One of the worst places to get a good night's sleep last night had to be the city of Leicester. But for partying and celebrating til dawn, it was Vegas, Mardi Gras, and New Year's Eve all rolled into one. As noted in yesterday's sports report, the Leicester City Foxes football club were on the cusp of doing something they'd never done in their one-hundred-thirty-two year history: emerge as champions of the English Premier League.
And with Tottenham playing Chelsea to a 2-2 draw last night, the literal five thousand to one shot when the season began beat those odds, securing the top spot in the league and shocking the world with one of, if not the greatest, underdog fairy tale stories in all the history of sport.
It looked at first like the Foxes would have to wait until Sunday to nail down the title when they play their final game of the season at home in King Power Stadium against Everton, but Chelsea spared the Foxes that drama by coming back from a two-nil deficit to beat Tottenham, the second place team, which had a narrow chance to catch Leicester City in the standings. Tottenham's inability to hold that 2-0 lead mathematically eliminates them from matching Leicester's seventy-seven points. The Spurs had that two-goal lead going into the second half when they fell apart thanks in part to bad tempers that led to no fewer than nine Tottenham players being booked for violations. Four of those came after Chelsea's Eden Hazard tied the game on a gorgeous, bending ball that wended its way into the top right corner of the goal. So Leicester goes bonkers, and here's the cherry on top: The cost of the entire payroll for the Foxes team this year totals less than the salary paid to one player on some of the big-spending clubs in the Premier League, all of whom will finish below Leicester City this year. The Foxes do have that one home game left to play against Everton, and with the title already secured, it amounts to a coronation of the world's most unlikely championship team.
In the NHL playoffs last night there may be a new hero emerging in Pittsburgh, and it's a rookie back-up twenty-one-year old goalie. Matt Murray made forty-seven saves against the high powered Washington Capitals last night, as the Pittsburgh Penguins held on to beat the Caps 3-2 to take a two games to one series lead in their second round playoff series.
In the NBA playoffs the Oklahoma City Thunder have tied up their series with the San Antonio Spurs at a game apiece after a controversial ending to the 98-97 Thunder victory in Texas last night. The Thunder had that one point lead with thirteen seconds to go when Dion Waters threw an elbow at San Antonio's Manu Ginobli to free up some room for an in-bounds pass. No whistle was blown, however, and even though the Spurs made a steal on the in-bounds pass, they couldn't convert at the other end. The refs acknowledged after the game that they should have called an offensive foul on the play before the ball was thrown in, but little good that does the Spurs now. Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook combined for fifty-seven points to lead the Thunder.
In game one of the Cleveland-Atlanta series, Lebron James and the Cavaliers beat the Hawks 104-93.
The Boston Red Sox were idle last night, but they made news anyway. Third baseman Pablo Sandoval, whose tenure with the Red Sox so far has been about as successful as the roll out of New Coke in the 1980s, will undergo season-ending shoulder surgery. Kung Fu Panda is still under contract for ninety-five million dollars and it's hard to say if he'll ever step on the field for the Red Sox again.
One player not likely to get on the field for some eighty games is Los Angeles Dodgers relief pitcher Josh Ravin, who reportedly failed a test for performance enhancing drugs, the sixth player this season to fail the league's P-E-D test. Ravin joins a list that includes last year's national league batting champ Dee Gordon of the Miami Marlins, and slugger Chris Colabello of the Toronto Blue Jays.
The NY Mets were in action last night, and they smacked three home runs, all in the first inning against the Atlanta Braves in a 4-1 win.
A local note in mens' college hockey, UVM will be losing goaltender Packy Munson, who says he's transferring from UVM to an unspecified school. The Burlington Free Press reports Munson is hoping to attend a college closer to his home in Minnesota after spending one year with the Catamounts.
