Welcome to the Big Leagues, Sarah Palin

Hockey fans aren't big on poseurs. A big BOOOOOOOO from the fans.

Scott Gomez of the Rangers is from Alaska, so he is very nice to her. (First Alaskan to have his name on the Stanley Cup -- when he was a New Jersey Devil. Other trivia about Gomez, he's also the first Latino ever drafted by the NHL and the first to play.)

What kind of hockey mom doesn't know how to drop the puck? Has she ever actually watched one of those hockey games, or was she on her cell phone all the time plotting her takeover of the world with the rest of her prayer circle?

BOOOOOOOOOOOO.

Another view:

Just For Laughs

Preview for the new movie "Head of Skate"

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

Hockey Moms For Truth

This year's swiftboaters!

We Love Lists

Coach Mom & Sis went to all three of the women's gold medal games in Atlanta (soccer, basketball softball).

Jim Caple, ESPN Page 2: 101 things all sports fans must experience before they die

I can check off the following from his list:

1 (1984 Summer Olympics, Los Angeles, women's basketball gold medal game, men's volleyball, boxing, four days of track and field including Carl Lewis's four gold medals, Joan Benoit Samuelson winning the first women's marathon and the Zola Budd/Mary Decker Slaney pratfall),

2 (1999 and 2003 women's World Cup games in Boston and Washington DC, four games at 2006 men's World Cup),

5 (women's basketball NCAA subregional, this year, plus women's Final Fours in 1991, 1992, 1993, 1995, 1996 and 2006),

11 (four English Premier League games in 2005 and six last year),

15 (many Red Sox-Yankee hatefests starting when I moved to Boston in the fall of 1975),

16 (Stan Musial's 1969 Baseball Hall of Fame induction (Coach Mom's favorite player of all time) along with Roy Campanella),

23 (at Notre Dame 1984, win over Penn State, 44-7, Allen Pinkett romped, I was miserable in the student section with my brother -- those morons stood for the entire game, I couldn't believe it),

35 (Opening Day, several at Fenway Park in the 1980s, the one I recall best was sitting the bleachers freezing. When Lee Smith made his debut as the Red Sox reliever, we all stood up and bowed in awe. And to get warm.)

36 (Marathon Monday is a tradition, I've attended most every year since 1976 when I've been in town. Most memorable was 1983 when Joan Benoit Samuelson smashed the women's world record by minutes, not seconds),

42 (NBA game courtside, well almost courtside. I sat in the third row for a Lakers-Celtics game at Boston Garden, right behind the Lakers bench, in 1983. Wow.),

73 (The Beanpot! 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, and a few other years. Most memorable has to be the night of the Blizzard of '78 when we stayed to the end of the 12-5 pasting by BU and had to stay overnight in the scuzzy Garden as the subways shut down because of the storm. Walked home through two feet of snow from Kenmore Station the next day. Where have you gone, Joe Mullen?),

84 (Bay to Breakers race: 1981, the year I live San Francisco),

91 (Little League games: started watching my brother, then my sister who was the first girl allowed to play Little League in my town (other parents heckled her); and many of my friend's kids.).

The list omits the NCAA Women's Basketball Final Four. The final is sometimes a letdown, but you go to both the semis and the final and there's always at least one barn-burner in there. I'll never forget UConn-Tennessee (1995, the first of UConn's undefeated seasons) and Maryland-Duke (2006).

Actually, this list is pretty devoid of women's events. I'd certainly include the women's World Cup on my list.

Would you add any must-see events?

Courtney Prince Smeared

The Gothamist asked: Who Even Knew The Rangers Had Cheerleaders?

Courtney Prince, the former New York Ranger dancer/skater/cheerleader, is being slimed by Madison Square Garden. MSG has filed a third motion for summary judgment (having lost the first two) and has filed "hundreds of pages of documents" (according to the New York Daily News) characterizing Prince as "a mentally ill pervert" (the Daily News take) and claiming that, according to MSG attorney Melissa Rodriguez, "she suffered from bipolar disorder, a classic symptom of which is hypersexuality." (a direct quote from MSG attorney Rodriguez according to the Daily News.)

