Five But Still Alive

I know I said that there would be something coming by midday Monday, but life happened which made that impossible. And if you are reading this, then you're witnessing dedication at its finest because I am one pillow shy of a passing out. Ahem . . .



1. Federer's 10 years of making it to all of the Grand Slam finals (ok, not that many, but a lot) came to an end when he lost to Novak Djokovic - the eventual winner of the Australian Open. Hey, Tiger loses every now and then. Whether this signals the beginning of the end for Fed, I am not quite ready to predict his demise just yet. At least we know he's really human. When pressed, he admitted that he had a little food poisoning that could have affected his preparation, but he was sure not to blame the loss on that. After that match at the U.S. Open where Pete Sampras puked out his guts courtside from the flu and winning the match in five sets, that excuse isn't really available, so good choice, Fed.



2. After starting 29-3, the Boston Celtics are now 5-5, or pretty average. Their latest loss (I almost wrote "laws" - I need sleep) came at the hands of Dwight Howard and the Orlando Magic. The game before that, they beat Kevin Garnett's old team, the Minnesota Timberwolves, by 1 point. Of course, KG has been sitting out now (taking turns with Ray Allen) but I still think you're looking at their playoff team. Why? One of these guys is bound to be hurt by then (Allen, most likely), so they better figure out a way to drive the tricycle with at least one flat tire.



3. Come on, boys. Let's raise the level.



4. I read an article in the SportsBusiness Journal discussing the intersection between politics and sports. The article included a pie chart showing the breakdown of Democratic vs. Republican support by executives acrosss several of the major sports (I think hockey was included, too). According to their contribution history, NFL execs are overwhelmingly Republican supporters, and the NBA execs are overwhelmingly Democratic supporters. Does that really surprise anyone? What did surprise me is that 1) a lot of execs support both parties; and 2) our friend and Atlanta Falcons' owner Arthur Blank has given money to both Hillary Clinton'a and Barack Obama's campaign; and one thing that did not surprise me: I don't recognize any of the three execs listed as supporters of John Edwards. That's all I'll say.



5. Back to tennis. Regular people were talking about Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who lost to Djokovic in the final. it's funny when you have unique knowledge or experience with something the average person does not - i.e., competitive tennis. Whenever something happens in tennis, people ask me questions like I get e-mail updates on every player. (They stopped sending those e-mails years ago.) Unfortunately, I don't know that much about Tsonga nor was I able to see many points of the final, but from what I did see, this kid could definitely be great if he keeps working and getting more consistent. He wiped out Rafael Nadal like Nadal was #200 not #2 in the world. Although, on hard court, that just might be a more accurate ranking for him.

And congrats to Maria Sharapova on winning the Australian Open on the women's side. She played some very tough matches and made them look easy. But it's not.

Yes, I ended on tennis. If you read this far and don't like tennis, pat yourself on the back. And keep living on the edge in 2008. It's good for you.

Four for Four . . .

I warned you yesterday that today was going to be a long day, and it was, and the result is a rundown. I might stop giving an intro after this one . . .

1. The Miami Heat lost its 15th game in a row, this one to the San Antonio Spurs. By one point. Yep, it's still an L. They haven't won in over a month, and their coming schedule isn't getting any easier with their next six games including the Boston Celtics, Toronto Raptors, Orlando Magic, and Detroit Pistons. These are all good teams who will probably beat up on the Heat unless they figure out a way to get out of this mess. This has sped past ridiculous and is now in the territory of busting apart at the seams.

2. Kelly Tilghman returned to the air and gave an apology. Rehearsed but pretty good. She has learned her lesson, and hopefully people will start thinking before they speak. She is lucky to still have her job in the post-Imus era, so hopefully this is the last out of line thing we hear from her. I won't hold my breath, though.

3. I love (no pun intended) how Oregon still hates Kevin Love so much for going to UCLA to play baskebtall that they boo him when he comes home. Yes, they booed when his name was announced in the starting line up in Thursday night's game against the Oregon Ducks. I know that the kid said he was prepared for it, but all the preparation in the world won't take away the sting of hearing your hometown boo you. If it had been just a few booes, then fine, but it sounded like the entire arena. Come on, people, grow up. How many NCAA basketball championships does Oregon have again?

4. I saw this article discussing a "caddy snack" and was curious as to what was meant by that. I'll give you 10 guesses, I don't think you would come close. What happened? Two caddies in Hawaii stole and ate a man's dog for whom they were caddying. A German shepherd puppy. Would that happen on the mainland U.S.? We have some sick people here but that might be too brazen even for us. The fact that it was two people makes it even more crazy. I've heard of puppy chow, but this crosses the line.

