Photo by Ruben

A perfect game is a once-in-a-blue moon occurrence. Sure, there seems to be an upward trend in frequency, but there is certainly no denying the special feeling of watching a perfect game. I’ve seen David Cone and David Wells throw perfect games. Outside of a world championship, the perfect game is the greatest achievement a pitcher can achieve (not counting career records, etc.).

So when Hiroki Kuroda of the Los Angeles Dodgers got called to start against the Atlanta Braves last night, no one had a clue that he’d come within three outs of a perfect game. Kuroda retired 21 straight hitters before giving up a liner to right-field, a double by Mark Teixeira, in the eighth inning. He proceeded to complete the game, allowing only one hit and not giving up a walk.

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There are sports competitions, and then there are all-out brawls. Slugfests. Marathons of strength, will, and pure talent. Larry Legend against Magic. Ali versus Frasier. Brady versus Manning. The list is pretty much endless.

But recently, the sport of tennis has had a downward trend of popularity. Sure, Bill Simmons tried to resurrect the whole sport with his list of ideas to better the sport, by allowing cheering throughout matches and shortening sets… but these are not immediate possibilities and are whimsical hopes.

The days of MacEnroe, Ash, Borg, Connors, Sampras and Aggasi are long gone. American women, being solely represented by Venus and Serena Williams, are able to dominate the world. However, American men rarely make it past the second round. James Blake and Andy Roddick seem to have quite a bit of hype, but also seem to get steamrolled by anyone who doesn’t call America home.

Perhaps that is why the United States public has neglected tennis as a sport. Matches take a while, it doesn’t appeal to the middle class majority, and we don’t have any American heroes.

And to that, I say: WHO CARES?
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It’s July Fourth! Happy Birthday America….

On such a day as this, I hope you all enjoy some BBQ, warm sunshine, and a more than satisfactory time with friends and family. Oh yea, and these things too:

So, be safe, but have a good time.

Since it’s the fourth, it seems to be appropriate to give a rundown of some of the happenings around the world of Olympic qualifying. So, without further ado, here’s a list of the most recent and important occurrences on the road to Beijing:

• Michael Phelps is steamrolling his way through the swimming qualifying. At Athens in 2004, he won eight medals (six gold and two silver), and is attempting to win as many as 10 gold medals this time around. If he only wins four gold medals in Beijing (which seems almost a lock), he’ll break the record for most gold medals by any single Olympian. The current record is nine, held by Mark Spitz, Paavo Nurmi, and Larissa Latynina.
• Tyson Gay ran 9.77 seconds for a U.S. record in the 100 quarterfinals and followed up with a wind-aided 9.68, fastest ever under any conditions, in the final.
• Also at the Track and Field Qualifying meet in Eugene, Oregon, the men’s 800m final was an incredible spectacle. You can see it in its entirety here: http://youtube.com/watch?v=hcVN5PjmaDs.
• The men’s and women’s gymnastics teams are taking shape. You can see the entire men’s roster here: http://gymnastics.teamusa.org/news/article/2177. The women’s team has two members thus far; the insane Shawn Johnson and Nastia Liukin finished first and second respectively in the Olympic Team Trials last week. The rest of the team will be named after a few weeks with Martha Karolyi in Texas.
• The US men’s basketball team is ridiculous. I can’t help but feel like they’re going to be beating teams by close to 30 or 40 points.