07/08/08

Okay, so I’m a day late again. But I refuse to take complete responsibility for this!

Leading Off
-What sport is the most common cause of eye injuries in the U.S.?


Free Throws
ATP
-Because I was at a family reunion this past weekend my sports exposure was limited. I did play a baseball game where I homered twice and made an incredible Willie Mays-esque catch. I did, however, get to watch a couple sets of the Federer vs. Nadal match and what I saw was the most amazing tennis I’ve ever seen. I picked Federer to win in five sets. Not only was I wrong, but I wasn’t even in the ballpark. Nadal completely owned Federer that game, breaking his serve four times, to Federer’s one. The only way Federer stayed in the game was by playing phenomenal when he had to. I’m brought back to the 4th set tiebreak with Federer serving down to championship point. Federer calmly serves up two aces and eventually wins the set. This is the extraordinary play that kept him in the match until Nadal finally won on his 4th championship point. But Enough on Federer, let’s get to the man of the match Rafael Nadal. I completely underestimated this guy’s grass game. He’s made great strides since his runner-up finish last year. After every fantastic shot Federer had, Nadal matched it was one of his own. His signature move of doing a 180 in the air, while backhanding the ball always leaves me speechless. This lengthy match of almost 5 hours, was filled with rain delays, but I can assure you nobody was leaving their seat in centre court. All in all a great tournament by the young Spaniard and a very deserving champion.

WTA
-This match I was unable to watch, so all I know is what they tell me on espn.com and Wimbledon.org. The elder sister took down the younger in the latest chapter of the Williams rivalry. The two sisters have fallen off the table a bit in recent years, currently ranked 5th and 7th , but none of the top 4 seeds could make it to the final on Saturday, even though neither Williams sister played a top 4 seed during the entire tournament. Venus won in straight sets 7-5, 6-4, being led by her great serve. I had Williams to win the game, so I guess this means I win?

MLB
-A short MLB section today. My lack of sports viewing over the past few day may have something to do with it. What I do know is that C.C. Sabathia has left the tribe. The workhorse has said good-bye to Cleveland and hello to the great sports city of Milwaukee. Sabathia will join the Brewers as they look to make a playoff push and knock the Cubbies out of the spotlight in the NL Central. Sabathia is one of my favourite pitchers simply because he’s a southpaw, but the man is a machine. How many pitchers do you know that pitch 220+ innings? On that note, how many pitchers do you know that are 6-7,250lbs.? Now the Brewers have a solid 1-2 punch in pitching with Sabathia and Ben Sheets. Sabathia is currently the MLB strikeout leader with 123 so far, as well as 4th in innings pitched with 122.1. The Brew Crew will need Sabathia to perform, as they have not been getting the run support they need to make the playoffs (ranked 14th in runs). Sabathia was traded for Matt LaPorta, Zack Johnson, Rob Bryson and the all-important “Player to be named later”.

NHL
-With Mats Sundin still taking his time, we’ll move onto the next big thing in hockey. It’s just been announced that the NHL will feature its next outdoor game at the famous Wrigley Field, home to the Chicago Cubs. The game will feature an original 6 matchup between the Chicago Blackhawks and the Detroit Red Wings. You knew that there had to be a sequel after last years game that saw the Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Buffalo Sabres in a shootout and who better to score the shootout winner than Sid the Kid himself. Last Years game at Ralph Wilson stadium was played before a sold out crowd of 71, 217 people, who sat through frigid temperatures to witness only the 2nd regular season game played outdoors. But why play at Wrigley when you could play at Yankee Stadium. It’s the Stadium’s last year and I’m sure the Islanders and Rangers would be more than willing to leave their arenas for an NHL “subway series” showdown. But with Gary Bettman leading us, I guess we should be happy that we got Wrigley, one of the most recognizable baseball fields in the world and one of the only ones named after a chewing gum. With the game being held at Wrigley I can only hope the puck doesn’t get stuck in the Ivy.

