Alex Kreitman - Stealing signs

No, I’m not talking about any sort of mellow trip or anything like that. I’m talking about Wimbledon.

How can you not love watching Wimbledon tennis? It’s great, unique and always dramatic. Even this year, despite defending champion Rafael Nadal’s abscence and Maria Sharapova’s early exit, it’s still exciting.

Roger Federer advanced to the semifinals Wednesday and looks to return to glory after losing to nemesis Nadal last year. He’ll play Tommy Haas who shocked most with his semis berth.

A more interesting story though is Andy Murray. The Englishman locked up a spot in the semis and looks to become the first British player to win Wimbledeon since 1936. That is a long time. I know the fans at the Old England Club are starving for him to win and I’m sure they’ll be going wild when he hopefully plays Andy Roddick. Roddick is in a tough battle with Lleyton Hewitt, but I think he’ll prevail.

Could this finally be the year for Roddick? I sure hope so. Andy really hasn’t amounted to much in his career except a lot of hype. He has lost in the Wimbledon final twice and has always had trouble with Federer. But who knows, if there’s a time to get it down, it would be now. I know one thing, I’ll be pulling for him.

I enjoyed watching one of his matches Saturday. He hits the ball so hard off his serve. He was clocked at well over 130 mph. That’s insane. I can’t imagine having to return that.

On the women’s side, Venus and Serena Williams have a good shot to face off again in a grand slam final. The semifinals consists of the top four seeds though so we should have some difficult but very entertaining matches. I’ll pull for an all Williams sisters final.

Anyway, the final is this weekend so make sure to tune in.

This is my third season playing adult softball with the recreation and parks department and I have to say it hasn’t always been pleasant.

I love playing sports and my teammates are great. That’s not the problem. The issue is with some of the over-competitive and hotheaded people on other teams. These grown men pick fights constantly, take it way too seriously and they can be very childish.

Sure, winning is nice, but most guys are out there to have fun. Unfortunately, I can’t say the same for some other players in our league.

One game last week began without a rec department scorekeeper and it was all down hill from there. We led by six or seven runs in the fourth inning when two women behind home plate, who were keeping score for the other team, interrupted the game to speak to the umpire.

From what I could gather, these two spectators took it upon themselves to protest the game. They didn’t recognize a player on our team from the other times we played each other. They brought this to the umpire’s attention and he told them he couldn’t do anything because his job is to call the game, not keep up with who is and is not on the team.

She didn’t like that answer so she called the rec department. Then she somehow got the umpire to pause the game, forcing us to wait for someone from the rec department to show up. This is an example of taking it too seriously.

At this point, our team had already admitted we had a guy playing that hadn’t played for us this season. He played last year, but was unable to play this year and because this was a makeup game we had some other players that couldn’t attend. Instead of forfeiting, we brought another player.

There’s nothing more frustrating than showing up to the field and the other team doesn’t have enough players. Every team uses “illegal” players and they’re not illegal in the sense that they play for another team or they’re a ringer or anything like that. The word illegal in this case means they aren’t on the official roster because they haven’t paid the rec department. That’s beside the point. Who protests a rec league softball game?

While we waited for someone from the rec department to come over we pleaded with the umpire to continue the game. We had another game right after and wanted to play, not just stand around. He refused so we asked the other team to just play for fun and they could have the win. After 10 minutes of yelling at us, they surprisingly agreed. Looking back, this was a bad idea.

A guy on the other team ended up picking a fight with me about being afraid to tag him on a play where a throwing error took away a play at third base. Those are his words, not mine. Why would anyone be scared to tag someone? It’s not like being held at gunpoint, I mean come on. I told him politely that I’d have no problem tagging him if given another opportunity.

Unfortunately, this guy ran his mouth the rest of the game and would not give it a rest. I gave him a reason to quiet down a few innings later when I applied a hard tag on him for the third out of an inning. As I tagged him, I couldn’t help myself and said, “There’s your tag.”

He of course couldn’t just let it go. He continued yelling across the diamond with my favorite quote of the night, “Stick around and I’ll sign an autograph for you after the game.”

Huh?

Anyway, its guys like him and teams like his that take the fun away from the game.

But I could care less that the U.S. soccer team made it to the final of whatever tournament they were playing in Sunday.

I don’t like soccer and I don’t follow it, but it was hard to avoid soccer talk  last week. In a stunning upset, the Americans beat top-seeded Spain. Who cares?

It was a lucky win that put them in the final against Brazil, a team that not many, especially the U.S., have success against. Surprisingly, the U.S. led 2-0, but then returned to form, allowing three second-half goals to lose. Talk about blowing the game.

