02:45 PM ET  12.15 | I've really grown out of the whole idea of HATING sports teams. In football, I learned to respect the Cowboys and the Packers even though they throttled the 49ers in my years of adolescence. I feel watching Mike Holmgren alone leading the Pack up Highway 101 on his Harley put an undeviating hex on the development of my body's ability to harvest proper androgenic hair production. I will never be able to grow respectable playoff beard and its Gilbert Brown and Alvin Harper's fault.

As awful as it was watching MJ's yearly mugging courtesy of  Chuck Daly and the Detroit Pistons, I still enjoy being able to relate the whole "I was there" trip to younger NBA fiends who have only heard folklore tales regarding Bill Laimbeer and the "Microwave".

Yet with all this general sports fan maturation, I still cannot get past my everlasting disdain for any and all teams from Southern California.

I'm no SF Giants fan, but that will never stop me from going to a Giants-Dodgers three game series and lambasting any Dodger fan I see. (I usually let anybody wearing a Valenzuela or Koufax jersey off the hook). With the Lakers, Kings and Rams (they will always be the LA Rams to me), the blood boils just thinking about it.

Then we got the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim

Where do I begin?

How about being named after an atrocious Emilio Estevez movie? The only reason I tolerated that wretched 6 reels of steaming celluloid was because I heard Basil McRae was in it. Basil did not disappoint and revealed that his dexterity as a thespian is right up there with Bogart, Heston and Jimmy Dean (The Sausage King).

Can't stand Chris Pronger and I even found their facilities, the Honda Center, to be a cramped, overrated mess. I can't imagine Manute Bol or the Giant Gonzales walking that concourse without having to do their best impression of Marty Feldman from Young Frankenstein.

Of course, it is not all bad with the Mighty Ducks.

They did win the Stanley Cup and they deserve credit for that. It was nice seeing Todd Marchant, Brad May and Sean O'Donnell realize their dream and lift Lord Stanley.

Although it was difficult, I let the greater good of this blog lead me to the proper decision and feature a Mighty Duck of Anaheim.

In the first clip we got Travis Moen getting down with Eric Reitz in a decent bout. ( Just to add another complaint to the list of Duck gripes, how this game did not evolve into World War 3 is beyond me. I thought the Ducks and the Wild had something special, in any case, I blame George Parros and The Ducks.)

I have to admit, watching a Duck sweater with number # 32 on the back flail the fists around reminded me a little of Stu Grimson. Sure Moen will never be christened Grim Reaper junior, but just seeing that sweater in action...you know?

How about that nickname "The Grim Reaper"? In some of his scraps he certainly hinted that his intent was to collect his adversary's carcass ala Boba Fett, get a boat ride from Charron across the river Styx and deliver the body to the pick-up shelf in Hades. A brutal pugilist.

The compilation clip that I included will take you back to some good Norris division squabs and considering the Norris was no joke at the time, the Reaper was impressive.

 

Don't forget. For what is worth, tonight we got Red Wings-Avalanche at 7:00 pm eastern time.

 

Thanks-MB

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4K-HW7fReA&feature=channel_page

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsR-2ETd4Ms

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PoWBz3GfWzI&eurl=http://www.hockeyfights.com/fights/5981

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C81s_kAKzRE&feature=related