Team India - Cricket World Cup

So Team India swept to their Cricket World title after a span of 28 years, and in the process became the first country to win a title on its home soil (Sri Lanka was the first to win as a host country, but the final was played in Pakistan in 1996).


I was thinking about the gauntlet that India had to run through to win the cup...and their last four victories came in order against 
The West Indies
Australia
Pakistan
Sri Lanka.


Now, the Cricket World Cup has been played since 1975, and the following countries have, in order, won their first title since then.
West Indies
India
Australia
Pakistan
Sri Lanka.


The amazing thing about Team India's run in the 2011 World Cup is that they beat the teams in the same order as their first World Cup title. Obviously it is a mere coincidence, but it is still uncanny that the sequence played out in this way.


Beyond all this though, congratulations are in order to the Men in Blue. They did themselves and the country proud.


This year, S and I have been privileged to have watched and followed two teams that made a successful run at the title. Both of them were talented enough that they were considered favorites for the title, both stumbled a bit and then when they hit on all cylinders, took on all comers and blitzed their way to the epitome of their respective sports.


One is Team India in Cricket. The other? The 2010-11 Green Bay Packers in the NFL.

Vancouver 2010

So Vancouver signed off on the 2010 Winter Olympic spectacle in style.

Watching coverage of the games on ESPN during the early part of the games, the way the presenters emphasized on Canada not having won gold at their two previous attempts at hosting the Games was irritating at best, and gloatingly condescending at worst. I am glad that the Canadians answered in the most fitting way possible - by winning a record number of golds for any country at the Winter Games. And oh the icing on the cake. No. make that the cherry on the icing on the cake. They beat US for the Hockey gold.

Now, if the US had won, we would have heard ad nauseum from various bloviators on how it was akin to the Miracle on Ice yada yada yada. But now it is like, who cares about the Olympics. Oh well.

Now onto London 2012. Can't wait to see the Londoners try to follow Beijing's act.

D'oh!

Boston's New England Patriots lost. Tom Brady lost. Bill Belichik lost. Good for the rest of us.

Tom Brady's chip on shoulder at being picked very late in the NFL draft (he was the sixth round pick in god-knows-what year) was a good story for a while, but now it just rankles me whenever I hear that this apparent diss - is he such a wuss that he can only motivate himself for his profession by looking back on a diss that is so old that only his insecure a** can even remember it?

Oh well...I can only ramble on at this time...I am just glad that we got spared yet another Boston parade and chest-beating. Now if only the Celtics would get their behinds whooped the same way...

We got spared by the condescending Bostonians but the reward is a victory for an equally obnoxious and condescending New York crowd that did not really believe the Super Bowl winner QB and coach...

I guess this is why they say sometimes you just cannot win them all...

Baseball Bliss

Now, it must be said that thanks in part to a series of collapses over the past several years (2001 to the Arizona Diamondbacks, 2002 to the Anaheim Angels, 2003 to the Florida Marlins, 2004 to the Boston Red Sox and 2006 to the Detroit Tigers), bashing the New York Yankees for their collapse is becoming almost too sad. Almost. Because it is never enough to poke fun at those Bronx bomber fans with their sense of entitlement, bordering on the obnoxious.

So, to all those Yankee-haters amongst us, ESPN.com has this veritable top-ten list of Yankee collapses. And you may note that of the ten, five happened in the last six years. Must be that baseball players now no longer believe the "mystique" and "aura" of Yankee Stadium. Must be Curt Schilling's famous quote in 2001 ("Aura and Mystique sound like night-club dancers") is coming true. Afterall, night-club dancers do have their shelf-life and then they are just consigned to dust-bins. Thanks to the fawning New York-based media, we've been treated to stories of Yankee mystique and aura etc, and of how Yankee Stadium is the toughest place to play in etc. Now, thanks the same media, we can gloat over the failure of these paper-champs. Until their next such collapse.

Its NOT the game, stupid

Disclaimer: Like ESPN takes pain to point out, the poll is unscientific, and hence unreliable to draw "scientific" conclusions. I am not a court of law, and I don't split hairs in establishing what is the truth and what is right. So this poll is a good enough trend indicator for me!

The Best Part of Super Bowl sunday? To over half the people in this country, its the sideshows that accompany the game itself, and not the game. I am sure everyone must have heard of the story of not killing the goose that laid the golden egg, but then I cannot be so sure.

