Remember about a week ago when Novak Djokovic said that Roger Federer’s dominance is coming to an end and that he was the player who was going to show that Federer was no longer the World’s best player? Well not so much mostly because Djokovic is a distant 3rd in the player rankings and it showed when he lost in the 2nd round to Marat Safin.
Novak Djokovic was upset in straight sets by Marat Safin in the second round at Wimbledon on Wednesday, ending the Serb’s chances of testing his theory about Roger Federer’s vulnerability.
The 75th-ranked Safin won 6-4, 7-6 (3), 6-2 on Centre Court. It was a stunning loss for the third-ranked Djokovic, who came to the All England Club confident after beating top-ranked Federer in the semifinals at this year’s Australian Open en route to his first Grand Slam tournament title.
The 21-year-old Djokovic came up against one of the toughest second-round opponents he could have drawn.
Former No. 1 Safin has won two Grand Slam titles. One came when he upset Federer in an Australian Open semifinal en route to the 2005 title. Safin beat Djokovic in the first round of that tournament — their only previous meeting.
“It was certainly a very bad day for me,” Djokovic said. “I didn’t do anything that I was supposed to — he was very solid in all segments.”
Djokovic had said Federer, bidding for his sixth consecutive Wimbledon crown, was vulnerable after his recent lopsided French Open loss to No. 2-ranked Rafael Nadal.
The moral of this story is, when you aren’t good (Ian Poulter comes to mind) don’t talk down at the best player. Roger Federer may not be as dominant as a once was and Djokovic may have beat him in Australia but he is not anywhere near his level. Maybe next year Djokovic will save his energy for the court. Even though he didn’t win Wimbledon he can be glad that he was able to win Stropsblog.com’s Asshole of the Week award.
Houston Astros pitcher Shawn Chacon was suspended indefinitely for going Sprewell on his General Manager.
“I sat down to eat and Ed Wade came to me and very sternly said, ‘You need to come with me to the office,’” Chacon said. “I said, ‘For what?’ I said, ‘I don’t want to go to the office with you and Cooper.’ And I said, ‘You can tell me whatever you got to tell me right here.’ He’s like, ‘Oh, you want me to tell you right here?’ And I said, ‘Yeah.’ I’m not yelling. I’m calm.”
Chacon said things went downhill from there.
“He started yelling and cussing,” Chacon said of Wade, according to a story on the Chronicle’s Web site. “I’m sitting there and I said to him very calmly, ‘Ed, you need to stop yelling at me.’ Then I stood up and said, ‘You better stop yelling at me.’ I stood up. He continued and was basically yelling.”
Chacon said that after Wade told him he needed to “look in the mirror,” it got worse.
“So at that point I lost my cool and I grabbed him by the neck and threw him to the ground. I jumped on top of him,” he said. “Words were exchanged.”
I guess that’s what happens when little men who want to be pro athletes get their ego out of whack and challenge men who really are professionals. Another interesting fact about this story, when I was watching Sportscenter last night they didn’t bother to mention the fact that Ed Wade was the instigator and started the story off by simply saying that Chacon had choked his GM. I was busy doing other things at the time so I kinda stopped paying attention, but when you open a story like that no matter what comes next all people will remember is that Chacon choked someone. Now I’m not saying that it’s OK for a pro ball player or anyone else to go around choking people, but it’s also not alright to put all the blame on one guy when clearly something else was going on. Except for the people in the room no one else can know for sure what was said to set Chacon off. Keep that in mind the next time you try and crucify a guy who may have be heard some stuff that no man would be OK with hearing.
Tomorrow when Spain takes on Russia they will don yellow jerseys due to the fact that both teams regularly rock red jerseys. Now in Spain the sports media has been all over this as a new excuse for this years imminent failure.
Spain coach Luis Aragones has an aversion to the colour.
He could not abide Atletico Madrid’s yellow away strip when coach of the Primera Liga side and refused to accept yellow flowers when Spain arrived at Dortmund for the 2006 World Cup. The traditional Spanish superstition surrounding the colour is thought to have arisen because French playwright Moliere was said to have worn yellow when he collapsed on stage performing Le Malade Imaginaire in 1673. He later died at his home.
This years squad, like so many before it, appears to have what it takes to win this tournament. Sure they look a little shaky in the back line but they have so far been able to pull it together when they have needed it most. For all the fuss the Spanish media have made over the shirts many of the teams players don’t seem bothered by any of it.
‘As far as I’m concerned it’s fine, I’m used to playing in yellow,’ said midfielder Marcos Senna whose club Villarreal play in an all-yellow strip.
Spain team mate Xavi said he was also unconcerned about the colour change. ‘If I remember correctly we played in yellow when we beat France (in a friendly in February) so I hope it brings us luck again,’ said the midfielder.
