Happy Monday everyone, here's my Top 5 for August 10, 2009 from LenBermanSports.com.
1. Quick Hits
The Yankees complete a four-game sweep over the Red Sox. They've opened up a 6 1/2 game bulge in the American League East.
The first NFL preseason game was played last night in Canton. Tennessee beat Buffalo 21-18. By the way, the next football-less weekend? The week after Super Bowl 44 in February of 2010. They'll stage the Pro Bowl the week before the Super Bowl this season.
Tiger Woods wins the World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational in Akron after just a ridiculous approach shot on 16. The PGA Championship begins Thursday in Minnesota.
Hottest athlete on earth. A Finnish man, Timo Kaukonen won the World Sauna Championships by sitting in 230 degree temps for 3 minutes, 46 seconds. The tension must have reached the boiling point.
2. New York, New York
Early Saturday morning (12:42AM) in the Big Apple. Alex Rodriguez ends a fifteen-inning scoreless marathon with the Red Sox with a two-run homer. Within minutes a Top 5 subscriber emails me "yeah, lets see him do it in October." Minutes later the Mets expensive closer yields a walkoff grand slam homer in San Diego. It's a Dickens novel, only in this case it's "A Tale of One S***ty."
3. The Dog Ate my Homework
So do you buy David Ortiz's story? That he's not a hard core steroid user, he just popped some pills that were legal at the time? We've had all sorts of defenses. From Barry Bonds saying yeah, he rubbed some kind of cream but he doesn't know what it was. To A-Rod's cousin injecting "who knows what, who knows when." Don't even ask about Manny's fertility drugs. And now this. Whatever their story, here's one common thread. They were all trying to gain an "edge," and at some level they all had to know it wasn't exactly kosher.
4. Calm Down Knick Fans
Knick fans must be all atwitter. (Of course these days it doesn't take much to get Knicks fans atwitter.) LeBron James says he will not sign an extension with Cleveland, that he "wants to keep his options
open." Of course one of those options could be signing with the Knicks as a free agent after next season. Then again Knick fans figure the Dolans will figure out a way to screw it up.
5. Monday Musings
Didn't it look like Yankee pitcher C.C. Sabathia needs to skip a meal and was wearing pajama bottoms the other day? One tweeter responded, "The way he pitches he could be wearing a thong for all I care."
Yankee announcer John Sterling certainly has his share of critics but he tells the the truth. After A-Rod's winning homer didn't you want to hear Sterling's call of the "A-Bomb from A-Rod?" I know I did.
With the A's releasing Jason Giambi, R.I.P the career of "The Giambalco."
Hey, I went over 500 followers on Twitter @LenBermanSports this weekend. Only 2,000,634 to catch Oprah.
Happy Birthday. Everyone's favorite chucker, former Knick John Starks. 44.
Bonus Birthday: Mrs. Jason Sehorn (former Giant), actress Angie Harmon. 37.
Today in Sports: Stats, those damn stats. 16 researchers form the Society for American Baseball Research. 1971.
Bonus Event: Michael Jackson buys most of the Beatles music for $47 million, 1985.
A big thank you for all of your congratulatory emails on the 1st anniversary of Len's Top 5. Now send me all the nice people in your address book so we can really ramp up this sucker! (As always, anyone can opt-out at any time.)