But one interesting trend showed up - about one in four loved their Superbowl parties and if people want to use this Sunday as a pretext to get-together with friends and family, so be it. Another interesting trend that showed up in the poll was the fact that other than in the states of Washington (home of one of the teams playing the game) (and in the Pacific NW states of Oregon and Idaho) and Pennsylvania (home of the other team), and regional states of West Virginia, Delaware and Maryland, no where else, as of the time of this post, did the game register atleast a 50%. By a simple majority, the hype and hoopla around the game is whats preferred by the people over the game itself. Chalk up a big win for the NFL Hype/Marketing Machine. Vince Lombardi must be fuming in his grave.

The Federer Express

So, I am a Federer fan. The Fed has made watching tennis meaningful again. And his stunning display of emotion after winning the 2006 Australian Open only makes him that much more of an endearing champion.

Especially when you have a stark contrast available in Justine Henin-Herdenne. Maybe she really desparately wanted to live up to the characterization of people of her country as portrayed in the comedy Yes Minister. To paraphrase, "...Common Market official ...has the organizing capacity of the Italians, the flexibility of the Germans and the modesty of the French... the imagination of the Belgians, the generosity of the Dutch and the intelligence of the Irish". I can't imagine how she could have even thought of justifying her pull out, and I am sure she did not even imagine how her lack of grace toward the eventual winner will play out. The telling moment was when a concerned Amelie Mauresmo (lets not forget, she was once dissed as being half-a-man) had the class and grace to go and talk to JHH and inquire after her health.

Someone somewhere (probably was Jon Wertheim of Sports Illustrated) had written that Federer looked uncharacteristically mortal at the Aussie Open, and yet found a way to win. In a way, this elevates the Fed.

Maybe even like how the boring Pistol Pete Sampras suddenly became a crowd favorite after he uncharacteristically broke down in tears during the 1995 Aussie Open quarters.

Apparently the similarties between these two great players are a lot more than meets the eye.

The Inevitable Overload

Ok. So it is the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Seattle Superhawks that are going to play for the Lombardi Trophy this year. The Championship game of the National Football League. Or as affectionately referred to by us aliens, "American Football". Or as affectionately referred to by us natives, the "World Championship" game.

The game I can live with, even manage to watch, especially for the fantastic commercials that are a result of the millions poured in by companies who are presumably dazed/drugged into thinking that these spots were worth that much.

But please, oh please, spare me the hype. Spare me the bull that the NFL is the national pastime. Spare me the marketing blitz that would tell me that if I miss the Superbowl, I am missing a part of life. When it has reached the point that the hype and hoopla surrounding the game is bigger than the game, when the media circus surrounding the game has the audacity to criticize a host city for short-comings for a mere game, when the league has the audacity to hold league cities to a ransom, forcing the citizens to pony up a tax to pay for a stadium that will fund their pockets, count me out.

Am I enraged? Of course I am enraged. Especially when I am paying a tax to pay for the new stadium for the backbone-less franchise helmed by the leech named Bill Bidwill just so they can put spineless spiritless teams on the field and wallow in mediocrity, while those fat cows fatten themselves even more.

In a sense, the next two weeks will mean a lot more time for myself - what with all the time I will save from not having to watch ESPN drum the Super-hype-bown in to my head...

Thank God for small mercies...

"World Champs" no more.

Apparently, the San Antonio Spurs have decided that their winning the NBA title makes them just that - NBA Champions, not World Champions. And who could argue with their case? Not when they employ two players from Argentina, that are the legitimate claimants to the title of World Champs. Atleast the Olympic World Champ.

Maybe, its high time that the champions of the NFL and MLB also gave up on the pretension of World Champion, and called it for what it really is - League Champion. Especially with MLB working toward the concept of a Baseball World Cup. But till that time, I will definitely take the direction that my Spurs are going in. Now, if only someone could drill this sense into the talking heads over at ESPN.

SI.com - Burns: Spurs' quiet excellence a welcome change of pace.

SI.com - Writers - Burns: Spurs' quiet excellence a welcome change of pace - Wednesday December 8, 2004 3:00PM

Almost too good to a fault, these quiet and quite good players are the dream..an elite team with role players and superstars who understand the need for each other on court, yet a team humble enough to realize its own fallibility and hence does not let its on-court excellence translate into off-court negative brouhaha that seems to be following sports everywhere.

Branded as boring by the useless and hypocritical talking heads on ESPN and Fox Sports Net, they are everything people profess to want to see. But the same voices that raise up the crescendo when a "Malice in the Palace - a la Indiana Pacers brawling with Detroit Pistons fans" or a "Desparate Terrell Owens Housewives" saga comes on TV are no where to be found espousing the Spurs and their good-guy image.

