July 11th update

Last Second Goal keeps USA alive in World Cup

• The US Women’s team defeated the Brazilian team 2-2 (5-3 in Penalty Kicks) in their quarterfinals matchup on Sunday in what's already being hailed as one of the most dramatic moments in the United States' international sports history.
• Two questionable calls by the referees led to two goals by Brazil. The US team was able to equalize in the 122nd minute, the latest goal in World Cup History.
• Up 1-0, the US team committed a penalty in front of their own goal leading to a penalty kick in the 66th of 90 minutes. After the first kick was knocked away in an great play by US Goalie Hope Solo (probably a top-5 name in sports), the refs called a penalty on the US for entering the penalty box prior to the kick. Given the second chance, Brazilian star Marta made good with it.
• After no more scoring in the remaining time or regulation, the game went into extra time. Marta broke through and scored 2 minutes into the Extra time, after a non-called offsides distracted the US defense.
• Then, with less than 2 minutes in stoppage play, magic happened. A beautiful crossing ball by Megan Rapinoe barely cleared the goalie and defense and left Abby Wambach able to head it into the back of the net. This last second goal brought back memories of last year’s last second goal by the US’ Landon Donovan in the Men’s World Cup.


Yao Ming Retires

• Yao Ming. the 7'6" Chinese phenom who played in the NBA since 2002, retired over the weekend. The Houston Rockets center was the first overall pick in 2002 and was instrumental in increasing the game's popularity in China, the world’s most popular nation.
• Ming’s career was undone by knees that would never heal totally, so he couldn’t reach his potential. Boston Globe sports writer Bob Ryan saw Ming play in the 2000 Olympics in Sydney and thought that he could win multiple championships. But despite teaming up with former scoring champion Tracy McGrady for years, Ming was only able to get out of the first round of the playoffs once.
• Ming will go down as one of the most popular players in the game having been voted to the All-Star game 8 times, including times when he missed much of the season injured. He was elected on the backs of many Chinese fans voting for him. He will also join a long list of tall players who had a great deal of potential but were arguably too tall to stay healthy long enough to make a big impact.
• Now it's time to debate his overall impact to basketball. A poll on USAToday shows that 71% of respondents think Ming's legacy was either a great player who expanded the game or a good player robbed of greatness. 18% think he benefited from too much hype and only 12% think he's a Hall of Famer.

Altruistic fan returns Jeter's milestone ball

If you won the lottery, would you give the ticket to the person who you purchased it from? Well, that's essentially what 23 year old Christian Lopez did after catching Derek Jeter's 3000th hit ball, a home run on Saturday.
• In an interview Lopez explained his rationale: "He deserved this. He worked so hard for this. He’s been in the league for so long, I’m not really the kind to take something away from him. He earned it.”
• Memorabilia for milestone hits like this are known to sell for jussssst a bit more than pocket change. A game worn glove worn by Lou Gehrig once sold for $387'000. Not impressed? Barry Bonds record setting 756th home run ball sold for a staggering $752,467.20. But those are nothing compared to Mark McGwire's 70th home run ball from 1998 which sold for more than $3 million and inspired a book.
• Given that Jeter just built a $7.7 million mansion, signed a 3 year $51 million dollar contract earlier this year and has made millions more over his career in contracts and endorsements, (and has already been featured on a Sportico Wednesday spotlight!) I may have tried to get a little more out of Jeter. But maybe that's just because I'm not as selfless a person as Christian Lopez.

July 6th update

Wednesday spotlight: Jeter nears Major Milestone

- Derek Jeter has had a pretty nice career. He has been part of 5 World Series championships and 12 All-Star games. He's won 5 Gold Gloves Awards (given to the best defensive player at his position) and 4 Silver Slugger Awards (given to the best offensive player at his position). He was the 1996 Rookie of the year, the 2000 World Series Most Valuable Player, and the 2009 Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year. And now the Yankee superstar is coming very close to becoming just the 28th player ever to get 3'000 hits, one of the most elite milestones for a baseball player.
- The long time shortstop already has more hits than any Yankee and is now hoping to become the first player to make it to 3,000 since Craig Biggio in June of 2007.
- Jeter, Mariano Rivera and Jorge Posada have been teammates longer than any 3 players in the history of any of the big 4 American sports (Baseball, Football, Basketball and Hockey).
- At least one of us here at Sportico hopes Jeter plays until he patrols the field in a walker, and bats with his wooden cane instead of a bat. He has had a long list of celebrity beaus (including Jessica Kelly and Mariah Carey), and has most recently been linked to actress Minka Kelly to whom he is engaged. He is also worked for years with his “Turn 2 Foundation” to help teenagers fight the influences of alcohol and drugs.


Djokovic Takes Wimbledon and World #1 Ranking

- Serbian-born Novak Djokovic bested Rafael Nadal for his third major and rose to the world number 1 ranking. This is the first time since February of 2004 somebody other than Nadal or Roger Federer has been #1 in the world.
- Djokovic is on enjoying a fantastic year having gone 48-1 this year, with his only loss being in the quarterfinal of the French Open. Djokovic also won the Australian Open, and will be the top seed going into the US Open (which starts August 29th)
- On the women's side, Petra Kvitova became the next in a long line of champions with difficult to pronounce names over the past few years, defeating Maria Sharapova in the finals. It was Kvitova’s first major and interestingly enough it was very similar to the way Sharapova won her first major. Being a tall left-hander from the Czech Republic, Kvitova has drawn many comparisons to Martina Navratilova, the greatest champion in women’s tennis history.


MLB All-Stars Announced

- On Sunday, Major League Baseball released the results of their fan-chosen All-Stars. As always there are players on the squad who experts believe should not be, and those left off the team who experts believe should be on. Unsurprisingly, 4 Yankees, and somewhat more surprisingly, 3 Milwaukee Brewers made the starting lineup for their respective leagues. *Note this is only surprising because Milwaukee is a small market and generally gets less votes, the players themselves probably deserve to start moreso than their Yankee counterparts.*
- The All-Star Game matches up the “best” players from each of the two leagues in Major League Baseball (the American League and the National League). Fans vote for the All-Star Game starters and the managers from the previous year’s world series manages his respective league’s team and gets to select the bench players.
- By rule, each team in baseball must be represented in the All-Star game by at least one player. Additionally, the league represented by the winner of the game gets home field advantage in the best of 7 World Series, a recent twist that no sport other than baseball employs.
- There's still one spot per league to be determined, as 5 players from each league will be competing for the final spot in another vote. Check it out here until Thursday at 4 pm at which point that vote will end.