5. World #2 Rafael Nadal was summarily swept out of the semifinals of the Australian Open by France's Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. Some may call this an upset but real tennis fans know that "Rafa's" ranking is artificially inflated because of his awesomeness on clay. Now he's definitely a great player, and has notched some wins on other surfaces, but he is not the #2 player in the world on the hard courts like the ones they are playing on now. Great win for Tsonga though, catapulting him into his first ever Grand Slam final where he will meet the winner of the other semi between Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer. Djokovic has the goods, but this is Fed in a slam so my money is with him. Either way, Tsonga has his work cut out for him, but kudos are in order for just making the final. On ESPN, they said Tsonga (pictured above) resembles Muhammad Ali. They also said he has a head the size of a turkey. So are they implying that Ali's head is the size of a turkey? Or is that a faulty syllogism?

Foot-In-Mouth Disease As Contagious As The Flu

Three straight days of sleepy, and tomorrow is not looking any better. Without further ado, I bring you the rundown:

1. Apparently another female sportscaster, this time ESPN's Dana Jacobson, landed herself in some hot water over some comments she made during a roast of Mike and Mike hosts (Mike Greenberg and Mike Golic) about Notre Dame (Golic's alma mater and Jesus Christ. It is virtually impossible to find exactly what she said without having been there myself, but apparently the Catholic church knows because they said she's anti-Jesus. Well, I don't know what she said so I can't say much about this. Even though her alleged comments sound inappropriate, I will say that I think women take a lot of flak that men don't for the things that they say. More on that when my eyes aren't shutting.

2. Five overtimes in the Baylor University vs. Texas A&M basketball game on Wednesday night. In one of the OT's the teams only scored 8 points combined. I can't say I have ever heard of 5 OT's before. That's 3 1/4 halves of basketball played. One of them must be regretting that decision to eat that full rack of BBQ ribs before the game. Five players fouled out for Baylor but they still managed to pull out the win against #16 A&M. The game even lost a ref, who went down with a pulled hamstring ($1 to anyone who can locate this video). Great for Baylor. If any team in college basketball could use some good news, it's Baylor. I'm not sure if they have fully recovered from the murder of Patrick Dennehy (I'm sure mention of the murder still makes its way at the end of any big story outside of Texas about the school), but pulling out tough games certainly helps.

3. NCAA crying "foul" for USC's O.J. Mayo taking tickets for a Denver Nuggets game from Carmelo Anthony. Eh. The coach is trying to take the fall, saying he gave Mayo permission after Mayo asked him if it was OK. I know there could be some undue influence if college kids were getting handouts from NBA teams, but I haven't been an NCAA fan before, so I'm not going to start now. Give the kid a break. Smack (on the hand, of course) the coach, though, because he definitely knows better.

4. The Toronto Raptors beat the Boston Celtics, further proving that the Celts are just another team. The stat line shows some pretty good percentages in this game from the floor and behind the arc for the Raptors, who held on for a two-point win, but I am most impressed - of course - with the fact that they went 100% from the free throw line. I can accept a miss or three, but a perfect percentage is . . . something that we shouldn't marvel at that should happen more often. Darn it.

5. Ah, the life of a kicker. Just ask the NY Giants' Lawrence Tynes. If he misses that last field goal (that sent the Giants into the Super Bowl), after missing previous ones, he says he is looking at real estate in Wisconsin. But, he made it, so he's on The Late Show with David Letterman talking about the dress shoes his wife picked out for him. Brett Favre could have thrown 5 interceptions and lost the game on a bonehead play and gotten carried out of Lambeau Field, but if the kicker misses from half a field away (because his offense couldn't get him any closer), he has to move his family to another state. Life's just not fair.

6. Even though I like to do an odd number of rundowns, I couldn't leave without updating you on the Australian Open happenings (I know you read the first five just to get to this point). Maria Sharapova ripped apart Jelena Jankovic, who is shockingly up to #3 in the world. I saw Jankovic at the U.S. Open and she doesn't really have the weapons and is fairly inconsistent, as she proved so aptly in her semifinal against Sharapova. Like I said, Sharapova's pretty much got this one on lock.

7. Splitting up men's and women's tennis gives me a #7. Woohoo. Over on the men's side, Roger Federer dusted off James Blake, per usual, in straight - but well fought - sets. I feel bad for Blake because he really is a good guy and a good player, but Federer is more than a thorn in his side, he's the chloroform cloth to Blake's mouth and nose. He'll get you one day, Federer, one day.