The Mustard is off the Hot Dog

The Lakers are in the Finals but Chick Hearn isn't there. It's odd. Chick was the ultimate regular at Laker games. He put the Iron Man (Cal Ripken Jr., not the movie character) to shame.
He would have loved this, his wife Marge told LA Times writer T.J. Simers in an article that had me choked up.
Just the other day at work, I was telling people how I think about Chick every game as I listen to one of the worst announcers in sports during regular season games, Joel Meyers.

"I think the kid that does the radio is tremendous and I think Chick would have thought so too," Marge said. Notice how she didn't say anything about the television announcer.

Chick's favorite saying was "since Hector was a pup." Marge's was the "bunny hop and the pea patch."
I liked the "Mustard is off the hot dog," and when people were "put in the popcorn machine."

I miss the words that accompany the game because no one said them better than Chick.
Chick loved the fans and the fans loved him back.
"And he was always proud of the fact that the person who could not afford a ticket could listen to the game and still enjoy it," Marge said. "Those were his kind of fans, those were the ones he loved."

As the Times said when he passed away,
"He always knew what to say, and now we are at a loss for words."

Keys to Game 2 today:

Kobe needs to make some shots. In all three games so far this season, Kobe has been awful. He's 24-72 for a shooting percentage of 33 percent.

Derek Fisher needs more rest so he can be fresh down the stretch. Having him play 41 minutes and Jordan Farmar just seven, didn't help the Lakers in the 4th quarter.

The bench needs to get going. Fifteen points from the Mob, like in Game 1 is not going to cut it.

Trevor Ariza has to play instead of Luke Walton. Walton, 14 minutes, 0 points, two rebounds and one assist in game is an understatement to how ineffective he really was.

Ultimately, with all that said, Kobe needs to knock down his open looks, and all the other factors can be put to rest.

Ray Allen is either pretty smart or is psychic.

"If Kobe doesn't see he needs two and a half good players to be a legitimate playoff contender or win a championship in about a year or two he'll be calling out to Jerry Buss that 'We need some help in here,' or 'Trade me,' " Allen said in 2004. "And we'll all be saying, 'I told you so,' when he says that."

Karma is a bitch. Matt Kemp found that out. He started a fight for no reason (he admitted it was out of frustration) and got his ass kicked by Yorvit Torrealba.

NFL Conspiracy

I usually don't believe in conspiracies but this definitely is a conspiracy.

Check it out:

My article for The Signal Newspaper on Michael Montgomery who was taken No. 36 overall in the Major League Baseball draft.