Snap, it’s been a while.

You get in a funk, kind of the like the one Cubs reliever Scott Eyre is in right now, and you can’t get back on track. I’ve been in one of those since finals week and, sorry, but the Sports Blog was in a coma. Luckily, no one pulled the Terry Schiavo plug on this one. (Too soon?)

Once I stopped for finals, I just couldn’t get around to writing. Even though there’s been pleanty to rap a few words about.
So I’m gonna Rachel Ray this thing and cook up a little 30-minute blog for you. Let’s get the ball rolling again.

First, a dash of tennis.

Nadal owns Federer on clay pretty much like Brett Favre verse the Bears on the Frozen Tundra during the ’90s. I’m willing to even put it out there that Nadal let Federer beat him in the clay match leading up to French Open, just to give him that Paris Hilton-jail sentence of hope before demolishing him once again.

But as Nadal won his third straight clay title, one of the kings of grass went down. Five time Wimbledon champ Bjorn Borg had to withdraw from his first grass-court singles match in 26 years after getting bit in the leg by a dog, after trying to break up a fight between his dog and another.

Michael Vick could not be reached for comment on the incident.

Something is seriously wrong with professional athletes. As if the rush of playing in front of a zillion watchers for bazillions of dollars isn’t enough, these chumps have to steal, shoot people, go to night clubs, beat women and, oh yea, fight dogs for money. Roger Goodall has been trying to clean up the NFL, David Stern has taken a hard line with the NBA and Bud Selig don’t take no stuff from no one. When will the real authorities start cracking down on professional athletes?

Speaking of crack, Amanda Beard showed her’s (and a little more), in the July issue of Playboy magazine. Now, people are trying to turn this into a women’s rights issue, claiming the photos are demeaning to females and what the gains they have made in athletics. Does posing nude for money take away from the accomplishments Beard has made? Are her gold medals less of a statement for women’s swimming in the U.S. just because she showed her breasts after showing off her breastroke? Tom Brady has never worn his birthday suit for a publication, but if I had a dollar for every time I heard a girl say they watch football because of how hot he is (their words, not mine), I’d be able to pay for the entire swimming team to get neked for Playboy.

But why are we talking swimming? It’s the NBA Finals. It’s been pretty cute to watch. The Spurs run their basketball clinic and the Cavs try to imitate it, but, aww, they just can’t quite get there. But don’t write LeBron off yet. Get him a Scotty or a Shaq and he’ll be back. It’s amazing he got this far as it is.

Just as amazing as how far Selig will go to try to fix this steroids thing. Jason Giambi is being asked to talk with steroid investigators and legislatures about his involvement in steroids. Giambi has all but admitted to the papers that he has taken illegal substances, and now baseball is giving him the opportunity to black list everyone else. But let’s not kid ourselves. There’s only one man they want and that’s Barry Bonds. Selig wants validation for his decision to boycott the chase of the home run record, and who can blame him. Bonds single-handedly destroyed the validity of his sport, just as he’s going to demolish Hank Aaron’s historic mark.

But mark my words, the biggest travesty in baseball isn’t the steroids scandal, it’s the NL Central. More specifically the Cubs. The whole division blows, and on paper, the Cubs have three players who could hit 35+ home runs and drive in at least 100, one of the best pitchers in baseball and supposedly, a great manager. They should be at least 27 games ahead of the Brewers, especially with how their 4th and 5th pitchers, Rich Hill and Sean Marshall have been throwing. Good God.

And good grief, too. People are still talking about Tony Romo’s botched hold that led to the Cowboys’ playoff loss last season. Even Charlie Brown doesn’t care that much about all his failed field-goal attempts after Lucy yanked the ball out from under him. Every time I see a special about the difference between game used balls and kicking balls, all I hear is “Wah wah wah wah wah wah.”

There’s nothing special about this year’s U.S. Open. It looks like scores will be over par again and 80 percent of coverage will be of Tiger even though a no-name will walk home with the title.

Anywho, that’s all I got. Just know the Sports Blog is back, breathing and should be able to play long toss sometime this week.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 11th, 2007 at 3:09 pm and is filed under Uncategorized, All-around, Cubs, NFL, NBA, MLB. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.