I don’t pull against my own country, but in this case I just didn’t care. Usually I get extra hyped for internation competition like the Olympics or USA basketball, but for soccer it’s more like “eh.”

I did turn on the game and watch the final five minutes only after I saw it was close on ESPN.com’s homepage. What bothered me about the game was not the players or a specific play, but the stupid horns that the fans buzz throughout. it’s annoying as hell. It sounded like the stadium was under attack or something.

And who can keep track of all the leagues and tournaments that go in this stupid sport? Not me. This one was the Confederations Cup, a tuneup for next year’s World Cup. But then there are a million other club leagues and whatever else to mix in.

Anyway, I’m just glad it’s over.

I watched a little bit of the NBA Draft Thursday night and it provided a little flare of entertainment.

Usually, I hate drafts, mostly the NFL, because they are so long and dragged on. They’re chalked full with speculation and mock drafts with hardly any coming true.

But the NBA Draft is a little different. For one, it’s so much shorter. This year was exciting too because there were a lot of interesting players. I actually cared to find out where people were headed.

For instance, Stephen Curry was drafted by Golden State, Tyler Hansbrough went to the Pacers and Ty Lawson was taken by Minnesota then shipped to Denver. I was excited to see where those players and a few more were drafted since I enjoyed watching them play college ball.

The only critique I’ll give of the draft is that Minnesota seemed to draft like a blind man. With back-to-back picks at Nos. 5 and 6, the Timberwolves took two of the best point guards in the draft, Ricky Rubio and Johnny Flynn. Why would you need to draft two point guards?

Who the heck knows. Chances are they’ll ship one of them somewhere else in a trade, but a source within the club made mention of them playing in the same back court, seems dumb to me.

The thing I hate most about the draft though is that now we have to wait so long to watch these guys play. It’s like a big tease.

The Cleveland Cavaliers completed a sexy blockbuster deal Thursday morning with the Phoenix Suns.

Cleveland sent Ben Wallace and Sasha Pavlovic to the Suns for Shaquille O’Neal. Wow! Shaq and LeBron James on the same team, now that spells trouble for the other Eastern Conference power teams.

True, Shaq is getting old and true, he has not been as reliable in the last few years. He’s been injury prone, he’s had trouble getting down court, but it’s still Shaq. He’s still huge and he’s still a beast. The bottom line is that Cleveland needs him.

The Orlando Magic stunned the Cavs in the Eastern Conference Finals, preventing the Kobe Bryant vs. LeBron finals that everyone expected. The main reason for that was Dwight Howard. Cleveland had no one to guard him or outrebound him. Sure, Howard didn’t exactly go off in the entire series, but he rebounded and blocked shots because there was no one standing in his way. His mere presence alone killed Cleveland.

The only big man for the Cavs, Zydrunas Ilgauskas, is old, slow and ineffective. He has a good game every now and then but he isn’t going to produce for you every day and either is Shaq. So, I guess the philosophy with the trade is that you get them both, put them together and they equal Dwight Howard. If it works, the Cavs might just be in the NBA Finals next year.

I think that the Boston Celtics will pose a greater threat to Cleveland next year than the Magic. With a healthy Kevin Garnett, the C’s will be back to full strength. Boston fell one game short of meeting the Cavs in the conferencew finals without KG, so think about what would have happened if they had him?

Either way, getting Shaq keeps LeBron in Cleveland and it makes for an exciting situation. I can’t wait to see Shaq and LeBron play together, just as long as they’re not beating my Celtics.

The College World Series final is being broadcast on ESPN this week and the final game is Wednesday night. But other than that, there hasn’t been much love for the final game of the college season.

Nobody is talking about it, writing about or from what I can tell, even watching it. Why the hell not?

I feel like there was more buzz around last year’s World Series with underdogs Fresno State and Georgia doing battle. Fresno won it after starting as No. 4 seed, making it a true Cinderella story.

The two years featured back-to-back UNC vs. Oregon State matchups and those were popular, with the Heels losing them both. This year, the top two teams in the country are playing each other but people aren’t getting amped up for it and it’s puzzling.

LSU crushed everyone in the entire tournament and Texas has been durable as well. After beating Boston College in 25 innings during one of baseball’s most historic games, they are still alive.

The Tiger and Longhorns went into extra innings in Game 1, before LSU prevailed. Texas rallied in Game 2, winning 5-1.  It’s all or nothing tonight. So why can’t I find anything on ESPN.com’s homepage? Or CBS sports? or Sports Illustrated? That’s piss poor.

