Take A Bow

Before Alex Rodriguez and his New York Yankees could get into the groove of the pennant chase in the American League East, they decided to express themselves in many different venues. Whether it’s Hank Steinbrenner crossing the borderline or the entire offense going deeper and deeper toward the worst batting average in baseball, the most respected (and often hated) franchise in baseball finds itself with a ray of light to win the division.

 

And then there’s Madonna.

 

 The Yankees love to occupy the back page of New York sports tabloids and the front page of sports Web sites. Think of the team as your aunt who always wants to be recognized at a family function – even if she plants her face into a punch bowl. As long as someone pays attention to them, any kind of news acts as good news.

 

The centerpiece of this dysfunctional family may become the greatest player in the history of baseball. Alex Rodriguez has 539 homeruns in just 15 seasons at the major league level. If he continues at this pace, he will crush the current record that’s occupied by Barry Bonds and an asterisk. While everyone suspects Bonds cheated, nobody questions A-Rod’s natural ability. Have you heard anyone question if Rodriguez ever took steroids?

 

Rodriguez plays the game the right way. He shows up. He produces. He helps lead the team. Let “Entertainment Tonight” deal with his question off-field activities and pay attention to how the perennial All-Star third baseman always answers the call.

 

With more than more months left in the regular season the Yankees begin their march. They are only three games out of first place as they travel to Fenway Park for a critical three game series in Boston. Nearly four full months into the season, nobody believes that Tampa Bay can actually pull off the improbable and win the A.L. East.

 

It’s the Yankees and the Red Sox. Again. Get your Madonna masks ready in the Monster seats.  

Wide Open Championship

Please do me a small favor and call this weekend’s golf tournament The Open Championship. It’s not the British Open.

 

I’ve been to St. Andrews in Scotland for the third major of the season and saw Tiger Woods win the Claret Jug in 2000. Fresh off destroying the field by 15 strokes at the U.S. Open earlier that year at Pebble Beach, Woods battled Thomas Bjorn and David Duval in the final round and won his first Open Championship on the most historic golf course in the world.

 

Guess how many times I heard the phrase “British Open” over in Scotland during the weekend I was lucky enough to walk St. Andrews with my father?

 

Not once.

 

This includes my Dad, who still slips up every now and then.

 

Then again, nobody slips up more than Sergio Garcia.

 

The 28-year-old winner of The Players Championship runs into England as the odds-on favorite to win the championship. I’m not sure our good friends at Ladbrokes saw the end of the tournament last year.

 

With Padraig Harrington already in the water on the final hole, Garcia needed to drill a 12-foot putt for his first major championship. Nope. The swinging Spaniard choked in the playoff which left Paddy with the trophy and Garcia with another disappointing finish.

 

Before Phil Mickelson won his first major championship, most considered Lefty T.B.P.N.T.H.W.A.M. or “the best player never to have won a major.”  Now that honor belongs to a player who crumbles at crunch time. Mickelson used to hate Sunday’s until he finally got his head on straight and just played his game.

 

Now it’s Sergio’s turn. He’s playing the best golf of his entire life at a time when Tiger Woods won’t be in the field, or even the same country. Plus he loves this course. Garcia made the cut when Birkdale last hosted the Open Championship in ’98.

 

Without a major almost ten years since he challenged Tiger Woods in his coming out party at the PGA Championship, Garcia still looks for the first major.

 

Can he put it together at the Open Championship?

Must See TV In Beijing

If you like the Summer Olympics, and I mean really like the Summer Olympics, do we have a treat for you. The different networks of NBC Universal will offer 3,600 hours of coverage from Beijing during the 16 day event.

 

That’s a ton of beach volleyball.

 

At least one network from NBC Universal will air coverage from the Games next month at any point over the 16 day period. If you can’t find a HDTV to cozy up near, try nbcolympics.com. Offering streaming live coverage of every event, everyone now has a distraction at their cubicle for two weeks in August.

 

Printing out the coverage map for the Games, (all 65 pages of it) I bet you never knew that the Air Rifle Gold Medal Final of Women’s Shooting was such a big deal.

