4-4 and having his best SD day of his career. CYoung was masterful and it was fun...now the Pads pack their bags and head to NY to help christen the Mets new park today. Can...

The mighty Padres are leading the west ! Riding the arm of Jake Peavy (10 K's) SD moved into 1st place with a 6-3 drubbing of the SF Giants ... Henry Blanco (Insurance) hit 2 HR's and AGonzo had a bases clearing double... HBell picked up his 3rd save... Headley hit his 1st tater...and Kooz continues to flounder ...it's up to CYoung to finish the sweep... Somehow I got thinking of olden times being back in the great northwest and my mind wandered to food . Now a days a dinner consists of gourmet touches and a balanced type of blending the food groups. It's almost always consisting of a salad, a starch, a veggie, and a main dish...and probably a dessert. We never sat around a table and had forced phony conversation...but we had a TV dinner ...in fact we thought of them as a privilege. I know, in your family it would have been disgusting to eat such a thing. I can remember when they actually put desserts in them, too. Back when I was young ...(Eric Burdon ...