July 25th update

Cadel Evans pedals his way into history

• Cadel Evans became the first Australian to win the Tour de France this weekend. He conquered the grueling bike race and became the oldest rider since World War II (at age 34), and only the third non-European to win the race.
• The second place finisher, Andy Schleck of Luxembourg, racked up his third straight second place finish in bicycling's premier annual event. His older brother Frank finished right behind him in third place.
• In a sport that has a persistent cloud of steroids over it, Evans and his coach are known for being very anti-doping. Many people believe Evans could have been a better rider with the help of artificial enhancement, but he has never been linked to anything. We can only hope that he stays clean as every one of the last 10 winners has had a question of the cleanliness of their win.


Alomar and Blyleven get calls from Cooperstown

• Sunday saw the induction of two new MLB Hall of Famers as Roberto Alomar and Bert Blyleven were added to the ranks. Alomar, a second basemen and Blyleven a starting pitcher took very different amounts of time to be inducted as Alomar was only in his second year of eligibility while Blyleven was in his 14th.
• Born in the Netherlands, Blyleven moved to California at 5 and grew up idolizing Sandy Koufax.
• Known for a nasty curveball, no nonsense attitude and incredible longevity, Blyleven is the first dutch born player inducted into the Hall. He is 5th in MLB history with 3'701 strikeouts and 9th with 60 shutouts.
• Alomar, whose father actually played with Blyleven is considered by many to be the greatest second basemen of all time. He won 2 World Series Titles and had 2'724 hits, 10 Gold Gloves (given to the best defensive player in each league) and was an all-star every year from 1990 to 2001.
• The one big knock one Alomar's candidacy was that he once spit in the face of an umpire during a heated in-game argument in 1996. Some people have speculated that this is why Alomar wasn't given the honor of induction in his first year of eligibility.