 

The most impressive part of the Beijing experiment with NBC – all the premier events of the Games (Swimming, Gymnastics, Track & Field) will place their gold medal competitions in Prime Time on the East Coast. This means that Michael Phelps, Katie Hoff and others will swim at 9:00 in the morning for a gold medal. I’m not exactly sure if the Olympic creed picked up an amendment of “Thou must show the finals live with Bob Costas” in the past few years.

 

Whether you like baseball or badminton, the fine folks at NBC Universal certainly understand that everyone enjoys a variety of sports. I’ll make sure to see y’all for my live blog of the Ukraine/Canada Men’s Water Polo match at the midpoint of the Games.

Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner At Wimbledon

Every year for the Gentleman’s Final at the All-England Club, I wake up and have my own version of strawberries and cream that works as a delightful equal to the scrumptious treat they sell just off center court at Wimbledon.

 

It’s called cereal (usually Product 19) and I almost always spill the milk since I never usually wake up before 9:00 in the morning.

 

Yeah, I’m one of those people.

 

Imagine my surprise as I clicked on the TV on Sunday morning to see rain at Wimbledon. If you looked at any court at Wimbledon over the fortnight, you’d think they were playing in Omaha in the worst drought in 20 years.

 

After a short delay, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal decided to play the best match in the history of tennis. As most of you know, Nadal won the nearly five hour match in electrifying fashion and then celebrated like he just won the Mega Millions lottery game.

 

Walking on top of center court to celebrate with family and royalty, the second best player in the world stomped out Federer for the second major in a row. This ends Federer’s streak of five consecutive Wimbledon championships.

 

But the focus of the day-long process of crowning a champion belongs to Spain’s Nadal. Needing four championship points to beat one of the greatest champions ever on grass courts, Nadal cements his legacy in London.

 

Anyone excited for the U.S. Open in August?

Real World: Hollywood

While the majority of sports fans count down the days until training camp opens or college football kicks off in late August, the summertime event with the most drama on the line looked like it would be the running of the Hollywood Gold Cup at Hollywood Park on Saturday evening.

 

I know what most of you are thinking: “Dachille, no one cares about this…again!” Maybe so. Still, give me a paragraph or five to defend my choice.

 

Aside from the Triple Crown and Breeders’ Cup, only railbirds and those with broken remote controls land on a horse race in the summer. The lack of storyline for a run-of-the-mill stakes race usually only entices Pick 6 players and leaves the average sports fan saying things like “the one horse looked pretty good.”

 

This Gold Cup had a different feel to it.

 

There was intrigue.

 

We had a storyline.

 

Lava Man, winner of the Gold Cup for the last three years, sat on the precipice of history. No horse in the history of this grand race could claim four straight wins in as many years. Only Native Diver in the mid 1960’s could match the accomplishments of this majestic gelding. For those without a reference point of the Gold Cup, think of it as a Breeders’ Cup Classic race just for horses based in California. As Ron Burgundy would say, “it’s kind of a big deal.”

 

Thanks to a slight injury in the Charles Whittingham Stakes race and a short turnaround to the Gold Cup, the connections of Lava Man decided against running him in the Gold Cup. While anyone can understand why an owner wants to protect their investment and make sure the stud fee remains at a high price, it’s still a bummer to miss out on a chance to make history.

 

A day before they break from the gate in Hollywood, Heatseeker’s owner and trainer decided to pass on the Gold Cup as well. Suffering an ankle injury, trainer Jerry Hollendorfer thought it would be best to sit out the next best horse in the race and wait for a better spot down the road.

 

Now the 10^th race at Hollywood on Saturday plays out like any other race at any other track this weekend. An amazing race for all morphed into two minutes that few care about.

 

Suddenly, the winner of the Hollywood Gold Cup looks like a bronze medal winner.  

Driving In Circles On A Road Course

When I first saw a NASCAR race on a road course on television, my initial thought about the unusual combination remains the same about 13 years later.

 

That’s a pretty dumb idea.

 

On the same weekend that Formula One rolls into Magny-Cours for one last race in France, NASCAR invades Northern California. The biggest problem in a road course race for huge cars that usually race on ovals becomes quite obvious – nobody can pass. Qualifying on Friday night becomes more exciting for the simple fact that, while it’s improbable to run a lap down 10 minutes into the race, the ability to pass more than 20 cars seems about as likely as me going out with Jessica Alba.

 

And it’s not like I haven’t tried.

