A Brit Finally Wins Wimbledon

Wimbledon is about the only tennis tournament I watch all year long. I usually try to catch the semi-finals and I always watch the Gentlemen's Final. This year it was #1 seed Novak Djokovic versus #2 Andy Murray from Great Britain. Tim Henman had a window of about 5 years where he was probably good enough to win it and Murray has been in contention for the past 3 or 4 years but never could quite get over the top. He was able to beat Djokovic in straight sets and is the first player from Great Britain to win in 77 years. Fred Perry in 1936 was the last. As far as the match itself goes, all I can say is I really miss serve-and-volley tennis. Playing from the baseline commits yourself to long rallies and more unforced errors and I believe that is where the match turned. I don't think that it was that Murray that played so well, it was that Djokovic made a ton of errors. At one point, ESPN showed a stat that said Murray had ran 1.35 miles and Djokovic had only ran 1.15 miles. Really all that matters in the end is that Murray was holding the Championship trophy over his head. He finally made the British fans proud.

The Best Minute In Sports

The best minute in sports is the last minute of a game in the National Hockey League with one of the teams behind a goal. The team that is losing waits until the time is right to pull their Goalie and add an extra skater to the ice in order to pepper the opposing Goalie with shots hoping to tie the score. The team that is leading has an unopposed open net at the other end of the ice just beckoning to be shot at. The leading team's primary purpose is to get it out of their zone to kill some time whether they score or not. The majority of the time pulling the Goalie does not work and the leading team either gets an empty net goal or they win the game by one goal. When pulling the Goalie does work, it is a thing of chaos and beauty. It is just a mad scramble to put the puck in the net and the most exciting minute in sports.

Fighting In The NHL

The NHL strike is finally over and the teams are back to playing hockey with an abbreviated 48 game season. The shortened season seems to have placed a greater sense of urgency at the beginning of the season because teams cannot afford to get too far behind. This has caused more fighting majors at the beginning of the season as most teams are out to make a statement. I was watching the Rangers-Maple Leafs game the other night and the announcer made the comment that every team in the Eastern Conference had at least one tough guy on the team now. The Carolina Hurricanes went out and traded for Kevin Westgarth of the Los Angeles Kings to add to Tim Gleason. Gleason is a stand up guy and will stick up for his teammates but he didn't exactly strike fear into the hearts of the other team. When I first started watching hockey, I was attracted to the fighting as most casual fans are. However, the more I watched it, the more I began to realize what a beautiful, fluid sport hockey is with some amazing athletes. There is also a time to drop the gloves and a time to skate away. The Carolina Hurricanes and Buffalo Sabres were tied 0-0 about halfway thru the second period and John Scott of the Sabres tried drawing Kevin Westgarth of the Hurricanes into a fight. The Hurricanes announcer quickly pointed out that Westgarth had no reason to drop the gloves because it would only serve to get the crowd into the game (the game was in Buffalo) and fire up the Sabres and may have the adverse effect on the Hurricanes.

I Remember

I caught the last 4 minutes of the Lakers-Clippers game the other night won by the Clippers and that game helped me remember why I no longer watch the NBA. The last 4 minutes of the game must have taken 20 minutes to play between all of the free throws and timeouts. There is some kind of new rule in the NBA that if a player gets fouled in the last two minutes of the quarter then it is an automatic two free throws. The Clippers had an 8 point lead when I turned it on but before the two minute mark. it was an all out sprint by the Clippers to blatantly grab Dwight Howard because he can't hit a free throw. I don't care if he was on the other side of the court from the ball, they grabbed him and the refs would call a foul. The strategy by the Clippers was that they would rather take their chances with Howard at the free throw line than Kobe Bryant catching the Lakers up by nailing a few three pointers. I can understand the strategy but it made for some extremely boring basketball. Free throw shooting has been one of the basic fundamentals of basketball since just about the beginning of the game itself. During the ESPN era, it is probably one of the least practiced areas of the game. It is impossible to make ESPN's nightly Top 10 hitting a free throw. Let me know when it is time for the playoffs.