OT Loss to Blues Hits Hawks, Seabrook Hard

Sunday smorgasbord: For those Chicago Blackhawks fans bemoaning their beloved team’s second overtime loss in as many first-round playoff games against the St. Louis Blues, it be is not true the defending Stanley Cup champion Hawks cannot beat anybody this postseason. They beat themselves Saturday in St. Louis, thanks in no small part to defenseman Brent Seabrook. His hit on Blues forward David Backes brought a five-minute major and game misconduct penalty. The Blues scored with 6.4 seconds left in regulation and won 4-3 in overtime. As hard as Seabrook’s hit was on the Blues captain, it hit the Hawks even harder.

Game 3 of the Blues-Hawks series may not have Brent Seabrook, but it will have the Hawks Ice Crew. Pictured is Julianna.

* Seabrook faces likely further punitive measures. The NHL is expected to rule Sunday with the expectation from those who know far more about hockey than your humble correspondent does (but, hey, who doesn’t?) that Seabrook will be suspended for a game or two. Any outraged Hawks fans might want to ask themselves how they would feel if an opponent had done what Seabrook did to a Hawks player.

* Speaking of Seabrook’s action, it was what Hawks supporters might call ill-advised. And other folks might simply call stupid.

* Speaking of stupid, that is precisely what Major League Baseball’s television blackout rule is. Any time commissioner Bud Selig wants to think about increasing the viewing audience rather than be primarily concerned about the feelings of his broadcast partners, he should feel free to do something about the absurdity of the blackouts. Especially when it works something like this: Let’s say you are in southwest Michigan (presumably deemed Detroit Tigers territory) and you have access to Comcast SportsNet Chicago and want to watch the ballgame on that cable channel. Not so fast. Not if there is a conflict with a variety of TV broadcast partners. That may make sense to some people some of the time. But at 2 a.m. Sunday when CSN is showing a replay of a Cubs-Reds game from Saturday and the game still is blacked out, that is downright dumb.

* Second baseman Darwin Barney hit a two-run home run in the Chicago Cubs’ 8-4 victory over the Cincinnati Reds at Wrigley Field. It was his first extra-base hit of the season (he is 4-for-29 for a .138 batting average) and his first runs batted in of the season. On the bright (?) side for Cubs loyalists, he is only one homer behind first baseman Anthony Rizzo, who left the game in the eighth inning because of back spasms. In case Cubs fans were too excited about the team ending a five-game losing streak.

* White Sox shortstop Alexei Ramirez was 0-for-4 in a 6-3 loss to the Texas Rangers. Meaning his 17-game hitting streak is over. Meaning Sox fans will have to fall back on how much better their team is doing than the Cubs are to feel good.

* Ex-Sox of the day: Toronto left-hander Mark Buehrle (4-0) allowed four hits in seven innings as the Blue Jays defeated the host Cleveland Indians 5-0. Buehrle lowered his earned-run average to 0.64.

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