 

Juan Pablo Montoya enters the race at Infineon this Sunday as the defending champion who flat out got lucky last year. Starting in the 32^nd position, Montoya blended his outstanding road course skills with a high stakes gamble to avoid a late pit stop and coast to his only trip to victory lane. You should expect Montoya to act as a huge threat to win again this season, mostly because of the lack of good drivers in NASCAR’s premier circuit on road courses.

 

Tony Stewart enters one of his favorite weekends teetering on the edge of missing the chase for the Sprint Cup. Even though the driver of the number 20 car has won two Sprint Cup championships, it’s fairly astonishing to look at Stewart’s performance this season. Languishing outside of the top 30 in two of his last three races, Stewart’s car currently can’t compete with the rest of his team. Wrecking in the final three laps in Charlotte with the lead certainly didn’t help “Smoke’s” confidence level or auto parts budget. He needs a win this week to solidify his status as an elite driver.

 

Even though the logic of stock cars running on a road course continues to baffle me, I’ll be like all the other diehard NASCAR fans and watch the race.

 

Yeah, even if it’s on TNT.

 

Boston Massacre

Rarely does a sixth game of a World Championship in any sport look this easy.

 

In a series where leads were squandered like amateurs throwing money away at a blackjack table, the Boston Celtics kept their heads and got a trophy in the process on Tuesday night in Massachusetts.

 

The Celtics won as a team. Ray Allen and series MVP Paul Pierce both poured in 26 points, Rajon Rondo took an eye popping twenty shots and finished with 21 points. Oh, and series MVP Paul Pierce only needed to knock in 17 points in the epic win by the Celts. Boston played like David Banner at the Banknorth Garden in Game Six. The Lakers don’t like them when they’re angry.

 

With the Los Angeles Lakers imploring the optional defensive look throughout the entire playoff season, it’s not a surprise that the entire team caved at the precise moment when the needed to shine. L.A. looked flat, confused and downright average. Kobe Bryant put up his usual outstanding box score line – but no one else followed. Pau Gasol appeared softer than a roll of Charmin. Derek Fisher never got an open look and acted unselfish at the exact moment that he had to take the shot.

 

At the start of the 4th quarter of the Lakers historical collapse in game four in Los Angeles, head coach Phil Jackson said that momentum was a fickle lady. On Tuesday night, she acted like the girl who never showed up for the Lakers blind date with destiny. The Celtics, combined with their raucous crowd, courted this magical force by the end of the first quarter. At the end of the night, everyone in Boston got a ring.

14-0

It looked different for a moment on the back nine in Southern California this afternoon. Tiger Woods, the man who never blinks, kept finding trouble. A three shot lead evaporated into a draw in just four holes. With all the momentum at the right time, Rocco Mediate had the U.S. Open wrapped up.

 

And then Tiger Woods won a major championship. Again. Does it ever get boring?

 

Down by a stroke on the 18^th fairway, Woods nailed a birdie putt to send the playoff into an extra hole. Mediate had plenty of chances all afternoon long, but couldn’t put Tiger away. If you leave the best athlete on the planet with one extra bullet in the chamber, prepare to end up a loser in sudden death.

 

Mediate found the crowd with his approach shot while Tiger played it safe.

 

Advantage: Woods.

 

Again.

Game On

With six holes left in a regulation playoff for the United States Open championship, Tiger Woods can’t shake Rocco Mediate.

 

Up by three shots on the 10^th green, Woods then promptly bogeyed the next two holes and only lead by a single stroke on 13.

 

Tiger just hit a marvelous approach shot on 13 to set up a lengthy eagle putt (have we seen that before?). While Rocco sits in a greenside bunker preparing for his third shot.

 

It’s still a game with just a few holes left at Torrey.

Thru 6

As it’s turning out, this playoff isn’t as inevitable as originally thought.

 

Holding a lead after three holes, Rocco Mediate isn’t backing down yet to Tiger Woods. Mediate almost aced the 3^rd, settling for birdie and a two shot swing with Woods.

 

On the 5^th hole, Rocco found the cartpath (twice) and Woods once again took the lead.

 

Right now, Tiger sits at even par with Rocco just one shot back. As long as Mediate can stay within a couple shots at the turn, consider the game on for the two players left in the U.S. Open.

 

If Tiger makes a run late on the front nine, it’s all over.