Wimbledon observations from Week One

1: Venus Williams should win the women's tournament if she continues to play as she did during the first week. A 127 mph serve is incredible, but the fact that it happened on her final first serve of the match is even more amazing.
2: Federer will probably win the men's draw again. Despite looking a little shaky in the firt match or so, he really turned it on by the end of the week.
3: Andy Murray is a sleeper. He's my dark horse, not to win, but to be a dark horse.
4: Andy Murray's brother looks awesome.
5: American families need to invest more in tennis lessons for their kids. American men are nothing but a pimple on the arse of the tennis world.
6: With Anna Ivanovic and Maria Sharapova out, I guess the time is nigh to pull for Nicole Vaidisova.
7: It seems as if Ivanovic's stay at number one may be short lived. Damn!
8: Women's tennis is by far the most interesting professional sport at the moment, and it has been amazing for the past several years. Yeah, I just wrote that in all sincerity.

In Loving Memory of...

He would have been nine next month. UGA VI, I know there will always be an air conditioned dog house, a legion of admiring beautiful Southern belles in waiting and a bag of ice larger than an earthly mind can comprehend awaiting you in doggy heaven. Oh wait, didn't you already have these things in Athens?

Seriously, Athens was darkened Saturday by news of the most recent UGAs passing. He'll definitely be missed. not only by Dawg fans, but SEC and NCAA football fans in general.

So, my flight landed at Hartsfield Jackson Airport, and I received a text from J.R. Suicide telling me that Jimmy Johns had been arrested for selling cocaine. I was pretty astonished by this bit of news, due to the fact that Johns, while having academic and on-field problems, had seemed to be free of trouble off the field. Like many Bama fans my initial reaction, after just saying "Damn," was to label Johns as a Shula recruit (which is true) but a bit of a copout. Shula is not responsible for Johns selling cocaine, nor is Nick Saban. Coaches can set rules for the team to follow and discipline athletes who choose to break the rules. In Johns' case, I must say that Saban's decision to immediately dismiss the player is the right thing to do at the time.

It's always a sad day to see a player destroy the chance to continue to play college football while earning a degree. Whether the football portion of the college experience lives up to the athlete's expectations can become a moot point if the student is able to obtain a diploma. Upstanding athletes who earn degrees allot themselves a chance at future success in later life. Clearly, the University of Alabama is embarrassed by the incident as is the program and its fans. But really, Johns is the person who will suffer the consequences of his actions as determined by the legal system. The whole situation is a total bummer.

I can't believe I wasted $7.00 on this garbage

I recently purchased the 2008 Athlon Sports Southeastern Preview in eager anticipation of the upcoming football season (only 72 days remain before August 30). While I found Athlon's All-American selections to be sensible and the team-by-team breakdowns in the conference overview to be logical and informative, the method Athlon used to rank all 119 teams is deplorable. Athlon surveyed each team's schedule and then recorded not only the numbers of wins and losses but also the number of swing games a team might have. So, Florida is ranked No. 1 by virtue of a 9-0-3 record. Oregon State, on the other hand, is ranked 61 with a hypothetical 0-9-3 record. The problem to this ranking system is obvious: ties do not exist in college football. Being an intensely interested college football fan, I would like to know a little more about my team's chances for the upcoming season than that the team for which I am rooting may lose to three teams with which it always struggles. Here is the Athlon Top 10:
1: Florida (9-0-3)
2:Ohio State (9-0-3)
3:Oklahoma (11-0-1)
4:USC (9-0-3)
5:Georgia (7-0-5)
6:Missouri (9-0-3)
7:West Virginia (10-0-2)
8:Auburn (9-0-3)
9:LSU (9-0-3)
10:Clemson (10--0-2)
11:Texas (7-0-5)
12:Wisconsin (9-0-3)
13:Kansas (7-1-4)
14:BYU (10-0-2)
15:Arizona State (8-0-4)
16:Illinois (7-0-5)
17:Tennessee (8-1-3)
18:Texas Tech (9-1-2)
19:Oregon (10-0-2)
20: South Florida (9-1-2)

After viewing these rankings, it's obvious that Athlon's predictions are flawed in that, according to the system's logic, Oklahoma should be ranked in the one spot coming into the season and Auburn should be ranked ahead of Georgia. Illinois and Georgia should be ranked alongside one another, but no, in ultimately deciding the rankings, it seems that Athlon basically mirrored the actions of the other major publications and just switched the order of the top teams a bit. While Athlon's efforts at attaining individuality in ranking teams should be lauded, the overall result is flawed in print .

What makes Bama legends so damn drunk all the time?

Seems that the Snake received his third dui recently. I hope this photo is used in court in support of his general sobriety.

Controversial high school baseball video

Here is a clip of Stephen's County pitcher Cody Martin, brother of Dodgers' 1st round draft pick Ethan Martin, hitting the umpire in the mask with a pitch. The catcher ducks and the umpire is hit. There is a great deal of controversy surrounding this clip, and the umpire is considering legal action. More here from the AJC...

Monfils!

In accordance with my francophile tendencies, Gael Monfils (pronounced Monfiis) has made the French Open semis, where he'll face Roger Federer tomorrow. Hopefully, he'll pull off the upset. Monfils has kind of been a favorite player of mine since I first saw him two French Opens ago, sporting long braids and looking crunk as fuck. After that, he's kind of fallen off the map a little after suffering injury-related setbacks to his game. However, he seemed unfazed as he dismissed the world's number five player David Ferrer in four sets.

Tuberville throws up the sevens

Apparently, while on his recent tour of the Middle East, Tommy Tuberville was photographed with some troops. Nothing is outstanding about the photo, other than the fact that Tuberville was flashing seven fingers. Now, one of my Atl-minded high schoolers would have immediately thought that some old white man was tryin' to be all hood and shit and representin' a zone that doesn't exist. The Iron Bowl doesn't exist in their minds, which may be a good thing. To Bama fans, Auburn fans and other SEC fans, nobody had to ask what this meant. Apparently, some Bama fans believed the show of seven fingers to be a classless act, but Tuberville acknowledged that he was just having some fun with Auburn's six-game win streak against the Tide. I thik that Tuberville is right on. Nick Saban, Bama players and fans all know when the last time Bama beat Auburn was, and that Dennis Franchione was the coach. So, what's the big deal. Auburn has earned the right to flash the fingers, and shit, I'll be happy if Auburn fans don't start walking around in bare feet in an effort to demonstrate the correct number of wins. Okay, here's the link