Defendants in sexual harassment cases always attack the character of the accuser. Any hint of sexuality on the part of a victim of sexual harassment is suddenly a sin. Easy enough in this case: The Rangers cheerleaders are hired to flaunt their sexuality. Look at the tight outfits!

If the defendant can't find sex, they call her crazy. MSG has just combined both tactics here. She's crazy and hypersexual. And Prince, who was paid $150 per game by MSG, is being attacked with the opinion of a doctor who charges hundreds of dollars per hour for his time. Isn't it ironic?

I was curious about the attorney named as representing Madison Square Garden in the Daily News article, Melissa Rodriguez. I think it's Melissa C. Rodriguez of Morgan, Lewis. (I didn't find any definite corroboration of this, but Morgan, Lewis represents Madison Square Garden in the Isaiah Thomas/Anucha Browne Sanders sexual harassment lawsuit (pdf link, p. 12), and Morgan, Lewis is one of the large national firms that represents employers.)

Michelle C. Rodriguez, Morgan Lewis

Kind of a come hither photo for a law firm bio, no? People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones. Rodriguez is a fifth year lawyer with an impressive pedigree (Yale, Columbia Law), but not a lot of experience to be the lead lawyer in a high-profile case. I wonder if she is the lead attorney on the case? Or is she just being used to put out the smear so the big name partner who is handling the case doesn't have to get his/her hands dirty? Is MSG using a woman (and a minority) as window dressing? I handled many sex discrimination cases where young female lawyers were included on the defense team for that very reason.

Anyway, this sounds like typical defense smear tactics, overreaching included. Did you see the movie The Insider? It was the story of the witness, Jeffrey Wigand, who brought down Big Tobacco by revealing how they had covered up scientific research for years. Brown & Williamson had compiled a 500-page dossier of Wigand's alleged misdeeds; it was mostly BS. I suspect MSG complaints about Prince are much the same.

Isn't it funny how MSG promoted Prince to be captain of the Ranger cheerleaders after she'd been there a year, but now she's a hypersexual crazy person? Funny how that happens.

NYDailyNews: Rangers cheerleader sex-crazed, say attorneys

deadspin: MSG Pulling No Punches In Dance Skater Lawsuit

Opinion [on Summary Judgment motions], Prince v. Madison Square Garden, et al., April 10, 2006 [pdf file] [or view here in HTML format]

NYMagazineDailyIntelligencer: Hungry Cheerleader Claims Harassment Over Tater Tots

Same Old Same Old

Can you say 'Theo Fleury'?

NYTimes: Rangers' Ozolinsh Charged With D.W.I.

TSN.ca: Rangers Ozolinsh charged with DWI

New York Rangers defenceman Sandis Ozolinsh, who spent six weeks of the season in a substance abuse program, was arrested on a drunk driving charge in White Plains, New York on Tuesday, according to various local reports.

The seven time all-star, who was acquired by the Rangers from Anaheim in March, was reportedly pulled over for speeding at 11am. The officer noted "a strong odor of an alcoholic beverage" and a sobriety field test revealed that Ozolinsh had a blood-alcohol level of .17 percent. That more than twice the legal limit of .08 percent.

That's a real drunk, already lit up at 11:00 a.m.

'Don't Shoot, I'm Human'

If I lived near Las Vegas, this is how I'd be celebrating St. Patrick's Day:

Press Release: Dick Cheney Hunting Vest Night Scheduled for March 17th

Bright orange hunting vests with the slogan “DON’T SHOOT, I’M HUMAN” will be given to the first 1,000 fans that attend the Las Vegas Wranglers game on Friday, March 17. The vest will also feature a Wranglers’ logo.

The Las Vegas Wranglers, a professional hockey team that has already secured an ECHL playoff spot, will play host to the Alaska Aces at the Orleans Arena at 7:05 with doors opening at 6:00 pm.

“We thought it might be fun to announce the event for Friday night’s game, but not actually hand them out until the next day,” said Wranglers vice president and COO Billy Johnson. “But that’s a subtlety in punch line that might not sit well with paying customers for Friday’s game.”

