Sport Shorts: the world of sports at a glance

•The US and Canada have recently seen a resurgence in the sport of table hockey. A game mostly associated with the 1970s or older men playing in their basements, table hockey is taken very seriously in Europe, with prize purses reaching several thousand dollars. Recently, younger generations are taking an interest in the sport as it gains widespread acceptance in North America. Currently the Number 1 ranked table hockey champ is 35-year old Canadian teacher, Mark Sokolski.

•Metta World Peace (born Ron Artest) was ejected from the 114-106 victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder on Sunday after receiving a flagrant foul 2. Mr World Peace had just dunked over the Thunder’s Kevin Durant and Serge Ibaka to pull the Lakers within one with under two minutes to go in the second quarter. As the players began to run back up the court the Thunder’s James Harden suddenly fell to the floor and stayed there. The replay showed Harden had received what can be described as nothing less than a blow to the head by World Peace’s left elbow. World Peace later told the media the contact was an unintentional side effect of his celebrating the dunk. Harden was diagnosed with a concussion.

•The celebration of Fenway Park’s 100th anniversary did not exactly go as planned last weekend. The Red Sox went 0-2 against the Yankees with the third game rained out. Saturday’s game saw the Red Sox give up a 9-0 lead as the Yankees scored 15 unanswered runs. The Red Sox pitching staff currently has an ERA of 6.68, the worst in the majors. Saturday the bullpen gave up 13 earned runs to bring their ERA to 8.44 also the worst in the majors. Red Sox manager, Bobby Valentine received loud boos throughout most of the weekend, but management continued to express their faith in him. Said GM Ben Cherington, “He’s doing the best he can with the roster he has. It’ll get better.”

•The first round of the NHL playoffs is turning out to be the most exciting in recent years. Sunday, the Los Angeles Kings sent the top seeded Vancouver Canucks home a lot sooner than they expected. Jarret Stoll scored 4:27 into the first overtime to give the Kings a 2-1 victory, taking just five games to send the Canucks home. The Kings will face St. Louis in the second round of the Western Conference playoffs.

•Tiger Woods’ swing coach, Sean Foley told the media this week that the criticism of his client has become too much. “It has just gotten to the point where the tearing down of Tiger as a person and a golfer has become just too much. I think it is just out of hand.”

Foley went on to say, “I realize…you have to write five articles a day, and you run out of things to write about, but we should be in a position where we are trying to help and lift up and support a player like Tiger Woods instead of tearing him down, because everyone in the golf industry is better off because of his existence.”