Morning Line Archives: May 14-20

THE WEEK AHEAD: MAY 14-20

As we pass the midpoint in May this week the NHL playoffs have their hit crunch point, the NBA postseason is settled in and major league baseball approaches it’s first round of interleague play. Here’s a look at what’s on tap this week at TheSportsNotebook…

*Daily coverage of the conference finals in the Stanley Cup playoffs, as we keep tabs on Los Angeles-Phoenix and New Jersey-NY Rangers. The Kings & Coyotes started Sunday night and the puck drops for the Devils & Rangers on Monday.

*The same daily coverage in the second round of the NBA playoffs. The Eastern Conference’s second round began over the weekend with Boston-Philadelphia and Miami-Indiana, and the Western Conference begins tonight with Oklahoma City-LA Lakers and continues Tuesday with San Antonio-LA Clippers.

*Friday marks the first interleague play action in baseball and TheSportsNotebook will use this week as our first major evaluation point for both individual players and teams.  We’ll have an All-Star ballot for both the AL & NL and then a team-by-team review, both American League and National League, of where everyone stands to this point and what we might expect going forward.

*Triple Crown racing hits its second leg, with the Preakness Stakes going in Baltimore on Saturday and we preview that race, summarizing the resume of each horse in the field. For our NASCAR coverage we’ll take a break this week as the Sprint Showdown that goes on Saturday is not a part of the 36-race schedule that’s part of the Race For The Cup.

*And our special feature this week will be a continuation of The Suffering Sports City theme that began a couple weeks ago by Notebook contributor Isaac Huss. A native of the Twin Cities, Isaac first lamented over the state of sports in his hometown and now begins a series that will look at the pain elsewhere. Denver isn’t as bad off as Minneapolis right now, but it’s been a while since there’s been major success in the Rockies and that’s Isaac’s focus this week.

*TheSportsNotebook’s Historical Museum is always open for visitors, with our year-by-year look at the best places to be geographically for sports. The series began in 1976 and we’re currently up to 2002. Please take a look.