I give this stupid story a pre-emptive so what?.

Does the Yankees suspension of team advisor Reggie Jackson for speaking the truth about Alex Rodriguez and the effects of his steroid use on his legacy and the game make you believe MLB front offices had more or less to do with the steroids era?

Roger Federer has won Wimbledon going through world number one Novak Djokovic and Scotsman Andy Murray in what basically amounted to an away match. He’s 30 years old and still a winner and he’s back at number one.

“I’m used to Roger breaking my records, that’s the way it’s been for a number of years. There’s nothing I can do about it. I just sit here being impressed at what Roger’s been able to do,
[…] know how hard it is to stay on top for many years. The fact that it’s Roger will make it a little bit easier for me to take. Roger’s done incredible things on and off the court and really deserves all the accolades of being a great champion,”

–Pete Sampras

Hats off to Andy Murray. He played hard for his country today and he didn’t try to do it the easy way. He really has put it on his back and that’s a lot of pressure. There’s no solace in that, but it was a great match today. The crowd is rewarding them with cheers, applause and encouragement during his post match interview on Centre Court.

The thing about this era of tennis with Federer at the vanguard again and Nadal and Djokovic taking turns being #1 is that you kind of root for them all and then you just sit back and enjoy the fireworks. Even better Murray, Ferrer, Roddick, Del Potro, Tsonga and a few others are consistently worthy 2nd and 2a fiddles. If it’s not two of the big three in a final, these other guys are game. The tournaments are must see earlier and earlier every year.

Serena Williams rebounds from dangerous blood clot a year ago, wins her 5th Wimbledon Championship and her 14th Grand Slam.

She clambered into the players’ box to celebrate with her family, and then said: “I can’t describe it. I almost didn’t make it when I was in that hospital, but here I am again and it’s so worth it.
“I never dreamed of being here when I was so down but I never gave up.”
Williams then turned to her family and friends, in particular dad Richard, mum Oracene, sister Venus and physiotherapist Esther Lee, and said: “I thank you from the bottom of my heart.
“I could never have done this without you when you were with me in the hospital. Thank you so much.”
Wimbledon 2012: Serena Williams wins fifth Wimbledon title – The Washington Post.

Right now Venus and Serena are playing for their 5th doubles championship after two years off from doubles. They are also slated to play singles and doubles for the USA in the Olympics.

Of all the mistakes I have seen athletes make, the poorly executed public relations/chairty event known as “The Decision” is treated way worse then it ever was. Dan Shanoff Asks:

What I don’t understand is pundits who tell me/us that I/we have to like LeBron.

Why can’t I simultaneously appreciate that LeBron is jaw-droppingly awesome — as he was yesterday afternoon — yet still root against him?

It’s not liking or not liking LeBron. It’s about some people “hating” LeBron and instead of questioning that directly, pundits, not wanting to offend their viewership say you “have to like him” instead of risking offending the hateful by asking “you hate this guy for what?”. I think he’s just easy to hate until he gets some hardware.

The Decision, an hour of faux suspense that I nor anyone had to watch (and I didn’t):

It’s all part of the commitment James made last summer, when his hour-long “The Decision” special on July 8, 2010 — in which he said he was joining the Miami Heat — raised more than $3 million for charity.

[…]

“Very few people, with one hour of their day, one hour of their life — that’s all that show was — can impact this many people,” said Boys & Girls Clubs Vice President Frank Sanchez.

I’ve kinda taken to asking people “why” when they say they “hate” LeBron and they’ve all pointed to the decision first and then the dance party press conference in Miami (which Pat Riley, Magic Johnson and Alonzo Mourning all seemed ok with). Both are blown out of proportion. When people talk about playing basketball “the right way”, he does it. I’m OK if his PR is done the wrong way.

You can’t care about loyalty either if you are pulling for OKC. LeBron is a player that left a bad team, with bad management when his contract was up, the Thunder are a team that was pulled out of Seattle when the good taxpayers of that town wouldn’t donate 300 million in public money to build an arena for the billionaire owner of the Sonics to build a stadium, in a recession. A whole team, gone. Dave Zirin’s article on this is excellent. So if you hate LeBron, you should hate billionaire owners that hold sports teams hostage so they can extort money from cities and states even during a recession.

Europe special brand of sports hooliganism fueled by racism and nationalism is alive and well during Euro 2012.

Russians vs. Polish with the “This is Russia” Banner proclaiming Poland theirs: Russian Hooliganism Looms Over Soccer Tournament:

Soccer officials are also investigating whether Russian fans directed racist remarks at a black player on the Czech team and have threatened further disciplinary measures after violent clashes between Polish and Russian fans that caused property damage and several injuries hours before their teams met on the field Tuesday.