Cycling
-Le Tour de France is well under way and while Lance Armstrong is no longer a part of it I’m trying to stay as focused as possible. It’s tough to get into a sport where doping is obviously a huge factor, seen last year with Floyd Landis, but I’m trying to follow the 22-day race more closely this year. This year a Frenchman has jumped out to an early lead as Romain Feillu currently holds (or wears) the yellow jersey. Paolo Longo Borghini isn’t far behind at just 35 seconds off the pace. These two riders are all by themselves at the moment with the next closest rider still more than a minute behind them. Yesterday’s stage has a tie at the top with Samuel Dumoulin, William Frischkorn and Romain Feillu all finishing the 208 KM stage with a time of 5h 5m 25s. There’s no Canadians in the race so I’m going to pick a rider to follow throughout the race. Let it be known that my rider in this race is Robbie McEwen, who finished in 83rd place after the first leg, but had a strong stage yesterday, finishing 5th and now finds himself in 61st spot. McEwen is not my pick to win, but simply a player I’m going to follow throughout the race. I’m going to let the race develop a little bit before I let the predictions fly.

NFL
-I’ve been trying to stay out of Brett Favre’s business, I really have. But I find myself in a position where I have nothing left to talk about except him. I wanted to wait until he made a decision, but I guess now’s as good a time as any to let out my opinion on this story. I knew the moment Brett Favre retired he was coming back. You probably think I’m just saying that, but I really did. There are some player who just can’t walk away from the game until they either get injured or become so old that they’re a hinderence to their team. Name’s like Chris Chelios and Randy Johnson spring to mind. Farve is one of these players, so there is no doubt in my mind that he’ll be back, the only question is: Will it be with the Packers? The Packers in my opinion have no obligation to keep Favre, but they will nonetheless. They will keep Favre for two reasons. Reason #1 is because if they don’t than they will have a lot of cheesed off Packers fans (get it? Cheese and Wisconsin) (ok I’ll stop), the Media will on them faster than Prince Fielder on a Twinkie and if Favre wins a Super Bowl somewhere else, then we’ll never hear the end of “The Curse of Brett Favre.” Reason #2 is because he’s Brett Favre and he is superior to Aaron Rodgers. I really feel bad for Rodgers in this scenario. It’s like waiting three years to open a Christmas present, then when you go to open it your parents take it back. But the Packers really don’t have a choice. If you put Brett Favre on the bench, then you’re going to get shot at from the stands. So expect to see Favre lining up behind the center this year and expect it to be for the Packers.

CFL
-Boy did I have a good laugh this past weekend. Although this happened last Thursday, I had to mention it in my blog. The Toronto Argonauts got beat, wait scratch that, they got thumped by the Hamilton Tiger-Cats 32-13. For those of you who don’t follow the CFL, getting beat by the Tiger-Cats is the eqivalent of getting swept by the Seattle Mariners this year. We’re talking about a team that went 3-18 last year, we’re talking about a team that has one good player. Speaking of that one good player, his name is Jesse Lumsden and he single-handedly beat the Argos. He ran 20 times for 189 yards, which is almost 10 yards per carry. That’s almost as many yards as the Argonauts passing yards for the entire game and in a passing-dominated game, that’s pretty incredible.

-Do you want to know what team didn’t lose? The Montreal Alouettes, my team. With the new and improved Anthony Calvillo, the Al’s beat the Defending East Conference champion Bluebombers 38-24. Calvillo rushed (that’s right, “cement legs” was running) for 57 yards, while passing for 372 yards and 4 touchdowns. Ben Cahoon was his usual awesome self, completing 3 passes for 32 yards. Now the Alouettes own the Eastern conference lead with a 2-0 record. Next game’s up against the Stampeders of Calgary. The Stamps haven’t won yet on the road, so let’s hope that trend continues.

Olympics
-One Month from today! One Month to Beijing!


7th Inning Stretch
-You can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you might find, you get what you need.


Buzzer Beater
-The Buzzer Beater award for July 8 goes to…Rafael Nadal. If you beat a five-time defending champion at anything in Sports, you will win this award plain and simple. Congratulations to Rafa on winning Wimbledon and the French Open in the same year (the first to do it since Bjorn Borg).

Tiger Woods - 1
Kevin Youkilis - 1
Jie Zheng - 1
Matt Kemp - 1
Roy Halladay - 1
Conor Jackson - 1
Rafael Nadal - 1

Next edition coming Friday July 11. Until then, have a good AFL playoffs (ok so there was nothing else).