Is This the Best Time of the Year?

The short answer: Yeah, probably.

Baseketbockey Seasoffs is rivaled only by vacations, my birthday week, and Hanukkah (particularly the night you get to eat potato pancakes).

People might argue October, when football is getting going and baseball's inching toward the fall classic, but I hate how during that time football trumps the coverage no matter the game.

So let me mute On The Fly, take off my foam finger, close my fantasy baseball windows and weigh in on some of the hot topics of the early/late goings ons.

Hooray for CA? All three Cali teams make the postseason. Funny how only Karen keeps it real in her hockey rooting interests, though. It'd kind of be fun to see them all advance and have 75% CA in round 2, but as the Kings and Sharks are matched up first round and no one really likes the Ducks, I hope to see that number reduced by two next round.

And who thought the Sabres would make it in after their horrid start? It was 3-9-2, if you have forgotten. I know I tried to. Yet even after the 'bres got going, people thought they'd fold. I got 40-1 odds on them to win the cup in Vegas less than two weeks ago.

There's nothing really to be said about the Canucks' season that hasn't already been said by Tommy, but I'll try: It's been magnificellently awesometastic. I think it's rad that the NHL gives out a trophy to the team that wins the most games. It is an accomplishment, one I feel should be revered. And though I'm someone who feels EPL scoring should be the way we pick champions in nearly every sport, remember that it's people who decide a Stanley Cup's Championship's (or any championship's) importance; it is not inherent.

Personally, I am tired of hearing all people hating on the Canucks for being good. Does it make people feel better about their own team when they say the Canucks'll fold in the playoffs?

Mike Babcock, head coach/pompous asshole of the Red Wings called out Luongo and the Canucks live on HNiC as not having what it takes to win it all. Really, Mike, then why did you replace Brodeur with Luongo while heading up Team Canada in the Olympics?

This guy even talked crap on the Hawks today after his team edged Chicago 4-3, saying that he wasn't surprised how they finished. Doesn't it feel like this is a guy who when the tables are turned would blame losing on some other sort of made up excuse? Real class act, Mike.

I know Tommy and J don't agree on much when it comes to hockey, but you have to both hate this jerk, am I right? He just called out both of your teams for being soft. Personally, I feel bad for not hating him more and sooner.

There was a close call at the very end of this hockey season, but it might not be the one you're thinking of. We almost, almost, had teams with negative goal differentials supplant from the playoffs teams with stellar ones. Okay, so that probably is kind of what you were thinking about.

I know I harp on this a lot, but how many times do I have to talk about how evident of prowess goal differential is? First, the 'Canes (-3) were a game away from knocking out the Rangers (+35). Then today, the Stars (-6) came up just short of the Blackhawks (+33) for the 8th seed.

No matter your feelings on the teams, you have to feel that justice was done. I do, anyway. As the regular season has now come to an end, I am happy to report that all 16 playoff teams have a positive GD.

Condolences (eh, kinda) to the Flames for having to watch a +5 Phoenix team and a +4 Anaheim (who's the gosh darn 4th seed) play extra hockey while they sit at home with a +13. Not the biggest injustice as they have three fewer Reg/OT wins as the nearest playoff team (as well as their Goals Against being higher than all playoff clubs but two [Tampa Bay and Babcock's own Detroit] and being winners of 9 shootouts), but it cannot feel good.

St Louis also finished with a positive GD (+6), but they were the only other ones in the plus. The East was split right down the middle, with positive teams in, all negatives out. Ah, I like it when things make sense.

But what I don't like in the NHL, is their tiebreaker rules. If the Stars would have won in regulation or overtime today, they would have been in. This would have frustrated me immensely (though probably not more than J).

The first tiebreaker when teams are tied in points is games played. Since both played a full 82, it would have then gone to non-shootout wins. As the teams would have been tied in that category as well, the last tiebreaker is heads-up play, where the Stars held the advantage. Had they been tied, though, then it would have gone to Goal Differential.

I think heads-up play as a tiebreaker is a joke. The teams are not going to play each other in the playoffs. Also, bad teams routinely find ways of beating superior teams. This parity makes a season enjoyable, or at least that's the league's theory.

And if you have to go with heads-up play, maybe you should compare records against the team going to be played in the playoffs, not each other. That way you get a better match-up in the first round. Yeah, I know it's only "on paper," but that's what you go to when teams are knotted up.

