Okay, we can admit that we were slightly swept up in the fervor seizing the country after the U.S. soccer's team's thrilling last second victory last week in the World Cup, compelling us to watch Saturday afternoon's game against Ghana over a friend's house.
But with the U.S. loss, we wish those of you who love what has been dubbed "the beautiful game"all the enjoyment over the next two weeks that the World Cup has to offer, because, we're out of here. Really, we'll never get behind a game that features so much faking and flopping, frankly. Or did you not see Ghana's Samuel Inkoom fall to the ground in extra time on Saturday – despite not being touched by another player! They brought a stretcher out to carry him off the field. When he reached the sidelines, voila, he climbed out under his own power and was all good again. Sorry, soccer lovers. Who can get behind a sport where that's allowed, if not encouraged? And the officiating? Again, we hope you enjoy the next 13 days of action. And for some of you, we look forward to you caring about this in 3 years and 11 months from now.
No, it's summertime, which means Major League Baseball is what dominates in America. How 'bout those Tampa Bay Rays? Forget the headlines and the highlights featuring the B.J. Upton – Evan Longoria tete-e-tete; the real story is how terrible the Rays are doing, particularly in the hitting department.
The Rays's just lost two out of three home games this weekend to one of the worst clubs in baseball – the Arizona Diamondbacks. They were no hit on Friday night by former Rays starter Edwin Jackson, in what had to be the ugliest no-hitter in history. Jackson walked 8 (!?) batters and hit another, and threw an old school amount of 149 pitches, the longest in the majors in five years. It's the 4th no-hitter this year, the most before the all-star game since 1990.
Forget about the discussion about where the Rays might be playing in five years – they had the best record in baseball just a short time ago, but the magic has evaporated. Every team goes thru slumps, and the Rays have the solid pitching which should keep them competitive all year long, but as always, they have a problem many other teams don't have – they're in the best division in baseball.
This article appears in Jun 24-30, 2010.