The all sports posting...

This posting will be dedicated to many different sport topics, so there's your warning if sports isn't your thing. Also, I'll try to pick up the frequency of my posting. i've been slacking lately and going about 7-9 days w/o posting.

Topic #1 - Roger Federer.

Greatest Ever, hands down. He'll cement that by walking through Wimbledon and then capturing the US Open Crown in September. A friend of mine is actually going to Wimbledon this year, so i'll be looking forward to his random facebook updates and then hearing what he has to say when he returns.

Topic #2 - NHL

It's back!!! For those of you who did not get into the NHL playoffs, you missed some great sporting moments. Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals had the highest rating for an NHL Final in 36 years...and it was on a Friday night, historically the worst night for TV. Hopefully for the NHL's sake, ESPN gets back in the game and is able work out a deal w/ NBC/Versus to carry some of the playoffs next year. That will help it continue to garner support/attention from the casual sports fan. On a random note, I made a woman who I met for the first time during Game 6 despise my existence because I told her I was rooting for a Game 7 and not her beloved Red Wings to close it out in 6. She was actually disgusted w/ me that I was sitting at the same table as her and blamed me for their loss. This was about an hour after I got rear-ended by a woman who didn't have insurance. However, not all was lost....my pitcher of beer that I consumed during Game 6 was only $5. Beer - it's cheaper then gas.

Topic #3 - NBA Finals / Kobe Bryant

OK, the NBA playoffs were pretty solid overall, but the finals sucked. I blame some of that on all media by basically instilling in everyone's mind that a Cavs/Lakers finals was inevitable. I was happy to see Kobe get his 4th title though. I'm not a Kobe hater, in fact, I find myself normally rooting for him. Not sure what Kobe ever did to make people either love him or hate him. And this goes deeper than his Colorado incident w/ the hotel employee. I couldn't care less about that. But he's obviously one of the Top 10 players of all time, and probably the 2nd best shooting guard ever behind Jordan. I grew up in Jordan's prime and I just don't remember people hating MJ. Now, to be fair, a lot has changed since the 90's. Thanks to this wonderful invention none as the "Internet" information is easily accessible and you can read/hear/view so many different avenues of info/video/articles/blogs, etc... So obviously there is more coverage today and you naturally hear more opinions. With that being said, I still just don't think MJ would have been villified as much as Kobe has even if he had played in today's era. It just seemed like everyone loved and rooted for him. Now maybe it's because I grew up relatively close to Chicago (~2 hours), so naturally most articles I read in the paper were "pro-Chicago." Jordan had plenty of his own vices, including gambling, women, alienating teammates, etc... Many of these flaws can be attributed to Kobe as well. Just not sure where/when the public decided to turn on Kobe, arguably the best player over the past 7-8 years.

#4 - US Open / Bethpage Black

Very excited for the US Open this week/weekend. So much so that when Dave asked if I wanted to take Friday afternoon off and go to a bar to watch it, my response basically was, "Which bar..." An intriguing storyline for you to keep your eye on during the first two rounds is the IU sophomore, 19 year-old David Erdy, who just got in as an alternate after one of the Japanese players dropped out. He's not even the best golfer on IU's team.... So we'll see how he does at one of the toughest courses in the US. I'm guessing he shoots around 10-15 over par for the two rounds... One thing i'm not looking forward too is the constant media coverage that is going to be around Phil Mickelson, playing so shortly after he took a leave from the Tour after his wife was diagnosed w/ breast cancer. Obviously it's a feel good story and we all hope that his wife fights and beats the disease, but I just don't want to hear about it 300 times over the tourney's 96 hours. There is a such a thing as beating a dead horse, and I think this may start to qualify. After all, it's his wife who has cancer, not him. Don't take it as me being insensitive. I have plenty of family members and friends that have fought or are currently fighting cancer, but I think you can get what i'm saying. Frickin Tiger won last year's US Open on a broken leg and a torn ACL.... Phil's battle will be more mental as he obviously will be playing w/ some heavy emotion on his sleeves. Which brings up another question...every time he walks by the gallery he's gonna here some sort of comment about his wife's health and that people are wishing her well. Do you think this will help him? If anything, I think it may hurt him as he definitely needs to keep his mind focused on his game if he has any chance of winning.... my prediction is that the winner of the tourney shoots Even par for the tourney.

Topic #5 - my own tennis game

So both of my summer leagues have started. I'm 2-0 at #1 doubles in my 4.5 Summer league on Wednesday nights. In the Indianapolis Draft League on sundays, i'm basically playing guys that are a little better than me. I'm currently 1-2, but have played decent for the most part. No shame in losing to guys that played Division I college tennis. I'm having fun, meeting some new guys, playing well, and also may get some business out of it, so that would be nice!

Topic #6 - Jetskis

I forgot how awesome they are. I spent last Saturday up at Morse Resevior in Noblesville/Cicero at a friend's lake house. It had been a few years since i'd actually rode one...man it was fun to get back on and cut loose on the water.

I feel like i'm rambling, so I'm cutting this posting off now. Don't be this guy....kids, don't play w/ power lines