January 29th update

Azarenka, Djokovic win down under

• The Australian Open came to a conclusion this weekend with Victoria Azarenka and Novak Djokovic winning the women’s and men’s titles in matches that could not have been any more different.
• Djokovic won his fifth Grand Slam Championship defeating Rafael Nadal in 5 sets in an epic back and forth battle that lasted nearly 6 hours, and a full hour longer than the longest final in any grand slam tournament in the open era. It was also longer than any Australian Open event ever and the fact that both players were still playing well by the end is a tribute to how incredible these two athletes are.
• It was not a perfect match by any means by Novak, and he had 69 unforced errors, but overcame a 4-2 disadvantage in the 5th set to win 7-5. Djokovic has beaten Nadal 7 times in a row now and has won the last two Grand Slam events (Wimbledon and US Open). He will look to be the first person since Rod Laver in 1969 to hold all four Grand Slam Championships, at the same time, at the French Open in May, which would also give Djokovic the 'Career Grand Slam' or wins in all four events.
• The main court at the Australian Open is named after Laver, who was also at the trophy presentation.
• The women's final was not nearly as memorable as Azarenka defeated former world #1 Maria Sharapova soundly, preventing her from retaking that top position. Azarenka won 12 of the last 13 games of the match, and sent Sharapova home with a bitter taste in her mouth following a very solid run until the finals. It was Azarenka’s first Grand Slam Championship. Despite being ranked #3 in the world before the tournament, Azarenka will be ranked #1 in the world when the new rankings come out (Sharapova was #4 but also would have moved to #1 with a win).


Two Sports Hold All-Star Games

• The NHL All-Star game was Sunday afternoon in Ottawa. Under the rules the NHL implemented a few years ago, the teams were named after Captains (the massive Zdeno Chara and Daniel Alfredsson). The All-Stars were selected throughout the first half of the season, but on Thursday Chara and Alfredsson pretended they were in the backyard and drafted teams. Team Chara won 12 – 9.
• Even with MVP Marion Gaborik and Chara himself making noise (Gaborik for scoring 3 goals and had an assists, Chara scored the game winning goal), the biggest story was two players who were missing. Sidney Crosby is still out due to issues from a concussion he had last year, and Alexander Ovechkin took himself out of the game after he was suspended for an illegal hit.
• Brandon Marshall led the AFC to a 59-41 victory in the highest scoring Pro Bowl ever (the NFL’s All-Star Game). Marshall had 5 catches, including a few that will be on the highlight reels for years and had 4 touchdowns. This was fitting for a year in which lots of offensive records were bested. This generally unenthusiastic game was actually pretty tense at a few times, with a few big hits dealt out, especially by the AFC team.
• The NFC's Larry Fitzgerald had a stellar game himself, catching 6 passes for 111 yards and 3 touchdowns.

September 14th update

Outstanding Individual Performances on MNF

• Monday Night Football is a staple of many schedules every fall but few games match the outstanding performances put forth this past Monday. The New England Patriots defeated the Miami Dolphins 38-24 on the back of a scintillating day by quarterback Tom Brady. Brady threw for 517 yards, which is the 4th most since the merger of the AFL and NFL (which is widely considered the beginning of modern football).
• Assisting him in this mark was wide receiver Wes Welker. Welker caught a 15 yard pass and ran all the way to the end zone. The remarkable part of this is that the play started on the opposition’s 1 yard line. This ties the record for the longest play from scrimmage at 99-yards. Obviously this record cannot be broken (as a football field is 100 yards), but this feat has only been accomplished only 11 times. Interestingly enough, one of those times was by quarterback Ron Jaworski, who is now a TV commentator and was commenting on this game.
• Not only did Brady have an astonishing game, but Chad Henne, the Dolphins QB, threw for 416 yards which combined with Brady's total set an NFL all-time record for passing yards in a game. Those weren't the only passing records, check it out here if you want to read about the rest.
• The final record tied was during the other Monday Night game (there are 2 Monday Night games during the first week of the season). The Oakland Raiders defeated the Denver Broncos 23-20 in Denver but the real news was made by Oakland kicker Sebastian Janikowski who hit a 63-yard field goal, becoming the third player in NFL history to make one from that long. Interestingly enough the second time this mark was achieved was also in Denver (the ball can go farther in the thinner air of the Mile-High City) by Jason Elam. The record was initially set by Tom Dempsey, who had his own aid while kicking the record setter in 1970.


Djokovic wins another major

• Novak Djokovic defeated Rafael Nadal on Monday's U.S. Open final, winning his third major of the year. Djokovic has already set a record for winnings in a calendar year with $10.6 million and still has a couple months left to increase that total before the tennis season ends.
• John McEnroe is calling it the greatest season ever and many agree with him. One person who stopped just short of that is his brother, Patrick McEnroe, a tennis analyst who said: “Just as a single season, I think Djokovic’s season is the best since Rod Laver in 1969.” Laver, who the Australian Open's courts are named after, was the last to win all 4 majors in the same calendar year.
• Even though Djokovic lost to Roger Federer in the French Open, what he's done this year is staggering. He's defeated Rafael Nadal 6 times in a row, all in finals, including the shellacking at the U.S. Open where Nadal had only lost a handful of sets over the past 2 years. Facing a deficit in the 5th set against Roger Federer, Djokovic returned a serve hard across the court, narrowly landing the ball inside the line despite the fact that if he'd missed, the match would be over. Federer, one of the greatest tennis players ever, was shaken and eventually lost the match.
• A couple years ago Nadal was seemingly taking the mantel from Federer with Djokovic a distant 3rd. But after this season the demonstrative Serb has put the entire tennis world in his rear view mirror (all while pulling out some funky dance moves).


