The Bucks didn’t stop their wheeling and dealing, and they made a move I am a big fan of. They sent Fabricio Oberto and his serviceable contract to Detroit for Amir Johnson. The Pistons had no room for Johnson, but he’s a player I really like. When he did find a few minutes to play he made the most of them. He’s a good shot blocker and surprisingly good at stealing the ball, and he can score and rebound as well. He’ll take some of the pressure off of CharlieVillanueva, and he gives the Bucks some flexibility if they can’t or don’t want to afford Villanueva next year. This move makes the Jefferson deal look even better in my eyes than it did yesterday.
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Put Formula 1 on death watch. Eight Formula 1 teams, including perennial powerhouse Ferrari and current season leader Brawn GP, have announced their intention to leave Formula 1 and start their own racing series next year. The issue is financial, but not in the way that you might expect. The ruling powers of F1 want to limit team’s annual budgets to $60 million a year, and impose severe penalties if teams don’t adhere to the limitations. The eight teams aren’t interested in having someone else dictate how they can spend their money, so they are threatening to go out on their own. I have never heard anything so stupid. Going off on their own set open wheel racing in the U.S. back a decade or more, taking Indy racing from a rapidly growing sport to one that it all but irrelevant. F1 has a bigger base by far to build from, but they would still be badly crippled by this dissension. It seems odd that a series that depends so heavily on the car industry would be looking to find ways to spend more now, and it certainly seems like an odd way to try to garner public sympathy in the midst of a bad recession. I just hope that someone swallows their pride and blinks before this one gets totally out of hand. It’s not that I even care about F1 – I don’t – it’s just that I can’t stand to hear anything more about groups tearing themselves apart for stupid reasons.
I think the NFL needs to tighten up their drug testing, because Chad OchoCinco is clearly high. He took the opportunity today to guarantee that the Bengals were going to make the playoffs. What? Which Bengals? Surely not the same ones we have seen the last couple of years. Marvin Lewis is still their coach, right? I can see how they might be better than they were last year, and I guess I could even see how they could make a go of it late in the season, but I certainly don’t see this as a guaranteed playoff team. There are holes all over the field, and the organization still seems like a sick one – they still have Lewis at the helm, after all. I’ll respectfully disagree with the artist formerly known as Johnson.
Tiger Woods went directly from Ohio, where he made the entire PGA his bitch yet again, to New York to play a practice round at Bethpage Black, the site of the U.S. Open in just under two weeks. This is seriously bad news for the rest of his opponents – it clearly shows that he is intensely focused ad ready to defend his title. Add in the fact that he’s obviously in top form, and you have the makings of a heavy favorite. There are few things better than watching him when he’s in the zone.
Andy Roddick lost at the French Open today. What a shock. Actually, he got crushed. He lost in three decisive sets to hometown hero Gael Monfils. This victory sets up one heck of a quarterfinal match. Monfils has only dropped one set, and he’s playing as well as he ever has. His next opponent – Roger Federer. Federer is building a nice unbeaten streak on clay, but he had to fight for his life to come back from 0-2 against Tommy Haas to win in five sets. Federer is obviously favored to win the match, but it won’t be easy for him. The winner of this match will be in very good shape to win it all, so this could be a classic. It should go down on Wednesday.
Three quick thoughts to end the week:
Joe Torre said today that he doesn’t think that Manny Ramirez should play in the all-star game if he gets voted in. I’d go a step further – if the fans vote Manny into the all-star game then MLB should immediately ban people from entering every stadium in the league. It would be better to play in empty stadiums then to let people who are stupid enough to vote a suspended druggie into the all-star game make the team. This would make a mockery of the all-star game. Of course, the mockery ship sailed years ago when it come to all-star games.
It continues to amaze me just how bad the American tennis players are on clay. The latest disaster came today in the French Open when James Blake was beaten in straight sets by a 22 year old Argentinian qualifier making his grand slam debut. Mardy Fish is out as well after a first round setback to another Argentinian. The Americans have three players ranked in the top 22, and only Andy Roddick survived to the second round. It’s pathetic, really. Roddick has played in seven French Opens. He has lost in the first round four times, the second round twice, and once more in the third. This was Blake’s seventh Open. He has two first round departures, four more in the second, and one in the third. Fish has only made it as far as the second round once in four tries. That’s 18 tries combined without so much as a round of 16 to show for the effort. Over the same period the players have a grand slam win, five semifinal appearances, and 12 more quarterfinal showings in the other three slams. It’s pretty clear what the problem is – clay.
The late spring into the early summer is a great time for professional sports. Here are a few observations regarding some of what’s happening in the NHL, NBA, NFL, NASCAR, PGA and MLB.
It turns out that drug cheating isn’t just limited to baseball. NASCAR driver and team owner Jeremy Mayfield tested positive for an illegal substance and has been suspended indefinitely. He’s following the script exactly as he is supposed to – he claims that this is all a big misunderstanding and that it was just prescription medication that caused the problem. Shocking. This should be a much bigger story than the baseball ones. What’s the worst that can happen if a baseball player is high or juiced – he hit better than heshould and makes a mockery of the record books. There is nothing good at all that can come from a guy who is driving 200 miles an hour inches away from other cars who is baked out of his mind.NASCAR really should have a one-strike-you’re-out policy.
For the next two weeks I’m going to be away from my computer and out of town. That means that I have pre-written the stuff you will read for the next two weeks, and that in turn explains why it won’t be nearly as news-driven or current as it usually is. Hopefully, though, it’s still going to be interesting and worthwhile. I’ll be focusing on two main events – the NFL Draft the first week, and the Kentucky Derby the second week – and I’ll throw in some other stuff as well.
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