The Tail End of August

Alright, it's a Saturday. It's hot, it's muggy, I've nothing else to do. Let's ramble about sports!!

First of all, FLUSHING MEADOWS!! I'm sure the 7 Train in New York City is jam packed right now. A slew of big players are/were in action today. Top seed Rafael Nadal handily displaced Viktor Troicki (hey, there's a Serbian player not named "vic") in straight sets, handing him a gaping donut in the third set. Unseeded American Sam Querry is through to the 4th round, surprisingly, after beating Ivo Karlovic 7-6(5), 7-6(5), 6-2. Andy Murray endured a 5 set scare against unseeded Austrian Jurgen Melzer. Olympic champion Stanislas Wawrinka is also going to the 4th round with a huge comeback victory: 5-7, 6-7(4), 6-4, 6-0, 6-4. Talk about inconsistencies, the scores are all over the place for these guys at the US Open.

The American favourites-Williams Sisters-are both into the next round after convincingly beating their opponents, with the identical score, no less: 6-2, 6-1. Amelie Mauresmo, the cellar seed at this tournament is looking good, cruising into the 4th round. Some matches in progress right now: The Bryan Brothers are 2 games away from advancing to the third round of men's doubles. Juan Del Potro, seed 17 is up a set 6-4 on the Frenchman Gilles Simon (seed 16). Nadia Petrova is in a battle against Flavia Pennetta of Italy, tied at a set each and 3-3 in the third.

Later tonight, the crowd can decide whether to cheer for Blake or Fish in an All-American duel at Arthur Ashe Stadium. Before that, Dinara Safina will take on Timea Bacsinszky of Switzerland. Fourth seed David Ferrer will play Japanses Kei Nishikori (when did Japan start getting good at tennis?). The rest of tonight's matches will be doubles save for one. If you're interested, here's the official schedule from a very blue US Open website: http://www.usopen.org/en_US/scores/schedule/index.html?promo=topnav.

Jays swapped Matt Stairs to the Phillies for some unknown minor league pitcher, to clear space for Travis Snider, one of our top farmhands. I don't get why this stupid move was made. Stairs is a very valuable member of the team, the fans love him, and it doesn't make sense to move him when you've got guys like Gregg Zaun who actually WANTS to be traded, and then there's Brandon League, who more or less could use some experience at AAA. Goes to show what idiots are running this organization.

At Yankee Stadium earlier this afternoon, the Jays were able to squeeze out a 7-6 comeback victory. BJ Ryan earned his 25th save, John Parrish gave up 4 runs in just 4 innings-Jays scored 3 in the 7th and 2 in the 8th to retake the lead. Alll in all, it's games like these that make you wonder why every game can't be like this. Our offense scored twice the number of combined runs in the past 3 games. Well, playoff hopes are dwindling as we speak-the Jays need a vision for the future.

K-Rod is 5 away from tying the all-time saves record. He's got 52...and barring injury, there's little question he'll surpass that and perhaps 60 as well.

Things are quiet in Raptorland, and I couldn't care less about football (sorry Peyton Manning).

Usain Bolt...remember him? Oh yes, he's back at it again on the track. On Friday night, Bolt captured the 100 M title in a Zurich meet in a dazzling time of 9.83. I'm telling ya, the best is yet to come for this guy!!

And Michael Phelps is...well...getting as many endorsements as he can. Can't blame him, I'd love to have those 8 gold medals around my neck too!

OBAMA! OBAMA! OBAMA! Since he made history on Thursday night in Denver as the first OFFICIAL black nominee for President, congrats to Barack and his family. I loved him from the beginning and am not about to stop now. USA needs this man as President. For the sake of a brighter future, please go out and vote for him on November 4th if you can!!!!! John McCain picked Sarah Palin as his running mate, I was surprised, if not shocked. Well, good luck Republicans!

-D