You people that follow sport but cannot realize the Spurs for what they are, its your loss. May you have a wonderful time following your team.

Go Spurs Go!

Baseball, we have a problem!

Disclaimer: I am a fan of the Arizona Diamondbacks, and since they play the San Francisco Giants as a division rival, my views and opinions of the Giants are not necassarily fair and objective. What I am meaning to say is that I am enjoying all this hoopla surrounding Barry Bonds and drug-use in the sport of baseball.

Those of you who follow American sports closely, probably know by now all the issues relating to BALCO (the Bay Area Labs Cooperative or some such moniker) and its supplying performance enhancing drugs to various US athletes. Primarily suspected are track and field athletes and baseball players. Anyway the point of this all is that Barry Bonds claims that he used substances provided to him by his trainer and that he did not know they were steroids. Yeah right!

For those not in the know, Barry Bonds, one of the better baseball players to play the game, and a graduate of my school ASU, went from being a spindly (in comparison to his bulk now) frame when he debuted in the Major Leagues with the Pittsburgh Pirates to a rather bulky/hulky frame. Conventional wisdom, and the talking heads on all sports shows that have dedicated themselves to yapping away at nothing (ESPN and FSN, take note!) would have you believe that it was all because of Bonds dedication to his body and work ethic, especially his strenous off-season regimen. And that may be the case too. But can that explain this sudden spurt in his body after the age of 35? Can this explain how a guy who never hit more than 45 home runs a season suddenly exploded for 73 in 2001?

US law has it that anyone is innocent until proven guilty. And it is nigh, but a good value to adhere to. But circumstantial evidence, emanating from the time of Ken Caminiti admitting to steroid use, to the sudden increase in the body mass of these superstars, which amazingly enough, coincided with their increased power production, has left many with questions in their minds - are Bonds achievements that of a supremely gifted super-star athlete? Or is it a Ben Johnson-esque flash in the pan fueled by steroids?

I will admit, we are living in an era when there are a bunch of super-star athletes around. World-wide, almost all major sports - team and individual - are seeing newer blood and talent, challenging the way we conventionally thought about the games.

We have 40-plus year old pitchers still pitching in the Major League Baseball like they were in their 20s and 30s.

We have a 35-year old quarterback leading a history-laden franchise of the National Football League (American Football) and still celebrating every score like a 5 year old kid on a playground, and this after having set some amazing records of durability and endurance.

We have bowlers who have set and reset records for maximum scalps in a career in International Cricket, and we have teams setting and erasing and re-establishing records for runs scored and chased to win Limited-Overs International matches.

We have tennis-artiste par excellence Martina Navratilova, at age 47, still competing in Grand Slam tennis tournaments.

So maybe it is just our lucky timing that we are getting to see tremendous offensive output in baseball. But it is still disturbing how callous the players union and the league have been treating the premise of drug-use and abuse in the sport. The National Football League has become pretty good at enforcing the substance-abuse issue and as a result, been able to establish itself as a league that is currently enjoying tremendous popularity amongst the American masses.

Hopefully, the league and the players union realize the hurt being put on what is a tremendous product. Baseball as a game, is a delight. No time constraints whatsoever, and hence the exquisite game generates pressure the unusual way - outs. Hopefully, this storm will come to a pass too, and Major League Baseball would be back up with a straight-face and claim that its atheletes do not use performance-enhancing drugs.

In the meanwhile though, I am going to sit back and enjoy the obvious discomfiture that these allegations must be causing to the fans of the San Francisco Giants. Hey, payback is often sweet you know! You should've known better than to put down the Diamondbacks franchise during our heydays from 1999 through 2002. Well, enjoy your currently rotten luck.

How to defend your manhood? By creating a brawl is what...

So anyone who saw that brawl during the Detroit Pistons - Indiana Pacers game Friday night on national cable television, has an opinion one way or the other. Depending on whom your sympathies lie with, it was either a brawl that was incited by some really crappy fans who asked for it, or it was a case of an out-of-control superstar athlete, who stepped out of bounds of normalcy.

To recap, Ron Artest gets fouled hard by Ben Wallace sometime in the second half. Toward the end of the game, Artest returns the favor, but what happens? Ben Wallace's manhood has been challenged, and he shoves Artest in his face and tries to get in his face. At that time, admirably so, Artest goes back to the scorers table and lies down, only to get hit in his face by a beer cup. And then, to quote Tilly from 'Guess Who's coming to dinner', "All hell gone broke loose".

