What Had Happened Was…

It’s time for another edition of What Had Happened Was. There were a lot of quality events to choose from this weekend. It’s a crazy time in sports because you have meaningful baseball in May, the NCAA Lacrosse tournament, the NHL and NBA Playoffs, and Football. That’s right football, it’s the most dominant sport in this city and even though it’s just a rookie camp it still rates when you talk about the most important events of the weekend. So here we go it’s time for the top three sports events of the weekend.

#3

The Los Angeles Lakers Game seven win over the Denver Nuggets comes in at #3. I’m a Lakers fan but the main reason for this checking in at #3 is that Steve Blake was the catalyst for the Lakers’ game seven win. Kobe Bryant is the superstar of the Lakers and everyone talks about Andrew Bynum and Pao Gasol upfront. Saturday night however belonged to Blake. Steve had an answer for every Nuggets run as he made one big three pointer after another. Blake finished the night 7-11 from the floor and 5-6 from three point land. The former Maryland point guard tossed in 19 points in 29 minutes. It is absolutely amazing that he is still going strong in the NBA. Blake not only was the catalyst for the game seven win he also made the game clinching shot in game four.  Maryland fans should be proud that Blake is still making an impact in the NBA

#2

You just knew the Orioles would check in somewhere in the top three. They were just short on their Mothers Day comeback or they would have been #1 again this week. They just missed out on their second weekend sweep of a division opponent so Friday night’s win checks in at #2. It was the Orioles seventh come from behind victory of the season when they trailed going into the seventh inning. That stat in itself shows the resiliency of this year’s team. The fact that guys like Steve Tolleson and Bill Hall are getting clutch hits says something too. Nick Johnson picked a great time to hit his first home run as an Oriole his seventh inning, two-run blast was the difference in the game.

http://baltimore.orioles.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=21339107

I have heard so many people talk about how closers are overrated in baseball. I laugh when I hear that. Does anyone feel pretty good right now when the O’s get to the eighth inning and Pedro Strop and Jim Johnson blow the opposition away? That’s a pretty good feeling and you can’t tell me that’s overrated. Kudos to Dana Eveland. He was really struggling on Friday night but somehow, someway battled through it and kept his team in the game. Eveland is just another call-up from Norfolk making an impact on this club. It’s still real early but the O’s are holding their own against the American League East and are going to make it through the brutal 15 game stretch against teams that won at least 90 games last year with a winning record (8-5 so far). BTW- Wieters is still untouchable Bulldog.