What A Weekend - Saturday Edition

You know that it is getting close to fall. The sports scene is amped up and Saturdays and Sundays are jammed packed with games, big time games and tournaments, big time tournaments. Saturday was the first of these days and there was no lack of drama and stories, some were great and some were bad.

Lets start with the bad: Serena Williams - I never liked her. She never seemed to be that committed to tennis, playing only when she wanted too .The way that she carries herself leaves something to be desired. She always struck me as spoiled and a whinnier. That seemed to shine through at the US Open on Saturday when she was called on a foot fault. She then verbally abused the judge, pointing her racket and finger and yelling at her."I'm (expletive) going to take this ball and shove it down your (expletive) throat." When the judge went to the chair umpire to talk and complain about the situation Williams then disputed with the chair umpire and supervisor. A code violation for unsportsmanlike conduct was called by the umpire -- the call awarded the next point to Kim Clijsters, which ended the match with a 6-4, 7-5 final. With that the game was over and Clijsters was awarded the match. Williams said after the Match - "I haven't really thought if I have any regrets," about the tirade. "I try not to live my life saying, 'I wish, I wish,' but I was out there and I tried and I did my best." I hope that this sticks with her and tarnishes any legacy that she may have - It was just a classless move.

Now the good, and there was plenty of that to go around so I will just hit them all with some quick points because there are just too many to cover in depth.

~ My Michigan Wolverines completed a comeback upset over the 18th ranked Notre Dame Fighting Irish. For a team that was just awful last year and have undergone a lot of turmoil over the first 2 weeks off the field this was a great win. The fact that it was lead by a freshman QB was icing on the cake...the cherry I suppose was that it was versus The Irish, the only 2 things better is a National Championship or beating Ohio State.


~ Speaking of Ohio St, they were beaten on a last minute drive by USC also lead by a true freshman QB. It was a drive that may be one of the best you will see all season. When you take into account the plays that were made, the players involved and being on the road in a hostile environment at “The” Ohio State. The win was huge for a potential run at the National Championship. In college football you can’t win a championship in the first few weeks...but you sure can loose one in that time.

~ The chosen one Tim Tebow led the University of Florida to destroy Troy 56-6. Tebow ended the day with 237 yards throwing and tied a career high with four touchdown passes on 15-of-24 efficiency and added 71 yards and a score on 13 carries. I think he is still in the Heisman race


~ Tiger was Tiger and even for him did something amazing. Woods broke the course record at Cog Hill and blew away the field Saturday in the BMW Championship with a 9-under 62 that gave him a seven-shot lead at -16. He is sure to be in the lead of the FedEx Cup standings and is poised to take that title again. Even with no majors this year he is still the Player of the Year. The guy is a machine and it proves that the only one who can beat Tiger is Tiger himself.

~ The New season for NASCAR starts this week and the Chase for the Championship is here. The top 12 drivers are “In the playoffs” and all have a chance to take home the title. Jimmie Johnson is in the hunt for a 4th title in a row but that will be very difficult as there are 11 others that want it bad and that leaves the odds highly against him.

And that was just Saturday, I will hit on Sundays action in my next post...What a weekend in sports!!

Best and Worst of the Weekend

BEST
The Montreal Canadians have decided on a new coach and it is former Sens bench boss Jacques Martin. This is a great decision for the Sens. That’s right the Sens, maybe not so much for the Habs. Since there are rarely trades among division rivals and Martin is no longer GM in Florida where he never seemed warm to dealings with Ottawa after he was relieved of duty here. Now maybe that opens up another trading partner for Bryan Murray

Worst
Detroit won the first 2 games at home in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
This is only bad for 2 reasons:
a) There are only a possible 5 more game maximum left before the season is done.
b) If Pittsburgh doesn’t win Tuesday night then it is very likely that there will only be 2 more games and a sweep for Detroit....meaning even less hockey.
The first 2 games have been played at a high pace with great physical play. Maybe a few penalties could be called, a penalty in game 30 should still be a penalty in the Championship Finals.

BEST
Orlando upset Cleveland in the NBA Conference finals knocking out LeBron James and taking away a Kobe-LeBron showdown. This is far from the best for David Stern and the league as far as ratings go but it was funny to see LeBron walk off the court-not shake hands-ditch the media and walk out to the bus with his headphones on.
Also, the chance for Kobe to win a championship without Shaq and get the "taste of ass" out of his mouth.

WORST

Canada’s Aleksandra Wozniak’sr run at the French Open ended on a loss to second-seeded Serena Williams. Since I have little or no use for Serena I would have loved to see that upset. I have no problem with sister Venus but Serena just seems to complain a lot and comes off a little snarky.
BEST
Earlier in march there was an epic basketball game with Syracuse and UCONN that went to 6 over times. When I was down there on Campus a week or so later everyone was wearing Marathon Men Shirts. Well as it turns out they may have to forfeit their crown to the Texas Longhorns baseball team. The Longhorns ended up on the winning end of a 25 inning game versus the Boston College Golden Eagles in the College World Series. The final was 3-2 and was the longest game ever played in NCAA history. I guess that would be considered a pitchers dual. The game started at 6:02 p.m. Saturday and ended 7 hours and 3 minutes later at 1:05 am Sunday. The crowd observed three 7th inning stretches. Texas reliever Austin Wood went 12 1/3 innings without allowing a hit - his pitch count was 169, including 120 strikes.

WORST
Footy, aka Kickball, aka Soccer was played somewhere and it was televised, some people actually watched.