A bit of news from the horse racing world today.  Yes, we really do cover it all at AA.  Tom Durkin, who has called every Triple Crown race for the last decade on network television, will not be announcing any Triple Crown races for NBC this year or in the near future.  He wasn't fired, or phased out of the broadcast.  No, Durkin left on his own accord... because of the stress associated with broadcasting the races.  From Daily Racing Form...

“It’s always been stressful,” said Durkin, who was prescribed Inderal, a beta blocker, to deal with the anxiety.

Looking to alleviate that stress from his life, Durkin will no longer be the voice of the Triple Crown, deciding not to seek a renewal of his contract with NBC Sports, with whom he has been affiliated for 27 years. Durkin, who has called the last 30 Triple Crown races on network television, will continue to work as the announcer at the New York Racing Association’s three tracks – Aqueduct, Belmont, and Saratoga. Durkin is under contract with NYRA through the fall of 2015.

Who knew that announcing horse races could be so stressful?  It's not one of those things that easily comes to mind, but I can imagine that having an entire national television broadcasting career come down to a few minutes each year would be very stressful.  It's unfortunate because I always enjoyed Durkin's calls.  He was especially fantastic at the Belmont when so many horses like Real Quiet or Smarty Jones fell just short of the Triple Crown.  The following video though may be the best horse racing call of all-time, and it's from Tom Durkin..



By the way, the rumored name to replace Durkin according to DRF is Larry Collmus from Monmouth Park.  It's ok if that name doesn't sound familiar, but I guarantee you've heard him announce a race before...



Durkin steps down as Triple Crown announcer, citing stress - Daily Racing Form 

Seen here showcasing his uncanny ability to bring tears to the eyes of overweight beer guzzlers like myself who will never enter a stadium without a ticket, Michael Irvin delivered another rousing pre-game speech to close out the Hurricanes' 2011 spring training. 

Having never moved beyond the high school level myself, I can only imagine the rigors of the spring session. Also, when I remember that it's 90 degrees and about 600% humidity, I throw up a little bit in my mouth. But that's what it takes to wear the U, ladies and gentlemen. Plain and simple. It's a process. And if that process doesn't lead to winning more than 7 games, there will be blood in the streets of South Florida until Michael Irvin is named head coach. 

What do you think it costs to hire Mike as a personal life coach? Whatever it is, I'm sure I could make it if I had this guy barking at me. I'd be winning blogging championships left and right like you wouldn't believe, just killing the Internet on every level. ON EVERY LEVEL.

Follow Mike on Twitter @mickeyvee and read him on other topics at Wannabe Genius.

I like to think of myself as a fan of world sports.  In watching a lot of sports from around the world, I'm often drawn down under to Aussie Rules football and rugby.  One of the great things about watching these sports is the commentary and comparing it to watching American sports.  The Aussie commentators are especially good in the big moments.  You can look at a great Aussie rules highlights here or here or the greatest rugby match of all-time here for some examples.  Well, one world sport I can say I've never seen is the NBL in Australia.  However, we received a Twitter tip from @bearsfanau08 to a must-see clip from down under.  In this clip you'll see the Cairns Taipans and New Zealand Breakers in Game 2 of the best of three Grand Final.

After doing some intrepid internet research, I can confidently say that the play by play man you'll hear below is not an Australian... but actually an American!  Steve Carfino, who played collegiately at Iowa, played professionally in the late 80s and early 90s in the NBL and is in the league's Hall of Fame.  He then stayed in Australia after his playing days and became the top media personality associated with the game in Australia.  Needless to say, perhaps some of the Aussie excitement has rubbed off on him.  Enjoy! 



Even with the slight voice crack (ok, major voice crack), I still love the call and even a little Aussie Bill Raftery from one of the analysts with a "nothing but cotton."  By the way, our crack research department has also revelaed that Taipans hero Ron Dorsey played collegiately at McNeese State and averaged 8.5 PPG in the 2004-05 season!  And, in case you were wondering, Cairns is a town in North Queensland and a Taipan is a venomous Australian snake!  Where else but AA can you find out so much cool information about Aussie basketball?  Cairns won Game 2 in double overtime to force a deciding Game 3 Friday night... Lord only knows when that actually is in the Eastern time zone!

