Friday, November 30, 2007

Couch Potato

Weekend Sports TV Preview
Today Friday
Tennis: Davis Cup Final USA Vs. Russia 4 P.M. on Versus
NBA: Celtics at Miami Heat 8 P.M on ESPN
Saturday
College Football: Army Vs. Navy Noon on CBS
Ironman Triathlon 4:30 P.M. on NBC ( my best show of the year)
Tennis: Davis Cup Final USA Vs. Russia 3:30 P.M. on Versus
Sunday
Davis Cup Final ( If Needed) 4 P.M. on Versus
Bowling 1 P.M. on ESPN
College Football : BCS selection Show 8 P.M. on FOX
Monday
NFL : New England at Baltimore 8:30 P.M. on ESPN
Enjoy and Sunday you may go Christmas Shopping
Monday or Tuesday I hope to have a weekend TV review.
Jamie Lazaroff

Thursday, November 29, 2007

column #3

Although, this is a national blog, I was born and bread in New England and still reside here. It is great times to be a sports fan in New England. The Red Sox are in first place and just pulled off a great deal. In basketball, The Celtics are back on the map.

First up the red sox just signed Eric Gagne from the Texas Rangers. What a pick up, I know that Gagne has been injured the last few years, but with Jonathan Papelbon and Gagne, the bullpen is all set. If the bats can get hot and the starting pitcher can get going, the Red Sox will be fine and win the American League East.

I have some questions about the Celtics deals to get Kevin Gannett and Ray Allen. To get KG the C’s had to give up most of their young players. Al Jefferson, Ryan Gomes, Gerald Green (the slam dunk champion this year) and Sebastian Telfair are all under 22 years old. To get Ray Allen on draft day they had to give up Delonte West who is under 22 and lead the team in assists last year. I would choose between KG or Allen because they still have all star Paul Pierce. My opinion is that two star players are better then three, because:
A. They have to divide playing time
They don’t have to give up most of their roster of young players.
C. It just makes more mathematical sense.
The Celtics still have Kendrick Perkins and drafted Glen Davis (Big Baby) from LSU. The immediate future is bright but how are all the pieces going to fit together will be the question?

I’m not a fan of fantasy football because I like rooting for a team (New England Patriots) and not individual players. It may enhance the football watching on Sunday for most people but it’s just not for me. Speaking of the Patriots, I can see another Super Bowl championship this year. Randy Moss will fit in nicely with his new team.

This week spotlight come for the Parolympics website. Paralympian Lee Pearson from Great Britain has added three more titles to his impressive career at the 2007 International Equestrian Federation (FEI) World Para Dressage Championships in Hartpury, Great Britain.Being born with arthrogryposis multiplex congenital, Lee Pearson made his competitive debut in 1998 and from there became one of the most successful riders in his class. At his first Paralympic Games in Sydney in 2000, he already won three gold medals and did so as well in Athens in 2004.Even though his horse Blue Circle Boy has retired before the 2007 FEI World Para Dressage Championships, he once again won every competition he competed in.Lee has been nominated several times for the Laures World Sport Award and also for the Eurosport Sport Star Award, which he won in 2004. In May 2007, he became the first chairman of the FEI Athletes Committee.
Career Highlights:
· Sydney 2000 Paralympic Games – Three gold medals
· ATHENS 2004 Paralympic Games – Three gold medals
· 2007 FEI World Para Dressage Championships – Three gold medals

That’s my take: I would like to hear yours

Jamie Lazaroff

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

column #2

Sports are strange in the summer some times it slow and some times there is a lot of news. This is one summer were there is a lot of news.

Finally some good news in sports. The baseball Hall of Fame inducted two of the greats of the last era. Tony Gwynn and Cal Ripken Jr played with the same teams through out their whole careers. Tony Gwynn won eight batting tittles with the San Diego Padres. My best Tony Gwynn moment was at the 1999 All-Star Game in Boston when Ted Williams came out and in the middle of all the All-Stars on the field there is Ted and Tony sharing a special moment and then Ted asks for Tony’s help to throw out the first pitch. I cried that night; I remember it like it was yesterday. My best Cal Ripken Jr. moment was the night that he broke Lou Gering’s consecutive games streak at 2131. Again I cried and remember it well. To end up at 2632 consecutive games with one team, the Baltimore Orioles is just amazing.

I’M a big soccer fan, so when David Beckham signed with Major League Soccer and the Los Angeles Galaxy, I was at first excited. The more MLS talked about him changing the fate of American Soccer the more I think it will not happen that way. David Beckham is still a great player, don’t get me wrong, but Americans like to play soccer and not watch it, one player will not change this. I don’t think Beckham should have played in his first game, an extabion. He has a knee injury and could have been injured more.

