Wednesday June 2nd - Morning Briefing

Pronger... and Angel Hernandez goes ape shit

-Philadelphia has had trouble with discipline in the Cup Finals. Chicago can't get its first line going. Neither team has played very well, and Chicago find themselves up 2-0. So what's the biggest story? Naturally, Chris Pronger picking up a puck and upsetting Ben Eager.

Down Goes Brown, everybody's favourite, has the latest on the absurdity, chronicling other "jerk" things Chris Pronger has done, prior to him stealing game pucks from the Cup Finals. [Down Goes Brown]

-What's the deal with Steve Nash's legacy? Tim Micallef uses sound bits from Charles Barkley to convince the world that Nash is a surefire Hall of Famer the minute he retires: [The Score]

Now... my friends and I had a debate over a glass of wine/rum/beer tonight, how many more years does Nash have left in him? My completely unfounded guess is six, based on the rate he's improved over the years. With Goran Dragic developing into a capable backup point guard, Nash will only need to play 30 minutes to give the Suns a good chance.

-If you happened to catch the Blue Jays yesterday, you hit the jackpot. Toronto played great until the 9th, when Kevin Gregg went all Little League on Tampa's hitters and threw five walks to allow the Rays to erase a 2-run Toronto lead and take one of their own. This came after Carlos Peña was not granted a timeout at bat, struck out, and forced Joe Maddon to come out and yell at home plate umpire Angel Hernandez. Maddon was subsequently tossed, then went after Joe West for good measure.

The way Maddon acted was enough to make Joe West seem downright reasonable. He is the crew chief, but this is the same umpire who tossed Ozzie Guillen and Mark Buerhle for showing up to the ballpark last week. He is a major league umpire with his own publicist and country record, but Joe Maddon made him seem reasonable.

Either way, Gregg got tossed after Cito Gaston took him out of the game four batters too late, and the Jays came close to tieing the game in the bottom of the 9th, with Vernon Wells coming within a foot to the top of the wall to making it a 7-7 ball game. He settled for the RBI double, Jays drop a close, important one to Tampa.

Tomorrow is David Price (7-2) against Shawn Marcum (5-1). I advise you not to miss this one.

-Also starting tomorrow, Vancouver's Jeff Francis for Colorado against the Giants. More Canadians tonight, Justin Morneau homered, but the Twins lost 7-1 to Seattle. Joey Votto homered too for Cincinatti, but he also went 4-for-5 and his Reds beat the Cardinals 9-8. He also score three runs and took the lead in the National League batting race, two points ahead of Christian Guzman with .326, or .326 above the 'Aaron Hill Line.'

-CFL camps open tomorrow. Very excited for pigskin up here.

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That's pretty well it. If I missed something, like a Brian Tallet perfect game, I'll be sure to pay full lip service tomorrow in a post directing you to somebody else's work. Have a great hump day.