Weekend Roundup

-Not a whole lot of surprises in the NFL. Mark Sanchez and the Jets looked sharp. As did the Giants. Maybe now everyone will stop acting as if Aaron Rodgers is the second coming of Peyton Manning? Nice quarterback? Yes. NFL MVP this season? Very unlikely.

-Was that Jay Cutler or Rex Grossman running the show in Chicago last night? The Bears offense looked like a total disaster. Jay Cutler may have broke that one guy's record for most consecutive times hitting an opposing defensive back in the hands. The guy really doesn't value the football. To be fair, the Chicago wideouts are the worst in the league. Additionally, they are not yet on the same page as Cutler. Green Bay should have won that game by a lot more, but I still think if Urlacher can play and be effective that the Bears will end up the better team. The Pack defense got pressure by sending tons of blitzers, singling up on the Chicago wideouts and taking advantage of a confused offense. Chicago's D was able to get pressure using their 4 down lineman.

-The Bungles did it again. One of the most inconceivable losses I can remember. Can you imagine being a Bengals fan? You go to the game and sit through what I imagine was a disgustingly poor 1st half where no one can score. It's 6-0 late in the game against the lowly Broncos and you finally punch it in for the win. Finally, it was worth sitting through the disaster and then that happens. Have to imagine half the people in attendance will never go back.

-Dallas offense looked much sharper without TO. Can't wait to see the Buffalo offense look less sharp with him! Go Western New York!

-Can you draw it up any better than McNabb getting hurt week one? Now Philly is forced to go to Kevin Kolb (who my buddy in Philly said looked terrible yesterday) for a week. Then they have to hope and pray that McNabb will be ready to go otherwise they have to then make another QB switch to Michael Vick (something tells me they'll platoon Kolb and Vick if Kolb is even halfway dreadful this week, just a guess). Obviously they go back to McNabb whenever he gets back, but this situation could get sticky, Philly looks like the best candidate to be the contending team running a complete circus act this season (thanks to Buffalo being complete garbage and irrelevant).

-Adrian Peterson is Purple Jesus and Purple Jesus is Christ.

-In college football, there were a couple of great games in Michigan-Notre Dame and USC-Ohio St. They didn't disappoint though arguably the two teams that deserved to win, lost. I thought Ohio St completely outplayed USC, but Pete Carroll coached an excellent game and of course USC got it done. Incredibly disappointing to my prediction of Ohio St winning the Nat'l Championship.

-Roger Federer is ridiculous.


-In a continued effort to be the blogosphere's leading home for foot fault enthusiasts, I'd like to say that Serena Williams really took the whole thing to a new level. I would post the video, but I'm sure everyone has seen her threatening the poor line judge that she was going to shove the tennis ball down her bleeping throat. The match ended as the cry-baby was about to lose to an old mother (KIm Clijsters) anyway. Has this ever happened before? Someone is penalized a point for making a threat and it turns out to decide the match? At least Serena offered an unapologetic apology. The real question is, who would you rather have threatening you after calling them for a foot fault, Serena Williams or Andy Roddick? I think Roddick is the clear choice.

Wimbledon Elite Eight Tomorrow

Well the women are down to the top 4 seeds. Not exactly the four best looking women in the tournament, but in fact the four best. It's like the Women's College Basketball Tournament, the top seeds never lose. Venus is playing as well as Serena and while Venus is taking on #1 Safina, I think if one of them fall it will be Serena to Dementieva, who is quietly playing absurdly good tennis. That said, it is probably Venus-Serena, take your pick. Probably will also win doubles so we can hear all about that accomplishment.

On the men's side we have a pretty intriguing "Elite 8." Murray, the most likely candidate to be able to beat Federer, will walk past Ferrero and take on the winner of the Lleyton Hewitt - Andy Roddick winner. Can't recall Hewitt playing so well outside Australia in forever, hopefully Roddick can get it done though, in my opinion Roddick has been the second best player in this tournament and for some reason I could see him doing the miraculous and winning this whole thing...not only is his serve on fire, he has added a nice little slicing backhand and is moving about as well as you could expect, even handling that low shot moving toward the net better than I have ever seen...will not be an easy road though...but maybe with a few serves like this..

On the other side Federer should have no problems with Karlovic and will take on the Haas-Djokovic winner. While I have not yet seen Djokovic in this tournament, he has been walking through, that said this seems like the most likely of the top remaining seeds to fall as Haas has an absolute monster serve and is playing good tennis.

