Other Sports

[dee dee]

I really dislike Julio Caesar Chavez Jr, but looks like he came to fight tonight.

[Tequila Cowboy]

America's Cup organizers have been eyeing Chicago since winter

I haven't been into sailing for 30 years, and obviously I don't live in Chicago anymore but I would love to see this happen. I grew up on Lake Michigan and my father sailed in the Mackinac Island race almost every year sometimes as crew, sometimes as skipper. He actually missed by birth in order to sail in the race. I got to go on one with him when I was 12 and it was quite the experience. I would love to see the America's Cup on Lake Michigan with a chance to show the world the beautiful lakefront and skyline. Very cool.

[beantownbubba]

Roger Federer in the Wimbledon Finals. The world is a slightly better place today

[joelle]

mark cavendish: out. terrible. sucks.

now pulling for 'El Pistolero'. (no pun intended)

[beantownbubba]

Wonderful Wimbledon final today; wrong result.

[Gang Green]

Wonderful Wimbledon final today; wrong result.

In only caught the last two sets, but that was enough excitement for me. I kind of liked the result. Kind of funny how the men's match was almost 4 hours and the women's match was 45 minutes.

[Steve French]

This Joseph Parker shows a lot of promise.

Young, strong, heavy hitter and FAST.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/ar ... d=11288403

If he comes to a town near you, go see. His next fight I think is in Vegas.

[dogstar]

mark cavendish: out. terrible. sucks.

now pulling for 'El Pistolero'. (no pun intended)

Amazing scenes over the weekend from Yorkshire. The crowds were huge and the second stage was an absolute cracker - watching the leaders go up the final climb and looking like they'd suddenly ridden into treacle was something to see.

[joelle]

froome.
chunnel.
fantastic.

[joelle]

another bad crash. contador now out too.
damn.
rough bastille day over there in france.

[dogstar]

Womens Rugby world Cup final tomorrow with England playing Canada in the final. New Zealand the current holders got knocked out in the pool stages. Oh and one of my friends is playing for England tomorrow so you know who I'm backing.

[beantownbubba]

If you're awake, Murray & Djoko are just wailing on each other at the US Open. They've split the first 2 sets, both tie breakers. Some absolutely astonishing points.

[beantownbubba]

Yogi Berra called this one about 60 years ago:

"Fifty percent of the game is 90 percent mental." Or,

The. Will. To. Win.

Roger Federer showed tonite why he's a great, great champion, whether or not he goes on to win the tournament. What a performance and for sure at least 50% of it was 90% mental.

By the way if Djoko wins and Federer loses in the semis, it'll be a Serb v. a Croatian in the final. Could be more action off the court than on. But here's hoping that Federer earns the chance to win his 6th title.

[beantownbubba]

I don't follow tennis closely enough to know whether there's an easy/obvious answer to this, but why can't the US Open manage to finish the tournament in 2 wks like every other major? And isn't the US Open the only one that already has night sessions, giving them even more time than the others?

I know that the stated reason for the Monday finish is to give the finalists a day off after the semis, which makes sense, but don't the other majors do that as well and still manage to finish on Sunday. And doesn't Wimbledon even take the middle Sunday off?

And my wife asked this interesting question: Rather than the anticlimactic finish at 5 pm on a Monday, why not start the tournament a day earlier, on the Sunday before the traditional Monday opening? Makes sense to me (if you need the extra day).

And I bet the suits are crying in their champagne today. Not only a Monday finish, but 48 hours ago they were looking at classic, marquee Djokovic-Federer, now they've got nobody v. who?

[dogstar]

Sir Bradley Wiggins

That is all

[dogstar]

[bovine knievel]

[John A Arkansawyer]

Sounds legit:

DOVER, Del. -- The NASCAR driver known as "The Outlaw" testified Tuesday he believes his ex-girlfriend is a trained assassin dispatched on covert missions around the world who once returned to him in a blood-splattered gown.

[tinnitus photography]

check this out:

[beantownbubba]

What the heck is going on in Australia? Berdych beats Murray in a first set tie breaker then gets bageled by Murray in the second?

[beantownbubba]

http://espn.go.com/boxing/story/_/id/12 ... uiao-set-2

I would definitely pay to see this fight, but will I pay 90 bucks to watch it on TV? I dunno about that. In any case, pretty damn exciting that it's finally going to happen.

The money they're talking about is truly mind boggling. It does definitively answer one age old question: In the old days, the question was, would you step into the ring against, say, Muhammad Ali for, say, 500 grand. Maybe yes, maybe no. But would u step in against Mayweather for One Hundred Fifty Million Dollars? I'd say the question now is who wouldn't do that?

[bovine knievel]

check this out:

Insanity!

[Erdlivz]

check this out:

Insanity!

Is that TJ Burke?

That's ridiculous. Awesome.

[Zip City]

So, the "Fight of the Century"....

