Padraig Harrington and the claret jug of fire.

Earlier today, I did my best to avoid the internets, so I wouldn't accidentally stumble upon any spoilers for the latest installment of a certain British phenomenon. I wanted to watch the final round of the 126th British Open Championship time-shifted and commercial free without finding out who won. That's the best way to watch a sporting event that starts at 5AM local time on Sunday morning.

I watched the leaders play the front nine, then stopped the tape and went to the A's game, only to find out that the Open Championship was the between innings Arrowhead sports highlight. So I found out who won (Padraig Harrington in a 4-hole playoff with Sergio Garcia), but it was still worth seeing how it all sorted out. When I left the action to go to the baseball game, Garcia was tied with Andres Romero of Argentina, and over the last nine holes, the lead changed between Garcia, Harrington, and Romero four times.

It was like a championship that no one wanted to lose, but no one wanted to win either, because as soon as someone took the lead, they'd lose it to someone else, only to turn around and take it back on the next hole. Romero lost a two shot lead by hitting it out of bounds on the next to last hole, then Harrington hit two balls in the bern (what Scotsmen call "the ditch") on the last hole to lose the lead to Garcia, who followed up by bogeying the last hole to fall into a tie. It was like everyone was choking at the same time, but someone had to win, and that someone turned out to be Padraig Harrington. And in our fraternal major championship battle, that person turned out to be my brother (again!). I picked Sergio Garcia high, so my chances died when he died.

And the baseball game was fun, with wonderful lower deck seats right where the shade met the sun. Unfortunately, the Oakland nine fell victim to two well-known baseball cliches.

1) You can't win if you don't score any runs
2) You can't score if you don't get anyone past first base.

The A's got just two hits, and one of them was a botched pop-up, and wasted a stellar pitching effort by Dallas Braden, who held the Orioles in check except for one inning. This whole month of July has been one long hitting slump for the whole team, and once they break out of it, they're going to score 10 runs a game for an entire week. It's going to be like a long weekend in Vegas after a month in Utah. But they're still stuck in Utah for the time being!