Viva Espana...Torres Ends 44 Years Of Misery!!!

After two weeks matches, Euro 2008 finally came to an end today with Spain beating Germany 1-0 in Vienna. For the Spaniards, its the first major tournament win since 1964, a drought that is unbelievable considering the amount of individual talent the team turns out every year. And the hero today was the one player who many considered to be the biggest Spanish underachiever in the tournament thus far...Fernando Torres. In the 33rd minute, El Nino, as he has been dubbed, tucked the ball away beating a very aged Jens Lehmann (and unlike wine, goalies don't necessarily get better with age). Though early, that goal proved to be an anti-climatic finish to what was a very bizarre Euro 2008.

Sure the Championship saw two European powerhouses duke it out to a 1-0 finish, which set aside seems very basic. But what lead us to this point was anything but a humdrum tournament. You had four teams dominant the group stages...and then, almost as quickly as they won their group, 3 of the 4 teams were knocked out of the tournament in the first round of knockouts. France, the World Cup runner ups couldn't even advance out of their group (granted they were in the group of death). Then there was Turkey, perhaps the story of the tourney because of their 3 consecutive come from behind wins when no other team in the tournament could even produce one comeback victory. And of course, Turkey's highlights culminated in what some believe is a a nominee for game of the year with Turkey and Croatia playing a marvelous game including goals in the 119th and 120th minute to send things to PK's. There was also the classic game between Italy and Spain that ended in Italian heartbreak. And right beside Turkey were the Russians, who came from no where with the youngest team in the tournament to almost play for the championship. But when it was all over, it was the Spaniards, with Villa who lead Euro 2008 in goals despite missing almost all of the final two matches, Puyol and Ramos who anchored a defense that shut down powerhouses Germany and Italy and only allowed 3 goals all tournament.

Those were some of the major highlights from Euro 2008 and if you missed out, don't worry, it will be back in 4 years and hopefully better than ever. In the meantime, there is always World Cup 2010 from South Africa which will bring just as much passion, fervor and excitement to countries all around the world. And even if the U.S. game bores us to death, that doesn't mean we can't take delight in watching the pure joy and agony that the rest of the world goes through when their team plays.

Lastly, I'll leave you with the call of the tournament from non other than Adrian Healey:

"Its a dutch oven and the French are toast!"

Two Dunks In Two Nights

It is front page sports news when a WNBA player dunks, because as of last Saturday, only one person (Lisa Lesile) had ever done it. But on Sunday night, Candace Parker, the rookie phenom out of Tennessee who plays for the L.A. Sparks threw down (if you can call it that) in a game against the Indiana Fever. That dunk made papers and sports news shows but unfortunately that may be the last time we see a WNBA dunk make any headlines.

Because for the 2nd time in as many games, Parker rose up and dunked tonight in a game verse the Seattle Storm. It was much of the same...time winding down in the game, a fast break with no defenders trailing thus giving Parker all the time in the world to get a good hop and make sure she elevated enough. Despite a lack of "authority" on her two dunks, it appears that Parker is making this "O my goodness and woman dunked" business a normal occurrence. With her confidence rising and a lot of the season left, I think she throws down at least 3 more jams maybe even 5...and I hope none of the rest make the news. Unless of course, she "poster-izes" someone which has yet to be done in the WNBA. GOOD LUCK WITH THAT CANDACE!!!!

Dunk vs. Fever 6/22/08



Dunk vs. Storm 6/24/08

Shaq With The Low Blow On Kobe

TMZ.com has posted a gem for the sports fan. Last night, Shaquille O'Neal grabbed the mic at a NYC club and decided to have a little fun...at the expense of the NBA's MVP. But forget about all of Kobe's accolades, Shaq chose to focus on two of the more sensitive issues regarding Kobe: the inability of the Lakers to win the Championship last week and the Kobe-Shaq feud regarding their adulterous 'encounters.' In regards to the latter, Shaq raps, "I'm a horse, Kobe ratted me out, that's why I'm getting divorced."

Shaq also repeated a line over and over that surely will stick in the minds of Angelinos for the next few days..."Kobe, tell me how my ass tastes?" What does that even mean? I don't know, but I doubt Shaq cares about the semantics because the line is offensive and its bound to start another pissing war between Shaq and Kobe. This could be fun, too bad Shaq wasn't on the list of 12 players heading over to Beijing next month. That means we will have to wait until the next Lakers-Suns match up 9assuming Shaq is still a Sun) to see the two players reaction to this rapping tirade.

