-This next thought is completely random. Last night, I was looking over my baseball cards and came across several Tony Gwynn cards. It's amazing what the 2007 bound Hall of Famer accomplished in his illustrious 20-year career. Today, all anyone ever talks about is how many home runs and RBI's a player winds up with. Maybe that's what's wrong with baseball. If you look at Gwynn's numbers at baseballreference.com, you'll see one of the greatest players ever to take the field. Eight batting titles including four straight (1994-97). 15 All Star appearances. Five Gold Gloves. Seven Silver Sluggers. Five 200+ hit seasons. Seven times he led the NL in hits. All these lofty accomplishments. The best part was it came with the only team he played with in San Diego. My favorite though has to be the 19 consecutive seasons the San Diego State product hit over .300. How many ballplayers have done that? In 2,440 career games, Gwynn finished with over 3,000 hits (3,141) and a lifetime batting average of .338. He also drew 790 walks compared to only 434 strikeouts. There are not enough words in the dictionary to summarize how brilliant his career was. In a Juiced Era where there is far too much controversy, Gwynn personified everything that was right about not just baseball but about sports. You never heard anything negative about him. He just showed up everyday and played the game all out. We need more Tony Gwynns.
-One thing we forgot to note regarding Tiger Woods' 11th major victory at the British Open was how emotional he got after tapping in that last par on the final hole to clinch a two shot victory over Chris DiMarco. He broke down in front of everyone and cried on his caddy Steve Williams' shoulder for a few minutes. His Dad Earl Woods meant a lot to him. It was a great sports moment. My favorite part:
"He would have been proud, very proud. He thoroughly enjoyed watching me grind out major championships."
Pretty inspiring stuff. There wasn't much doubt in my book that the great champion would bounceback from his disappointing showing at last month's U.S. Open in which he failed to make a cut at a major for the first time in his brilliant career. He could've been excused because it was his first tournament back after his father passed away. The great ones though can bury such showings and turn it around instantly. That's what made this past weekend so special.
And then there's this:
"I miss my dad so much. I wish he could have seen this one last time."
I'm sure Dad was watching every second from up above smiling down.
-In Sunday's NY Post, Mark Everson speculated that the Red Bulls might be readying to bring French star Zinedine Zidane to the Meadowlands. As it turns out, the Red Bulls and MLS are shipping striker Jean Philippe Peguero to Brondby of Denmark. Peguero led the Red Bulls with six goals. Everson contains that such a move would open the door for incoming coach Bruce Arena to open the vault and bring in a megastar. Headbutt aside to Marco Materazzi, Zidane was named the World Cup's best player, dominating the tournament in leading France to a surprising second place finish before falling to Italy in penalty kicks. If he came over, it would be monumental. But it also assumes that the 34 year-old will unretire. He announced his retirement from competitive football on April 25 following the World Cup. Everson covers the Devils during the NHL season. He's never had a great record when it came to making such assumptions. So this should be taken with a grain of salt.
-The Yankees bounced back from a 13-5 loss to Toronto, posting a 6-2 win over Texas to take the opening game of a three-game set in Arlington. The hitting star was rookie Melky Cabrera, who finished one hit short of the cycle. The 21 year-old Dominican was 3-for-4 with a stolen base and two runs scored out of the leadoff spot, replacing an injured Johnny Damon. In his first three at bats, he tripled, doubled and singled to spark the offense. The Bronx Bombers also got two hits apiece from Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez. Both knocked in runs with extra base hits. Aaron Guiel added a solo homer and Miguel Cairo chipped in with a big two-run double which put them ahead to stay in the fourth. Randy Johnson went six innings to pickup his 11th win, allowing two runs on seven hits, walking two and striking out seven. The Big Unit didn't have his best stuff but got through. He's been pitching better of late which definitely bodes well for the Yanks.
-The good news: They picked up another game on the slumping White Sox, who dropped their fifth in their last six to red hot Minnesota 7-4. Trailing by two, the Twins got homers from Michael Cuddyer, Justin Morneau and Joe Mauer to make Brad Radke a winner. A couple of days ago, he announced that he'll retire at the end of the season. The way the Twins are playing, his retirement might have to wait until October. The wild card race is heating up. The Sox still lead the Yanks by 1.5 and the Twins by two. It's going to be an exciting final 10 weeks.
-The bad news: It looks like the Yankees will remain 2.5 out behind Boston. At last check, the Red Sox were thumping Barry Zito and the A's 7-0 on homers from Manny Ramirez, Alex Gonzalez and David Ortiz.
-Meanwhile at Shea, the Mets dropped their second straight- falling to the putrid Cubs 8-7. The Cubs hammered Steve Trachsel for eight runs in 4.2 innings. The former Cub gave up three homers including back-to-back to Aramis Ramirez and Jacque Jones in the fifth. Juan Pierre's two-run single would prove huge due to a late Mets rally. In the Amazin's seventh, they scored three times on a Paul Lo Duca groundout, Carlos Beltran sac fly and David Wright single to cut the deficit to 8-7. But that's as close as they got. Believe it or not, the shaky Cubs bullpen was able to shut the door. Ryan Dempster tossed a 1-2-3 ninth (not a misprint) for his 17th save.
-The good news for the Mets: Carlos Delgado continued his turnaround with a two-run single in the first to extend his RBI streak to five straight. He has three homers and 10 RBI's over that stretch. The other plus is that the Mets are still comfortably in front of Atlanta by 11.5 games. The Braves have been hot of late winning eight of 10 including a 10-8 victory over the Phillies Monday. Despite being without stars Andruw and Chipper Jones the last two nights, they took the final two games in Philadelphia. Adam LaRoche hit two homers and newly acquired closer Bob Wickman retired the Phillies in order for his first save as a Brave. The Braves concluded their road trip 7-2 and now will return home to host the Marlins for three before a pivotal three-game set against the Mets. Believe it or not, that could be a huge series. A lot can happen in the next six days.
-In tennis news, it looks like the legendary Jimmy Connors will coach Andy Roddick. I think it's a great hire. Maybe the fiery Connors can rub off on Roddick in time for the U.S. Open. I can't wait to see what his impact could have.
-In other tennis stuff, Andre Agassi won his opening round match in LA over Xavier Malisse 7-6 (10), 6-0. His last ATP title (60th overall) came there last year when he defeated Gilles Muller. The 36 year-old eight-time slam winner might be retiring after this year's Open but he still is grinding it out. Against an opponent he beat in five grueling sets in the fourth round of last year's Open, he rallied from 3-1 down and fought off three set points to capture the first set and wore down an opponent 10 years younger. It says a lot about Andre's dedication even with just a few tournaments left in his remarkable 20-year career.
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