Hope Solo Vindicated

After idiot coach Greg Ryan benched Hope Solo after a perfect run to the finals against Brazil, the US was destroyed by Brazil in last year’s World Cup, 4-0. She was then thrown off the team for saying afterwards that she would’ve saved the goals that replacement Briana Scurry gave up.

Well apparently that was correct. Posting a clean sheet today, Solo carried the US team to victory in the gold medal match over Brazil, 1-0. Carli Lloyd’s goal in overtime gave the Americans the surprising victory over the heavily-favored Brazilians.

Hopefully (no pun intended) people, and her teammates especially, will shut up about what happened last year and admit that she was and is the better keeper for this team.

Double Drop - US Out in 4×100 Relays

Another disaster in these Beijing games for the USA track teams as both the men and women dropped their respective batons in their 4×100 meter relays this morning. In each race, the exchange between the third and anchor legs crashed to the track and prevented the teams from advancing to the finals.

A New Day in the NFL

With the unfortunate and sad passing of Gene Upshaw, NFL Hall of Famer and NFL Players Association chief since 1983, the world of the NFL is likely to start looking very different. I don’t want to make light of Upshaw’s untimely death from pancreatic cancer. He obviously was a terrific player and an iron-man surpassed only by the likes of Jim Marshall and Brett Favre.

But in recent years his leadership has been called into question on numerous occasions by those most important, his clients, the players. Matt Stover tried to oust him as chief in the past year and older retirees have been enraged about his lack of initiative and understanding about pension and long-term injury assistance programs. Mike Ditka and Joe DeLamielleure, among many others, led the charge against Upshaw in hearings held by Congress and in the all-important court of public opinion. Many people started to see Upshaw as someone who wasn’t in touch with either today’s generation or even with his own.

I don’t know who will take his place as head of the player’s union but it will surely be a major change. No sports labor leader in this country has ruled as long as Upshaw’s twenty-five years at the helm of NFLPA. Whether it’s a younger retiree, as Upshaw was when he took the job, or and older vet, the world of player-owner relations in the NFL is about to be turned upside down.

World’s Fastest Man, Heavyweight Champ?

An interesting debate this morning on the radio about what title you’d like to have above any other, in the world of sports. The two big ones in comparison were world’s fastest man or boxing heavyweight champ. There were other choices like NBA champion (are you kidding?), Super Bowl MVP (still nowhere close and you have to wear those dopey t-shirts and give the even dumber Disney World phrase) or Heisman Trophy winner (not bad, but not on par with the international sports).

Honestly I’d have to go with world’s fastest man. Heavyweight champ would be cool and everything but you’d have to be a heavyweight to begin with, which I’m not that interested in, and you’d have to have your head beaten for a living. World’s fastest man, while it might not last more than a year, would be a terrific title (though as Deadspin pointed out yesterday, no white man has ever crossed the ten second barrier) because it is legitimately referencing the entire world. When you win the NBA Finals and they say world champion, that’s not exactly true. Same even with boxing, with all the different classifications and even the fact that it’s just the world champion of the heavyweight division. Doesn’t even count featherweights, middleweights, bantamweights or whatever other weight divisions exist.

World’s fastest man is definitive, everyone knows what it means and you probably had to be involved in one of the major events (Olympics, World Championships, Olympic Trials, etc) to be going that fast.

Bolt or Johnson?

As I think everyone who reads this blog (at least on a regular basis) is too young to remember Carl Lewis’ double at the ‘84 games, I’m going to use ignore him for the sake of argument.

Which was more impressive:

Usain Bolt breaking the world record in the 100 (9.69, previous was 9.72 in 2008 ) and breaking the world record in the 200 (19.30, previous was 19.32 in 1996) for double gold in Beijing?

Michael Johnson breaking the world record in the 200 (19.32, previous was 19.66 in 1996) and 400 (43.44) for double gold in Atlanta?

19.30!

Usain Bolt has broken the twelve-year old world record in the 200m, adding to his destruction of the 100m world record over the weekend. I think we have a new entry for one of the great sprinters of all-time. Unbelievable!

Please Please Keep ESPN Off the Olympics

I don’t care if every event is on tape-delay for the rest of my life, I really can’t stand the thought of ESPN airing the Olympics starting as early as 2014 (wherever that might be). Just think of it, instead of Bob Costas and Brian Williams of NBC News, we’ll get Chris Berman, Stuart Scott and all your other favorite arsehole talking heads polluting what is already the muddy waters of the Olympics. NBC has done a great job of being mostly understate, of having restrained commentators and for not overly promoting other things on their channels during actual coverage. I can see it now, all-around gymnastics finals, in between the final two competitors, a brief plug saying: “Don’t forget to tune in Sunday evening for the the New York Liberty taking on the LA Sparks. The WNBA on ESPN.”

Umps Need to do the Right Thing

The battle for replay in baseball appears to be finally nearing a conclusion, but one final hurdle might be convincing the umpires union to accept the deal. Why the umpires would want to be a hindrance to this process is beyond me. Umps are always the great evil out there in baseball. Missed calls, changing strike zones, we’ve seen it all with these guys. That’s the human element baseball purists like to cling to. But these umps have to want to get as far away from that stereotype as possible. I would if I were an ump. I’d want people to either not remember me at all or remember me for correcting errors in judgement and accurately calling the game (as closely as that’s possible). Instant replay is a way for fans, players and everyone else to see a better form of baseball, even if it takes some power out of the hands of the umps. Umpires should see this as a way to improve the game, even if it’s sort of at their expense.

The goal here is to get the right calls as often as possible. If that takes away from the machismo or whatever from the umps, too bad. They need to step aside, stop creating problems and give baseball the replay that it’s needed for so long.

End of an Era?

This week Rafa Nadal took over the world’s number one position in tennis, taking the crown from Roger Federer who’s head that position since February 2, 2004. Nadal, who beat Federer in the finals of both the French Open and Wimbledon and recently won the Olympic gold medal. Nadal will be seeded first in the US Open which begins at the end of this month, a tournament Federer has won each of the past four years.

So will Nadal be able to sustain his top ranking? John McEnroe traded the top spot with Bjorn Borg, Jimmy Connors and Ivan Lendl between 1980 and 1985, but once he lost the top spot in September of ‘85, he was never able to regain the top position. Are we in for a back-and-forth Federer/Nadal series for several years as is more of the rule rather than the exception of Federer’s extraordinary run?

I think Federer is going to come back and win the US Open and reclaim the world’s number one from Nadal. Anyone think Federer is done, as Wilbon does?

Tom Crean Better Not Be a Shyster

Indiana has in the past four months signed Tom Crean away from Marquette to coach its basketball team, first with an eight-year deal and now with a redesigned deal for ten years and $23.6 million. Obviously this isn’t the highest paying contract out there but it’s a significant sum, especially considering Crean has yet to step on the court for the Hoosiers.

IU is putting a lot of faith in this guy. He’s had a great reputation both at Marquette, where’s he done very well including the 2003 Final Four, as well as an assistant to Larry Izzo up at Michigan State. But a ten-year deal? I know they want to get rid of the stench of arsehole Kelvin Sampson, but that’s a pretty big commitment based on absolutely zero evidence of success.

I’m sure Crean will do a fine job at IU. He’s a midwestern guy coaching for the ultimate midwestern team. Let’s all hope he doesn’t screw Indiana over like Sampson did. I don’t have any affinity for IU and they were stupid for hiring him in the first place, but Sampson did them over pretty badly. I hope Crean doesn’t get dragged into that kind of mess.

Brady Quinn, Starting Quarterback?

With Derek Anderson concussed last night, and also sucking against the Giants, Brady Quinn will be making a start for the Browns against Detroit in a preseason game this weekend. Quinn actually looked half-decent against New York while his starting counterpart was pretty bad.

Is this where we’ll see the Browns starting to change their minds about Quinn and his short-term chances at starting in the regular season? It’s my opinion that they have to start Anderson in game one if for no other reason than the big contract they just gave him in the offseason. But if Brady Quinn is better, just like last season with Charlie Frye, they’ve got to make the change.

As an aside, how great were those Browns pants last night? I think they should’ve had some piping, but I thought they were terrific nonetheless.

A Bolt Double (or even Treble)?

Having cruised to victory in his 200m semifinal, Usain Bolt is looking like a good bet to win the first 100m/200m double since Carl Lewis in 1984. And with the ueber-fast Jamaican track team this year, he might have a good shot at the 4×100m relay as well. Considering Bolt has yet to actually run a race all the way through, the chances of someone beating him are pretty slim. What if he breaks Michael Johnson’s twelve-year old 200 record of 19.32? He would have to enter the discussion as one of the great sprinters of all-time. We’ll have to wait and see.

Can Sabathia Win the NL Cy Young?

This is an interesting question. Do we need to count his Cleveland stats against him when considering his merits for NL Cy Young? The precedent says no. In 1984, Rick Sutcliffe was traded from the Indians (ironically) to the Cubs mid-way through the season. At the time Sutcliffe was 4-5 with a 5.15 ERA. After being traded to Chicago, he went 16-1 in twenty starts with a 2.69 ERA and was awarded the NL Cy Young. His full season stats would’ve been 20-6 with a 3.64 RA which was still a pretty good year, though maybe not Cy Young level. Doc Gooden, as a rookie (I think) went 17-9 that year with a 2.60 ERA and finished second in the voting.

So, what about CC (nee C.C.)? Right now he’s 8-0 in the National League with a 1.60 ERA in nine starts with Milwaukee. He was 6-8 with a 3.83 ERA in Cleveland before the big trade. So his season totals to this point would be 14-8 with a 3.00 ERA. Not a bad ERA but nowhere near Brandon Webb’s 18-4, 2.85 or Edison Volquez’s 15-5, 2.73 or even Tim Lincecum’s 13-3, 2.60 for an awful San Francisco club.

Ultimately I think Webb has to win the award. Even if Sabathia doesn’t lose for Milwaukee the rest of the season, Webb has been more important for the whole season in the NL. Despite the Sutcliffe precedent, Sabathia still shouldn’t end up with the Cy Young because of what he did in Cleveland and the fact that it was half of the season.

Is Michael Owen Worth It?

Michael Owen has played in just 37 matches since coming to Newcastle is a mega-move from Real Madrid three years ago. Considering a regular season is 38 games, he hasn’t even played one full year out of the three. Yet Toon are about to sign the 28-year old to a £21 million contract extension. They paid £16 million to acquire his services from the Bernabéu and it can safely be said that he has not been worth nearly that deal.

Sure, Owen is an acclaimed goal-scorer as well as a pretty good guy, by all accounts. But he has had a string of injuries that should be worrisome for the Toon brass. Every time he steps on the pitch he seems to have an equal chance of a double or a knee injury. And at 28 it isn’t like he’s the young, budding superstar he was even just a few years ago. Owens’ contract is up at the end of the year and rather than losing him for free, as they likely would, I understand the contract offer now. But as he isn’t even on the field yet, due to a fitness race coming back from injury, it seems like as risky a move as ever.

I wish Owen well and I hope he’s able to come back and do well for Toon as they’ve already invested so much in his stay Tyneside. I just don’t know if cutting their losses isn’t the best idea at this point.

Explain This to Me

The USA basketball team has been lauded up one side and down the next for buying into the national team system created by Jerry Colangelo and Mike Krzyzewski. Why is that noteworthy? This reminds me of the old Onion article “Ray Allen Lauded for Being Decent Human Being.” That obviously is a joke, but apparently USA basketball is not.

It should not be a big deal that the players on the national team would be interested in actually practicing together and spending time preparing for their games. This should be expected and it is what every other team in the world does every year. Can we please stop giving these guys congratulations for doing what’s expected of them?