Morning Line Archives: June 18-24

JUNE 18-24

Last week the sports world crowned a champion, as the Los Angeles Kings won the Stanley Cup and this week could see the crowning of another as three games in the NBA Finals loom. With Miami up 2-1 on Oklahoma City, the Heat could close it with home wins on Tuesday and Thursday. If not, the series goes back to OkC on Sunday night for Game 6 and then a potential Game 7 looms next Tuesday. TheSportsNotebook will continue its game-by-game coverage of the Finals. And on Thursday morning we’ll have a hockey wrap-up piece after the NHL presents its individual awards on Wednesday night in Las Vegas (note to the NFL & NBA—follow hockey’s lead and wait until after the regular season to announce the MVP. And a note to both leagues plus MLB—do it with a full-scale presentation show. The NHL might not be the most popular league, but this is something they’ve got right).

Speaking of baseball, TheSportsNotebook continues its All-Star positional reports each day from Monday thru Friday as we continue to march The Road To Kansas City and the July 10 All-Star game. Then on Sunday night afternoon look for a wrap-up of the week’s action and overview of the division and playoff races.

The drivers of NASCAR take their talents to SoCal on Sunday afternoon when Sonoma hosts a 3:20 PM ET race televised by TNT, as network coverage shifts from Fox (and will shift again to ESPN in a few weeks). We’ll have a race preview and look at the overall Sprint Cup standings posted on Saturday, with insights from TheSportsNotebook’s racing consultant, my brother Bill.

Our special feature of this week, coming up in the late morning/early afternoon on Monday will be a look at Target Field, the three-year-old ballpark the Minnesota Twins play in. I had the good fortune to attend a game their on Friday night and get a tour of the park. And on Monday afternoon at 3 PM EST I’ll be on Prime Sports Network with Greg DePalma for our weekly podcast to talk the NBA Finals and major league baseball.

In the meantime, please check out TheSportsNotebook’s Historical Museum, where we celebrate fan bases that had notable years with their teams, with coverage on each year from 1976-2007. And take a look at the bookstore as well. I’ve got two historical memoirs—Memories of March Madness and The Last New Year’s, that cover the best of the NCAA Tournament and New Year’s Day college football. And there’s two collections of blog postings available. You can follow the 2011 baseball season from Opening Day to October and The Cardinals’ Gold Ring. And follow last college hoops season from The Carrier To Kentucky.  Everything is available for $3.49 or less and can be downloaded to a Kindle or I-Pad from Amazon.