The Week That Was

Hey lookie here, its The Week That Was! With the sports world slowing down a bit for the summer I had discontinued The Week That Was for a bit. However, with Major League Baseball entering the All-Star Break, and the UFC coming off their biggest pay per view ever, I thought now was the time to bring it back.

Saturday night was a glorious evening with friends at the bar, drinking lots of beer and watching grown men kick the crap out of each other. It was the UFC 100 PPV, headlined by World Heavyweight Champion Brock Lesnar taking on Frank Mir, who defeated Lesnar in his UFC debut. I am not really a UFC fan but definitely a Lesnar fan, stemming from his days years back of dominating the WWE. Lesnar is an incredible athlete and physical specimen. In his first fight ever he took on Mir and was destroying him, until he made a rookie mistake and left his legs vulnerable to a submission. This time around Lesnar forced Mir to the mat from the start, never let him up and just physically dominated him, winning in the Second Round when the referee determined that Mir could no longer defend himself. Lesnar's dominating victory was memorable but even more memorable was his post match tirade. Lesnar cut a WWE style promo on Mir, flipped off the audience, talked about wanting to fornicate with his wife when he got home, and slammed UFC sponsor Bud Light, claiming instead that he would be drinking Coors Light. Stone Cold Steve Austin would have been proud. Some are criticizing Lesnar for the speech but I loved it. Lesnar is hated amongst UFC fans, who don't like that he came from "fake" WWE and is dominating their sport. Whether people hate Lesnar or like Lesnar, he has gotten them emotionally involved, which means those people will pay 50 bucks to either see Lesnar kick ass or get his ass kicked. I hope as the UFC continues to grow they don't become too corporate. Some of that is a necessity but what draws some people to UFC is that it is anti-establishment. I still wouldn't call myself a UFC fan, but I know that if Brock Lesnar is fighting someone, I am watching.

We are one night away from the Major League All-Star game. The All-Star game isn't just an exhibition, it determines home field advantage for the World Series. As silly as that is it has made the All-Star game even more watchable the last few years, as you can tell guys are giving their all. Going into the break, the Boston Red Sox have the best record in the American League at 54-34, while the Los Angeles Dodgers lead the National League with a 56-32 mark. The parity in baseball is apparent as only 9 out of 30 teams are legitimately out of contention at this point in the season. The Red Sox hold a 3 game lead over the New York Yankees in the AL East, with the defending AL champion Tampa Bay Rays just 6 1/2 games out. The AL Central is a three team race, the Detroit Tigers hold a 3 1/2 game lead over the Chicago White Sox, and a 4 game lead over the Minnesota Twins. In the AL West, it is the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in first, with the Texas Rangers just 1 1/2 games back, and the surprising Seattle Mariners just 4 games out of first. The current Wild Card leader is the Yankees.

In the NL East, the defending World Series champion Philadelphia Phillies have separated themselves from the pack a bit. The Florida Marlins are 4 games behind, the Atlanta Braves are 6 games out, and the injury riddled New York Mets are 6 1/2 games back. In the NL Central, only 5 games separates first place from fifth place. The St. Louis Cardinals lead the division, the Milwaukee Brewers sit 2 1/2 games behind, the disappointing Chicago Cubs are just 3 1/2 back, the Houston Astros are a surprising 3 1/2 games behind, and the Cincinnati Reds are 5 out.

The Dodgers have a comfortable lead in the NL West, but the San Francisco Giants have been a surprise story and they are the current Wild card leaders. The Colorado Rockies have turned their season around since firing manager Clint Hurdle and are just 2 games behind the Giants for the Wild Card.

A couple of notes about the site. Starting Monday, August 10th I will begin posting 2009 NFL season previews. I will preview 2 divisions a week, leading up to the start of the season in September. Come September you will see the return of The Hail Mary, where I preview and predict each game every week. This year I will be picking against the spread and straight up. Also returning in September will be Cram Session, where I will preview and predict all of the of the Top 25 college football action. So starting next month expect a lot more updates to the site.