US Women's Hockey Upset By Sweden

US Women With Cammi Granato (2005):
US Women Without Cammi Granato (2006):
Where was Cammi Granato yesterday? Oh, that's right, the best US women's hockey player ever, their long-time captain, got cut from this team. For no reason I can figure. Doing a great job in the booth, by the way, but should have been on the ice. So she's broadcasting, and the US women are in the bronze medal game. Coincidence? I don't think so. Coach Ben Smith should be out on his keister after this Olympic showing, but he's a man, and the federation is run by men. Even if he is fired, he'll get a cushy exit package.

Hockey is a sport that reveres its captains. Granato was a great captain. Why was she cut? Why isn't Smith answering that question?

Supposedly this game will "save" women's hockey. The powers that be were thinking about cutting it from the Olympics because only two teams are competitive, the US and Canada. Like it's the women's fault that most countries organizing committees don't support their sport. Well, if this is what it takes, it's the silver lining for the US women. They lost to save women's hockey as an Olympic sport.

MSNBC: This U.S. hockey squad doomed from start
Americans' best player was doing color commentary for TV broadcast

Chicago Tribune: A cut that still pierces: `Kicked to the street'

Cammi Granato is angry. She is a broadcaster at the Winter Olympics, not a player on the U.S. women's hockey team. The face of U.S. women's hockey for the last decade, Granato was cut from the team last summer. Six months later, her relationship with USA Hockey remains icy.

"I'm not mad," she said. "It's just that, I was kicked to the street. See ya. See ya later. Thanks for shopping. I'm not saying, 'Oh, they need to come suck up to me.' There's just a lot of raw emotions at the moment."

NY Daily News: Granato wishes she had a shot

TURIN - The greatest player in the history of American women's hockey desperately wanted to be on the Palasport Olimpico ice, leading the United States to yet another gold-medal showdown with Canada.

But she was sitting in an NBC studio under its stands, aching for her friends, not seething at the coach who had unceremoniously cut her from the 2006 Olympic team.

"I feel like someone punched me," a shaken Cammi Granato told the Daily News an hour after Sweden had rocked the women's hockey world with a stupefying victory over the U.S. "I don't even know how to feel. It's like all the air is gone. I feel so bad for the girls."

As clutch a performer as women's hockey has ever seen, Granato set standards in the sport with 186 goals and 343points. She captained the United States to the first Olympic gold in Nagano in '98 and to silver in Salt Lake City.

But just five months after captaining Team USA to the 2005 world championships, the 34-year-old forward was cut from the national team without warning by coach Ben Smith. In his postgame press conference, Smith cut short a questioner wondering if the Americans missed Granato when crunch time arrived last night.

Red faces leave Team USA feeling blue

Ben Smith, the U.S. women's hockey coach, is probably feeling it a little bit today, too. He made the controversial and widely criticized decision to cut Cammi Granato from his team. Smith was cruising, too. His team had a 2-0 lead in its semifinal against Sweden yesterday.

Kerflooey.

If the U.S. team had reached the gold medal game against Canada - as it has in every single international tournament up until now - Smith would have skated (you'll pardon the expression). He still would have been wrong for whacking the most recognizable female hockey player in the States, but he would have been off the hook.

Now? Smith looks like a fool.

Call it Der Miracle on Ice, although this time the Americans were the prohibitive favorites who played scared and let the scrappy underdogs come back and beat them. Once the Swedes came back to tie the score, you half expected the U.S. players' sticks to start shattering, so tightly were they being gripped.

They played like a team that needed an experienced leader. A team that needed someone who had been there and done that and could rally the troops with a big play or the right words.

Say ... Cammi Granato?

But Granato was commenting on the game for NBC when her replacement as captain, Krissy Wendell, took a bad penalty during a Swedish power play. The Swedes didn't score, but the penalty prevented the U.S. from getting back its momentum.

Toronto Star "The Spin" blog: Miracle in Turin

With criticism of the women's game having hit new heights during the past week because of a series of lopsided scores, it may well be that Sweden's absolutely shocking 3-2 shootout victory over the United States this evening at the Palasport Olimpico will be the match that saves women's hockey as a viable sport in the Winter Olympics.

For the first time in any major women's competition - world championship or Olympics - it will not be Canada vs. the U.S. in the final. Sweden, having never beaten either country, fell behind 2-0 against the Americans but fought back to tie 2-2, largely on the basis of a breathtaking goaltending exhibition by Kim Martin.

