Night at the Garden and my "Thing with Foam Fingers"

Despite coming down with my "January Cold", Scott convinced me to attend a Boston Bruins/Carolina Hurricanes game with him Tuesday night. I am usually able to resist the words "Free Food", "Free Beer", or even "Luxury Box" but I am defenseless against the use of all six of these words at the same time.

The Bruins (or actually TD Banknorth Garden) opened up a Luxury Suite to various media outlets in town so that they could at least be made aware that hockey was still being played in Boston as well as many other cities in America.

The crowd in our suite was all media. I didn't ask, you could tell from the conversations people were having and the names being dropped like passes intended for Santana Moss. In fact the only hat trick I heard all night was Scott dropping the names of three Channel 5 on-air personalities in one sentence to the Media Relations Rep hosting us at the suite.

The Bruins lost 1-0 on a goal by Yakov Smirnoff and the great goalie play of Sven Bjork (okay I just made those names up). At the end the people at TD Banknorth Garden gave us parting schwag for attending including a gym bag, water bottle, Bruins dish towel, USB drive and a yellow Bruins foam finger...

I had to decline the foam finger, much to the surprise of Scott.

I have a sensory defensiveness to open-celled foam which is what most foam fingers and unpainted Nerf balls are made of.

If I were to touch one, whatever arm was touching it (likely the other one too) would instantly break into goosebumps. I'm not sure if the goosebumps would go away as I usually remove my hand from the object before finding out.

I have no other phobias that I know of and acquired this one late in my youth as I remember having many foam fingers as a kid.

Now you know a little more about me.

All-Star Games

I disagree somewhat with Paul on baseball's All-Star Game. Before that let me run down my opinions on each sports All-Star Game.

NFL Pro Bowl- By far the worst, half the named roster players sit out to the point that Trent Green and Steve McNair become "Pro Bowl Quarterbacks", there's no blitzing so the linebackers named to the game don't even get to show why they were named to the game in the first place. This absolutely should be replaced by a televised lavish banquet (like tonight's ESPY's) and the right to wear a gold patch on the shoulder of the best player (in the NFL) at each position.

NHL All-Star Game- So what if Alexander Ocherjlahjhsak from Tampa Bay had a Hat Trick. So did Oleg Jkrjewersac from Anaheim and Bret Hykcwzkcwzkckz from Edmonton. In fact the score was Who's He 12, Huh? 8.

NBA All-Star Game- An overly produced pickup game. Which takes place on what I call "Affirmative Action Day" after the Daytona 500. After Fox tries to find every black guy in Daytona, TNT shows pregame performances by Maroon 5, Foo Fighters, and Sugarland as both sports try to avoid being pigeonholed demographically.

MLB All-Star Game- I can see how Mets fans must hate the "This Time it Counts" clause, but even they have to admit this added to the excitement of last night's Bottom of the Ninth Inning. Of all the All-Star Games I've watched, last night felt the most like a regular season game. All the AL's runs were scored off pitchers on teams in Pennant contention as of the All-Star Break.

I know I'm in the minority in this but I like that every team must be represented in the game for a few reasons.

1) Feel good stories like Dmitri Young get to be told

2) Those that are still loyal Royals fans deserve the possibility of seeing a player on their team play in the All-Star Game even if it is Gil Meche. If a year came where three or four teams didn't have a player on the All-Star Game the game runs the risk of getting 5th place ratings in those markets and Fox would not get their moneys worth.

3) It also prevents a situation where three pitchers on one team need to be used in the game, rendering them useless the first three games of the second half.

I too have no idea why Tony LaRussa didn't pitch hit Albert Pujols for Aaron Rowand with the bases loaded. I think he may have forgotten Pujols was there and on his team that night. This might have been Tony LaRussa's first sign of age.