This was a spectacle that would make PT Barnum blush. Two prima donnas guaranteed ungodly sums of cash just to show up, and that's about all they did. These guys aren't fighters, they're brands. Mayweather's lists of demands was straight out of Mariah Carey's concert rider. Anyone who was tricked into forking out 100 bucks for this nonsense got what they deserved

[Cole Younger]

The fight was a glorified dance war. Manny seemed to want to fight. Or at least he wanted to more than Mayweather did. Lots of running around. Lots of dancing. Some head locks and hugs. Very little fighting. And what little there was took place when Manny could manage to land punches while Maywehter ran, danced, hugged, or tried to put him in a head lock. Glad I didn't pay for it.

[beantownbubba]

It's been quite a few days in the "other sports" department.

The US men's soccer team beat the Netherlands in Amsterdam 4-3, scoring TWICE in the last 2 or so minutes of regulation. The US had scored a grand total of 1 goal ever against the Netherlands before the 4 goal outburst.

American Pharoah not only won the triple crown but looked great doing it. It was thrilling to watch that pretty much wire to wire win including pulling away in the stretch a la you know who, though when you consider that Secretariat won by about 3x as much distance (that's me guessing by eye, i don't know the official numbers) in a faster time once again confirms the magnitude of that singular moment. In any case, it feels good that there's a triple crown winner.

Djoko knocks off Rafa but then loses in the French final anyway.

The US Women's soccer team started their run today w/ a 3-1 win over Australia that started out ugly and worrying but ended up being pretty convincing.

Discuss.

[dogstar]

It's been quite a few days in the "other sports" department.

The US men's soccer team beat the Netherlands in Amsterdam 4-3, scoring TWICE in the last 2 or so minutes of regulation. The US had scored a grand total of 1 goal ever against the Netherlands before the 4 goal outburst.

American Phoenix not only won the triple crown but looked great doing it. It was thrilling to watch that pretty much wire to wire win including pulling away in the stretch a la you know who, though when you consider that Secretariat won by about 3x as much distance (that's me guessing by eye, i don't know the official numbers) in a faster time once again confirms the magnitude of that singular moment. In any case, it feels good that there's a triple crown winner.

Djoko knocks off Rafa but then loses in the French final anyway.

The US Women's soccer team started their run today w/ a 3-1 win over Australia that started out ugly and worrying but ended up being pretty convincing.

Discuss.

Plus some bloke rode 54 and a bit kilometres on a bike in an hour this weekend. He would have got to 55km probably if the air pressure hadn't been so high.

Get the feeling that Warinka is the guy that's going to replace Nadal/Federer at the top of the tree.

Post season friendlies don't really count in soccer. The Dutch were probably using the game to get ready for a Euro championship game this week. England and the Republic of Ireland played one of the most boring games of football I've ever watched on Sunday. YAWN

[allisonsdc]

The US Women's soccer team started their run today w/ a 3-1 win over Australia that started out ugly and worrying but ended up being pretty convincing.

Discuss.

I agree, yesterday's game started off kind of shaky for the US Women, but they came around and were playing very well by the end of the game. It appeared to me that the refs were calling everything against the US --- even non-fouls --- and handing out at least one unwarranted yellow card. But the Australians were playing pretty rough and it went unnoticed by the officials. I hate to see one-sided officiating like that.

I'm looking forward to the France vs. England and Columbia vs. Mexico games today.

[beantownbubba]

Post season friendlies don't really count in soccer. The Dutch were probably using the game to get ready for a Euro championship game this week. England and the Republic of Ireland played one of the most boring games of football I've ever watched on Sunday. YAWN

Understood. I don't want to make too much of it, but these games mean more to the underdog than the established team. Van Persie and Schneider both played though Robben and others did not. OTOH Clint Dempsey, arguably the US team's best player was one of several US stars who didn't play.

It appeared to me that the refs were calling everything against the US --- even non-fouls --- and handing out at least one unwarranted yellow card.

Yeah, that 2nd yellow card in particular was absurd.

Edit: Oh, forgot to say that the Nigerian team reminded me of the Cameroon men's team from either 2 or 3 world cups ago - oodles of talent, not quite harnessed. I imagine there were a bunch of coaches around the world watching that game against Sweden just wishing they had the opportunity to coach this group.

[Bill in CT]

Djoko knocks off Rafa but then loses in the French final anyway.

Wawrinka played a superb match in the final. It didn't help Djokovic that he had to finish his semifinal vs Murray on Saturday (thus playing 3 consecutive days) while Wawrinka had Saturday off.
I disagree with dogstar that Wawrinka will be the new player on top of the tennis heap. He deserves a lot of credit for playing his best tennis at his age but he's 30 now and (Serena Williams aside) that typically means tennis players start to decline. Federer is 33 and hasn't won a major since Wimbledon 2012. I don't think he'll win another one.