Best Group Stage Goals From Euro 2008

I was going to sit down for an hour and find all the best goals from the group stage of Euro 2008 and individually post each goal on here. But then I saw the sun out, heard the pool calling and found this video on YouTube already edited. So I decided to make it a quick day and post the work of someone else instead of doing the leg work myself. Granted this leaves out a few great goals, in particular Wesley Sneijder's volley against Italy, but other than that it has arguably the 5 best goals thus far (not counting the quarterfinals).

Wesley Sneijder (Netherlands) vs. France
Michael Ballack (Germany) vs. Austria
Arjen Robben (Netherlands) vs. France
Arda Turan (Turkey) vs. Switzerland
Nihat Kahveci (Turkey) vs. Czech Republic

I will post the best goals from Quarters, Semi's and Finals after the tournament ends next week in case you cannot watch every game like I do...haha!

Ambidextrous Pitcher vs. Switch Hitter....Who Wins?

One of the strangest things ever in baseball took place Thursday night in the Single A baseball game between Staten Island Yankees and the Brooklyn Cyclones. Yankees pitcher Pat Venditte is a rarity...he can pitch with both his left and right hand. Usually that gives him the advantage, but with one out to go in the 9th inning, Venditte met his kryptonite...a switch hitter.

As is the case in baseball, the pitcher loves to pitch against a hitter of the same type (lefty vs lefty, righty vs righty). Well, both Venditte and the switch hitter Ralph Henriquez knew this, so they had a mind game. First the batter stepped in as a righty, then the pitcher adjusted, then the batter went lefty, so the pitcher followed. This unspoken dialogue went back and forth until finally the umpires recognized the eternal argument taking place between Venditte and Henriquez and thus ruled that the batter had to choose first. So he did and needless to say the pitcher Venditte went on to strike him out.

A perfect Coyote-Roadrunner moment that will be shown for years to come.


The short video highlight from Fox News:



The longer unedited version from the game broadcast (I recommend being patient and watching this one):

Scott Kalitta Killed In Funny Car Race

Scott Kalitta, a 46 year old veteran Funny Car driver was killed during the final round of qualifying for the Lucas Oil NHRA SuperNationals at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park. His car took off and about halfway through the run his car explodes into a fireball, breaking into pieces and sending Kalitta and his vehicle into a wall at nearly 300 mph. Below is the official description of what exactly went wrong.

"Something went wrong with the engine as the exhaust on the left side of the car appears amiss. When the engine let go, it exploded creating a gigantic fireball and breaking the car body into thirds around the hood and windshield area. The body lifted off the car in flames and flew back as the car continued down the track. Replay shows a continued fire as the car slowed greatly but not enough. The parachutes were twisted and did little to stop the car. The car continued down the track, went through the sand, over some dirt, through a fence, and hit the wall shooting the car into the air, breaking it into hundreds of pieces. An immediate fireball enveloped the car as part landed in the woods and part appears to land on the camera tower. Some of the trees in the woods were scorched by heated fragments."

The fire and ensuing crash are difficult to see on video, but sadly Kalitta's dad, Connie, a veteran NHRA driver was also his sons crew chief and was there when this tragedy occurred. Kalitta leaves behind his wife Kathy and their two sons, Colin and Corey.


*****I have posted the video of the crash below. Please understand it is very vivid and might be uncomfortable for some to see. But if the written description doesn't describe the scene enough, you can see it on video*****

Adding To The Tiger Lore

Golf viewership will decline immensely for the rest of the 2008 season because Tiger Woods is set to have season-ending knee surgery which will unfortunately take away the golf's best player for many months. Woods confirmed today on his website that he has a torn ACL and a stress fracture in his left tibia.

Golf will lose its undeniable drama that it takes on when Wood's is in the field, but for the true golf fan I guess its better that Wood's gets healthy for the long run...plus, he set out to win all 4 Majors this year and is only 1 for 2...so what is there to even play for?

What is amazing is that even by missing the rest of the season, Woods has already clinched a spot on this years Ryder Cup team (which he will also miss) and will probably remain the World's top Ranked golfer and Fed-Ex point leader based solely on what he has done in a measly 7 tournaments. In those 7 tourneys, Tiger has won 5 and finished in the Top 5 the other two times (2nd place at the Masters). Although he will only win 1 major this year, there is a chance that with the knee injury and all the other drama surrounding him, we will amazingly look back at Tiger's career and mark 2008 as his most dominant year ever...and thats special!

Greatest Closer Ever...Maybe Not So Much

Many people love to debate who the best closer of all time is...MJ or Kobe, MJ or Kobe...I think we have our answer.

