Random Thoughts, Vol. 4

BYE BOSTON!!!

Guess what time it is… this random thoughts should be fun.

The Red Sox blew it… hahahahaahahahahahahahahahaahahahahahaahahahahaahahahah

So did Atlanta (on behalf of my buddy Brian Scully who’s a huge Phillies fan… hahahahaahahahahaahhaahahahaahahahahaha)

Two SEC teams atop the NCAA rankings… shocker

The Philadelphia Eagles are 1-3… hahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahah

(side note: I know I’m putting lots of bad karma on my side by making fun of my enemies but I don’t care because this is funny. Also a message to Steve Smith, how’s Philly treating you :-P?)

Matt Moore, Josh Collmenter, Ivan Nova and Max Sherzer are all rookies that have won playoff baseball games… Cliff Lee, Zach Greinke, and C.C. Sabathia haven’t, um….

Ohio Staters Dan Herron and Devier Posey were suspended for benefits… again… please fire Gene Smith I’m begging you.

Texas A&M has led their last two games by a combined 55-20 at the half, and lost both of them.

Jordan Jefferson wants his job back at LSU… Les Miles would be stupid to say anything other than kick rocks.

Tony Romo blew a fourth quarter lead in week 1, led the Cowboys to overtime win with a punctured lung in week 2, seemed like the only competent Cowboy in week 3, then threw away week 4… at this rate Jerry Jones will be in ICU by week 9 from all of these heart attacks.

Mark Sanchez is trash…

It hasnt been a good year in Indy

… so is his offensive line.

You think the Seahawks should’ve resigned Matt Hasselbeck?

The one team that can beat Boise State is Fresno State… the game’s in Fresno… I’ll be nervous all Friday night.

Albert Pujols better not leave St. Louis…

… same for Prince Fielder in Milwaukee

(think about it for a second, why go somewhere else to play for more money when, if your Pujols, you can stay in St. Louis and be greater than Stan Musial, or if you’re Prince, stay in Milwaukee and be the ring leader of the most fun clubhouse and atmosphere in baseball? They should both learn from Carl Crawford who took more money to play in Boston and had a miserable season there when he wanted to play for the Angels. Money isn’t everything, you have to enjoy where you play and I don’t see how Boston, New York, Washington, L.A., or anywhere can compare for either of these cats.)

Ryan Roberts has too many tattoos.

Why doesn’t the Big Ten add Toledo? They’re much better than Indiana.

Missouri in the SEC? TCU in the Big East? When did NCAA realignment become like the NFL?

All of these passing yards in the NFL are nice, wait until it gets cold and you have to run the ball more and we’ll really see who the best team in the NFL is.

Is it wrong that every time I see Calvin Johnson I do the Transformers transforming noise?

Donovan… it’s over.

South Carolina had to change their uni’s because the referee couldn’t make out the numbers because the camouflage blended in with the black… Under Armour is really failing at trying to be Nike.

Speaking of South Carolina, Steve Spurrier and Stephen Garcia = George Steinbrenner and Billy Martin?

Can't wait for Saturday.

David Stern is starting to cancel games… uh oh.

When did Jesse Palmer get so much clout on ESPN?

The Rangers demoted Sean Avery to the minors, so now what do we do with these Armani vanity glasses?

Rex Grossman has a better record than Ben Roethlisberger, Michael Vick and Matt Ryan… I need a drink.

The Colts are really bad without Peyton Manning.

(I always knew Manning was important to the Colts success, I just didn’t know he meant this much. I mean this team could beat Purdue. The fact that Manning means this much to the Colts is a mix of crazy and sad. Think about when Tom Brady went down with a torn ACL, the Pats went 11-5! Bill Belichick just plugged Matt Cassel in there and the Pats still won games. The Colts tried with Curtis Painter and Kerry Collins and it doesn’t matter it’s just not the same. If this doesn’t prove that Manning is the most important player in the league to his team then I don’t know what will.)

If Serena has one more unwarranted blowup I’m done.

Red river is this Saturday… I’ll be looking at the sidelines more than the game. Texas and Oklahoma girls… yessir!!!

You do realize that the Yankees threw the last game of the season so the Red Sox wouldn’t make it right?

Even still, that was the greatest ending to the regular season ever.

