Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader has two quick sports related items this morning.

Congratulations to the Chicago Blackhawks! The Hawks have won their first Stanley Cup since 1961. Since your Maximum Leader has a pathological hatred of Philly sports teams, he is very happy by this outcome. He watched the 3rd period and the OT last night. (He was true to his pledge to not watch any hockey games except for the Stanley Cup finals after the Caps went out. He watched game 1, 2, 4 and part of last night’s game.)

It is good from time to time to have an original six team win it all. (Unless that original six team is in the East, like Montreal, Boston or NYR.)

The second item is baseball related (of course).

As good as Strasburg’s game was the night before, last night’s game between the Pirates and the Nationals was tough to watch. So much sloppy play. Sure the Nats won (and we’ll take all the wins we can get); but it wasn’t fun to watch. Your Maximum Leader was sure that John Lannan was going to be pulled as early as the 4th inning. You know, your Maximum Leader hopes that John Lannan can relax a little and work on being the best pitcher he can possibly be. He has been “the Ace” for the Nats for the past two years. On most top-tier baseball clubs Lannan would be a number 3 starter. He’s had piles of pressure on him. We can hope that the pressure on him will be less now and he can focus on his game and doing what he does best (which is not getting Ks but getting guys to ground out).

So once again… Congrats Blackhawks and citizens of Chicago! Citizens of Natstown, continue to support your team on days when Strasburg isn’t pitching…

Carry on.