Well, I hope everyone enjoyed their holiday weekend. Between all of the cooking-out, drinking, and other mindless activities, it’s been a bit rough getting back into the grove of things today. Of course it doesn’t help matters that it’s about 450 degrees outside today, but the show must go on.
Last week I promised to post some photo’s of me in a Cubs hat. So…
There were more photo’s on my camera but somehow during my friends six kegger my camera got into the wrong hands. When I went to upload the photos to my computer all that showed up were pictures of random girls, fireworks and other booze fueled shananigans. I was just happy that the camera didn’t end up in the pool, I mean it’s a cheap camera and all, but it’s all I have.
I’m not sure what’s more embarrassing about the photos: the undersized Cub’s hat, my ridiculous mustache, or how out of shape I’ve gotten in the past couple of years. I think it’s a combination of all three that makes me look like a true jagbag. Getting rid of the Cubs hat and the mustache was easy enough, but losing the weight is going to take some time. Maybe I’ll incorporate losing some weight in future blog posts, but we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.
It was a busy weekend in the wide world of sports as well: Rafael Nadal defeated Roger Federer in a classic five set match to gain his first Wimbledon final, the Yankees were able to split their series with the dreaded BoSox, and CC Sabathia was traded to Milwaukee, much to the dismay of Cubs fans all over the world. Here are some ruminations of what took place last weekend.
Nadal Slays the Giant
Nadal takes a breather after defeating Roger Federer to win Wimbledon on Sunday.
I’m not a big fan of tennis, but watching Rafael Nadal defeat Roger Federer in the Wimbledon final (6-4, 6-4, 6-7, 6-7, 9-7) was pretty fantastic. It was a tennis match that featured two of the sport’s best just unloading on each other like it was a heavy weight title contest. They were both getting serves up over 120 MPH and were hitting some impossible shots under unbelievable amounts of pressure.
The rain delays did put me to sleep a couple of times, but I was hung over and tired, so I’m not going to hold that against what was an epic five-plus hour long match.
Early in the match it looked like Nadal was just going to run away with the title, but anyone who has watched Roger Federer over the years knows that he can not be killed by standard weapons. I was more than a little worried about Nadal when he was unable to close Roger out in the third set when Nadal had three championship points. But fate was not going to be denied this year for the Spaniard. It seemed as if Nadal’s athleticism was able to carry him through the fifth set, and by the time that the two players got to the seventh set, Nadal was able to break Federer’s serve and defeat his long time foe by holding serve in the sixteenth game of the fifth set (there is no tie-breaker in the fifth set at Wimbledon).
It was pretty clear that Nadal’s freakish athleticism played a huge role in his victory. This begs the question, will we see a wave of new, super athletic players in professional tennis in the coming years? I’m not sure, it’s been over a decade since Tiger Woods showed what being in incredible shape could do to one’s golf game, and we still haven’t seen anyone who is as ”pumped up” as Tiger in the PGA. Time will tell how Nadal’s success at Wimbledon shapes the game of tennis in years to come.
In case you either haven’t noticed, or don’t care, it’s been a good couple of weeks for Spain in the sports world as they had won the EuroCup a week before Nadal was able to win at Wimbledon. I guess good things come to countries that export such beautiful women.
Is Aludena Fernandez the source of Spain's recent emergence in the sporting world? You be the judge.
CC is on his way to Milwaukee
Uh oh Cubs fans, here comes Sabathia. And he looks hungry!
Cubs fans have always been aware that the Brewers have a lot of talented young offensive players, but they were always a little soft in their starting rotation. Well it appears as if Milwaukee is making their push for a division title (or at least the wild card) with the acquisition of Indians’ ace, CC Sabathia. Sabathia has been a bit down this year compared to his Cy Young season last year, but he is still a pitcher who has the potential to carry a team deep into the playoffs, which is something that the Brewers desperately need.
Sabathia is going to be a free-agent at the end of the year, so I doubt he will be a Brewer for long; but with the combination of CC and Ben Sheets, anything can happen, especially when the National League is as week as it is this year. I’m sure that thousands of Cubs fans all over the country got a little lump in their throat when they heard about the trade, which apparently cost Milwaukee four prospects, but I wouldn’t get too worried in Chicago just yet.
In my (very humble) opinion, the Cubs are still the team to beat in the puddle of yuck that is the National League. While there is some bad news for Chi-Town, Sabathia did have a 2.76 ERA and 7 wins after the all star break last year, the same can not be said of the rest of the pitchers in the Brewers rotation. It’s is certainly no lock that Ben Sheets will be able to stay healthy all year, given his track record in that regard. Jeff Suppan is currently on the Brewers’ DL, Manny Parra is unproven, and Dave Bush had an ERA of about 5.5 in the second half of last year; not to mention that horrendous bullpen. Don’t believe me? Well I have two words for you: Eric Gagne.
I know it’s in the blood of all Cubs fans to start to worry around this time of year. You are just looking for ways for the Cubbies to blow their lead, I guess a century of bad will do that to a fan base, but stop worrying.
This is the year!
It’s going to happen!
Yes you can!
Oh who am I kidding, you should be worried out of your mind right now, you’ve seen this happen before. Run! Sabathia is coming for you like the monster from Cloverfield, and it’s only a matter of time before he gets you!