As long as the players are able to continue to play the way they have no amount of “bad luck shirts” or 88 year old curses should keep them from the final. Reading what the news of the country it appears that Spanish football fans have a lot in common with the North Siders from Chicago.
A few more looks of the shirts Spain will be wearing tomorrow:
PETA, People who only care about the Ethical Treatment of Animals and think that humans aren’t as important so they continue to bother us about dumb shit, are now directing their wrath at Wimbledon for using marksmen to clear the tournament grounds of pigeons.
Wimbledon came under fire from animal activists on Tuesday for using marksmen to shoot down dive-bombing pigeons.
The marksmen were summoned by Wimbledon as pigeon droppings on the restaurant tables were thought to be a health hazard.
The decision to call in the marksmen was condemned as “cruel and illegal behavior” by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, which complained to the tournament organizers and the police.
“Since the use of marksmen to kill pigeons appears to have been carried out as a first, rather than a last, resort and not out of a concern for public health but rather because the animals were deemed inconvenient by players, you appear to be in clear violation of the law,” PETA vice president Bruce Friedrich said.
Ok now I don’t hate PETA and I do believe that animals need to be protected from unnecessary harm. But where I disagree with PETA is the way they attempt to make any and every situation as scandalous as possible from atop their high horse. Things like this are a by product of civilization, so unless they live all live in the wild and don’t use any of our modern advances including the wheel, you can’t complain. Every member of PETA has contributed to the loss of pigeon habitat. Besides the laws of nature are pretty clear on the survival of the fittest, so if the pigeons were smart enough to leave on their own this never would have happened.
FC Barcelona striker Samuel Eto’o has yet to decide where he will be playing his football next season. Although it’s pretty clear that Barca no longer sees the Cameroon in their plans Eto’o still thinks returning is an option.
Eto’o, who has struggled for fitness in recent seasons, said: ‘The first two years at Barca we won everything while in the other two I had a tough time with injuries.
‘Now I’m weighing up my options and I’ll make a decision soon. I have to decide if I want to stay at Barcelona or look for another club. ‘I don’t have a lot of motivation to stay in Blaugrana. I know I still have some market value and this summer we’ll talk with the club directors about my future.’
If Eto’o, like Ronaldinho, can return to previous form he will definitley be a hot transfer target this off season. However injuries and fatigue from playing in the African nations cup have kept the 27 year old from reaching his full potential for the Catalans.
There was some positive news coming out recently about a possible new addition to the Camp Nou. Russian playmaker and all around bad ass Andrei Arshavin has his heart set on a move to Catalonia. Despite numerous rumors about a switch from Zenit St. Petersburg to the English Premier League Arshavin would rather play in the Primera Liga of Spain.
‘I know that I have offers from England and Germany, but what I would really like is to play in the Spanish League, in the Primera Division,’ he told Spanish newspaper AS.
‘It’s the championship I’ve always followed, I like the football they play there. ‘But, at the moment, I don’t have any offers from Spain.’ Those offers may soon arrive with Arshavin having been heavily linked to Barcelona following his starring role in Russia’s 3-1 demolition of Holland in Saturday’s quarter-final. Those reports were sparked by comments from Russian Football Federation president Vitaly Butko, who on Sunday claimed that the player has his heart set on a move to the Nou Camp. Real Madrid, Valencia and Atletico Madrid are also said to be interested in testing Zenit with an offer.
In his country’s upcoming game against Spain Arshavin will be watched very carefully by a number of top flight clubs. I don’t think one match will make or break any deals for the Russian however if he carries his side to a victory over the much favored Spanish it could increase the size of his deal. And it may also make it impossible for him to ever play in Spain. So my advice is to let La Seleccion roll on into the finals or look for a new home in England.
For the first time in 37 years an American League pitcher hit a grand slam. That pitcher was Mariners’ ace Felix Hernandez and the fucked up thing about it, he didn’t even get the win.
Hernandez sprained his left ankle while covering home plate on a run-scoring wild pitch. Carlos Beltran slid hard into the feet of Hernandez, who left the game one out short of being eligible for a win. After trying a painful warmup pitch, he had to be helped to the dugout by team trainers.
Later, Beltran said he called Hernandez to check on him.”It happened so fast,” Beltran said. “I wasn’t really watching anything except home plate. After I watched the replay, I saw that he was blocking the plate and I caught him with my spikes.”X-rays were negative and Hernandez expects to make his next scheduled start.”Sure, I’ll be there,” he said.
The important thing is that his team got the win, so him not getting his stat and getting injured don’t really matter. Or maybe they do. With or without the win a pitcher hitting a grand slam is still pretty cool especially since it was off of fellow Venezuelan ace Johan Santana. King Felix is trying to live up to the hype and nickname, but injuries obviously won’t help.
By now you probably heard about Shaq dissing Kobe in a freestyle rap at a club in New York over the weekend. Man was it horrible.