Both Swedish goals were scored by star forward Maria Rooth, and it was Rooth again in the shootout who ripped a wrist shot past Chanda Gunn in the U.S. net to send her country into the gold medal game on Monday.

It was an upset perhaps even greater than that of the 1980 Miracle on Ice in Lake Placid when the U.S. men upset the mighty Russians, for that had happened before. In fact, the Americans had been Olympic champions at Squaw Valley in 1960.

WaPo: U.S. Women on a Cold Spell at Olympics
Hockey Team's Shocking Loss to Sweden Is Latest Disappointment

Since the first women's hockey world championships in 1990, the United States had faced Sweden 25 times in various competitions. Twenty-five times, the Swedes lost.

The Americans' record against teams other than Canada was 102 wins, two ties -- both with Finland -- and no losses. The talk at the women's tournament all week centered around that inevitable Canada-U.S. matchup for the gold. Sweden, in fact, lost 8-1 to Canada earlier in the competition. There had never been another matchup in a world championship or Olympic final, and some observers had grown critical of women's hockey as a sport because it seemed just two teams could win.

"It's always Canada and the U.S. in the final," Swedish goalie Kim Martin said.

That has changed now, in large part because Martin was in net for the Swedes. Four years ago, when she was all of 15, she led Sweden to the bronze medal -- behind, of course, Canada, which took the gold, and the United States -- at the Salt Lake City Olympics. On Friday she was steady and stellar, the primary reason Sweden was able to withstand 39 shots from the Americans and still finish regulation time tied at two goals apiece.

Parity

Hayley Wickenheiser, Canada
I woke up this morning and turned on MSNBC to watch hockey. I've been watching women's hockey for the last few days. The score read "Italy 1, Canada 2" and I thought to myself, wow, Italy scored on that powerful Canadian women's team. Shocking! They had only given up one goal in the tournament so far. I thought Italy was only in the Olympic hockey tournament because they're the hosts. I thought Canada already crushed Italy. I wasn't awake yet. I put the coffee on.

Then I saw the back of one of the Canadian's uniforms and it said "Bertuzzi". I thought, I wonder if she's Todd Bertuzzi's sister? How come I've watched all these games and never heard those excellent NHL announcers says Todd Bertuzzi's sister is on the Canadian women's team?

It was Todd Bertuzzi. This is a men's game. Parity has indeed arrived. You can't tell the difference between the men's and women's games just by looking at the size of the players. Hayley Wickenheiser, Todd Bertuzzi, put a uniform and pads on 'em and it's hard to tell the difference. Italy has a men's hockey team! They scored two goals on Marty Brodeur. Parity all around.

Anucha Browne Sanders Update

The former New York Knicks executive's sexual harassment lawsuit continues.

Newsday doesn't think the Garden's attempt to smear her is going anywhere:

MSG firing Anucha air ball

Madison Square Garden and Garden dirt-diggers are working overtime on Anucha Browne Sanders, the former Knicks executive who filed a sexual- harassment suit against Isiah Thomas. And they couldn't fill a thimble with what they've dug up so far.

We have learned -- assuming the dirt-diggers and dishers are dead on -- that Browne Sanders once scolded Marcus Camby for refusing to meet a VIP.

That she told Clarence Weatherspoon (who wasn't named after an eating utensil for nothing) that he might consider dropping a few pounds.

We learned she requested a full page for herself in the media guide.

We learned she once kept Willis Reed waiting for 30 minutes in the reception area.

My sources tell me this is only the beginning.

It hasn't come out yet, but my people say she didn't always floss as a child.

And she routinely doesn't curb her dog.

And she once took call- waiting while talking to Walt Frazier.

All this is B.S., of course, which is only a half-step below what the dirt-diggers have gathered on Browne Sanders. If that.

We're eight days in, and they've got nothing on Nucha, as she was called as an all-everything basketballer at Northwestern.

There's another sexual harassment case pending against Madison Square Garden, this by the former captain of the Ranger City Dancers, Courtney Prince. The EEOC has already investigated and found probable cause that she was harassed:

Skater's garden torment
Sex harassment nightmare

A New York Times hockey writer was involved!

What's Missing in 'NY Times' Coverage of Sex Harrassment Case?
A Times hockey writer allegedly plays a role in a high-profile lawsuit, as revealed by another New York daily this week. Why has the Times reported on the case -- but not mentioned its own employee's relation to it?