Racist chanting at Dutch Players:

“As at one moment there was a lot of noise coming from a specific stand, the team decided to train at the other side of the stadium, which was much quieter.

“A few players have heard sounds, which could be described as possible monkey chants. However, the training staff on the pitch were not aware of this.”

While Van Bommel complained specifically of racist abuse, the Dutch FA had earlier said this was mixed with anti-Euro 2012 chanting believed to have been prompted by the fact the city has not been given any matches in the tournament.

When this was put to Van Bommel on Thursday, he said: “Open your ears. If you did hear it and don’t want to hear it, that is even worse.”

Croatia supporting soccer hooligans shouted racist chants at black Italy player Mario Balotelli:

European soccer’s governing body has already sanctioned the Russian FA for the displaying of “illicit banners” by their fans at the tournament, but the Croatians are the first to face disciplinary proceedings for racist chants and displaying racist symbols.

So this is the level of the Racist and Nationalist animosity, but here is what UEFA plans to do those for those who are targets of racist chants:

But Platini said: “It’s a yellow card. It’s not a player – Mr Balotelli – who’s in charge of refereeing.”

Platini insists officials will deal with any racist incidents that occur during the tournament, which begins on Friday.

“It’s the referee who takes these decisions. Referees can finish the game. They have this power in case of racism,” Platini told the BBC sports editor David Bond.

Penalize the black players being called monkeys if they decide it’s fucking bullshit. In addition:

Platini dismissed suggestions his reputation would be tarnished if there is racial abuse at Euro 2012.

“Are you joking? You think I am responsible for the racists in the rest of Europe or in England or in France?” he said.

[UEFA President Michel] Platini said Uefa had done a lot to tackle racisim, backing such initiatives as ‘Never Again’, but said he was “not responsible for society”.

He added: “Society is not so easy. You have some problems and we have to organise these Euros from the beginning with some problems because these two countries never welcome so big an event in the past.

“That is, I think, the best way to protect the game against racism.

No one is staking Platini’s reputation on addressing racism in general society. People are staking it on Platini’s ability to keep fans who are people of color and varying nationalities safe from racist abuse and physical harm during Euro 2012 events. He wants to make it an insurmountable problem because Platini is fine doing what he has already done already.

There are no race riots at NFL games or section wide racist banners being unfurled in football stadiums in America.

Bradley over Pacquiao will go down as one of the most wrong decisions in boxing history. Watching the fight replay its purely evident. Even then, it’s still a decision and unless some concrete proof or compelling evidence of corruption of the two pro Bradley judges arises, it’s still final. It makes Pacquiao a 4 time loser overall and one time loser at his current Welterweight Weight class.

Speculation has risen around various conspiracy theories:

• 2 incompetent Judges wth awful Scorin’: This default, best case scenario, has been dismissed out of hand without actually being ruled out.
• Top Rank Fixin’: The Promoter (aka landlord) for Pacquiao and Bradley (Bob Arum of Top Rank) had rigged the pro-Bradley judges to engineer an all Top Rank rematch (Bradley vs. Pacquiao II) before Pacquiao is free to leave his contract from Top Rank and become an independent self promoting boxer like Floyd Mayweather.
• Big Dirty Money Fixin’: The other theory, organized illegal betting interests, (shady guys in bad suits, shady guys in nice suits, etc.) paid off the judges to generate a Bradley/Pacquiao II and create a huge payday for bettors who took the long shot Bradley over Pacquiao.
• Supplemental theories: Pacquiao Juicin’ /Arum Pay Day Loanin’ – Pacman got caught with blood type Balco and would get exposed if he causes a ruckus. Pacquiao has also been taking 7 figure advances from Bob Arum against his fights, so even if he was upset, he has to take the decision as it is. He’s in the hole.

Even my framing here is wrong: these above schemes aren’t necessarily mutually exclusive. Two judges would have to be as incompetent as they were crooked to believe they could fix a fight in such a manner (literally giving Bradley a near blowout) and go unnoticed. A promoter could absolutely work with a permanent or impromptu crime conspiracy to fix a fight and move the money line for a big pay day.