“You know how I be,” Shaq rapped. “Last week Kobe couldn’t do without me.”
He also implored the crowd to sing along to his oft-repeated chorus: “Kobe [expletive], tell me how my [expletive] tastes.”
Smiling and laughing often, O’Neal also sang that Bryant broke up his marriage.
“I’m a horse. Kobe ratted me out,” he rapped. “That’s why I’m getting divorced. He said Shaq gave a [woman] a mil. I don’t do that ’cause my name’s Shaquille. I love ‘em, I don’t leave ‘em. I got a vasectomy, now I can’t breed ‘em.”
Really Shaq? Later he told STEPHEN A. SMITH! -
“I was freestyling. That’s all. It was all done in fun. Nothing serious whatsoever. That is what MC’s do. They freestyle when called upon. I’m totally cool with Kobe. No issue at all. And by the way, don’t forget, six albums, two platinum, two gold. Anybody who knows me knows I’m a funny freestyler. Check the NBA DVD when I was rapping about Vlade Divac during my first championship run. Please tell everybody don’t make something out of nothing.”
Yes that is what MC’s do, just because you have a mic in your hand doesn’t make you an MC. This has got to be one of the weakest raps I’ve ever heard. It was like something you would hear on The White Rapper show. So I say again, Shaq please stop rapping. Oh and this story gets even worse for all hip hop heads -
“Everyone that knows Shaq knows two things about me: One, that I’m a rapper, and two, that I’m a comedian. When I played with Kobe, me, him, Brian Shaw, J.R. Rider, we had freestyle sessions all the time. …
Really? I bet they dropped some hot shit in those sessions. In fact that must be where Jay-Z got all his lyrics from.
No they didn’t trade Kobe to Chicago or anywhere else for that matter. However they did trade away a former number one pick. The Lakers, still looking for another scorer with Andrew Bynum being injured, pulled the trigger on a deal that will bring Pau Gasol to L.A. In return the Lakers sent Kwame Brown, Javaris Crittenton, Aaron McKie, two future first round picks and the rights to Pau’s brother Marc.
The addition of Pau Gasol is a good one for the Lakers as they look to improve themselves around Kobe. Not only does Gasol fill a short term need of size inside but more importantly he gives Kobe a legit second scorer which should leave Lamar Odom to devote more effort on the Defensive side of the game. Also as long as Lamar has been in the league he has shown a lack of the ability to dominate a basketball game the way his size and skill set would suggest, being the third option on a winning team should prove a solid career move for Lamar.
We won’t be able to tell how good of a trade this was until after the Lakers get Bynum and Luke Walton back healthy. But I have to sat that a lineup of Derek Fisher, Kobe Bryant, Lamar Odom, Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum seems pretty solid. Also with the youth they have coming off the bench and playing solid minutes (Walton, Jordan Farmar, Ronny Turiaf, Sasha Vujacic and once he returns from injury Trevor Ariza). This Lakers squad doesn’t bring up many comparisons to the great “Showtime Lakers” squads of old, it should bring about a bit of hope…of reaching the second round of the playoffs.
I know that with this coming from a Chargers fan it might seem like I’m just whining, but what the fuck ever. They are cheaters and always will be. 19-0 doesn’t impress me. Let’s all play dumb for a second and pretend that the Patriots being punished by the league for Cheating never happened, see it’s easy to be like the national sports media. In the AFC Championship game against the more talented Chargers the Patriots benefited from more cheating. As seen here -
Mike Vrabel clearly violated the rule about tripping people, this led to Rivers’ first Int. that led to the Patriots first touchdown.
On another note the Chargers proved that they are the more talented team. Rivers was half as mobile as he normally is, Gates couldn’t out run Seau and the rest of the Patsies’ old LB’s. LT bowed out, somewhat dissapointingly in the first quarter and Jamal Williams was a non factor, the biggest reason why Maroney was able to run all over the Chargers’ tired “D.” If real life was like Madden and you could turn injuries off the Chargers would have won that game, by at least a touchdown. This is why I wasn’t really disappointed that the Chargers lost, in fact I think I was more depressed by the home loss to the Chiefs in week 4.
Ian Poulter seems to think he is the best suited golfer to challenge Tiger Woods. At what I’m not sure.
“The trouble is I don’t rate anyone else,” the 32-year-old Briton was quoted as saying in the March issue of the United Kingdom version of Golf World magazine.
“Don’t get me wrong, I really respect every professional golfer, but I know I haven’t played to my full potential and when that happens, it will be just me and Tiger.”
I’m not really sure what he is talking about. He can’t mean that he thinks he can be better than Tiger at golf? Right? Maybe it’s just me but if I had devoted my life to anything, I hope that by the time I am 32 I will have reached my full potential. At least a little bit.
