The final four and more ramblings

Since I was lazy yesterday and not much has changed today, how about some ramblings about some recent going-ons? I thought you'd say that.

There are only four teams left playing for the Stanley Cup. While I'm sure that the NHL isn't too happy the West Coast and Canada not being represented in the final four, having Sid the Kid and the Pens in is great. Matching up Pittsburgh with their natural rival. the cross-state Flyers is going to be a great series. In the West, having Dallas still playing could draw the southern markets; Detroit has always been a hockey hotbed and an original six draw. It'll be interesting to say the least.

A-Rod apparently passed out in the hospital while his wife was giving birth to their first daughter. Am I supposed to care? If an average player — say Morgan Ensberg, who's filling in while A-Rod is injured — had passed out during child birth, would anybody care. Also, this incident happened in 2004. Get over it.

Kobe Bryant deserved the NBA MVP more than Chris Paul did. Whoever is calling this a "lifetime achievement MVP" is an idiot. Bryant was by far the best player on the best team in the best conference and was playing without another all-star — unlike Paul. Don't get me wrong CP3 had an amazing season and was a very worthy candidate, but was not more valuable than the Black Mamba.

Roger Clemens. I don't even know what to think any more about the Rocket.

So Ronaldo allegedly beat up some cross-dressing prostitutes after finding out they were, in fact, men. I've seen the pictures of the prostitutes. Either Ronaldo has severely awful taste in women or he's blind. They were obviously dudes. And it's nice to see he's finding time to get in the news while rehabbing his torn ACL.

Suns coach Mike D'Antoni won't be with Phoenix for long after getting team approval to shop his services around. The best possible fit would be Toronto where his former boss Bryan Colangelo is running the show. D'Antoni could turn Jose Calderon into a surefire all-star.

Nice game, Gavin Floyd! The previously written off starter pitched 8 1/3 innings of no-hit ball before one of the best batters in the game (Joe Mauer) managed to beat him. Floyd is showing more and more this season that the Phillies were wrong to send him packing and that the White Sox were smart to take him on. And just how do you allow a run on three walks and an error in a game? I don't think the were in a row either.

A big congratulations to Big Brown for winning the Kentucky Derby. But with the second-place finisher running on broken ankles, how weak was the rest of the pack? Also, for the record, I did pick Big Brown to win, even if I am just saying it days after the fact.

And, finally, how did LeBron miss that last layup? That seemed a bit ridiculous to me and if you didn't find Game 1 boring, you must have a far better tolerance for defensive tilts than me. Spur-Celtics could be even worse than Spurs-Pistons if San Antonio makes it.