the mad sports man

another may bites the dust geez, another may gone already. i still dont know where it went. lets see, there was the indy 500, the coca cola 600, the edmonton cracker cats inaugural home opener, cfl training camps started already, and loads of major league baseball. june brings more baseball, the beginning of the cfl season and the start of tourist season at THE mall. joy. well, what else can i do? not much.

1100 miles of racing is done dan wheldon won the indianapolis 500 this afternoon. he won it by passing danica patrick with 7 laps to go. i give my props to danica patrick. the first woman to lead the 500 and damn near won it and finished 4th. the winner - as tradition, besides winning a nice sum of money - gets a wreath around is neck AND the traditional jug of milk to drink. fun race. the coca cola 600 was won by jimmie johnson for the 3rd straight year. this had a few records broken for this particular race (which started in 1960 as the world 600). most cautions: 22 (15 previos record at charlotte. record was 20 at bristol), most lead changes with 37 and most drivers who led with 21. this race took 5 hours 13 minutes and 52 seconds to run. 1100 miles and almost 11 hours and im done looking at t.v. screens. i guess that would include this computer screen. and endurance test for sure.

cracker-cats home opener a gorgeous night for baseball. sioux falls won 9-7. this was an interesting one.edmontons piching struggled a bit despite the score. what killed the cats was the 5 run 5th. couple of errors did the damage there. edmonton made it close in the bottom of 9 when they loaded the bases and had scored a run (the 7th of the game). the sioux falls pitcher struck out the edmonton batter to end the game. randy ferbey's curling team - at least him, scott pfieffer and 5th don holowachuk - made an appearance and signed autograghs before the game. edmonton unveiled their mascot. just look at the logo and you'll see the mascot - a cat named ..... well it doesn't have a name YET. the mascot naming contest is on. im thinking "crackers" for some strange reason i dont know why. anyways theres the story on the home opener.

baseball state of mind less than 24 hours to the cracker-cats home opener and i am ready. the sioux falls canaries are the first guests to telus field. and theres a log jam for second in the a.l. east. baltimore is leading with a 30-16 record. toronto and the yankees are tied for second with 26-21 records and boston is fourth at 25-21 record. all of this is mostly due to the fact that toronto just swept boston in a 3 game set that ended tonight. gonna be a great summer for sure.

the contender, baseball home opener, and vacation time sergio mora has won the title of "the contender" defeating peter manfredo jr. in a great 7 round fight. i think sergio won it in the 7th round with an all round flurry. up until then, the fight was pretty close. i now have my ticket for the edmonton cracker-cats home opener on friday night. of course, im gonna be parked in the right field bleachers (so call me a bleacher bum). looking forward to it. the first ever home opener and i gotta be there. i am officially on my vacation. WOOHOO. started after i punched out at 4 pm today. a week away from THE mall. i like the thought of sleeping in every day already. a great opportunity to go to any other mall besides w.e.m.

the nascar nextel all-star race mark martin has just won the annual all-star challenge in charlotte n.c. tonight and picked up a cool million bucks. next race is may 29 and the coca cola 600, also in charlotte. cant wait for the 29th. the indianapolis 500 and the coca cola 600. 1100 miles of racing. gonna be fun.

25 years ago today hard to believe its been 25 years since the eruption of mt. st. helens. the difference between then and now with the scenery is very noticable. after the eruption - a lot of ash all over the place, trees snapped off and rooted up and water ways like rivers and lakes were a mess. today, the trees are green, the wildlife returned and life in the lakes. a lot of the trees that got blown down got removed, which turned up ash and the ground which made planting new trees possible. now they are over 40 feet. even fish returned to spirit lake. quite an event then. theres now a monument in the explosion area. id love to go check it out.

severe weather season has begun yep, its severe weather season time. first storm has kinda passed through. its still cloudy and dark out. its quit raining - for now. havent seen lightning or heard thunder for a bit, but the threat is still here. the rain is much needed. dont need a drought or forest fires. thunderstorms are nice to watch from inside. watching the rain fall, the lighning flash and hearing the thunder makes it fun - even when the lights go out (that can be a pain in the ass too).

survivor finale and olympic sized project (kinda) tom westman is sole survivor of survivor palau. he won one million bucks AND a 2005 chevrolet ssr in a most interesting finale tonite. my olympic sized project is going. i'm putting up my olympic mini posters, emblems, torches and mascots. i got partway done. gotta get more tacks. so far they're looking good on the corkboard. a couple hundred more tacks oughta do it (it might take that much). cant wait to see what it looks like when its done.

chevy american revolution 400 kasey kahne won his first career race tonight in richmond va. he led the most laps tonight. ran away with the finish when they restarted after a caution with 8 laps to go. congrats to kasey.

dodge charger 500 greg biffle won the dodge charger 500, leading the most laps. even a green-white-checker finish AGAIN. the finish sure got exciting. this was the first saturday night race run in darlington in its 55 year history.

the national lacrosse league in edmonton the national lacrosse league has arrived in edmonton. the announcement was made this afternoon. a team name hasn't been decided yet. edmonton became the 11th team in the n.l.l. and will play out of rexall place. there are teams in san jose, rochester, toronto, calgary and arizona to name a few. edmonton will start play in january 2006. hmm must check out.

an interesting blue jay turnaround heres an interesting turnaround. the jays went 0-5 against the yankees and the orioles (0-2 against n.y. and 0-3 against baltimore) earlier this season. after tonights game (the jays play one more game tommorow to finish the 3 game set with baltimore), the jays are 4-1 against baltimore and new york. and the jays are 3-2 against boston. they gotta keep playing like this against those theee teams all season to stay near the top of the a.l. east.

aarons 499 jeff gordon has just won the aarons 499 in talladega today. won it leading the most laps and a green-white-checkers finish. that happens when theres a late caution. jeff gordon had the car today. next race is saturday night in darlington and the dodge charger 500.