The Dallas Sports Blog

     Finally!! We get to see our Texas Rangers back in action! And what great action it’s been so far! Exciting new pitchers – both starting and relief – sell-out home attendance, and an 8-1 road trip to start the season!

This does not look like a group that plans to rest on their past successes – instead, they are playing like they still have something to accomplish. They do, and they should play that way. I’m really looking forward to this baseball season, and to baseball in Dallas in October again. I know there’s 162 games to play first, but we’re off to a great start! The Boys of Summer have become The Boys of Spring, Summer and Fall around here – and it’s fan-tastic!

Well, despite their lackluster performances, late-game chokes, diva dilemmas, and generally-approaching old age, your Dallas Mavericks are in the playoffs. So now what?

I hope none of you are really expecting a long run. The drive is just not there. Winning the rings last year did not automatically bestow “greatness” on this team – and too often the play on the court showed us that the players never understood that.

I think I’ll start watching the OKC Thunder.

I’ve hesitated to write about the Mavs this season, because I don’t know what to say.  As soon as I think they’re sloppy, out-of-sync and lazy, they show me why they won the championship last year. And then, whenever I think they’re finally getting it together, they go back to being sloppy, lazy and out-of-sync.

According to the dictionary, there is a word for a state characterized by the coexistence of contradictory or incompatible elements. The word is schizophrenia. And while we often call our moody friends “schizo,” or use the term to describe a particularly annoying pet, I think that in the case of our Dallas Mavericks, the term is actually appropriate. We never know which group will take the court. Will it be the well-oiled machine that combines the best defense with the lights-out shooting of world champions, or will it be the lackadaisical group that shuffles across the 10-second line, stands around on the perimeter and belly-aches about the officiating?

I know which personality I would like to see more of. Perhaps some couch-time for the key players would help – but if not, then perhaps they should have some bench time instead.

Well, at least we don’t have to worry about the Cowboys any more. That was a pathetic excuse for an “important” game – they didn’t bother to bring their “A” game, and it showed. It’s almost as if the entire team decided that, since Tony Rome was injured, they didn’t have a chance to win anyway, so why bother to try.

We deserve better. The game deserves better. Heck, even Jerry Jones deserves better, and he’s the one catching all of the flack in the sports media. We can all grouse about his General Management, about how he tries to be an “administrative coach” when he appears on the sidelines (if I owned an NFL team, I’be be on the sidelines too – how about you?),  and about how he always tries to attract the “superstar” players rather than getting a good offensive line but, in the end, he doesn’t play the game on the field. The players do – or don’t, as the case may be.

We deserve better, and I’ll continue to hope for next year. I guess that’s what makes us Cowboys fans. 

Richard Bachman showed up to play on Saturday night, and thankfully, so did the rest of the team. Bachman stopped 26 of 27 shots on goal, and gave your Dallas Stars a much-needed road victory against a divisional opponent.

A college drop-out (the goalie coach left), Bachman has used every opportunity to hone is skills with the AHL Texas Stars. At 5′ 10″, he is the smallest member of the Stars’ pro roster, but that doesn’t seem to worry him. He knows that his skills in the net are ultimately more important than his size in the net. Known as a patient competitor, he gave this team just that, calmly defending against a determined Kings attack.

Maybe we should try to keep him here in Dallas. Don’t get me wrong – we’re all eagerly awaiting the return of Kari Lehtonen. But we’ll need him in top form in a few months, too, and Andrew Raycroft always feels like a question mark in goal. Just saying… maybe a great rookie option off the bench would be nice, too.

I had to think about this one for a day or so. Icing the kicker has always seemed like such a weanie coaching decision, but maybe I was wrong. It’s beginning to look like sound defensive strategy.

