Good bye July

Last week, I talked about the Olympics and my feelings about the games. I said I may not watch any of the coverage and as of this writing I haven’t watched this year’s installment. But I have read some of the storylines and there are some interesting happenings thus far. The first thing that took place was when the USA women were shutout by Sweden 3-0 in their first game. As an American I should be shocked, dismayed and upset.

Okay, I’m a bit dismayed but I’m not upset. I have my reasons for not caring about this team and taking a knee when the National Anthem is being played has a lot to do with it. I know we live in America and we have every right to do whatever we want to when the Star Spangled Banner is played. We are a free country and we have all of these rights to be respectful or disrespectful. I guess that gives me the right to feel the way I do about the American flag. Oh well!

There is one other thing about the loss to Sweden. It occurred to me that since my grandfather came to America in the 1890’s maybe, just maybe I have a long lost relative that plays for Sweden. And then again maybe not.

If you remember what I wrote about USA basketball last week I basically said that there was a good chance that the Olympic team would rebound from a couple of exhibition losses and take care of business during the games. But the French team took down the Americans by going on a 16-2 rally late in their first game. It is obvious that the international game is a bit different than the NBA version by eight minutes. Also just because you have a bunch of NBA all-stars doesn’t mean the world will bow down to these highly paid professionals. Once the USA lost its lead they began to rely on the 3-point shot instead of keeping pace with higher percentage shots near the basket.

One loss does not mean the USA team can’t win the gold medal it just means every team they will play will know their weaknesses.

The Major League Baseball (MLB) trade deadline is this week and if you’re a baseball fan you will see teams that are in contention looking for a starting pitcher, closer or a quality hitter that can bring their team key victories down the stretch of the season.

I was listening to a sports show the other day and the pundit was saying that he thought the Chicago White Sox would be trading of some of their talent because of payroll issues and that several players would be free agents at the end of the season.

Now I’m a bit skeptical because the White Sox are leading the American League Central Division and Tony LaRussa is the manager. LaRussa is 76 and I’m sure that he doesn’t want to get rid of players that helped this team get into first place unless they can trade for a better player. But it is the White Sox and they have been known to trade away veterans for young talent. Let’s see how much clout LaRussa has and how this week plays out.

It will also be interesting to see what the Seattle Mariners will be doing with their roster. The Seattle nine has been playing good baseball since just before the All-Star break and things are starting to come together in the win column. Seattle has some young talent in the minor leagues and there is a possibility that a few of those guys might be traded for some veteran players that are now on also ran ball clubs. Baseball is different than most sports since there are no unlimited substitutions taking place during a game. You are either in the game or you aren’t. Once you come out of the game your day is done. This does make it difficult for young kids to break through and get playing time. Sometimes trading young talent is in the best interest of the player even if they get traded to a last place team.

There is a lot of stuff going on in the sports world at the end of July. It doesn’t matter what sport you are playing just remember each game means something now.