ALL IN A DAY OF SPORTS

What an incredible day of sports it was on Saturday, 5/2/09. My afternoon began with the Penguins-Capitals in their game 1 match up of the Eastern Conference semi-finals. This game had plenty of skill and speed. Two of the biggest stars in the sport, Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin, each had goals and dished out big hits but the play of this game was when Caps goalie, Simeon Varlamov, made an unbelievable stick save on Crosby that stopped what looked to be an easy goal on a wide open net. The Caps win a hard fought game, 3-2.

Next up, the Phillies and Mets collided in the second game of their weekend series. The Phils almost let this game slip away after leading this game 4-2 through 5. Jamie Moyer gave up back to back homers to Daniel Murphy and Ramon Castro, then a triple to Alex Cora before getting the hook. Scott Eyre came in and gave up a base hit to Luis Castillo that allowed Cora to score and put the Mets on top. The Phils then tied the game in the bottom of the inning on a Raul Ibanez home run. GM Ruben Amaro's off-season acquisition has more than filled in for the loss of Pat Burrell. Philly went on to win this one 6-5 in the 10th as Shane Victorino drew a bases loaded walk scoring Pedro Feliz.

Next up for me was the 135th running of the Kentucky Derby where 51-1 long shot, Mine That Bird, came from the back of the pack at the midway point to stun the world going away. Excitable jockey, Calvin Borel kept his horse along the rail and Mine That Bird responded down the stretch, exploding through a sliver of an opening and charging to the finish. A $9500 horse upends the horse racing world. Unreal.

Next up Bulls-Celtics, game 7. What an incredibly even series this turned out to be as the Bulls pushed the Celts to the brink all series long. In the end, Boston's Kendrick Perkins and Glen "Big Baby" Davis outplayed the big men of the Bulls and Eddie House had a perfect shooting day as the Celts avoided going to any more OT's (7 in this series) against Chicago with a 109-99 win to take the series. The intensity of this series as well as all of the OT's will likely take a toll on Boston. We'll see.

Last up, Ricky Hatton and Manny Pacquiao squared off for the Junior Welterweight title. Hatton's British fans could be heard chanting "There's only one Ricky Hatton" but they never got to the "Walking in a Hatton wonderland" part of the song after the Pacman sent Hatton reeling to the canvas a couple times in the first round before landing a left hand that crashed into the jaw of Hatton and just about put him to sleep. Hatton looked like he was in "wonderland" for a bit as he was on the canvas for quite awhile before recovering.

Helluva sports day, gentlemen! I'll have to get to the yard work today since I was way too 'busy' yesterday.