Instead, we can read about soccer, the U.S. vs. Spain in a game the U.S. shouldn’t be involved in. They’re only still alive because of a technicality in the rules, a stupid rule I might add. They’ve played like crap for the last week and don’t deserve to play another game.

You can also read another Brett Favre story, or about the NBA Draft. It’s just sad that the national media doesn’t hook on to the College baseball tournament like they do for basketball and football. It’s equally as entertaining.

If you aren’t watching sports in high definition then you aren’t living.

Back probably about six months ago my roommate purchased a new TV with HD. It was a dream come true. The picture was amazing. We got spoiled watching our favorite shows and sporting events in HD. We turned into HD snobs and bitched and moaned at channels and television shows that were not broadcasting in HD. We often said “Ugh, I can’t even see this show, it’s not in HD.”

My roomate moved out at the end of May and naturally took the TV with him. So, I was left with my old 20-inch piece of crap that doesn’t broadcast in HD. It was a nightmare.

The picture was sort of fuzzy and the top and bottom was cut off a little bit. I knew I couldn’t live like that. Once you go high def., you never go back.

I spulrged last week and bought a new TV. I moved into a new apartment and thought it’d be a perfect time to get a new TV. Best decision ever.

I purchased a brand new 32-inch Vizio HD compatible TV from Wal-Mart for about $400. I got it on sale of course and bargain hunted for weeks to find the deal. What a difference.

Now I can go back to watching sports in true style. The colors and the picture are crystal clear. It’s awesome. If you don’t have HD, go get a TV that has it. It’s worth it.

Congratulations to Lucas Glover for winning the U.S. Open.

Glover edged out Phil Mickelson, David Duval and Ricky Barnes on Monday to win by two strokes.

Sorry though Lucas, I wasn’t pulling for you.

Glover and Barnes came into the final day tied for the lead at 7-under par, four shots ahead of everyone else. Barnes plummeted early, shooting 5-over on the final day. Glover was 3-over but still hung on despite a charging Mickelson.

Lefty’s eagle at No. 13 gave him a share of the lead and I thought for sure that winning was his destiny. Mickelson had the crowd on his side and had the support of millions given his current family situation. Phil’s wife, Amy, was diagnosed with cancer recently and will begin treatments in early July. Michelson has already taken some time off to be with her and will be away from the PGA Tour even more once she begins treatment. Winning the U.S. Open would have been a perfect to begin his leave of absence.

But a bogey on Nos. 15 and 17 ended the magical comeback. Mickelson dropped two shots back and Glover hung on. Still, it was a remarkable weekend for Mickelson and he put up quite a fight.

Tiger Woods finished tied for sixth place at even par. His poor finish in the first round (4-over 74) put an end to his hopes of back-to-back U.S. Open wins.

David Duval, a ghost in the game of golf over the last few years, reappeared as a threat to win and he too sat tied for the lead on the final day. Duval birdied Nos. 14,15 and 16, but bogied 17. He also triple-bogied No. 3, but somehow still had a chance.

This year’s open provided plenty of story lines and drama. But wouldn’t it have been so much better if someone like Mickelson and Duval won? I think so.

I haven’t posted a lot this week and I apologize. I’ve been busy trying to get things done and taken care of for next week when I will be out of the office on my week of company-wide furlough.

Freedom Communications, the Times-News’ corporate office has mandated that each associate take a week of unpaid vacation (furlough). Mine is next week. While on furlough I’m not allowed to do any work at all and I can’t even check e-mails.

To tell you the truth, I’m looking forward to it, except of course for the fact I won’t be getting paid. I will be spending the week moving into a new apartment and relaxing at the beach.

My parents are coming down from Boston for a few days and I plan on meeting them in Wilmington for a few days of fun and the sun. We’re playing golf Friday too.

So, obviously I won’t be blogging next week, but I’ll be back on Monday, June 22, so don’t miss me too much!

The Boston Red Sox swept the New York Yankees again this week. Hooray!

Boston improved to 8-0 against its longtime rival. Just as New York was getting hot, it came into Boston and was shut right down. The Yankees came in with a one game lead in the A.L. East and now trail by two games.

The Yankees led in the 8th inning of Thursday night’s game, but Boston rallied in the bottom half of the inning to go up a run. It was a perfect ending to a great series. Lucky for me I got to watch the end of the game since it aired on MLBtv, a new channel that comes with my cable package.

How awesome would it be if the Red Sox went undefeated against New York for the entire year? Yeah, I know it’s highly unlikely, but it’s nice to dream. The two teams haven’t even played half of their games against each other, yet Boston is very close to winning the season series. That’s unbelievable.

Go Sox!