Again, most of the juice in this tournament was taken out when Rafa withdrew. The bottom line is Federer is looking almost unbeatable right now. And if Haas upsets Djokovic he may just walk to the finals and probably will be well on his way to securing his spot as the all-time greatest with even less of an argument to be made against that stance.

Some Weekend Notes

Meet the Mets, Meet the Mets, Step right up and beat the Mets.

-The Yankees are about to sweep the Mets tonight...while they have been able to hang in the race despite all of the injuries suffered (mainly thanks to the Phils terrible run of late)...they have actually fallen behind the Giants and Rockies in the Wild Card Race...and are just a half game up on the Marlins...The lineup they put out there is embarrassing...

-Off the upset of Spain, the US has finally reached a FIFA finals in the Confederations Cup, at 2 o'clock today they'll probably be beaten by the Brazilians, will be quite the story if they do manage the upset however. Spain, by the way, is about to suffer another defeat to South Africa, so I wonder if the soccer buffs think that tarnishes what a huge deal it was for the U.S. to beat them. Either way, if they somehow beat Brazil it won't matter.

-Filly sensation Rachel Alexandra, winner of The Preakness ran at Belmont in the Mother Goose Stakes, beating the other two horses by 19 1/4 lengths, setting a stakes record time in the process. This horse is unreal, she turned for the backstretch and was hand ridden just leaving the other horses to appear running in place. Many are calling for her to square off with Zanyatta..in what would be a showdown of arguably the two greatest female horses of the 21st century. Not too likely to happen, but would be a great thing for horse racing. Either way, I hope Rachel Alexandra finds her way up from Blemont to Saratoga so I can have an excuse to make a trip up there.

-Pretty stale Wimbledon without Rafa. An intriguing run being made by Lleyton Hewitt, who finds himself in the Round of 16. The most exciting thing about this tournament is that it is setting up to be Andy Roddick's best chance to win this whole thing. Making it difficult for him will be the likelihood of having to get through Andy Murray and then Federer. Quietly though Djokabitch is playing the best tennis he has in recent memory...hopefully they get a final 4 of Roddick v. Murray and Djokavic v. Federer...that is probably the only way to really get some juice back in this tournament.

-The Women's Tournament is actually shaping up with a lot of intriguing matchups. The U.S. has actually gotten a teenager into the round of 16 as Melanie Oudin defeated former No. 1 Jelena Jankovic and will now face the 11 seed Radwanska. Would be a huge upset that would set up a matchup with the winner of a very good Venus Williams / Ana Ivanovic match.

***Edit***
As Millman eluded to in his comment, the Spain / S Africa match had a wild finish in which there was goal after goal, with Spain finally winning 3-2 in the extra frame. And of course, US dropped the 0-2 halftime lead.

Melanie Oudin just dropped the first set to Radwanska after going up an early break, she got broken right back..after some gutsy holds she had a double fault and missed a couple gimmies to fall 4-6. 2-2 in the second set at this point. I got up to watch her match and I must say, her game is more impressive than I anticipated. While I'd be curious to see how she looks against some of the bigger hitters (Radwanska is not a big hitter) she actually has a pretty good serve and a big backhand..both of which are not very consistent it appears..she also has flashed some good range. Also found out she has a twin sister. Looks like they just switched over to Fed-Soderling, which I obviously won't argue with but I was enjoying watching the young American compete. Oh and here's Mel in action:


*Oudin just lost...dropped the second set 5-7, dropping her last set at love. So the question becomes, is Oudin just a flash in the pan or is she a good young prospect? Personally, I walked away from this match a lot more impressed than I expected. Even when she lost her last serve at love, it wasn't from packing it in, losing some long volleys to Radwanska. Ultimately, she proved just like most American tennis players - not nearly as consistent as the Europeans..which I think comes down to training. Bottom line is the Europeans receive superior training..it's like olympic gymnastics..I dare say however that we have not heard the last of Melanie Oudin and that she is going to become a very good female tennis player. Her upside is probably top-20 or so, she doesn't possess the potential to be a top player, but if she improves her consistency I can see her winning some tournaments and maybe even a major.
Now please Andy Roddick, get it done one-time.

Weekend Round-up

-No triple crown again in horse racing, that makes 31 years now, and Calvin Borel fails to do it as a jockey as Mine That Bird makes a premature move and gets out-kicked by Summer Bird. Dunkirk came in second, leaving me to rip up my daily double and win tickets...

