S-B Sports Monday

The Schloss-Blog would be remiss without a quick reaction this morning to the headlines generated in sports this past weekend. I am a career sportswriter after all.

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Games 7: 

Still waiting for the Phoenix Suns to show up. The game started with them putting the JV on the court and Luka Doncic, Spencer Dinwiddie and Stevenson High School's own Jalen Brunson put on a show, along with their Dallas Mavericks teammates in a 123-90 blowout.

The best comment I saw was on Twitter from sports reporter Alex Clancy, who reminded Phoenix sports fans that this game is why the national media never take Phoenix teams seriously. 

I mean, who do the Suns think they are, the Atlanta Hawks? Even the Cleveland Cavaliers have a recent championship.

Phoenix sports has one - ONE - championship ever - D'backs over the Yankees in the 2001 World Series.

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Two amazingly exciting games 7 in hockey.

The Rangers, my Rangers, Linda Cohn's Rangers - outplayed most of the game by Pittsburgh, finished off a comeback from a 3 games-to-1 deficit and came all the way back for a 4-3, game 7 win on Artemi Panarin's OT goal, as Panarin remembered to shoot instead of pass.

Fortunately, did Sidney Crosby forget to shoot. Good luck, Rangers, against defensive-minded Carolina in the next round.

The Calgary Flames, meanwhile, needed overtime and 67 shots on goal to score 3 times in a 3-2, game 7 win over the gutty Dallas Stars and goaltender Jake Oettinger, who made 64 saves before giving up a ridiculous-angle goal by Johnny Gaudreau in an OT that probably never should've happened.

All this while me and Jocelyn were running back and forth from the living room to the patio between forkfuls of pasta to watch the red moon eclipse (way cool). 

One thing about playoff hockey: nothing like it. Players definitely raise their games. The four games yesterday were all jaw-dropping, the NBA's for the wrong reasons (both blowouts).

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Is there a difference between North American and European sports fans?

While North American fans were cheering (or bemoaning) game-7 excitement over the weekend, FC Stuttgart fans in the German soccer - uh, futbol - league were storming the field in celebration as their heroes scored late to win and avoid being relegated to the lower league.

An over-the-top celebration for avoidance of being relegated. Meanwhile, Suns fans were streaming out of the Footprint Center in Phoenix as their local heroes went into the fourth quarter of their game-7 playoff versus Dallas trailing by 42. 

What a contrast between what drives fans - and what doesn't. Go figure.

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Real quick:

The Reds threw a no-hitter, and lost. Wait, what?

The White Sox showed they're not the Yankees.

The Blackhawks are looking for a coach. Isn't Joel Quennville available? No, wait...

The Schloss-Blog finds it amazing that most of the national media was talking about what a great NBA Western Conference Finals were going to be between the Suns and Warriors.

Unfortunately for the Suns, the Top Gun Mavericks showed up.

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Not sure if this will become a regular Monday thing on sports, but it might. Yet, still mourning over shootings at The Bean in Chicago's Millennium Park and a grocery store in Buffalo, the latter by an 18-year-old who had posted things about "replacement theory," or the white-nationalist belief that immigrants are being brought in to replace them as voters.

Yet, they go to hockey and basketball games and root for Eastern Europeans and to baseball games and root for players from Central America and the Caribbean. And for Blacks across the board.

Welcome to S-B Sports Monday, huh?

Hope you enjoyed my Radio Free Phoenix rock 'n' roll show last night. Leave it on in the background on Sundays for Joe Catanzaro in the morning, and Miss Holly King and dear friend Sharon Kelley in the afternoon.