The Garden has a long history of sexual harassment complaints by female employees, according to the New York Daily News:

Sex woes sprout at garden
News probe uncovers history of complaints

The Madison Square Garden empire is a hotbed of sexual harassment, with pervasive complaints from temporary bar staff to senior managers, a Daily News investigation has found.

Past and present female employees described an overwhelming "frat boy" culture that seemingly permeates every tier of the huge organization, according to interviews and legal papers.

Though a sign posted at the employee entrance to the Garden on W. 33rd St. promises "fair and respectful treatment" to all personnel, female employees told The News of instances where they work surrounded by sexist jokes, bikini-clad pinups and even a blowup doll.

Others described much more aggressive and frightening abuse — incidents stunningly similar to harassment claims made by Anucha Browne Sanders, the Knicks' former vice president of marketing, and former Rangers City Skater Courtney Prince.

Isiah Thomas treated the CBA owners and personnel like crap while he was running that league into bankruptcy:

Menace behind the smile
CBA owners: Isiah nasty,
incompetent behind closed doors

Happy National Girls and Women in Sports Day!

Today, February 1, 2006, is the 20th annual National Girls and Women in Sports Day.

NGWSD began in 1987 as a day to remember Olympic volleyball player Flo Hyman for her athletic achievements and her work to assure equality for women's sports. Hyman died of Marfan's Syndrome in 1986 while competing in a volleyball tournament in Japan. Since that time, NGWSD has evolved into a day to acknowledge the past and recognize current sports achievements, the positive influence of sports participation, and the continuing struggle for equality and access for women in sports.

Sports have been very important in my life. I loved playing and am a fan. When I became a lawyer, sports helped me survive the five years I spent as the only woman lawyer in my law firm. It gave me something to talk about in attorney's meetings, and there was automatic respect because I knew more about baseball, basketball, football, hockey and soccer than anyone else in the room. And you can tell from that last sentence that I do not lack for confidence, and I attribute some of that confidence to playing sports.

One of Bushco's early failures was their attack on Title IX in 2003:

In 2003, the administration empaneled a commission to "clarify" read "lessen" Title IX's compliance standards. A minority report issued by commissioners Julie Foudy and Donna de Varona condemning the commission's recommendations for change drew bipartisan support and the backing of women's groups across the country and compelled the Department of Education to withdraw plans to modify the standards for compliance adopted in 1979.

Not that Title IX has ever been enforced with any rigor by the Justice Department of any administration. Do you know how much in fines has been leveled by the Office of Civil Rights for Title IX violations? That would be zero, zip, nada. No educational institution has ever been fined by the federal government for violating this federal law.

We've come a long way, but there's still a ways to go. Happy NGWSD!

And Now For Something Completely Different

Q: Who is the only player to captain two different teams to the Stanley Cup?

A: Mark Messier

Mess announced his retirement today.

I'll always remember Messier for a non-athletic moment. At the game to begin the 2001 season, shortly after 9/11, the family of FDNY Captain Ray Downey presented Messier with Downey's helmet. Messier put it on and skated around the ice, tears streaming down his face.

He played that way too, with his emotions in full view. Enjoy your retirement, Captain.

Stanley Cup spotted in Florida

It's so wrong, the Stanley Cup now belongs to a team from a state where it is 85 degrees at the start of Game 7.

A place where all season long you could walk up to the box office & buy a ticket.

I'll get over it.

Iginla should win the Hart and the Conn Smythe

Tired from staying up late to watch the Calgary Flames gut out a 3-2 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning in OT last night. New York Times, NHL.com, the Boston Globe, Calgary Sun. Jerome Iginla was immense. I wonder if he could hear me? I was sitting in front of the TV shouting "You're the Captain! This is your game! You must produce!" on his every shift. And he didn't let me down. (Maybe he heard me?) That last shift was amazing. I couldn't believe he was still on the ice. A long shift after over 70 minutes of hockey, helmet knocked off, checked again and again, Iginla kept getting up and forcing the play until he took the shot that was so hard Khabibulin gave up the rebound that Saprykin knocked in the for the winning goal. (Whew! What a sentence!)

Go Canada!