Monday roundup: a true downer of a day

If you didn't check out Stompy's NBA playoff manifesto yesterday, it is well worth your time.

The mighty return of the SlowBreaker column, up at 11 a.m.

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Yesterday was a good day for me. After spending a week sleeping in tents, fighting bears with hatchets and maxing out my party meter, I finally got to watch some sports. It was sort of weird realizing I had nothing else on the agenda - and let me tell you, it was glorious. There was a time when I enjoyed nothing more than doing nothing. I feel like Sunday brought me back a bit to those days.

Unfortunately it ended up being a rather awful day for our local teams.

'Hawks

I was all sorts of jazzed up for this one. I saw Game 3 at a bar Friday, but I was ready to sit down by myself at my apartment and give this game my full attention. Whenever your team down 2-1, you know Game 4 is super critical.

Then the game started and it turned into an old fashioned beat-down pretty much immediately. Starting off giving up a short-handed goal (or "shorty". Hockey, what up!) is always a downer, but the true killer was Johan Franzen's seemingly soft goal at the end of the first. By the time Zetterberg scored to make it 5-1, my attention was elsewhere.

I don't think there's any point trying to wrap up the season right now....but yeah, it looks pretty bleak. It appears the Red Wings are a real life sports superpower. I think this series says more about them than the 'Hawks.

Sox

Just when I was going to start writing some nice things about the Sox, Jenks blows the sweep by giving up a homer to goddamn Jack Wilson. It was his first homer of the year. Last year, he only hit one in 305 at-bats. So yeah. It happens sometimes, but that doesn't mean it sucks any less. I think the White Sox are allergic to momentum.

As for the Peavy stuff, I was departing from the mountain when it was goin' down so I had other things to do/think about but it struck me as totally out of left field. Trades in sports rarely seems to develop overnight, and I hadn't even heard a rumbling about the Sox going after him.

I would have liked the deal, but not loved it. My reservations weren't because of who the Sox were trading to San Diego, but rather because it's always scary to give one pitcher that much money. Especially when he pitches in Quadruple-A (comment from Dubs coming in 5, 4, 3, 2....), at a major 'pitcher's park', and in a pretty crappy division. I would have ultimately been for it, however, because I don't know how good Aaron Poreda is going to be if he can't throw a breaking ball over the plate. Of the Sox Big 5 prospects (Becks, Flowers, Allen, and Viciedo are the others), I think I'd put Poreda fifth. That's certainly not to say I think he has 'bust' written all over him or anything, though.

Find of the Day: this sweet Derrick Rose Adidas/FreeDarko video

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I've got some more basketball stuff, but I think I'll save it for tomorrow. Lets all enjoy a wonderful and hopefully warm Memorial Day. Probably my second favorite holiday, right here.

I think it's sort of lame when sports bloggers end posts like this with "don't drink and drive", but, you know, don't drink and drive.

Update: A+