In a free-for-all brawl that ensued, involving Artest, Jermaine O'Neal, Stephen Jackson and couple others, engaged in a street-fight like fisticuff, that resulted in the game being called with just under a minute to go in the game.

What this reflects on, is the sorry state of the society today. A society where courtesy, politeness, and many other virtues that are supposed to be held in high esteem, are being kicked out the window. Instead of shaking off taunts and insults from fans, taking the issue into ones owns hand results in an ugly escalation, and that is exactly what happened on Friday. What a great example they set for the millions of impressionable kids that watch the game. A wonderful example indeed. Kids, if someone insults you or taunts you, do not take the high road and shake off the taunt or insult. Instead, go after the taunter, and validate the taunting, and get into a melee.

Ego, one-upmanship, holier than thou...don't know what in the name of hell is the reason, but one thing is for sure. If you are going to taunt someone, be prepared to defend yourself to the point of death. That Friday, it was in a basketball court. What do you know, the next time this happens, it might be in the middle of a swanky restaurant with knives and other cutlery around.
Nah, I am getting carried away by all this.

The thing here is that, these kind of incidents and events are not in the majority, rather they are few and thankfully far in between. But unfortunately, typical with the modern-day mass media, they get air-time belying their status. Anyway, it is still disturbing that the so-called professional athletes, who should know better, are the ones that end up setting the crappiest example.

Even more irritating is the attitude of the people governing these sports. NBA commish Stern issued lengthy suspensions, and then spouted his spiel about being concerned for the fans. Yeah right. Concern for the fans. With the straight face with which he said these lies, he is the perfect man to sell ice to the eskimos. If he were so concerned for fan safety and such, and for fans in general, maybe he and his band of greedy millionaire owners and players can start by reigning in the player salaries and arena/ticket prices. Maybe they can decide to reign in the cash cows that feed their pockets - beer sales. But no, they would not do that, and instead hope that such incidents do not repeat themselves.

Ultimately though, shame on the individuals involved in the entire ridiculous sequence. The athletes, the fans, all of them. May you realize the idiocy of your actions and learn your lesson.

Ah...Finally...

Run and hide, America. Run and Hide. The Idiots are coming, the Idiots are coming....

Yes folks, the idiots won the Major League Baseball championship today (October 27, 2004) sweeping their opponents (the bumbling St. Louis Cardinals) away in impressive fashion.

These idiots were a fitting bunch. They had to be, in their refusal to subscribe to the pathetic excuse theory called the Curse of the Bambino - a rather disingenous creation of a sports writer to explain what in effect was the sheer failure of professional ball players to play at their best ability.

Pretty interesting that they exorcised the curse on the night of a total lunar eclipse - symbolically enough, the lunar eclipse represents the serpents of the night sky "eating" up the moon (aint that a bogus story?)

Honestly no surprise that the Sox won - they had the best team chemistry of the eight teams that made it to the baseball postseason. Indeed, it was surprising that they even went down 0-3 to the Yankees, them with their god-forsaken starting pitching. But then, with the clarity of hindsight, I can now proclaim that it was all part of a grander scheme of things to get the Sox faithful to start believing in the can-do nature of this team, and to start thinking rationally and logically (I mean, come on, it is hard for Sox fans to be rational about anything, obviously, ever since they started believing in curses).

Effectively though, thank goodness the Sox won cuz now we do not have to hear that pathetic excuse for mismanagement and terrible play. How many times have the Red Sox even been good enough to play for the title since 1918? Four times. And they failed all four times, twice on fielding errors and twice on not-so-good pitching as compared to their opponents. And oh, facing failure four times and not bouncing back to thumb nose at it indicates not a curse, but a pathological affliction for failure.

Now, we will have to just put up with the pathetic excuses of one team - those erstwhile loveable losers from Chicago, the Cubs. In the meanwhile, my love for the team that I started to follow in 2002 has been cemented - my loyalties are now officially divided between the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Boston Red Sox, unless of course when they (eventually, I hope) meet in a championship game, at which point I will simply root for the National League team.

In the meanwhile, at the risk of committing blasphemy, here is a take with which I sorta kinda agree.

Lessons to be learnt from the Red Sox' improbable 11 day run to championship glory? It aint over until it is over. Something that A-Fraud and the Yankees have learnt the tough way. To rehash a cliche, when the going gets tough, the tough get going, and the rest just get ground to the earth.

