Blackhawks Need to Be Game for Game 4

Midweek musings: What the Miami Heat beating the visiting San Antonio Spurs 103-100 in overtime Tuesday (June 18) means is simple — other than there will be a decisive NBA Finals Game 7: The NHL will have to figure out a way for the Stanley Cup finals to come close to providing similar entertainment value. Presumably, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman is working on a way to one-up the NBA. Maybe a best-of-eight (OK, make it nine) between the Chicago Blackhawks and Boston Bruins.

Nic is a member of the Miami Heat dance team. Credit: Miami Heat

* It’s unclear whether Bettman has enough time before Game 4 Wednesday in Boston to see whether NBA ref Joey Crawford also can lace up a pair of skates. And for the uninitiated, that would be a reference to the ref who seems to turn up at games of importance that impact the league’s best interests. Conspiracy theorists, take note. Oh, wait. You already have — and did — before Game 6. The mathematical-computations department at elliottharris.com has confirmed with a fairly high degree of certainty that if the Hawks win Game 4 to tie the series 2-2, the Cup finals will go at least six games.

* Speaking of the NBA Finals, for all those LeBron James fans and/or haters out there in cyberspace, there’s only one more game left in his season. After which people — depending on their allegiance — will be happy to tell you or anyone else (especially if they’re using the asocial form of communication known as “social media”) how the Heat star compares to Michael Jordan.

* Speaking of the Cup finals, winger Marian Hossa, who missed the Hawks’ Game 3, is expected to be back for Game 4. Of course, he was expected to play in Game 3. With NHL coaches — Chicago’s Joel Quenneville is merely one of them — relying so much on secrecy, you have to wonder whether the next target of Edward Snowden (he’s the guy in the news about the U.S. government’s secret “spying” program) might be the NHL’s secretive efforts that use such subversive prhases as “upper-body injury” (which is Hossa’s state of disrepair), “lower-body injury,” etc.

* Speaking of hurting, there is Cubs first baseman Anthony Rizzo’s batting average: .241. For June he is hitting .157 with two doubles and three runs batted in (the RBI all in a game June 5. His last homer came on May 18. He sat out the Cubs’ 4-2 victory Tuesday at St. Louis after playing in the first 68.

* Speaking of a June swoon, Cubs right-hander Jeff Samardzija recorded his first June victory as a starter. He had been 0-8. Samardzija entered the game with a 2-8 record and 7.14 ERA for his June pitching performances.

* Speaking of playing in all the Cubs contests this season (well, we were for the short-attention-span readers), the only player to have done so is shortstop Starlin Castro, whose batting average isn’t even so-so. By going 0-for-4, his average dropped to .238. Time for a game off. Well, if manager Dale Sveum can figure out who to start in Castro’s place.

* Speaking of hitting, Paul Konerko went 4-for-4 as the White Sox lost 7-5 to the Twins in Minneapolis. It was the Sox’s 13th loss in its last 15 road games. Speaking of hitting the road, Konerko’s performance may raise his trade value, if the Sox decide to move the veteran first baseman/designated hitter. If nothing else, Konerko did raise his batting average to .248. Good luck finding another team tempted by that.

* Speking of tempting teams, the downside to the NBA season ending in Game 7 is the end of NBA dance-team performances (though we night find a reason to run some during the idle summer months).

For all the time that some of us spend on Twitter and/or Facebook, it occasionally pays off. No better example (from Tuesday at least) than for following broadcaster Andrew Siliciano, who tweeted about a couple of videos featuring NFL cheerleaders performing Taylor Swift’s “22” tune. Many thanks to him for providing the YouTube links:

Here is where we go for our daily dose of non-gratuitous video (thanks to the never-ending efforts of the editorial and video departments at elliottharris.com and their broad definition of “gratuitous”):

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