-Roger Federer is the GOAT. He is now tied with Pete Sampras for the all-time lead with 14 career grand slam championships and can now say he won each separate one after easily defeating Robin Soderling in the French Open Finals Sunday. Still don't think he's the best? That's OK, by the time he's done he's likely to add a couple more (Rafa might be out for Wimbledon?) and completely stop all debate - that said, if he retired today he'd go down as the GOAT to most knowledgeable tennis fans (Bud Collins be damned).

-The Big Unit got his 300th victory this weekend. Leading all left-handed pitchers in all-time strikeouts (4,845, he also is the all-time leader in k:9 with 10.67), he now joins a prestigious group that includes Warren Spahn, Steve Carlton, Eddie Plank, Lefty Grove and Tom Glavine as the only southpaws with 300 wins. I have always hated Johnson, but it is hard to ignore his greatness and the fact that he did once kill a bird with a pitch, which probably ranks behind only Benny "The Jet" Rodriguez literally smashing the cover off a ball as the most impressive single plays in baseball history:

-The NBA got a much-needed close game, with the Lakers pulling it out in overtime last night. Courtney Lee will be having nightmares about that one for some time now. I just want to shout out Hedo Torkuglo, reader Curtis's boy, for playing like a man possessed down the stretch. That said, I want to launch a couple complaints as well:
1. My buddy sent me a text last night when it was headed for overtime claiming it was unwatchable due to the time it took to play out the last thirty seconds. I somewhat disagreed, saying he was the only one not enjoying this, but after falling asleep with 20 seconds left in overtime, I woke up in total agreement. The NBA needs to find a solution for the lack of flow at the end of games due to timeouts. It is pretty ridiculous when there is a timeout after every play...I know they try to limit this with some restrictions but they need to get even more strict about it - that or don't go to commercial and get us in on the huddles.
2. What happened to the NBA policy of no-tolerance for complaining about calls? Ever since those damn Pistons teams that complained and whined about every call the NBA has become a cry-happy league (has always been to a degree, that is just the nature of basketball, ever played in a pickup game? I got into an argument just the other day with some kid trying to call a carry on me for losing the ball and smashing my buddy in the face accidentally). I expect Kobe to complain about every call, I expect Lebron to, go ahead Dwight, do your best Dikembe Mutumbo impersonation and act like you never committed a foul in your life...I really wouldn't care....but Lamar Odom, Derek Fisher, Courtney Lee and Rafer Alston complaining is cringe-worthy.
3. With all the gushing about Kobe, I honestly thought he played poorly last night. He took some poor shots, didn't get Gasol and Odom enough touches and missed a couple opportunities (like the last shot in regulation that Hedo blocked) to make passes to open teammates. And with all this talk about his defense, first of all I'm a little disappointed he's guarding Courtney Lee at the end of games, and on top of that Lee burned him a couple times and just couldn't finish. Pau Gasol was reason number one the Lake Show pulled that one out last night, I don't care what anyone says. And honestly, reason number two was Lamar Odom. Dwight Howard is a beast down low, but the Magic simply can't stop both of them at the same time.

-Speaking of Kobe how about that press conference after the game? Kobe Bryant comes off as fake as the WWF these days. I love watching the man play, his game is as pure as you'll ever see...but between that scripted mess that was Doin' Work, his bizarre faces and awkward, calculated interviews/press conferences - I came to the startling realization last night that Kobe Bryant is incredibly pewch. For all his non-pewch ability the man just constantly does pewch things out there, like the face he made to Pau Gasol after he put in that 3-point play.

-JJ Redick - Is there anything more bizarre than watching JJ Redick play in the NBA? How about him taking it hard to the rack and putting in a strong layup on Lamar Odom? How about him clanking open threes? How about him getting all that playing time? How about him playing some pretty decent defense, even being quick enough to shut off D-Fish on a couple drives and making some nice run-outs to contest open 3's?

-I don't watch hockey but I saw Detroit up 5-0 the one night. Funny how all the analysts were talking about a big momentum shift in that series and that Pittsburgh was starting to think they could win, and Detroit was thinking they could lose.

-Tiger Woods

-Braves phenom Tommy Hanson got touched up in his first start against Milwaukee yesterday allowing 7 runs (6 earned) in 6 innings on 6 hits (3 hr's), striking out 5 while walking just 1. Seems he was a bit unfortunate as he displayed good stuff with a fastball working around 95, a nasty slider and a 12 to 6 curveball. Perhaps most impressive is that the fastball comes with a lot of movement apparently, and while that movement hurt him yesterday as the ball found the middle of the plate and Ryan Braun and Mike Cameron took care of it - any pitcher with this type of arsenal is a good bet to become a true ace, for Hanson that may be sooner rather than later.