Goal Differential being the fourth tie-breaker is just ridiculous. And if you don't think it should be at least number two (I guess I see the games played argument, but not so much the ROW), at least acknowledge that a stat that takes into account a teams whole body of work (82 games) should be more important than a stat that takes into account, in this case, only four.

I don't know who deserved last night's Angels/Blue Jays game less. Torii Hunter continues to surprise me at how silly he is on base (does he get any flack for this?) and that whole inning was the base-running equivalent of an Aubrey Huff outfield play.

I did go to Opening Night and today's Weaver masterpiece and I have to say that I am very worried about Vernon Wells. He looks very, very bad. Yeah, I know, the season is young, small sample size and the rest. I'm just saying I was hoping for a middle of the lineup that could crush, and I'm worried.

I have to make it official and go on record as saying I am going to be a fierce Royals Hater once that deal happens. I mean, I won't know who to hate more: casual, unfaithful Lakers fans, or the (same?) casual, unfaithful Royals fans.

I do hope that the Lakers dry up after Kobe, that would be funny. Then again, the fans that leave them will probably fall right into Blake Griffin's lap, and then I won't be so amused. I like not having to climb over anyone to go get my Pretzel with a minute left in the second. Or the Lakers will just steal Blake and it will be back to business as usual as a Clippers fan.

If I hear another person complain about Dodger Stadium, I'm going to pummel them to death. Uh...I mean...sorry. It's hard to contain sometimes.

But I am getting tired of the talk. With some of the comments I've heard about me, nameless Dodger fan, it's as if Philly battery throwers are saints. But more so, I am not a fan of arguments that treat tons of people as if they're all outliers.

Fans heckle one another anywhere you go. Fans (both Blue Jay and Dodger) got heckled on my way out of the stadium today. Not all fans beat people senseless. I've been to tens of Dodger games, many of them Dodger-Giant contests, and nearly all of the heckling I've seen at these games is of the same variety I see everywhere else.

I won't go into my argument about how I find most of what people are saying about Dodger fans as racist, but I'm also definitely not going to victim blame the Giants fan. I chalk up this incident to there being a small number of crazies everywhere you go, and sometimes, it goes unchecked. If anything, McCourt is to blame for his cuts in the security department of the Dodger organization.

Speaking of racism are there any black umpires in the MLB? I know Chuck Meriwether retired. I think Adrian Johnson might be hanging around somewhere, but is he it? That's pretty bad.

The second thing I should probably throw out there is that I am pretty sure that this is the least positive I feel about a Dodger team's chances of the postseason in a long, long time. I don't know if it's because our offense is so lacking, or bullpen so questionable, or because Colorado seems so good.

That being said, even though I am not sure about postseason, it hasn't hampered my excitement for baseball season. If there's a lot to question, there's more to like. Having two young mashers in a lineup is something many other teams envy.

And one of those mashers, Mr. Matthew Kemp, is primed for a breakout year. I'm not really going to get into the specifics, other sites have chronicled Davy Lopes influence, Matt's intensive offseason training, his desire to make good on last year, even his breakup with Rihanna (because she had to be the reason he sucked, right? Sheesh.).

I just feel it in my bones that he's going to, if nothing else, make me happy watching Dodger games. So is Clayton Kershaw. Dave Cameron on FanGraphs called opening day's dominance of the Giants Clayton's "coming-out party."

And while he was not saying that my wait for an openly gay athlete was over, he was nothing but positive about Kershiser. And when that comes from one of the most respected sports bloggers, it's something to be excited about.

But the on the field action is what's really to be excited about. I went down to San Diego Wednesday and watched Lincecum strike out 13 Padres. As if it was a challenge, Jered Weaver just sat down 15 Blue Jays in front of me.

And it should be the second (fourth if you count preseason) of many Angels games I'll have the privilege of attending. Let's hope they're all Haren/Weaver starts. Or maybe I should just hope that Kazmir never comes off the DL.

Then again, Ervin pitched well on opening night, too. He can definitely bring it. Side note: do people harp on him looking like he doesn't care similar to how they did with GA? Just wondering.

I don't envy J or Tommy over the next week. They've turned this Hawk/Nuck rivalry into something palpable. I don't know if I want them to watch the games together or not.

Meanwhile, I'll be watching every Sabre game clutching my $10 Mandalay Bay ticket in two hands, hoping for 16 more victories, just like every other fan.