Wednesday Spotlight: Justin Verlander

• Its one of the most interesting debates in baseball; Should a pitcher be allowed to win the Most Valuable Player award? Individual awards matter more in baseball than perhaps in any of the other sports, and the MVP award is the cream of the crop. There is another award specifically for pitchers called the Cy Young award (named after the man with the most wins as a pitcher). The arguments are plentiful, but generally the MVP is won by a position player and not by a pitcher.
• This year, there is a serious argument for a pitcher to be named an MVP for the first time in almost 20 years. Justin Verlander of the Detroit Tigers has been on an absolute tear. He has a chance to be the first pitcher to win 25 games in a single season since 1990 on a team that is likely to win their division. Verlander has been unhittable at times this year (literally), and has put the Tigers on his back. One of the things helping him is the fact that the rest of his team isnt really that good, especially the other pitchers, yet his team is probably going to win their division.
• Another factor helping Verlander is the lack of another credible candidate. Many other players have arguments, but without delving into them, all of them have major chinks in the armor. I will not go into the incredible stat line Verlander has put up this year, but if you are curious as to the argument for him winning MVP, you can read it here.

June 20th update

Rory McIlroy: New King of the Golf World?

22 year old Rory McIlroy’s shattered records left and right at the US Open and became the second youngest player to win one of Golf’s four majors (along with the Masters, PGA Tournament, and British Open) since World War II.
- McIlroy suffered a major blow to his psyche after blowing up at the Masters a few months ago, eventually finishing in 15th place in that tournament, after having a dominant lead ¾ of the way through. He was able to hold onto a large lead this time, at the Congressional Golf Course in Maryland for his first major title.
- McIlroy broke the records for the biggest win and best score in the history of this 112 year old tournament. He also becomes the second Irishman in as many years to win the US Open.
- The success of this universally well-liked player is a boon for fans of golf who want the sport to recover from the hit in popularity that has accompanied the fall from grace, both on and off the course, of Tiger Woods.


125th Wimbledon begins Monday with epic rematch

A year after playing the longest match in the history of professional tennis, John Isner and Nicolas Mahut are at it again, matched up to play in the first round of Wimbledon. Isner won the first round matchup that took over 11 hours during parts of 3 different days. In the 5th set, alone they played 138 games.
- Serena Williams also makes her reappearance onto the big stage, playing in only her second tournament since last year's Wimbledon because of a cut on her right foot and a pulmonary embolism. Tournaments are not required to seed by ranking so even though Serena is ranked 26th, she is seeded 7th due in part to her strong performance on the big stage in past years.
- Rafael Nadal is seeded #1 for the men while Caroline Wozniacki was awarded the top spot for the women.
- Second-ranked Kim Clijsters had to withdraw from the tournament due to a right foot injury, and one of the top Americans on the men's side, Sam Querrey, had to drop out due to injury as well.

June 6th update

Na, Nadal victorious in French Open
- The French Open concluded over the weekend with Rafael Nadal defeating Roger Federer 7-5, 7-6, 5-7, 6-1 and Li Na (pictured) beating Francesca Schiavone 6-4, 7-6.

- Na is the first Chinese athlete, male or female, to win one of the four tennis majors (The Australian Open, Wimbledon, The French Open and the U.S. Open).

- According to a CBS news story, she received over 300'000 messages on her website within 4 minutes of her victory.

- With his victory, Nadal became the 7th man to win 10 majors, including 4 of the past 5. Federer has the most all-time with 16.

- Novak Djokovic lost in the semifinals to Federer ending his 43 match win streak. He had not lost since November of last year, also to Federer.


Heat beat Mavs behind Bosh's late shot
- The Miami Heat barely survived another late rally by the Dallas Mavericks to win game 3 of the NBA Finals, 88-86. They now have a 2-1 lead in the best of seven series.

- Chris Bosh made the game-winning shot with 39.6 seconds left and Dirk Nowitzki had 2 chances to tie it, but threw a bad pass out of bounds the first time and missed a jump shot the second time as time expired.

- Dirk Nowitzki finished with 34 points and Dwayne Wade had 29, but Lebron James had an off night, only scoring 17 points.

- Under the current scheduling format, the team that wins game 3 when the NBA Finals are tied 1-1 has gone on to win the championship 11 out of 11 times.


Pujols rounding into form
Albert Pujols hit a game winning home run for the second straight game as the Cardinals beat the Cubs 3-2 on Sunday. Pujols now has 4 home runs in his last 3 games and looks to be getting back into form after a shaky first 2 months of the season.

- After his game on May 29th, the exact 1/3 point of the season, Pujols had only 8 home runs, 28 RBI's and a .257 batting average. All would be career lows by a significant amount.

- Rebounding is even more important than usual as Pujols is in his contract year, meaning that his contract expires after this season and he can become a free agent if he does not sign an extension before then. He has reportedly been asking for a new 10 year-$300 million dollar contract, but the Cardinals have balked and some have theorized that his poor start is due to distractions caused by the contract issues.