On a sad note, one of the great sportscasters of our generation passed a way this week, Bill Flemming. He reported on every thing from NASCAR to Barrel jumping for ABC’s Wide World of Sports. This reminded me how much I miss Wide World. I can remember one day watching Wide World and can remember what was on that day, the Grand National for England and the Baja 1000. Some kids idolieyes sports stars, my idol is Jim McKay and I wanted to be just like him. Those were the good old days.

I can understand what the PGA tour was thinking when they added the FedEx cup points completion. But I don’t think it is working, points system works if all the athletes play the same number of events. I do hope all the top 144 players play in the playoff and the tour can make this thing work better next year.

This week’s spotlight is on a father and son team from Massachusetts, Dick and Rick Hoyt. You see Rick was born in 1962 with the umbilical cord coiled around his neck and cut off oxygen to him brain. But in 1972 his first words, using a special computer, was “Go Bruins”. Rick was a sports fan, but he wanted to compete, and he did in 1977 in a five-mile benefit run for a paralyzed lacrosse player with his dad pushing him in his wheelchair. That night Rick told his dad that he just didn’t feel handicapped when we were competing. So the story go on and in 1981 they entered the Boston Marathon and finished in the top quarter of the field. After 4 years of marathons, Team Hoyt attempted their first triathlon, not just any triathlon but the Ironman in Hawaii. I saw the story on the TV coverage of the Ironman, let me just say I cried. Each time they competed it touched me the same way. What a great story of a fathers love for a son and of the true meaning of inclusion. Please go towww.teamhoyt.com and lean more about this unbelievable story. As Rick said: “The message of Team Hoyt is that everybody should be included in everyday life”. That is a message for everyone to live by.

That’s my take; I’d like to hear yours

Jamie Lazaroff

Jman200086@netscape.com


Some information about the Hoyt family come from “Team Hoyt: Racing towards Inclusion” by David Tereshchuk-www.teamhoyt.com/history

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Hello my name is Jamie Lazaroff and welcome to my first post. I’m a huge sports fan whose happen to have a disability. I like all sports and have strong opinion a about just about all of them. My column will not be about just people with disability in sports but about my opinion on the issue of the week.

Were do I start this week. We have the NBA referee betting scandal, we have Michael Vick in the NFL being indicted on federal dog fighting changes, we have the on going Barry Bonds on the brick of breaking the home run record and should Hank Aaron and the commissioner be there we he breaks it. On top of that you have the Tour de France and that doping scandal.

I like to start with Barry Bonds. He have not been indicted by the grand jury yet, if he breaks the record before he is indicted at lest the commissioner needs to be there because ever if you like Barry Bonds or not (and I do not) you have to respect him for breaking one of sports most hollowed records. In this country you are incite till prin gurry and as they see the jury is still out if he used steroids and all we have to goby is two books, one by a former teammate.

The referee betting scandal in the NBA is a black eye to a once proud league, but this does not surprise me. I can see how basketball could be fixed. Where have had game fixing scandal in college basketball for years, Boston College had a game fixing scandal just in the last few years. I have gone to a lot college, pro women and high school games college and pro women as well as high school and I can see how easy it could be to fix game. What does surprise me is that it to this long to get to the NBA, but with younger and younger people in your league both player and offices it was bound to happen.

Michael Vick is a sad story. I’m not an animal person at all but I do have an sfore side for dogs. I think the Atlanta Falcons and the NFL did the right thing by not allow Michael Vick from training with the team. At the point I do not think he should play football this season because his trail will probably going on doing the season and it would prove to be a distant for himself and the rest of the league.

I’m not every torching the Tour de France. It just have too may problems. I do not think cycling can be fixed. It is a hard sport and I do not think you can cycle three to four days in the high, high mounthers with out some thing in your body. Bodies are not build to take the phenisment of two to three weeks on a bike.

As I said at the start I would like to spotlight one athlete with a disability each week. This week I would like to spotlight Oscar Pistorius. Oscar is a double amputee athletics (track and Field) world record holder from South Africa. He his been in the news rectictly because he has a dream. He would like to run in the 400 meters in the Olympics next year in Beijing. You see Oscar is a double amputee. His running prosthetics are j-shaped carbon fiber blades. The world governing body thinks because his prosthetics is curved and tapering that it gives Oscar an unfair advantage. In Oscar’s first race against the best able bodies athletes Oscar was well off the pace in wet conditions. Oscar is co-operating with the IAAF on future research. I think Oscar can get better over time running with the best in the world. I do not know if his prosthetics gives him a unfair advantage. I will let you know the finding of the research in the fall.

That is my take, I like to hear yours.

Jamie Lazaroff
Jman200086@netscape.net