Happy Thursday everyone, here's my Top 5 for July 26, 2012 from Len Berman at www.ThatsSports.com.
1. Quick Hits
- The Opening Ceremony for the 2012 London Olympics is tomorrow night.
- The U.S. women's soccer team beat France 4-2 as the Olympic soccer tournament is underway.
- Before North Korea's women beat Colombia 2-0, the South Korean flag was displayed by mistake causing North Korea to walk off the field for an hour.
- The mother of Cal Ripken, Jr. was abducted from her home at gunpoint and was later found unharmed.
2. Be Like Tim
It's not only the media that notices all the NFL off-season arrests. They've caught the attention of Giants star Osi Umenyiora. He said he went to Nigeria for a week, came back, and "half the NFL has been arrested." He said more players need to be like Tim Tebow. He said Tebow sets an "excellent example." It's nice to see that the players have noticed Tebow as well. Maybe he can lead them to a better place or at least less jail time.
3. Under the Radar
With our collective fixation on Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson has gone unscathed. But the truth is, after not making the cut at the British Open, you have to speculate about his future. Time was he won multiple tournaments a year, but after winning the 2010 Masters he's won only once in 2011 and one more time this year. I've speculated that Tiger Woods may never win another major. That goes double for Mickelson.
4. Mascot Fever
I know you're dying to know who Wenlock and Mandeville are, so here goes. They are London's Olympic mascots. They are drops of steel portraying the industrial revolution. Of course mascots were created so that kids could buy stuff at the Olympics, but drops of steel? What happened to the good old days like the San Diego Chicken?
5. Olympic Trivia
No prizes. But see how good you are with these Olympic questions that I came up with for the Today Show with Hoda and Kathie Lee yesterday.
And yes they had live pigeon shooting in the 1900 Olympics in Paris. Oy.
Happy Birthday: Gold medal winning Olympic wrestler Jeff Blatnick. 55.
Bonus Birthday: Mick Jagger. 69.
Today in Sports: Joe DiMaggio's 61 game Pacific Coast League hitting streak comes to an end. 1933.
Bonus Event: Roseanne Barr sings perhaps the worst and crudest version of the National Anthem in San Diego. 1990.
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