Thanks to @bearsfanau08 for the clip! 

For those that don't know, "Player X" is a regular article written in ESPN The Magazine that has an anonymous athlete or coach write some behind the scenes stuff that fans might find interesting. Sometimes these articles provide some interesting insight into what it's like being in their situation, and sometimes they write about the difficulties of twitter. Almost all the time, you can expect the article to be just about as tame as possible, but that would not be the case in the most recent issue of ESPN The Magazine.  This time Player X decided to take aim at Kevin Garnett.  In the article, he bluntly calls Garnett "a punk and a coward."

You'd never confuse me for someone who regularly sympathizes with Garnett. I mean, his idea of trash talk is saying guys that have alopecia look like "cancer patients"...err, I mean, that they "are cancerous to the their team and the league." (Who knew that his 2nd bit of made up trash talk would be so accurate?) I've honestly always thought of Garnett's on the court persona as a combination of a cliche 80's movie antagonist and the Ultimate Warrior. But after reading this article, I really feel that ESPN The Magazine did Garnett dirty by printing this. Mark Jackson definitely thought this as well and spoke about it during a dull moment in a recent Knicks/Celtics Playoff game. He brought up the obvious hypocrisy of calling someone a coward in print under the name, "Player X." What also makes this interesting is the fact that Jackson and to some extent Van Gundy both openly questioned ESPN, their bosses.

Check out the video below via Sportsgrid.

On Friday Josh Elliott said goodbye to his hosting duties for the live block of morning SportsCenter from 9AM-12PM.  There were many skeptics when ESPN first placed Hannah Storm with the former SI writer to host what would become the core of ESPN's daytime programming.  I for one was nervous about what to expect without Stan Verrett and Neil Everett showing the same highlights throughout the morning, over, and over, and over, and over again.  After all, Elliott was a newcomer to ESPN who had barely made an impact as a bit player on Around the Horn and a myriad of other appearances on the network.  

But, over the last few years, Elliott has shown his worth with his performance as an anchor on ESPN's flagship show.  In a world of bombastic personalties at ESPN who so often try to be larger than life, Elliott hit the mark with his mix of self-awareness, perspective, and humor.  So, it was no surprise to hear the news that Elliott would move up to the big leagues to be a part of ABC's Good Morning America.  His ESPN swan song was complete with a heartfelt sendoff from partner Hannah Storm and his own emotional thank yous to those who made it possible.

You might expect us to make fun of Mr. Elliott for his tearful goodbye (part of me expected canned awards show music to play him off at the end).  But no, we sincerely commend Josh for showing the heartfelt appreciation he had for those who helped him make the most of his opportunity at ESPN.  In fact, Josh has long been a friend of AA dating back to the first incarnation of the site,  being kind enough to do a live chat with Brian Powell back in 2008 at the dawn of the live morning SportsCenter.  So, we wish the best to Josh in his future endeavors at GMA.  

Heck, we'll even extend Josh a standing invite to come back to AA again so that he can chat with AA Version 2.0!  What with the mundane, monotonous world of the network morning shows, we know Josh will want to keep in touch with the sports blogosphere that he has consistently shown appreciation and respect for in his time at the worldwide leader.  At least, Josh, we can promise you it won't be as excruciatingly awkward as your last interview with a prominent sports blog.

[H/T SportsGrid]

The last time we heard John Wiedeman, he and every other broadcaster of Game 6 in the 2010 Stanley Cup Finals was thoroughly confused by Patrick Kane's Cup winning goal.  Thankfully for Wiedeman and everyone else listening and watching, Ben Smith's Game 6 OT winner against the Canucks was much more clear.  Thanks to our pal Jimmy Traina of SI's Hot Clicks, we have audio of Wiedeman's fantastic call of the goal and his excitement as the 'Hawks come from 3-0 down to force a Game 7 back in Vancouver.  Video below of the goal as well if you'd like to see it visually (with CBC's Jim Hughton on the call).

WGN Audio...


CBC Video...