(how great was that ending? I couldn’t stop watching the Yanks-Rays or Sox-O’s at the same time. The single fact that Red Sox lost in the manner that they lost was pure poetry. To go 7-19 in September and have a 3-2 lead in the bottom of the 9^th on the last day of the season only to watch Jonathan Papelbon be as sketchy as ever as he gave it away to the last place team in the division and three minutes later watch Evan Longoria line a fastball over the left field wall to clinch a berth for the Rays was movie magic. You couldn’t ask for a better script or a better ending. The best Yankees loss ever: Red Sox lost the game, the Wild Card, Terry Francona wasn’t brought back as manager and Theo Epstein might skip town too. All I need is David Ortiz on steroids and it’ll be perfect… wait a minute.)

Last one: Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Taylor Hall, Thomas Eberle might be the next Wayne Gretzky, Jari Kurri, Mark Messier.

Crazy? Yes. But damn they look good already.

So happy hockey’s back.

The Current State Of Women’s Tennis

Kim Clijsters face says it all about the state of women's tennis.

Quick, name me a viable contender for the women’s French Open title… give up? I don’t blame you because I can’t either.

The current number one is Caroline Wozniacki, who by the way has never won a grand slam championship, she lost yesterday. Number two is Kim Clijsters, who’s comeback story is one made for dreams, she lost yesterday. The Williams sisters are both absent due to injury, one-time wunderkind Ana Ivonavic and Dinara Safina are AWOL and Maria Sharapova is playing herself back into shape.

So what you’re left with is the possibility of Li Na, Victoria Azarenka or last year’s surprise winner Francesca Schiavone competing for the crown at Roland Garros.

Yep, this is the state of Women’s tennis.

This is reminiscent of the early 2000’s on the ATP tour when Andre Agassi, Pete Sampras and the other greats of the previous generation were on the decline and we tried to buy into Lleyton Hewitt, Andy Roddick and Marat Safin as the leaders of the new school. For three years until the emergence of Roger Federer, men’s tennis was a virtual crapshoot for number one and whoever got it didn’t do much with it.

Fast forward to 2011 and we’re at that same place in time with the women’s game.

Both Venus and Serena are declining in skill, Sharapova can’t stay healthy and Kim Clijsters has only proven to be a dominant hard court player and has been a non-factor elsewhere. There is not one big name in the sport that has, or can for that matter, take the game by the throat and make it their own in the way that Martina Hingis, the Williams Sisters, Steffi Graf or any of the other greats in the sports history.

In short, women’s tennis is falling into a state of mediocrity. After not even one full week at the French Open we’re witnessing it firsthand.

Wozniacki’s fall to one-time starlet Daniela Hantuchova is another setback in the talented yet frustrating career for Wozniacki. Right now she should have at least two slams under her belt, yet she doesn’t seem to have the same fight in her that other former number ones have had. Wozniacki just folds under pressure. Once the shots don’t fall her way her whole game falls apart. There’s no way that the number one player in the world should have only won 4 games against a player who has never made it past the fourth round of the French Open in her career.

Caroline Wozniacki looks the part of number one, but isn't playing it well.

Yet Wozniacki continues to disappoint. Fortunately or unfortunately, whatever your stance may be, she will still be number one for two more weeks because Clijsters lost earlier in the day to 20 year-old Arantxa Rus.

(Wait, 20 years old, two-handed power player, same first name as 90’s great Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario? I’m buying into her already. I need hope man, just saying.)

As much as I love Clijsters she just can’t get it done on any surface other than the hard-court. She made two French finals in 2001 and 03 and made the semis at Wimbledon, but hasn’t come near those performances in recent years. She’s a one surface player and that can only get you so far in the rankings at this point in her career.

Maybe I should buy into Vera Zvonereva, who’s never won a slam either, or Azarenka who is young and talented, but hasn’t made it past a quarterfinal of any slam, or maybe Schiavone, Sam Stosur or Na except all of them are pushing 30 and that’s where tennis players normally lose all of the points of their game.

By the way, those are your top 6 players in the world. Yikes.

The only player left in the French Open with any viable star power is Sharapova, and her career has been disappointing at best. Sure she’s won three Grand Slam events but you feel like she’s been more glamour than game. At age 24 she has more than enough time to attempt to regain the number one ranking like she has a few times in her career. However, she’s missed so much time due to injury that you wonder if her body can keep up with her over the next few years.

Unlike the men’s game from years ago I don’t think that the women’s game is becoming unwatchable. If Sharapova continues to win in France or Azarenka climbs closer to the championship match then maybe it will spark some interest for the game heading into Wimbledon.

That’s only hope right now though. The women’s game is suffering and if someone doesn’t step up quickly and take control of it then we’ll be sitting here waiting for the female Federer to come along. We all remember how long and painful that process was right?