On Wimbledon and Tennis

There’s not too much better in life than this, can’t go out as the air-quality index is high ( I find any reason), the women’s Wimbledon semifinals is on the tube and the action has been really good. That spider on the wall still hasn’t moved, the gutter guy hasn’t called (not that that means he’s not coming) and I can look forward to a nice workout followed by some baseball action tonight.

But what’s this? “Days of Our Lives” just interrupted the NBC coverage. How stupid is this? Okay, I switch to ESPN and now, instead of watching a continuation of a great match between Kvitova and Pironkova, I’m seeing an interview with Sabine Lisicki (of the powerfully serving Lisicki’s), which is fine, I guess, but where’s the live action?

So I try the Tennis Channel. Nope, it’s not there, they’re showing “Tennisography” whatever the heck that is. Ok, back to ESPN and, finally, here’s the semifinals again but it’s well into the third set now and Pironkova is down 2-love, all of which means we missed the key games in the match.

I’m of course pulling for the decided underdog, Pironkova, but even more so as the broadcasters and court officials have been doing nothing but disparaging her and making bad calls. If it weren’t for the Bulgarian’s prudent challenging, she’d have lost already.

“Sneaky, clever, off-putting”, they’re now saying of Pironkova, which reminds me of a description of Japanese at Pearl Harbor. Geez, ya think ESPN’s pulling for the blonde? Do they just hate Bulgaria?

Now I’m really pulling for the Bulgarian. She calls for another challenge but this time is wrong, but not by much. The Russian now holds again for the 3-1 lead. I’m thinking we missed the action in the first two games, the action upon which the match was decided. Now they tell me all the action is available online or on my cell phone.

Okay, so the coverage leaves a lot to be desired but it’s still better than “Days of Our Lives”.

The Bulgarian holds again for 3-2 but then Kvitova looks to hold too at 4-2. She really does have an impressive game, especially when she’s serving. That favoring of the big servers that characterizes the action here is what makes it unique, that and the fact that anybody who’s anybody shows up there.

And that’s why we’re seeing the Bulgarian at all. One of NBC’s disparaging remarks was that the Bulgarian only shows up at Wimbledon. I think that’s great. Whoa! A great get by the Bulgarian, then a great forehand by the lefty Czech, then an incredible rally and they’re both playing great tennis. So ESPN goes to commercial. Geez.

Now, as the Bulgarian goes down still another break, the broadcast team decries the loss of Venus Williams and the Dane blonde from the tournament. Yeah, I feel bad too. Imagine the pain of seeing some new faces.

Okay, now Pironkova’s finished. The big Czech (and all of these players are anything but vertically challenged) had too much power.

Okay, now I can break from tennis for a while to contemplate baseball.

It’ll be Cliff Lee and the Phillies against Josh Beckett and the Red Sox, the two best teams in MLB and two of the best pitchers. Surely this could be a preview of Game 2 of the World Series. (The Phils have Halladay, the Sox (no, not those White Sox) have Jon Lester ). Me, I’ll be pulling for my two fantasy pitchers going tonight, Michael Pineda and Ryan Vogelsong, against the Braves and Cubs, two teams that can’t boast of many hitters, although Aramis Ramirez and Brian McCann might disagree.

Now the fourth semifinal has been suspended by rain. This is ridiculous. Where’s the roof when you need it? Who the heck is on Center Court? Great, a Legends match. It takes 15 minutes to close the roof and move the matches around to courts they should have been scheduled on in the first place.

Okay, back to baseball, the Cubs game starts at 2:20PM and, Eureka! It’ll be on WGN! Cool. Now I can switch between tennis and baseball, if ESPN and Wimbledon ever come to their senses. It’ll be a continuation of Azarenka-Paszek, which Paszek, another Eastern European, is leading 1-0. It’ll be interesting to see how long it takes them to make a decision on the switch.

The Giants just took the lead in the Cubs game, on bloopers mostly, much like watching a Mets game. But Kung Fu Panda helps out the Cubs by grounding into a double play. But the pitcher refuses to get out of trouble and it’s now 3-zip. It’s looking good for Ryan Vogelsong.

Meanwhile, ESPN is babbling about Rafael Nadal and Mardy Fish. Where’s the women’s semifinal?

A peek back at ESPN and they’re covering the men’s prospects; there’s been no mention of the women’s semifinal everybody’s been waiting for. Vogelsong, meanwhile, is starting well but now is facing Starlin Castro, a tough hitter who can be pesky on the bases. Getting this out will be big.

