This Sporting Sunday

I missed another day of blogging yesterday, since I was swept up in the greatest sports day, maybe ever. Here were some of the highlights.

Early-Morning:I'm so used to watching soccer on weekend mornings that I instinctively turn on FSC when I get up. Yesterday they showed replay of the same Galaxy-Earthquakes game that I attended in person on Saturday night. Both of the Galaxy's second half goals were at the other end, so I didn't realize that Edson Buddle scored both of them. This means that Buddle had a hat-trick (three goals, which is a lot rarer in soccer than in hockey).

Mid-Morning: The Euro 2008 match between Turkey and the Czech Republic was one for the ages. The Turks came back from a 2-0 deficit by scoring three goals in the last 15 minutes to beat the Czechs 3-2. Today's international headlines have exercised nearly all of the pun possibilities of "the Turks" over "the Czechs". At least I haven't seen this pun, which is always a worry when anyone beats the Czech Republic in sports.

Mid-Afternoon: The A's swept the Giants in another Bayside Derby! The Giants were held to 4 runs in the entire series, and one of the runs came from Omar Vizquel stealing home on Friday night. Even though I was pulling for the A's in this series, I had to stand and cheer for someone my age (40+) pulling off a straight steal of home. Unfortunately, that's the only way the Giants can score. I don't get a daily paper, so I haven't been keeping track of the standings, but the A's are now 38-31, seven games over .500 and just 3.5 games behind the Angels. The Giants are ten games under, but still look improved from last year, despite their offensive woes.

Late-Afternoon: This is the first time that the U.S. Open has been on a golf course that I've played. Torrey Pines is a true public course that anyone can play, and the green fees are quite affordable. I played TP six years ago, and even though it was a completely different setup than the one they had for the Open, it gave me a whole new level of interest to remember that I had Appleby's putt on 13, and missed it left just like he did. In a show of solidarity with "guys my age", I was pulling for Rocco over that other guy in today's playoff, but I guess it was just not to be.

Evening: What a surprise, the Lakers won to stave off elimination, and live to play another game! Look for them to win the next one in Boston before losing the final, because the powers that be want this series to go seven. More games means more prime time TV which means more revenue for the league. Look for lots of foul calls against the Celtics in game 6.