Summary of the Day: June 19, 2006
Carolina held off the Edmonton Oilers and won the Stanley Cup last night. Congratulations to both teams on a great run throughout the playoffs, especially Edmonton, an eight seed who came within 60 minutes of hockey immortality. The fans in both cities deserve recognition also, especially the fans of the Hurricanes. Fans in Raleigh were terrific, rooting for their team while standing for the whole Game 7 according to the television announcers. Hockey and North Carolina do not seem to go hand in hand, but the Hurricane faithful would argue otherwise.
Ken Griffey Jr. hit his 548th home run last night, tying Mike Schmidt for 11th place on the all-time home run list. While cause to celebrate, this is also an unfortunate reminder. Those who have watched Griffey his entire career expected this moment to happen years ago, but injuries unfortunately slowed his pursuit. Without the injuries, we might have seen Griffey approaching 700 home runs and a spot in the top four of the all-time list rather than still knocking down the door of the top ten. Though Griffey is still a sure Hall of Famer, his injuries deprived him, and baseball fans, of something that could have been very special.
The 20th anniversary of the death of University of Maryland forward Len Bias was yesterday. As Joe mentioned in his blog entry last week, his death was the beginning of a downward spiral for the Boston Celtics, the team that had just won a championship yet still had the second pick in the NBA Draft which they used to select Bias. Bias was on the road to superstardom. The Celtics were excited to have him bridge the gap between the Bird era and the next run of championships. Mike Krzyzewski mentioned him in the same breath as Michael Jordan. Unfortunately, an overdose of cocaine two days after the draft kept him from ever playing in the NBA. His mother has been on a crusade since his death to educate young people about the risks of drug use, and from what I have read has had tremendous success. As tough as her loss was, she is not letting his death be in vain.
Ken Griffey Jr. hit his 548th home run last night, tying Mike Schmidt for 11th place on the all-time home run list. While cause to celebrate, this is also an unfortunate reminder. Those who have watched Griffey his entire career expected this moment to happen years ago, but injuries unfortunately slowed his pursuit. Without the injuries, we might have seen Griffey approaching 700 home runs and a spot in the top four of the all-time list rather than still knocking down the door of the top ten. Though Griffey is still a sure Hall of Famer, his injuries deprived him, and baseball fans, of something that could have been very special.
The 20th anniversary of the death of University of Maryland forward Len Bias was yesterday. As Joe mentioned in his blog entry last week, his death was the beginning of a downward spiral for the Boston Celtics, the team that had just won a championship yet still had the second pick in the NBA Draft which they used to select Bias. Bias was on the road to superstardom. The Celtics were excited to have him bridge the gap between the Bird era and the next run of championships. Mike Krzyzewski mentioned him in the same breath as Michael Jordan. Unfortunately, an overdose of cocaine two days after the draft kept him from ever playing in the NBA. His mother has been on a crusade since his death to educate young people about the risks of drug use, and from what I have read has had tremendous success. As tough as her loss was, she is not letting his death be in vain.
posted by Josh at 9:24 AM
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