Sports History Talking Points: June 7th

• Ray Allen broke or tied all the important three-point records last night. His five threes in the second quarter tied the record for most in a quarter in a finals game; his seven first half three's were also a single-game record, as was his final-game total of eight and his seven consecutive made three-point field goals.
• The NHL must be run by idiots or something. Last night's Game 5 between the Flyers and Blackhawks went up against the NBA at 8:00PM, and were no doubt crushed in the ratings. Are you people insane? Don't you realize how important it is to be the No. 1 thing on at a sports bar, and how that can give you millions more viewers than if you're second-tier? Don't you realize that with all the gaping layoffs that occur in the NBA Finals, there's absolutely no excuse to not have the games on the NBA's off-night? I mean, really NHL!
• There were a plethora of closely-contested baseball games yesterday. 11, yes 11 games were decided by only one run, tying the Major League record. The previous times 11 games had been decided by one run: July 4, 1918 and April 14, 2001. (Courtesy of Elias Sports Bureau)
  
• Ubaldo Jimenez is phenomenal. How phenomenal? At 11-1 in just 12 starts, the most Jimenez has allowed in a single game is two runs, joining him with Detroit's Al Benton (1945) and Cincinnati's Edinson Volquez (2008) as the only men to do that. But here's what's more impressive: through two-plus months of the year, Jimenez is actually on pace to win 30 games. Denny McLain, who in 1968 became the last person to win 30 games in a year, was 9-1 through June 7 in 1968 and even had a higher ERA than Jimenez has now. I'm not expecting Ubaldo to win 30 or anything, especially since McLain started 41 games that year. But when you consider the start that he's off to, and the fact that he's pitching at Coors Field half the time, there's no question the Cy Young is his to lose.
• The SB Nation regional sites are up, bringing SBN one step closer to world domination. Check out the links on the left-hand side, and give your love to the newbies such as SBN New York or SBN Arizona. Also, here's a New York Times article covering the meta-site, an article that features both Jim Bankoff AND Tyler Bleszinski. I'm also very happy that the article had a pro-newspaper tone; let's face it: a lot of bloggers love to rip on newspapers and are happy to see the industry in ruins. But newspapers provide professional reporting that blogs pretty much don't, and I'm all in favor of the symbiotic relationship between the mediums as long as we recognize that newspapers are important too.
  
• Okay, I rewatched the series finale of Lost, and I have to say that upon closer review, the series finale was absolute Grade-A bull****. They didn't even try to answer anything! There was a freakin' food drop in season freakin' two (a plane, yes a manned plane, flew over the island) -- never explained it. The magic box Ben talked about -- never explained it. The reason why women couldn't give birth on the island -- never explained it. They never even tried! They spent all that time crushing Sawyer's character, having him lose Juliet and then having him cause Jin and Sun's death, and his resolution? None! He just gets on a plane, and flies away. Wow! What resolution! Basically, if you're considering watching the show, don't do it. Lost is just one big PT Barnum scam that reels you in by pretending that all the clues and crap means something. But it doesn't mean anything!, and with an ending so unabashedly horrible, you'd have to be masochistic to sit through all six seasons and come thinking that there's any sort of pay-off.
  

(Photo by Lisa Blumenfeld, Getty Images)