Green Bay and its Packers

So, the question to me goes - "You're not even from America by birth, so how is it that your favorite National Football League team is the Packers from remote Green Bay"? And mind you, this is not a one-off question, but rather has been the norm with almost anyone that I talk American Football(for all the fact that I am a fan of the NFL, Football to me is still the game where the play is with the foot!).

The usual off-the-cuff answer has been that I like Brett Favre, their gun-slinger of a QB. Well I have umpteen reasons to like him, mostly that he makes bone-headed mistakes just like I am prone to. Anyways, I fend off that question saying that Brett Favre is my favorite QB in the league.

But inwardly I began to think, so why is it that I really like the Green Bay Packers? So much that I even made a pilgrimage to legendary Lambeau Field in the summer of 2003, when I went to visit a friend in Madison, WI. It came down to just one simple thing - they are the one professional league team in the United States, that is publicly owned. Can you really believe that? In the midst of the greed and riches story that is organized professional sport, the Packers are owned by people, who paid to own a share of the team. At a time when we see the likes of Bill Bidwill and his kind swindle the genteel people of Arizona into trusting them to make them Arizona Cardinals a competitive team just on the sheer strength of a new stadium, when we see the likes of Wayne Huzienga and his infamous dismantling of the 1997 Florida Marlin team just days after the team had captured an improbably MLB title, it is refreshing to see a team so tied with the public that it is supposed to entertain.

Managed in much the same way a publicly-owned company is, the one major difference is that none of the share holders receive any dividends for their share holdings. In effect, it is a "contribution" from the share holding public to the welfare of their beloved team, a privilege that seems to be equally recognized by both parties.

Skeptics, amongst them a certain ex-boss of mine, have called Green Bay a one-horse town and implied that its sheerly coincidental that the Packers receive so much support - there is nothing much else to do in northern Wisconsin anyway. All I can say to them is, shame on you. Shame on you that you cannot recognize the spirit for what it really is - a sense of ownership and participation in the team that is unique in pro-sports.

Consider the following facts/figures for a moment and draw your own conclusions
1. The Lambeau Field, the home of the Packers, has been sold out on a season-ticket basis for well over 30 years and running. This has to be a sort of parallel record along with the Irish Fans of the "Touchdown Jesus" at University of Notre Dame.

2. The organization renewed/refurbished/face-lifted the Lambeau Field from a simple edifice to a modern, sleek, brick and glass edifice. And to achieve that, they did not raze the old stadium and build a new one - instead they worked around the old structure and just provided props on the exterior. The result - re-dedication to the fans of the Packers, by maintaining the interior bowl seating arrangement with aluminum bleachers, as it has been for these past many years.

3. The current season ticket waiting list - a tad over 60,000 - amounts to a wait time of just over 30 years from today. Imagine, if I applied to the Packers today to obtain season tickets, I am not likely to get them until my kids will be as old as I am now.

4. For the second year in a row, an NFL team that had the Packers visiting them for a regular season game, tried to dissuade avid Packer fans from buying up tickets, by clubbing the single game tickets in a package deal with tickets to a meaningless pre-season game. If it was the Minnesota Vikings in 2003, it was the Indianapolis Colts in 2004. And boy did they succeed. Just about 15000 Packer fans were in attendence at each of those games.

All that can be said in this is that, it is my privilege to be a fan of such a distinguished team - afterall, no other team has won as many league championships as the Packers have. So distinguished, Green Bay is referred to as Titletown, USA.

If you don't mind, it doesn't matter..

Brett Favre, Quarterback for the Green Bay Packers of the National Football League (American Football's biggest stage) hurt his right thumb (the throwing hand) during a game at the Track Meet stadium (Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis, if you insist on knowing the real name) and yet managed to play through injury, finishing the game with impressive (for him) statistics for an indoor game.

He went on to play the rest of the season as well with that injured thumb. Asked how he was able to do it, he answered simply - If you don't mind, it doesn't matter. It is really just a simple case of mind over matter!.

Oh..the sheer joy of watching tennis at its fluid best

Roger Federer stood about six feet inside the baseline on the right half of the court, waiting patiently for his opponent Lleyton Hewitt to fire a return to his side of the court. Then like a tiger waiting to attack, he pounced upon it, planting his legs so his body gave him the perfect angle he desired and fired a forehand winner, which curved a steep left and danced away from Hewitt. "Obscene angle", one of the commentators called it.

