Best of Yardbarker: Ladies and gentlemen, start your engines
Prior to Memorial Day, the 101st running of the Indianapolis 500 takes place Sunday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Have you ever wondered why it's called the "greatest spectacle in racing"? We got you covered: "The Indy 500 combines three things America loves: speed, cars and tradition."
We'll see which driver joins the list of racers who won the Indianapolis 500:
Following the Indy 500, the Stanley Cup Final begins Monday. The defending champion Pittsburgh Penguins take on the Nashville Predators, a franchise making its first Stanley Cup Final appearance in history. It should be a good one.
Then, as the calendar flips to June, the much-anticipated NBA Finals three-peat matchup tips off Thursday, with the defending champion Cleveland Cavaliers taking on the 2015 champion Golden State Warriors.
The Warriors reached the Finals with a perfect 12-0 postseason record, thanks in large part to the exploits of Kevin Durant. Durant was so spectacular on both sides of the ball against the San Antonio Spurs that he had a member of the West's second-best team call the NBA Referee Hotline Bling: Dejounte Murray gets his calls blocked twice:
"Dear Mr. Murray, We have reviewed the footage, and we reject your argument that you should have received two points on the above play. It was two blocks, both legal, so not a goaltend. It is not, as you claimed, 'a double block, which is like a double negative, which makes a positive. So, goaltending!' That’s not how NBA math works!"
Unsurprisingly, Durant was named to the All-NBA team, albeit the Second Team instead of the First Team. Others, such as Paul George and Gordon Hayward, weren't so fortunate, leading to the 'How two award snubs might shake up the NBA' quiz:
Baseball, of course, does not have All-MLB teams, but it certainly has a plethora of awards. Arizona Diamondbacks ace Zack Greinke is one of the players who has earned one of the highest honors in the game, winning the AL Cy Young in 2009 when he was a member of the Kansas City Royals. Greinke is leading the charge for Arizona this year after a subpar 2016, and his team is featured in this week's Three Up, Three Down: Some surprises way out (NL) West: "The Diamondbacks have not been 10 games over .500 since 2011, and this is actually the best start to a season in franchise history for the Rockies. There's reason to believe that Arizona could be for real, and luck appears to be going Colorado's way for a change."
Like Greinke, Yu Darvish is a three-time All-Star pitcher, and like the Diamondbacks and Rockies, the Texas Rangers have picked it up of late. However, they haven't exactly played stellar competition. That's why it's reality check time for the Texas Rangers: "A cocktail of events occurred to propel the Rangers back to respectability. During their dismal April, where they went 11-14, the team combined for a .220/.298/.392 split line. In the new month, that dormant offense has finally come to life, especially over the last two weeks."
Darvish's backstop, Jonathan Lucroy, is partly why Texas is playing better ball. After a horrid April, Lucroy is raking, and previewing the 2017-18 MLB free agent class, he could be one of the most coveted assets should he keep hitting:
One player whom everyone covets but isn't slated to be a free agent yet is Mike Trout, annually the best player in the game since he broke into the big leagues full time. Earlier this season, New York Mets manager Terry Collins considered intentionally walking Trout with the bases loaded — that's how good he is. So we leave you this Memorial Day weekend with the 'Walk on home, boy' quiz:
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