Of course… that is only against the Cowboys, and in December, with their playoff future on the line. Maybe just showing up to play the game is enough. While the pundits have been analyzing the Cowboys’ schedule, it looks like they forgot to pencil in a win for all of their opponents in December. I know that we have a significant portion of our team on the “questionable” list due to injuries, but – ’tis the season. So does every other team in the NFL, so that’s not an excuse. It’s not hamstrings, or shoulders, or necks, or wrists that are causing the problem – it’s hearts. As in, “the Heart to Win.”

Do you have a real Cowboys Baby?

And there’s not a spot on the IR for that. They need to grow up, and do their jobs. The only “baby Cowboys” should be wearing a bib, not the sacrosanct blue and silver of Roger Staubach, Emmett Smith and Drew Pearson.

The Dallas Cowboys managed to eke out another win this Thursday – just in case your tryptophan-induced coma kept you from watching. Or just in case you didn’t bother to watch, assuming that the Boys wouldn’t have a problem with the fish from Miami.In either case, it was a game that seemed designed to put you to sleep, regardless of what you ate for lunch. Trading field goals, stupid penalties, Tony’s two picks, counting on rookies Murray and Bailey – in other words, another usual Cowboys’ game.

But another one goes into the win column, nonetheless. Now, the only question is: How will December go this year? The defensive plan seems to be coming along nicely (thank you, Rob Ryan), our kicking game is excellent, the wide receiver line-up should stand up to the tests of playoff hopes, but then there’s Tony. Is he really a championship-level quarterback, or is he another Danny White? We’re about to find out.

After five miserable losses, your Dallas Stars finally remembered how to play the game! The 4-1 win against Edmonton should be a good start for this week. The game plan may have been simple, but that is what got them to the top the NHL. They only gave up 18 shots on goal, and took 34 shots on Nikolai Khabibulin, plus the one into an empty net at the end of the game. I think it’s time for a shot or two in their honor!

Maybe it’s finally having an owner who actually knows and cares about the game, maybe it’s Glen Gulutzan’s simplified approach to the game, and maybe it’s just that the thought of having a six-game losing streak for the first time in 16 years was too much to live with – whatever it took, we are happy to be back in the win column again!

On Sunday evening, with the passing of Andy Rooney, I’m feeling the need for a stream-of-consciousness rant.

What’s with the NHL scheduling gurus, anyway? We start the season, get on a great roll, then take a week off while the rest of the league hones their skills. Well, I guess we didn’t need to worry about injuries, but we obviously needed to worry about Kari.  Dallas sports fans had to sit around for a week after the debacle in St. Louis with nothing on TV. I know that hockey ranks at the bottom of the Nielsen ratings for sports viewing, but that doesn’t mean I’d rather watch “Monk” reruns – although “Criminal Minds” reruns aren’t bad. At least we looked good after the first period, in spite of the hat trick by Matt Duchene. Winning on Sunday against the Hurricane was just proof that these Dallas Stars are for real.

Which brings me to the NBA – since the absence of sports viewing this past week was really their fault. After all, we’d usually have several basketball games to watch while we wait for another hockey game, but not this season. Does anyone smell a conspiracy here? The Mavericks finally win their first championship, and we don’t get a victory lap around the league during the next season? It’s like “they” want to erase all evidence that the little team with the big-mouthed owner ever won anything. I just hope Mark Cuban is investing all of that money he usually spend in fines to the league wisely – an idle sports franchise makes no money for anyone.

Speaking of idle, the Cowboys were anything but idle this past week – especially the much-maligned offensive line. Sunday’s game was a great show of just what a determined offense can accomplish if given the time and space to succeed. DeMarco Murray single-handedly gave this team a rushing game against the Seattle defense, with 22 carries totaling 139 yards, and adding 4 passes totaling 47 yards. While Miles Austin’s hamstring re-injury is an issue for the next few games, we finally got to see Laurent Robinson make a touchdown catch. It might be worth it to keep him ahead of Ogletree in the depth chart – at least he knew his route and hung on to the ball.

Tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick……