Sharipova Wins Open

10:26 AM

Last night, at about 9:30, nineteen year old Maria Sharipova won her second career grand slam title. This one came in Flushing, New York, at the US Open. Her last Grand Slam was at the 2004 Wimbledon.
"I knew that Wimbledon wasn't a joke," Sharipova said, "I knew i had it in me to win another Grand Slam."
Sharipova won in two strait sets to 5'1'' Justine Henin-Hardenne.
This was a really grate tennis match if you saw it. There were a lot of long rallys, and really, both players played pretty equally, although Sharipova did come out on top.
Sharipova knocked off Number 1 seed Amelie Mauresmo and, of coarse, Number two seed Justine Henin-Hardenne.
Perhaps more impressive than young 19 year old Sharipova's win, was the win of a true veteran of the game. Martina Navratilova, age 49, teamed up with Bob Bryan to win the Mixed Doubles title. Navratilova has played in 4 decades of tennis (1970's, 80's, 90's, 2000's). With the win, she won her 59th and final Grand Slam title, in fairy tale form.

Pacman Caught

4:32

Well, it happened again. This time its not Maurice Clarette, or Santonion Holmes. Its "Pacman" Jones.
Early last Friday morning, Tennesse Titans conerback and first round draft pick Pacman Jones was arrested outside a bar for disorderly conduct and public inntoxication.
This is the second time Pacman has been arrested, altough the first time all charges were dismissed.
In 2005 with the Titans, Jones played in fifteen games. In those fifteen games, he took part in 53 tackles. For all you math brains out there, thats a little over 3.5 tackles per game. He had no interceptians and no sacks.
The twenty two year old corner back attended West Virgina University. On August 19, 2005 he signed a five year contract.
Titans Head Coach Jeff Fisher decided to suspend Jones for the Titans pre-season game today. He claimed that he and Jones had a serious talk.
These young athletes have too much ahead of them. Pacman just made a bad name for himself by doing these crimes. Rickey Williams made a bad name for himself by quitting so he could move to who-knows-where to do who-knows-what. Justin Gatlin will always be remembered as the great American Sprinter that tied the record on the 100 meter dash at 9.77 seconds, but then was found out to be doping and got fined 100K and got suspended from professional track and field for 8 years.
Now Jones offense was significantly less than that of Gatlin and Williams. But he already has a criminal record and he just started playing professional football last year. This young man will be making millions and millions of dollars in his career if he straightens up, but, if he doesn't, you can't make much money in prison.

Five up, Five down.

10:29 AM

Usally i wouldn't write about the same thing twice in a row, but this is an exceptian.
Well, I said that the Red Sox weren't going to make the playoffs, and that the whole team was going down in flames. As the days pass, this prediction is becoming more and more realistic.
I also said that if the Red Sox wanted a chance at making October, they had to beat the Yankees 4 out of 5 times in their five game series. This also was not accomplished. The Yanks swept the Sox, giving them a comfortable 6.5 game lead in the division. (the Red Sox are still in second place in the AL East.)
They also weren't able to take advantage of both Minnesota and Chichago White Sox going 5-5 in their last 10 games. The Sox went 3-7. In the Wild Card, which I don't pay too much attention to right now, the Red Sox are 4.0 games out of first. (Minnesota is behind the White Sox by .5 games.)
Its not like the Red Sox have an easy road ahead of them either. They head on a nine game road trip facing Los Angeles (Angels), Seattle, and Oakland. Both LA and Oakland are over .500, and should be six tough games for the Sox.
The Yanks don't have it that easy either in the next nine. They go on a six game trip visiting Seatle and then Los Angeles (Angels). After that, they have an off day and then come back to New York to open up a 3 game set with the best team in baseball, the Detroit Tigers.
The next 6 games for the White Sox look tough too. They play Detroit then Minnesota. After those games, however, they take on the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.
The next 9 for the Twins shouldn't be too challenging for them. The play 3 vs. the Orioles and then, of coarse, take on the White Sox. After that, they open up a 3 game set with the worst team in Major League Baseball, the Royals.
So the Sox really need to pick up the pace if they want to play meaningful baseball in October.