You would call it obscene too if you were watching it. All you could do then was to stare in awe and disbelief that the "artist in motion on a tennis court" Federer can even launch such winners. Hewitt, the ever so gracious runner-up to Federer conceded - his shot selection is impeccable, and he has superb reach and can make almost any shot.

Watching him play the Wimbledon and US Open finals has given me a new hope that tennis would be a worthwhile sport to follow again. Afterall, for someone who grew up watching another artist-on-court Becker and the ever gentle Swede serve-volleyer Edberg, it was getting oh-so-boring to watch baseline duels where the players would slug it out from six to eight feet behind the baseline, and points were decided by not deft movements at the net or a flick of wrist passing shot or a delicate volley, but by stupid forehand/backhand errors or shots sailing wide due to sheer pace from an opponents return. Sampras and Agassi provided a wonderful watch, but with Sampras retiring, and Agassi in the sunset of his career, tennis was getting boring.

And then, Along Came Federer..he who was a wild kid with immense potential...he who suddenly woke up and said, I can do this...he who is one of the fortunate few who has realized his potential and started acting upto and beyond it.

What is even more amazing is that Federer's amazing 2004 run at the ATP Tour has come at a time while he is his own coach. And how successful is he in being his own coach? Look no further than his performance in the Championship match at the All-England Club to capture the Wimbledon Men's Singles title. A rain delay forced the players to take a 40 minute breather, and when play resumed, he had talked himself into mounting aggressive challenges to the challenge thrown at him by Andy Roddick. Said Roddick in the presentation ceremony, "I threw the sink at him, and he went in and got the bath-tub!".

The gentle Swiss, who loves to watch the play of another artist on the football pitch, Zinedine Zidane, has the knack for that cliched term - making something out of nothing. Time and again, both against Agassi in the Quarter-finals and Hewitt in the finals, you would see him make a shot, where, when the ball left his racquet, it seemed to be headed long, only to have it drop just inches inside the baseline.

He has been gracious enough to accept the cow presented to him at the 03 Swiss Open in Gstaad. And he was gracious enough to accept the Alp-horn presented to him at this years Swiss Open. And he is appreciative enough of people's goodwill that he is raising the cow at a pasture, and also learning to play the alp-horn. I guess he is doing that so in the 05 Swiss Open, he can entrall the home-crowd to a dual symphony - tennis on-court, and music on the alp-horn.

For now though, what is here is the simple fact that Roger Federer has given milllions of us tennis fans a glimpse at the glorious past of tennis, when artistry and skill of play ruled over the brute power of serves and returns. Nothing against people who rely on their huge serves and booming forehands but I would rather watch a sledge-hammer at work rather than watch robot-machine like serves.

Good luck Roger Federer. You are already a great champion, and may you also find a way to win that elusive title on the red-clay of Roland Garros.

You're either very bad or I am underestimating your ability...

So said the greatest whiner in sports this week, Andy Roddick.

While in Rome to play the Italian Open, a fire broke out in the hotel he was staying, and whether it was out of really good intentions or to cash in on the free publicity (and for the sake of giving him the benefit of doubt, I will accept good intentions) he helped rescue people, at the expense of his progressing beyond the first round at the tournament. And we all read about his exploits in the media, and I for one, appreciated his being a good human being.

And now it has come to this...in a second round match against a random 18-year old kid (I think Rafael Nadal it was), the chair umpire called a let when he saw a ball had slipped out of the pockets of Roddick. Yes, the umpire noticed it after about a shot or two were played. Yes, the umpire could have let it slide. Yet, he called a let...and that was enough to start Roddick going off on the umpire in the most unsportsmanlike conduct I have seen at the US Open 2004 so far.

If you are still miffed at Justine Henin-Hardenne for her controversial point against Serena Williams in the French Open 2003 semi-finals, consider this...Roddick started to whine and berate against the umpire in a match that he was "leading" and was well on his way to winning as well. I mean come on, it was not like he was freakin losing...he was manhandling that kid, serving up 152 mph bombs that sometimes smacked the kid in the face or had that kid dancing away just to dodge getting hit by those serves. And yet, Roddick chose to whine.

Thank goodness he did because his power game never appealed to me, and now he has given me a legitimate reason to root against him.

What is so painful is that he is a successor to the great tennis lineage of Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi. Well, good for us...we will never have to confuse abilities with being great human beings. The Roman helpfulness that he displayed notwithstanding, Roddick has proven once and for all to me that he is not worth my support.

Thank you Roddick for saving me my precious time..and have a happy career whining away at chair umpires while serving for the match at 6-1, 6-2, 5-3 40-0.

Good luck!