I'm pretty sure Roberto Luongo hears this in his nightmares.

[Monday AM Hot Clicks]

The Hornets beat the Lakers last night 93-88 to level their series at two games a piece.  Chris Paul was the star of the show once again notching a triple double - 27 points, 15 assists, 13 rebounds.  Paul's performance got even better after the game with this classic quote in his postgame interview with Cheryl Miller.  From Black Sports Online...



[Black Sports Online & BlazersEdge]

Monday April 25

Chicago White Sox @ New York Yankees (ESPN 7PM) Sean McDonough, Rick Sutcliffe, Aaron Boone

Tuesday April 26

Chicago White Sox @ New York Yankees (MLBN 7PM) Local Broadcast [Alternate Game: Boston @ Baltimore]
Atlanta Braves @ San Diego Padres (MLBN 10PM) Local Broadcast [Alternate Game: Oakland @ Los Angeles Angels]

Wednesday April 27

Los Angeles Dodgers @ Florida Marlins (MLBN Noon) Local Broadcast [Alternate Game: Cincinnati at Milwaukee]
Oakland Athletics @ Los Angeles Angels (ESPN 7PM) Dave O'Brien, Nomar Garciapara

Thursday April 28

Toronto Blue Jays @ Texas Rangers (MLBN 2PM) Local Broadcast [Alternate Game: Seattle @ Detroit]
Chicago White Sox @ New York Yankees (MLBN 7PM) Bob Costas, Jim Kaat [Alternate Game: Boston @ Baltimore]

Friday April 29

St. Louis Cardinals @ Atlanta Braves (MLBN 7:30) Local Broadcast [Alternate Game: New York Mets @ Philadelphia]

Saturday April 30

New York Mets @ Philadelphia Phillies (FOX 1PM) Matt Vasgersian, Tim McCarver
St. Louis Cardinals @ Atlanta Braves (FOX 1PM) Kenny Albert, Mark Grace
Los Angeles Angels @ Tampa Bay Rays (FOX 1PM) Josh Lewin, Eric Karros

Sunday May 1

Toronto Blue Jays @ New York Yankees (TBS 1PM) Brian Anderson, Ron Darling, David Wells
New York Mets @ Philadelphia Phillies (ESPN 8PM) Dan Shulman, Orel Hershiser, Bobby Valentine

H/T Sammy! [photo via Chicago Tribune]

Dave Strader is one of the top hockey play by play men in the country and has been a welcome addition to the NHL coverage on Versus.  He was great for the most part in last night's OT thriller between the Boston Bruins and Montreal Canadiens.  However, Strader wasn't at his best after Nathan Horton scored the game-winner for Boston in the second overtime period.  Strader's call of the goal was fine, but it was afterwards where he may have slapped his own forehead.  Check out the video below from Huffington Post...



"And the Canadiens now lead it 3 games to 2."  

D'Oh!  Now, Huff Post probably goes too far calling it a HUGE embarrassment and doesn't even list Strader as the pbp guy in the article.  Is it embarrassing and a boneheaded move?  Yes.  But did 99.9% of people watching know Strader meant to say "Bruins" instead of Canadiens?  Probably.  It would be a much worse error if Strader's actual call of the goal was for the wrong team, but a simple misspeak afterwards doesn't bother me as much.  It's not like he screamed, LINE DRIVE... BASE HIT.... caught, out there!  Now that would just be silly.

[H/T Huffington Post]
 

The NBA Playoffs had one of the greatest comebacks of all time tonight as the Trail Blazers stunned the Mavericks by erasing an 18-point 4th quarter deficit to win 84-82. This was almost completely because of the often broken Brandon Roy's superhuman 4th quarter performance. He put up 18 alone in the 4th, highlighted by this insanely clutch 4-point play with just over a minute to go to tie it up. With such heroics, this would be the time for a hometown announcer to deservedly lose his shit...and KXTG's Brian Wheeler did just that.

For the sake of comparison, here's Wheeler calling an insane Roy buzzer-beater winner from a couple years ago.

Also, here's the audio of Wheeler calling the final hectic seconds of the win from Iamatrailblazersfan.com