June Snooze

There’s nothing to get excited about, I guess, but Mickelson just lost out on an Open win and now Sharapova has gotten by the first round at Wimbledon. The Penguins beat the Red Wings and the U.S. soccer team very unexpectedly got into the semifinals of the Confederations Cup. In just about everything except Major League Baseball, there’s excitement galore.

In baseball, nobody seems to want it, not unless you’re talking about the Colorado Rockies. They’ve won 8 straight and 16 of their last 17 games, an incredible streak for this fickle sport. But it is reminiscent of their World Series year when they preactically ran the table at the end of the regular season.

The incredible Denver contingent has swept St Louis and Milwaukee, taken two of three from the Rays and then swept the Pirates. If they can somehow get by the tough Angels and take the measure of the Oakland A’s, it’ll set up a real barn-burner against the Dodgers, presently the toughest team in both leagues by a large margin.

Of course, there are teams who want it, but the fates seem to be intervening on the side of the devils. In the case of our beloved Mets, they’re just totally snake-bit. Now Beltran is having an MRI, and if it shows something that indicates that playing will make his knee worse, Carlos will join all the others on the DL. Depending upon the length of his disability, that could really end things this year for our Metsies.

The Yanks have never been my favorite but they’re in the throes of a bad stretch too. They just have no relief pitching whatsoever. The starters look shaky lately, and come to think of it, the whole team really hasn’t been anything to write home about. Teixeira has been quite a find though.

Now Boston wants it, I’m sure of that. And it’s looking as if they’ll get it. Except for the conspicuous failures of Dice-K, the pitching looks as if it’s holding up and in the batting order, Big Papi is even starting to come around with 5 homers in June. They have some great relief pitchers in Papelbon, Saito, Ramirez, and Okajima, and it’s amazing that they’re not in front by even more than they are.

They talk about the dog days of August but right now, it sure seems to be occurring in June, much as this non-stop June rain reminds me of April. If Philadelphia were doing a little better, I’d just forget about the whole season right now. But it’s now official, Beltran will be out for a while and here come some pretty tough teams, St Louis, the Yanks and the Brewers to close out the month.

Maybe I should just pay attention to the tennis for a while and break my focus only for the NBA Draft. Thursday night should be interesting for both the Knicks and Nets, as there are some excellent players available at their respective draft positions.

The Knicks need a point guard and if they manage to get Curry from Davidson, they will have done very well for themselves. The Nets may go with a guard too, but I’m hoping they go a little bigger and get some really athletic guy who can shoot the ball, somebody like Vince Carter without the arm socks, or maybe a tough guy like Dejuan Blair.

Whatever else June might bring, let’s hope the baseball picks up a little. I just heard Tatis will be batting cleanup for the Metsies, God help us.