Congratulations to the Miami Heat and their fans after ending the NBA season last night by smashing the Oklahoma City Thunder and winning their second championship, 4 games to 1.
Now with a little break for the Summer Olympics late next month, American sports fans will only have baseball to look forward to until September, when football, the country's most popular sport returns. (Yes, I'm avoiding soccer here, folks.)
But can I go on a bit of a rant of how dumb-ass baseball can be sometimes?
Case in point? This past week's contretemps between Tampa Bay Rays manager Joe Maddon and the Washington Nationals' Davie Johnson, after Johnson asked an umpire in Tuesday night's game to check whether Rays reliever Joel Peralta had pine tar in his glove.
He did have it in his glove, which is against baseball rules. He was kicked out of the game and yesterday received an eight-game suspension, reduced from the original ten games.
Pitchers use pine tar, a sticky substance, to improve the tackiness of their gloves. But it is against the rules, which Rays manager Joe Maddon knows. But somehow Johnson and the Nationals were the ones at fault here, according to the Rays skipper.
Huh?
Look, I know most fans around here think Joe Maddon walks on water. And I applaud him for sticking up for his players — it's an extremely important asset for any leader to have. But the machismo bluster that he's kicked up over the last few days demonstrates how lame baseball can be when it comes to enforcing rules.