Two things to note from the 2008 Lakers-Boston Finals. 1) In game 4, the Lakers gave up the largest first quarter lead in Finals history (24 points). 2) In game 6, the Lakers lost by the biggest margin ever in a closeout game (39 points). These are not two statistics that the greatest closers let their team become apart of.

But despite those two horrendous figures, the clearest stat that Kobe isn't the closer we all thought he was is this. When the Lakers faced elimination (a time when the closer should step up), Kobe showed up in the first quarter and then went to bed for the final three. In game 5, Kobe exploded for 15 points in the first quarter, then ended the last 3 quarters amassing another 10 points. In game 6, Kobe had a very similar performance scoring 11 in the first and 11 in the final three.

The argument of who the greatest closer ever is will finally be laid to rest, but don't worry Kobe fans, I'm open to debating who the greatest first quarter player ever is.

Update On The Death of Steroid Dealer, David Jacobs

I wrote last night about how the steroid problem has gone too far since many people believed that the death of convicted steroid dealer David Jacobs was tied to the NFL athletes that he outed. Today, ESPN is reporting that the Dallas Medical Examiner has decided that Jacob's killed himself and was not murdered by someone else. Jacobs suffered a self-inflicted wound to the abdomen and another to the head.

So the conspiracy theory that I found rather interesting (especially after Jacob's comments about people who might put a bullet in his head), isn't true. But for the 24 hours that we considered it an option, it really made me step back and realize this steroid saga has the potential to evolve into not just a sports problem, but a crisis that effects alot of people.

From Hypothetical to Real-Life...The Steroid Saga Has Crossed A Line

This steroids epidemic reached new heights today when a convicted steroid dealer who has begun naming NFL players who bought from him, was found shot in his house in Plano, Texas. The police have not confirmed a link between his past life as a steroids dealer and his death, but it makes too much sense to not be the case.

35 year old David Jacobs, along with a female friend named Amanda Jo Earhart-Savell, were found shot in Jacobs' home. The fact that Jacobs recently outed many NFL players as being steroid users, causes many people to see a strong connection between the death of Jacobs and the athletes that he recently named. This story takes an even crazier twist. According to ESPN the Magazine senior writer Shaun Assael, who has consistently been in contact with Jacobs over the last month, Jacobs expressed concern over the people he implicated through the information he shared with the NFL. This is a direct quote from David Jacobs: "The kinds of people I know about could put a bullet in the back of my head."

The steroid issue is a sad one because it has tarnished the record books in many professional sports. But it takes on a new importance when it transcends sports and begins to threaten human life either through ending the lives of children who misuse the drug in high school or in cases such as Jacobs', causes people whose reputation is being threatened to end the life of their accuser. This is yet another story that hints toward people taking athletics too seriously and convincing themselves that the life of another human is less important than having a tarnished reputation.

A Made For Hollywood Story From A Not So Familar Name...At Least Not Yet!

If you research the 1999 MLB draft, you will see names such as Barry Zito, Josh Beckett, Carl Crawford, Ben Sheets, Jon Lackey, Justin Morneau, Hank Blalock, J.J. Putz, and Alex Rios. These are a few of the stars of the future, some older than others, but all ring a bell to the common baseball fan. The one name that doesn't show up is the top overall pick in that draft, Josh Hamilton. The Tampa Bay Devil Rays selected him number one overall and gave him a singing bonus of almost 4 million dollars. He was the future, he was the cream of the draft class, he was the next big thing. But after a series of MLB struggles and then a car crash that left him and his mother hurt, Hamilton fell into a life of drugs, drinking and an addiction to not caring for anything.

Open up the stat sheet in this Sunday's paper and take a look at the American League section. You won't see A-Rod, Jeter, Manny, Big Papi, Guerrero, Cabrera, Griffey Jr. or any of the perennial all-stars that play in the AL. The name that appears is Josh Hamilton. He is at the top of Home Runs, Batting Average and RBI's. The three biggest offensive categories are lead by some 27 year old crack addict who has 26 tattoos, has a coach hold his meal money and spent most of the last 5 years wondering the streets.

His story is amazing; not just his new found glory in a sport where he used to represent the future, but also because its incredible to hear how a human being can fall so low and yet, through faith, family and friends, recover and come back to begin a life that suddenly has purpose and direction. Last season, in the midst of his rookie campaign, Hamilton wrote this article for ESPN. Give it a read, its a phenomenal account of what his life was like and how he turned his life around to get to where he is now.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2926447