It's Sunday!

Welcome to Day Two of the weekend. Here's what's happening....

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Hockey Playoff Roundup ----

NHL:

Last night --

Western Conference Semifinals

San Jose 2, Detroit 1 (San Jose wins series 4-1)

Eastern Conference Semifinals

Pittsburgh 2, Montreal 1 (Pittsburgh leads series 3-1)

Tonight --

Eastern Conference

No games

Western Conference

Vancouver at Chicago 8:00pm EDT (Chicago leads series 3-1)

WHL:

WHL Championship Finals

Calgary wins series over Tri-City 4-1

OHL Championship Finals:

Windsor wins series over Barrie 4-0

(Note: Windsor, defending Memorial Cup Champions, open play at 2010 Mastercard Memorial Cup in Brandon, Manitoba against the host Brandon Wheat Kings on Friday, May 14th)

QMJHL Championship Finals:

Last night --

Moncton 5, Saint John 1 (Moncton leads series 3-2)

Tonight --

No games

USHL Clark Cup Championship Finals:

Last night --

Green Bay 5, Fargo 3 (Best-of-five series tied 2-2)

Tonight --

No games

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Ben Sheets fanned 8 over 6 1/3 innings and Andrew Bailey picked up his 6th save of the season Saturday, as the Oakland A's beat the Tampa Bay Rays 4-2.

The A's scored 2 in the first, 1 in the second and 1 in the seventh, to counter Tampa Bay's 2-run second. Daric Barton drove in 2 for Oakland, while Sean Bartlett and John Jaso drove in one apiece for the Rays. Wade Davis allowed 3 earned runs over 5 innings to take the loss, slipping to 3-2.

Tampa Bay, now 22-8, saw their A.L. East lead over the Yankees slip to 1/2 game. The Rays and A's meet again today at 4:07pm EDT on 620AM WDAE. Tampa Bay then moves on to Los Angeles for three games aginst the Angels starting Monday. The Rays return home Friday for three games with Seattle and two with Cleveland starting Friday, May 14th.

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Here's another reason we love the Episcopal Church so much.

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From http://www.nascar.com
DARLINGTON, S.C. -- Denny Hamlin became the first driver in 17 years to sweep Darlington Raceway, winning the Sprint Cup race Saturday night after late mistakes took Jeff Gordon and Jeff Burton out of contention.

Winner of the Nationwide Series race Friday night, Hamlin became the first driver since Mark Martin in 1993 to sweep the Darlington weekend. It was Hamlin's first victory at NASCAR's oldest superspeedway, and the Joe Gibbs Racing driver has never finished lower than 13th in his five career starts at the difficult track.

"We had a top-two car all day," Hamlin said. "Us, Jeff and the other Jeff were really strong."

Hamlin led 104 of the 367 laps, but knew he was going to have to contend with both Gordon and Burton over the closing laps. That changed during the final pit stops.

Gordon planned to pit early under green, but had to abort the effort at the last second to avoid a collision with the cars closing quickly behind him. When he finally entered pit road a lap later, a spin by David Reutimann brought out the last caution of the race and Gordon had to hustle back onto the track to avoid losing a lap.

"When we were ready to come in and pit a little early, I just didn't signal the guys behind me in time and I was going to get run over. My fault," Gordon said. "I don't like making mistakes like that."

All the leaders headed to pit road under yellow and Burton, who had traded the lead with Hamlin right before the caution, came out in third. Only NASCAR flagged him for running over his air hose, Burton had to return to the pits for a penalty, and lost a ton of track position.

Hamlin restarted in first with 20 laps to go, while Gordon was 12th and Burton 13th.

Hamlin got a terrific restart in his Toyota over teammate Kyle Busch, then sailed to his third victory of this season to tie four-time defending champion Jimmie Johnson for most wins this season in the Cup Series.

"You can't put this in words," Hamlin said. "Just an unbelievable night. Pit road did a phenomenal job getting me back on the track first, and that's what led to this win. We went back and forth all night and fine-tuned it to perfection at the end. Right there at the end, it was the best it's been all night. That's all you can ask for."

Jamie McMurray started from the pole and finished second in a Chevrolet, while Kurt Busch was third in a Dodge. Gordon came back from the late-race error to finish fourth, while Juan Montoya, McMurray's teammate, rounded out the top five.

Kevin Harvick held on to his lead in the Cup standings by finishing sixth. Harvick was up by 10 points over Johnson heading into Darlington, and extended it to an impressive 110 points after Johnson's miserable night ended in a crash -- his third DNF of the season -- and a 36th-place finish.

Kyle Busch was seventh, Burton rebounded to finish eighth, and Ryan Newman and Brian Vickers rounded out the top 10.

Nascar action shifts to Dover next weekend. The Nationwide Series races Saturday at 2:00pm EDT on ABC and the Sprint Cup Series races Sunday at 1:00pm EDT on FOX.

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I'm listening to FOX Sports Radio this morning. The host, who isn't listed on the network's website at all(In fact nothing other than the Monday-Friday lineup is listed on an amazingly weak website), talked going into a break about big news that would change the future of Chicago's historic Wrigley Field. (That news is right here.) He promised at about 20 after the hour, that he would talk about that story coming out of the upcoming commercials, then waited a full 30+ minutes before making a brief mention of the story he built up enough to make his listeners think it was earth-shaking.

Garsh, I hate it when people do that. I can't remember how many times for instance, that I've watched the Late Show with David Letterman, and he's said "We'll be right back with the Top Ten List," then he's not only not right back with it, but doesn't even have one that night at all.

Promoting something as "coming up next" when it isn't coming up next (or even at all) is just bush league. Want me to watch/listen to your show? Then deliver on what you promise without lying about it just to hook me in.

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Happy Mother's Day to my Kim from me, Jimmy, Snoopy and Smoke.

We love you Dear!



This is Kim, holding Jimmy for the first time ever, May 27th, 2008. She is a FANTASTIC Mommy! Just ask Jimmy!!!!





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Speaking of Mommys....













This is my Mommy, who passed away in November of 1969. Despite her being gone for over 40 years now, I still love her every bit as much as she did until the day she died, when I was two months shy of my 15th birthday.

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If you are fortunate enough to still have your Mother with you, call her and wish her a Happy Mother's Day. If she's gone from your life, like mine is, find some way to remember her.

See ya tomorrow.