Archive for July 5th, 2011

WATERCOOLER CHAT: NOVAK WINS WIMBLEDON, MCCUTCHEN OUT OF ALL STAR GAME, HARPER NEXT SUPERSTAR

TENNIS

It was time for the typically classic Wimbledon Finals.  This year, it featured a fantastic match-up between the usually dominant Rafael Nadal and the up-and-comer Novak Djokovic. Now, one must realize that even though Nadal is accustomed to winning these big matches, Djokovic is the rising superstar.  He boasts a 48-1 record.  Yes, that’s right, he’s only lost one match, and that was to a man that most thought was unbeatable at the time:  Roger Federer.  So when it came time for the big match-up, Djokovic was ready.  It was a battle of course, but Djokovic just played harder and smarter tennis than Nadal.  He looked more nimble out there, and went on to win the Wimbledon Championship on Sunday.  Keep in mind that this came with a prize of $7.5 Million.  With the win, Novak Djokovic is now the man to fear in the tennis world.

BASEBALL

In baseball, with the All-Star selections in, there is a lot of outrage in the baseball community about the exclusion of one particular player:  the Pittsburgh Pirates’ Andrew McCutchen.  McCutchen is in the Top 10 in the National League in on-base percentage, walks, doubles, and even steals.  But… no all-star game for him?  Part of the problem is that the all-star games still has a voting mechanism — as voted on by the fans.  But the fans typically select the big name stars (e.g. Derek Jeter, who’s having a pretty bad year).  What’s odd is that the all-star game in baseball COUNTS.   The winning league gets home field advantage during the World Series!! That’s a big deal!!!  So why wouldn’t you put a stellar player like McCutchen on the team?  The consensus answer appears to be that nobody really cares.  Even though the all-star game “counts”, the players and seemingly even the league doesn’t really care.  After all, they have a myriad of pitchers during the game, instead of letting a superstar pitcher like Roy Halladay pitch 8 innings.  If the game matters, then why is it more for entertainment purposes nowadays?  It’s a bizarre paradox that baseball needs to address along with a bevy of other issues.

Finally, also in baseball, the fever surrounding 2010’s #1 draft pick Bryce Harper continues to heat up.  The Washington Nationals selected Harper with the expectation that he could be the next superstar in baseball (e.g. Albert Pujols, Alex Rodriguez, etc…).  In baseball, you don’t go to the majors right away — you have to prove yourself in the minor league system.  Harper, however, crushed pitches in the Single-A ball, much faster than the Nationals expected.  And now they are promoting him to Double-A.  For Nationals and overall baseball fans, this is very exciting!  It’s always good for a sport when a superstar seems to emerge.  His major league debut will pull huge ratings and his career could be both a big merchandising and marketing opportunity for the league.  We’ll see how Harper progresses.

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