The Daily Grind

And the title, "The Daily Grind" never looks more true than today. I am exhausted from a weekend on the Cape. I feel like I did an admirable job against the odds to keep up with the sports weekend, which was fairly busy.

-I watched more tennis this weekend than I have ever watched in my life, so I do not profess to be an expert. I watched most of Federer-Nadal and Federer-Safin. In both matches, I was constantly amazed by how much more energy Federer's opponents had to use. Federer was seemingly more graceful; panting, groaning and sweating less than his opponents. Nadal's win today was a thrilling one, and one he almost blew after being up two sets to none. It was his first time beating Federer on grass for a grand slam title. Look the rankings to flip-flop, with Nadal now the number one tennis player in the world. Federer failed in his bid to become the first male to win Wimbeldon six years in a row. The man Federer was looking to eclipse, Bjorn Borg, must have been shown on the NBC telecast at least once between every commercial break. Gavin Rossdale and Gwen Stefani also got ample screen time.

-Terry Francona has made two brutal strategic moves in the last four games going into tonight's rubber match. In the final game of the Tampa series, Francona calls for a hit and run with Varitek at the plate and Lowell at first with no outs. The slowest bat on the team, and one of their slowest base-runners. The result was two very quick outs, and getting Wheeler out of tough situation.

And of course, the other situation was a non-move in Saturday's Yankee-Red Sox game. The Red Sox loaded the bases against Mariano Riviera with no outs. Crisp, Varitek and Lugo were due up in that order. Not exactly murderer's row. I thought Crisp should have been used to employ the suicide squeeze to bring Drew, a relatively adept base runner. It would have been a tie game, with one out. But, Francona just lets Crisp and Varitek swing away, hoping one of them could sky a deep flyball out. He certainly could not have thought either of them would get a hit.

-C.C. Sabathia has apparently been traded just now to the Milwaukee Brewers, according to ESPN.com. The Brewers only had to part with one major prospect in Matt LaPorta. And, if the Brewers let Sabathia walk after this season, they will receive a compensatory first round pick in the 2009 amateur draft. So, its not dump deal for the Brewers, they could draft a player of LaPorta's quality with that pick. Jacoby Ellsbury was picked with the compensatory pick Boston received for letting Martinez walk.

-Suddenly, Milwaukee is tied with St. Louis at 3.5 GB of the Cubs. The Cardinals will probably start to fade if they don't make a move to bolster their starting pitching. Kyle Lohse has been brilliant lately, but he is Kyle Lohse, he shouldn't be able to keep it up, but don't tell STL pitching coach Dave Duncan that. LaRussa, desperate for starting pitching, is throwing Mark Mulder out against Philadelphia on Wednesday. Probably not a great move, since Mulder was poor in his rehab stint in the minors, and has given up 2 runs and 4 hits in 1 1/3 innings in his bullpen appearances since being activated. All in all, St. Louis has been a good story this year, piecing together a competitive team without their top two pitchers in Mulder and Chris Carpenter.

-I do feel bad for the Philadelphia 76ers. They have been courting Josh Smith pretty agressively, but since he is a restricted free agent, their interest is probably just serving to drive up the price Atlanta will match. The Sixers Corey Maggette, who is entertaining full MLE offers (5.8 million a year) from championship contenders in San Antonio and Boston. I think Maggette will sign with either the Celtics or the Spurs, but if he chooses to go Philadelphia, they will have to pay him a ton more money than either of the two superior teams would have to.

-Elton Brand is apparently still mulling the five-year, 90 million dollar offer from the Warriors. Brand opted out of his current deal, but promised the Clippers he'd be back with a new contract. I am surprised he has been mulling for this long, especially since the money from the Clippers should still be good, though probably smaller per-year than 17.8 million he turned down. I remember when Kobe Bryant was a free agent, and he was entertaining maximum deals from both Los Angeles basketball clubs. The Clippers and GM Elgin Baylor have had far too many late nights. It cannot be easy to sleep when players of Bryant and Brand's caliber might sign with your team, or they might bolt for a crosstown (or cross-state) rival. If Brand does sign with Golden State, Baylor might look to bring Maggette back for big money. A Davis-Maggette backcourt could be pretty solid still.

Miscellaneous Video of the Day:
Japanese Mass Transportation
And I thought my morning commute was tough. I mailed this in. I am focusing on the Braves/Astros (just ended) and Red Sox, not in the mood to watch silly videos. I mailed this in. Let's never speak of it again.

Old School Rap Video of the Day:
Kool Moe Dee- Wild Wild West
I actually hate this song. It is so old school it hurts. It's cheesy too... I totally mailed in the videos today. Go me.