But a sidetrip to the kitchen for three perfect eggs and a coffee leaves that result unanswered. Upon my return though, the Giants are up again and it’s still 3-nothing. Back to ESPN to finally find out that they will indeed do the smart thing and play the women’s semifinal on Center Court. It’s pointed out that Azarenka’s obnoxious screaming will even be more annoying under the roof. You can’t make this stuff up.

Vogelsong is now getting banged around a bit as Carlos Pena just went deep with a man on and Soriano flied out very deep to center. Maybe he’ll be more careful now. So far I’m not that impressed with the Giants Number 4 starter with the nice ERA.

A Coy Hill has now tied up the game. It’s high time for a new fantasy pitcher.

And it’s high time too for the women’s semifinals, ESPN.

A Nice Quandary

Shall I tell you today about the fall of Maria Sharapova at lush Wimbledon or shall I address another renewal of Mets-Yanks in a momentous doubleheader for both?

Or, maybe I could just turn an analytical eye to the brave Knicks selection of a young Italian with their first pick, or the Nets extreme shuffling, trading a bigtime producer on the court in Richard Jefferson for a couple of question marks and drafting two big guys.

Ah, what the heck! Let’s do a little bit of everything. They all make for a good story.

Maria the beautiful fell to another young Russian for the second straight year at that London sanctuary of tennis. Can it really be four years since she won at Wimbledon, when both shoulders operated in pretty much the same fashion?

Those were the days when she was at the top of her game, when she moved like the wind yet hit hard enough to beat even the likes of Serena into submission. But yesterday Maria double-faulted eight times and made more unforced errors than was absolutely necessary against a determined Kudryatseva.

Sharapova, though, was once again gracious in defeat if her father was not. Instead, he proved once again that he may not be worthy of such a daughter, one who doesn’t blame every loss on a bad day or some imagined injury, one who doesn’t hold up play in a desperate attempt to change the winds of fortune. She only expressed some natural frustration at her own vulnerability.

The back-and-forth Mets face the pitching-short Yanks today, resulting in some interesting matchups, the still plugging Pedro facing the newly acquired and well-travelled Sidney Ponson and then Mike Pelfrey facing the Yanks Dan Giese, who apparently has a lot of difficulty traveling at all. (Giese missed a flight).

It says here that the Mets sweep the Yanks today. That Mets pitching duo of Pedro and Pelfrey will be too much for the Bombers, despite that awesome Yankee lineup. Doesn’t good hitting always succumb to good pitching? We’ll find out tonight, I guess, after all the votes have been tabulated.

As riveting as the baseball may be, it can’t be more dramatic than the Knicks first pick of the 19-year old Italian Danilo Gallinardi, whose Dad used to room with the apparently fearless new coach Mike D’Antoni. In selecting such an obvious family favorite, he puts himself into a precarious position, but, come to think of it, not too unlike the football Giants Coughlin’s position upon the selection of Chris Snee. And that turned out just fine.

I’m hoping the Italian Connection just points to D’Antoni’s beliefs in the kid’s abilities, which are prodigious by all accounts. But at 210 pounds, it’s a little hard to believe he could become any kind of post presence, something the Knicks desperately need, or would have needed the way they used to play.

Of course, a little more shooting never hurts, but that hasn’t really been the Knicks problem. It’s been more the curious inability of the likes of Eddy Curry and Zach Randolph to get up in the air once in a while, or great while, for that matter. But the best big man available at number 6 was Brook Lopez of Stanford, whom nobody expects to really set the NBA back on its heels.

Rome wasn’t built in a day though, even if you do bring in an Italian. I just hope he’s the shooter and ball-handler Donnie Walsh expects. I suppose the inadequacies in the post can be addressed later. After all, the Knicks have been pretty bad for a long time, what’s a season or two among friends?

The Nets surely made a lot of moves, though whether it made them any better is seriously open to question. Trading Richard Jefferson (BYE RICHARD!) is a significant loss of scoring and why don’t Bobby Simmons and Yi Xiang send me? They certainly did get bigger though, nabbing center Brook Lopez of Stanford with the 10^th pick and then what might be a very serviceable Ryan Anderson at 21.

Right now, it looks as if Vice Carter will have to do a lot of scoring, not that he’s incapable of it. But, if the 6’10” 240 pound Anderson can light up the NBA as he did the Pac 10, anything is possible. Not that I expect it this year. It seems to me the Nets are gearing up for a great first season in Brooklyn. And, as a died in the wool Jerseyan, I can’t say it makes me happy.

But it all works for me. Mets-Yanks, Wimbledon, and the never-ending saga of basketball misfortunes in New York. You can’t say it’s ever boring, or even likely to be.