Sports Gods are not Kind to Us Superfans

              News flying all over the place is so negative, Deron Williams agreeing to play in Turkey if the NBA is locked out, Jose Reyes apparently going on the Disabled List, and a soccer stadiums roof collapsing in The Netherlands. Why are all these bad things happening at once in the sports world? Isn't it bad enough that we have 2 major sports in lockouts with no real end in sight, injuries mounting in every sport and USA national teams struggling such as the recent lackluster performance by the Women's Soccer team yesterday. And if that isn't enough how about all the investigations into college recruiting in both basketball and football, most recently with the University of Oregon being in the news scene.

Toronto Maple Leaf fans show us how they really feel (tiedomi.com)

              What did we as sports fans to deserve such a dark time? I thought we were past all this after the MLB had their lockout that cost the Montreal Expos their only chance at relevancy or when the NHL had their lockout not more than a few seasons ago that cost them their All-Star game? What's next? Are we so bad that we deserve to lose the NFL and NBA season over different kinds of monetary issues? Hopefully the NFL figures it out soon because their unofficial season starts very soon. Thank goodness for good stories in sports like Derek Jeter becoming the first New York Yankee to get 3,000 hits this weekend, or Jair Jurrjens emerging as a top-flight ace for the Atlanta Braves.

              But why does the bad keep piling on? Roger Clemens' trial has begun and it does not look good for baseball fans. And to add to it all the NFL lost a legendary player and man in Hall of Fame Tight End John Mackey who passed away at the age of 69 from his battle with dementia.

             So please sports gods, stop adding on to the pile of disaster and start making right with us. Diehard fans like myself deserve more, I've never seen my baseball team win a world series (Mets), I haven't seen my football team win since 1995 (I was 6 almost 7 the last time the Cowboys won), but I have been lucky enough to see the Celtics finally win a title in my lifetime (2008). But my hockey team moved away in 1997 (Hartford Whalers moved to Carolina and became the Hurricanes) and never won anything for me. At least I've had some luck with fantasy sports... otherwise my sports emotions would be completely in the basement.

So after my ramblings, Biggest Winner of the Night: Guillermo Moscoso, starting pitcher for the Oakland A's threw 7 brilliant innings against the Mariners last night, allowing 2 hits while walking 1 and striking out 5 to lead the A's to a 2-0 win. Joey Devine and Andrew Bailey pitched 1-2-3 8th and 9th innings to close out the win.

Biggest Loser of the Night: US Women's Soccer Team was the biggest loser yesterday, since they lost their first group stage game ever at the World Cup falling 2-1 to Sweden. They lost to Sweden for the second time in a calendar year for the first time in over 4 years. And if you had to single any one out on the squad, Amy LePeilbet would be the scapegoat as she earned a yellow card in the box allowing a penalty kick and also deflected the second goal in off of a free kick before being substituted in the 59th minute.

LePeilbet takes down Lotta Schelin in the box (nwherald.com)