Here is a ringside recap of the decision by Rafe Bartholomew that intimates that the source of the corruption is with the “wink and a nod” acceptance of the awful business structure of boxing:

“I’ve never been as ashamed of the sport of boxing as I am tonight,” were the first words out of Arum’s mouth. He defused the anger in the room by calling the Bradley decision one of the worst he’s ever seen, comparing it to other controversial decisions like Pacquiao-Marquez III. Arum said that this result was far worse — “unfathomable” — and admitted that as angry as he was in the moment, he stood to “make a lot of money off the rematch.” He mixed righteous indignation and candid talk about business with a Yiddish-peppered rant about how old, incompetent judges make everyone feel like schmucks, “and nobody likes to feel like a schmuck.” The room was laughing at his sarcasm, even though moments before, many of the people who were now enjoying Arum’s irascible charm had been kvetching about how he must have masterminded the entire debacle. And that’s really the beauty of Bob Arum, the man who famously once told reporters, “Yesterday I was lying; today I’m telling the truth.” Twice a year, it seems like Arum is involved with something that makes everyone who cares about boxing feel like a schmuck, and every single schmuck among us just keeps coming back for more.

Tails? Arum wins, Heads? Bob wins!

This is a sport where the Promoter can build exclusive pay days by “signing” aka being the landlord of two fighters. Imagine an NFL where say New England Patriots owner Bob Kraft owns the Patriots and the New York Giants and complaining that the Pats lost the Super Bowl while being a primary benefactor of both team’s appearance in the game. Arum has requested an investigation from the Nevada Attorney General, but this doesn’t mean anything. A diligent Attorney General will only investigate things where evidence of some criminal wrong doing exists. A fight decision that can be explained by incompetence shouldn’t even spend a minute on an AG’s desk. He’s grandstanding. A law firm is investigating the fight, probably with the goal of opening a class action suit against Top Rank, Bob Arum, the WBO and the Nevada Athletic Commission, outside of that, this is written.

He isn’t the only winner: the MGM and it’s sports books win, the city of Las Vegas wins a lot of income, the Nevada Athletic Commission, HBO PPV and HBO Sports wins. and just because of that and some inept judges (at the least) we assume all the winners here were complicit. We won a bit too. Today everyone is talking about boxing. If you went to Las Vegas on fight night, you probably had a great time. If you had a fight party, everyone at the party had a lively ice breaker. We have new villians: Bob Arum and Old Judges. etc. It’s because this is compelling where otherwise, there was no compelling fight here. The rematch is a matter of sports justice to boxing fanatics everywhere who want to see this corrected and still naively believe a rematch fixes anything.

But all this talk of who had what to gain from this violation of trust is that no one is rushing to implicate “the winner” of the contest. Even though Bradley is the “winner”, and now a WBO champion, no one suspects him of anything. I think that kinda shows everyone truly believes in the end, Bradley is set up to lose.

they are still right around .500 and the like, but the offense and bullpen are abysmal.

I’m not super concerned, but it is tough to watch.

There are some guilty pleasures though:

“If I was getting back for our side I think I’d have to drill quite a few people because you’re in their home ballpark,” Hamels said. “It’s just, ‘Welcome to the big leagues.'”

He had alluded to hitting Harper on purpose, but not completely. But Hamels allowed only one run Sunday and it was Harper, who stole home after being plunked. He was pristine for the rest of the night, another clip on the ever-extending file as he prepares for a mega payday in free agency.

“I was trying to hit him,” Hamels said. “I’m not going to deny it. That’s just — you know what, it’s something that I grew up watching, that’s what happened, so I’m just trying to continue the old baseball. I think some people kind of get away from it. I remember when I was a rookie, the strike zone was really really small and you didn’t say anything just because that’s the way baseball is. Sometimes the league is protecting certain players and making it not that old-school, prestigious way of baseball.”

Unbelievable.

I really feel like Asante Samuel is right. he’s one of the best corners in the league and we traded him for the value of a pretty good college kicker. I want to hope that the Eagles will wreck shop in the NFL draft, but I can’t hope that at all. We’ve had some great picks recently like LeSean McCoy, DeSean Jackson and Jeremy Maclin, but due to big early round busts, washouts and misses like Kolb, Bunkley, Justice and Watkins I will remain a pessimist about the Eagles 2012-2013 draft class.

Dick Clark Passes away. Pat Summitt steps aside as coach of Lady Vols.

Allen Iverson is broke:

The man who is the best small scorer in the history of the NBA, who lit up Philadelphia nights with his pyrotechnic play, is said to have worked his way through the better part of – big inhale here – $150 million.

via Bill Lyon: Iverson on the rocks – Philly.com.

Note: Philly.com is one of the worst websites I ever have had to go to get news. I’m sorry I had to link to Lyon’s perfectly fine article amidst the junk they have built to host their news content online. Absolutely miserable. I wish someone there would figure this out, but visiting that site is like going to read ads amidst a little bit of news article.

Reading the Inquirer, Daily News through Philly.com is like reading the paper being displayed through a dirty window in a bad neighborhood while someone blasts a song you hate while someone who is trying to sell knockoff brand names bags to your girlfriend gets uncomfortably insistent.