Food for Thought 8-16-2011

Photo courtesy of netsolhost.com. Mardy Fish (pictured above) is the top American these days as the ATP stops in Cincinnati and then heads to Flushing.

By Josh Kramer

The past few days have been bonkers in the wide world of sports as usual.  NFL Football returned in the form of Preseason games.  America finally ended their drought at golf majors.  In addition, the American public got to witness one of the biggest choke jobs of all time in the tournament.  Plus we are now in the thick of the best few weeks of tennis that we have in the states.

Here are the items that have my attention.

A&M gets denied

Food for Thought 8-2-2011

Photo courtesy of http://www.nflgridirongab.com. Randy Moss (pictured above) one of the all-time great wide receivers, decided to hang up the cleats and retire yesterday.

By Josh Kramer

Sure last week was absolutely ludicrous between all of the transactions in the MLB and NFL. Well the pace will not slow up by any means.  Here are the topics that have caught my attention.

No More Randy Moss

After a very up and down career, though predominantly up, one of football’s greatest wide receivers of all time is calling it quits.  Many headlines have exclaimed “No Moss.”  And I must say, I tip my hat to a man who normally has struggled to handle his business off the field and in the locker room frequently throughout his career.  It is few and far between to find athletes these days who know when the time is right to walk away.

Stars younger than I

Photo courtesy of golf.com. Rory McIlroy (pictured above) is one of the young stars making major headlines in the sporting world.

By Grant Freking

In lieu of Father’s Day I thought I might come up with an interesting list of the best players in each sport. That is the best players in a sport that I am older than. That doesn’t make me their dad, but it does make me feel old. It also means I can refer to them as “kid” or “young fella.”

Baseball

Jason Heyward

The right-fielder for the Atlanta Braves is off to a slow start this season but he’s also been injury riddled to begin 2011. However, Heyward did finish second in the 2010 NL Rookie of the Year Voting behind San Francisco Giants catcher Buster Posey. Make no mistake about it, this 6-foot-5-inch, 240-pound athletic freak is the future of the Atlanta organization.

“Finals Rematch”

Miami and their star studded trifecta should actually be able to throw a legitimate championship party in the near future.

By Josh Kramer

It is finally time for the conclusion of what has been a wild NBA season. The NBA Finals are set.  And it is a rematch.  Though I will state, these are two very different teams from the matchup of 5 years ago.  In what has been a very memorable extra season thus far with many unexpected turns and twists, we have narrowed the field 2.  And not to be pessimistic, but make sure to tune in and savor it.  With the looming CBA disputes and possibility of a lockout next season, this may be the last professional basketball any of us gets to “Witness” for a long time.

“Western Conference Finals Predictions”

Dirk Nowitzki (pictured above) has been nothing short of phenomenal in this year's playoffs. Can the future first ballot Hall of Famer get the Mavericks back to the NBA Finals?

The matchup to decide the Wild Wild West will finally get underway tonight.  No I am not referring to the NHL’s crazy Western Conference.  I am talking about the extraordinarily deep NBA Western Conference.  It is a 3/4 matchup.  Not too many people predicted these 2 to square off for a trip to the Finals.  And that is fine.  It still a great all around matchup.

“Amazing Streaks”

UConn Women's Head Basketball Coach, Geno Auriemma (pictured above), has led the Lady Huskies to 80 consecutive victories. Is this one of the greatest streaks ever in sports?

After watching the UConn Lady Huskies, led by the legendary Geno Auriemma secure their 80th consecutive win over the number 2 ranked Baylor Bears, it got me thinking.  What is the greatest streak or record in sports history?

Here are my top 5 team streaks of all time:

5.  From 1991 to 2005, Bobby Cox, who is recently retired, led the Atlanta Braves to an unfathomable 14 consecutive divisional titles.  Plenty of teams go 15 years without even making the playoffs once.  Just ask the Reds about that.

4.  In 1979, the Philadelphia Flyers went an unthinkable 35 games without a loss.  The NHL is a brutal League where no teams has ever won more than 62 games during regular season play.  This team was able to go 35 without suffering 1 defeat.  It was a good time to sport a Flyer’s jersey.

3.UCLA’s 7 consecutive NCAA Men’s basketball titles.  During this amazing time of utter dominance by John Wooden and the Bruins, they also won 88 consecutive games!  Could you imagine a team doing something like this in this day and age.  The last Men’s team to sport a perfect season was the Indiana Hoosiers in 1976.

2. The Boston Celtic’s won 8 consecutive NBA Titles between the 1958-1959 season and the 1965-1966 season.  Will any team ever touch this?  I mean 3-peats are great, but that is not even half of an 8-peat.

1. California’s De La Salle’s High School Football won 151 straight games over a 12 year span.  This is not easy task at any level, especially the high school level, where the kids really change every couple of years due to graduation, etc.  The previous record was only 72.  This streak spanned from 1992 to 2004!

I know there are other major streaks out there.  So here are my honorable mention top team streaks of all time.  

-  Penn State Women’s Volleyball 109 match winning streak and the University of North Carolina Women’s Soccer 103 game win streak. 

- The LA Lakers scintillating 33 game win streak. 

- The Oklahoma Sooner Football 47 game winning streak between 1953 and 1957.

What are your top streaks?

Stay tuned for the next edition of TheSportsKraze.

-TheSportsKraze

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