Red Sox Woes

12:02 PM

Its no secret that the Red Sox are struggling. You could say that it has somthing to do with hitting, but you would be wrong. The Sox power numbers have been on the uprise and their team average has been excellent. Their problem? Starting pitching and closing. For example, Josh Beckett is still considered to be having a decent year, however, in his last three starts, he has an ERA over 8.00 and is 0-2. Not such great stats from the #2 starter in your rotation. Jon Lester has been doing alright, but not even close to how he started off the season. Although hes pitched decently, Curt Schilling has been on a little slide in his last two games going 0-2 with a ERA just over 4.00, and ERA good for most pitchers, but not so great for a future Hall of Famer. John Papelbon has been simply magnificant this year, however, on August 6th, and 9th, he gave up his first two blown saves, back-to-back. Those were two games that the Sox should have won, making them only 0.5 games back in the AL East, not 1.5 and not 2.5 back in the Wild Card, but rather 1.5 games back.
Ive seen much worse pitching than the Sox have been doing recently. However, this pitching is absolutly unacceptable for a team with the second highest payroll in baseball. ($120,100,524).
So why are the pitchers struggling? Well, you can't really say that Jon Lester is struggling but he is young and he has been on a little slide as of late. Josh Beckett's preformance is unacceptable for a guy thats getting payed over $4 Million. John Papelbon is still a strong canditate for ROY, but he did blow two key saves. I think that the younger pitchers have been struggling with the absence of Jason Varitek going back to my article "Boston's Catcher Situation." That was the captain of their team and he was the one that made everything work for the pitching rotation. When he gets back, I guarentee that the Sox will start to turn things around. Until then, still don't plan to see Boston in October, unless they can pull off some quality starts and win 7 or 8 ball games in a row. Boston opens a five game series with the Yankees in about an hour today. This series will be critical. Boston must take 4 out of 5 from the Yanks if they want to play in October.

Justin Gatlin

2: 50 PM

Well, yet another case of doping is becoming big news here in the states. This time it's not Tour de France Champion Floyd Landis, it's star sprinter Justin Gatlin.
Gatlin, 24, is a co-record holder of the 100 meter dash with a blistering time of 9.76 seconds.
On April 22, 2006, Gatlin tested positive for high levels of synthetic testosterone or other steroids. Gatlin constantly denies knowingly using preformancing enhancing drugs (PED).
This is the second time that Gatlin has been accused of using PED, and, unless he testifies against his coach Trevor Graham, will be banned from professional competition for life. If he does testify against him, Gatlin would still recieve at least an eight year suspension, still basically ending his career. (That means he would be 32 at the time of his return, very old for a sprinter.)
Graham claims that a massage therapist rubbed testosterone cream on his legs.
Look, this has become way to common in the United States. Athletes tend to sometimes think that they are above the law. This isn't just breaking the law in sports, it's breaking a constitutional law in the United States by using illeagle drugs! Agencys are way to forgiving to athletes that us PED. Example, in baseball, if you use a PED you get a 50 game suspension, usally a fine, and no jail time. If you get caught using steroids in baseball, you should get at least a 5 year suspension, $300,000 dollar fine, and a few weeks in jail.
If Gatlin is definitly guilty of using PED, he should be banned for life, fined, and put in prision along with all the other atletes that believe that they are above the rules of their sport, and the law.

Disagree? Comment or email me. Email questions as well that will be answered in future articles.

EQuestions 8-12-06

1:30

Question: Is it too early to pay attention to the wild card race in baseball? -John B.

Answer: John, right now, I think it is a little too early to be insterested it the wild card. I mean, today, currently in the NL wild card, there are 10 teams within 5 games of the lead (Cincinatti leads the race by .5 games.) Any of these teams could pull back and win the race. Personally, I start paying attention to the race around September 15. That's when it starts to become absolutly critical for teams to win and hold their lead in the Wild Card. And the same deal is with the AL, although, it is basically a 3 team battle currently (White Sox, Minnesota, Boston.) The White Sox lead that race by 1.5 games, with Boston behind by two games.

Question: Should Ben Roethlisberger start in the Steelers first pre-season game today vs. Arizona? Sarah B.--- Pittsburgh

Answer: Well its good to hear from a fellow Pittsburgher. As you know, Sarah, everyone in the city wants to see Big Ben play today. However, with his motorcycle crash just two months ago, it may be the wrong descision for Bill Cowher to make. Ben had a pretty serious concusion in that crash, and his brain could be very tender right now. If he gets hit and misses some of the actual season, Steelers fans will be furious with Bill Cowher. Playing Ben today is the wrong desicion.

Email me questions that I will answer in future articles @ fronzie5@yahoo.com. Leave comments if you disagree, or want to give general feedback.

Serena Williams Looks to make Comeback

1: 24 PM

Seven-time grand-slam tennis player Serena Williams has played terribly as of late. But, that is all about to change.
Miss Williams will be looking to advance to the semifinals in the Chase Open on Friday when she faces off against Meghann Shaughnessy, a fellow american.
With a sore knee, Williams hasn't played much tennis this season, and im sure you all remember when she basically quit tennis two seasons ago to do more fasion stuff. This season, she is trying to put all of that in the past, and concentrate on one thing and one thing only: playing quality tennis.
In her last major, the Austrailan Open from January 15-28, she was knocked out in the third round of competition by, at the time, the #17 player in the world, Daniela Hantuchova. Hantuchova is currently #7 in the world.
Williams has given up on tennis in the past, so what makes us think that she wont again? Serena's future is in fasion and modeling events, not in tennis. She had her peak, and while she was on the top, she exited as soon as she entered. Williams is not dedicated to tennis. She and Anna Kournikova have a lot in common in that respect: they both were magnificant athletes and great tennis players, but simply weren't happy playing the game, so they did something else that they had a passion for. Serena will realize that playing tennis isn't what she wanted to do, and she will be sorry for comming back, in my opinion.