On the Diamond and the Grass

The Wimbledon Championships have commenced in London! And boy did it commence with high drama. Roger Federer's opponent Alejandro Falla had match point on the Swiss Maestro in the fourth set before Federer returned to form and righted the ship in 5 sets. It would have been perhaps the most shocking upset ever at a Grand Slam tournament and hopefully, Federer can shake off the rust and cruise on in from here.

Novak Djokovic also needed 5 marathon sets to get through his first round match. Seventh seed Nikolay Davydenko needed just as many, eventually winning 9-7 in the fifth against Kevin Anderson. That match took 4 and a half hours. Last year's semi finalist Marin Cilic couldn't repeat his performance in 2010 as he was sent packing on Day 1. Women's French Open champ Francesca Schiavone lost her first round match in a shocker today but otherwise, the women's bracket moved on as expected with Venus Williams, Kim Clijsters, Justine Henin, and Elena Dementieva all won their opening matches.

Playing under the roof on opening night, Djokovic finished his match at 10:58 PM-that's a record for Wimbledon and it will be interesting to see whether they'll top that later this fortnight, now that it seems they're more inclined to use the retractable now.

On the baseball diamond, the Jays are off today after an emotional Father's Day game against the San Fran Giants. John McDonald, whose father passed away last week, hit a round tripper as a PH in the 9th, just the 14th home run in his journeyman career. It was an emotional moment for him, an emotional moment for the team, and really, an emotional moment for me as a baseball fan. Such is the power of sports to affect such human feeling with one moment in time.

Saw a really good piece on the pros and cons of interleague play on MLB.com today: http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20100620&content_id=11408314&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb.

Really hoping to see a Jays-Cards game this week. Just a matter of rounding up some friends.

-D