THE ITHACAN

Next year in the playoffs

By Alex Holt • April 30, 2011

The Buffalo Sabres' season ended this past Tuesday with a 5-2 loss. It was somewhat unexpected but not entirely. Unexpected because they won the first game of their series with the Philadelphia Flyers and led the series 3-2 just five days before being eliminated. Unexpected because this was Game 7 and none of the other…

It’s Draft Day, Draft Day

By Alex Holt • April 28, 2011

...And could there be any better timing for it given the court rulings this week that probably ended the NFL lockout? If you're a football fan, you've probably been looking forward to this for months. It doesn't always work out the way we want it to (I remember being excited when the Giants drafted Ron…

Where Awesome Happens

By Alex Holt • April 25, 2011

So everyone watched at least one NBA or NHL playoff game this past weekend, right? If somehow you did not, you missed out on something. It would probably take a couple weeks' worth of blog posts to explain the various reasons why but the NBA and NHL playoffs have been even more thrilling and exciting…

Jews in Sports, Part 3

By Alex Holt • April 23, 2011

1.Yuri Foreman-Foreman, who was born in Belarus is a former World Boxing Association super welterweight champion with a career record of 28 wins, two losses (including one heavily publicized fight against Miguel Cotto) and eight knockouts. He's also an aspiring Orthodox rabbi who wished viewers a happy Hannukah after one of his televised fights. 2.Charlie…

Jews in Sports part 2

By Alex Holt • April 23, 2011

There's a great scene in the movie Airplane! where one of the passengers asks a stewardess if she has "anything light to read" and the stewardess hands the passenger a pamphlet on "Famous Jewish Sports Legends." Stereotypes aside, there actually are some really good or at least fairly notable Jewish athletes out there right now…

Jews in Sports

By Alex Holt • April 19, 2011

The Jewish holiday of Passover began last night. I just so happen to be Jewish so I thought this might be a good time to take a look at some of the best Jewish athletes out there right now. Part 2 should come later this week. 1.Mike Cammalleri-Camalleri's a left wing for the Montreal Canadiens…

A simple proposal for a complex issue

By Alex Holt • April 17, 2011

With Barry Bonds being convicted of obstruction of justice this past week and prosecutors debating whether or not to retry him on three other charges, steroids in baseball are back in the news. One of the areas where the issue of steroids is still having its greatest effect right now is with the Baseball Hall…

Divisions and such

By Alex Holt • April 13, 2011

The NBA and NHL playoffs are almost upon us and between the two, we should have enough entertaining games to last us well into summer break. Between the two, it's not exactly a secret that the NBA gets better ratings. NBA playoff games are spread out across more networks (ABC, ESPN, TNT) and they tie…

How not to write a sports column

By Alex Holt • April 13, 2011

Of all the depressing sports stories so far this year, one of the ugliest has been that of Bryan Stow. Stow is a 42-year old paramedic father of two and San Francisco Giants fan who attended the season-opening game between the Giants and the Los Angeles Dodgers at Dodger Stadium, only to be attacked by…

It could be worse part 1

By Alex Holt • April 8, 2011

Unless you somehow managed to secure one of those coveted dorms under a rock last winter, you're probably aware that Ithaca College announced the Phoenix, the Flying Squirrel and the Lake Beast as the finalists for the Bombers' new mascot this week. You also probably know that nobody seems to like the choices. Still, the…

It could be worse part 2

By Alex Holt • April 8, 2011

1.Tim the Beaver, MIT-this is what our basketball team lost to in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, folks: 2.WuShock, Wichita State-Wikipedia describes this as "an anthropomorphic shock of wheat." For once, I wish Wikipedia really was inaccurate as some teachers say it is. 3.UC Santa Cruz, the Banana Slugs-dating back to the days…

5 teams who scored more points in a championship game than Butler

By Alex Holt • April 6, 2011

1.Both the Philadelphia Warriors and the Chicago Stags in every single game of the 1947 Basketball Association of America Finals, aka the first ever NBA Finals (the worst game was a 75-72 Chicago win in Game 3. Oh and this was all SIX YEARS before the shot clock was invented.) 2.Both the Houston Comets and…