Sports Blog » Around Town

This was a great weekend for college football! The weekend was full of great upsets and match-ups and it’s weekends like these that remind us why we miss football during the off-season. It seems like every week now top 10 teams are just taking turns losing to unranked teams. This weekend four teams in the Top 10 went down creating some chaos in the rankings. The first team to go down was Ole Miss. Ranked #4 for the first time in a while the Rebels couldn’t live up to the hype and pressure. They were shut down by a good South Carolina defense in a sloppy 16-10 loss. This brought talk of why they were even ranked that high in the first place, which was mainly because of other Top 10 teams losing. The next victim to fall was Cal. Cal had a tough game on the road against an inspired Oregon team wearing some interesting throwback. Let’s just say Oregon is living up to it’s reputation for having the craziest jerseys every week. I mean they have a ton of different combinations. Well back too the game where I guess the unies did work cause they absolutely demolished Cal 42-3. This was a complete turn around form the opening season loss and it looks like they are now a team on the rise.

At the same time Cal was getting killed another Top 10 team was also no faring as well. There was a lot of hype surrounding the Miami program after two straight wins over teams in the Top 25. Everyone was saying The U was back. Well they got a rude awakening for Virginia Tech getting smashed 31-7. It is a disappointing loss that they will have to get over quickly cause the have to play Oklahoma next week. After all of this happened during the day the final Top 10 team lost at night. # 5 Penn St. was looking forward to this game since last year when Iowa beat them to end their undefeated season. Well they are going to have to wait another year cause Iowa pulled of the upset again 21-10. Next weekend should be just as good as there are some huge match-ups. Some notable games are Cal vs. USC, Miami vs. Oklahoma, LSU vs. Georgia

It was kind of a slow weekend for sports as 3 of the 4 major sports (NFL, NBA, NHl) are in their off-seasons and Tiger Woods didn’t make the cut at the British Open.  The NBA is having the summer league but most of the players playing don’t have a real shot at playing in the NBA so the games aren’t too interesting.  Soccer had some interesting games though, with the U.S. playing in the Gold Cup and top European clubs (Chelsea, Inter Milan, AC Milan) coming to the states to play exhibitions.  The biggest game though may have been David Beckham’s first home game since his return.  Let’s just say it wasn’t a warm welcoming!  Beckham was greeted with boos from the home crowd with some holding up anti-Beckham signs.  Beckham even got into it with a fan that he said “went too far” motioning him to come down from his seat and do something.  The fan jumped down and security quickly grabbed him ending the confrontation. Even with all the boos and signs Beckham still thanked the fans when he came out of the game and after said that it was only a few that went over the line.  He actually played a pretty good game assisting on two goals in the 2 -2 tie with Italian soccer power AC Milan, the team Beckham was loaned out to.  It’s safe to say that home games for the rest of the season are going to be a circus.  Maybe Becks solid play will win the fans back.

In golf, the British Open had a pretty good story going on, even with Tiger Woods being out before Saturday.  59-year old Tom Watson was trying to become the oldest champion ever and win his 6th British Open.  It was pretty unbelievable to watch as he kept hitting good shot after good shot to lead the field.  On the last hole, Watson needed a birdie for the win.  He made it on the green with a very make able birdie putt but missed short forcing a 4-hole play-off with Stewart Cink.  By this time fatigue and the pressure of the situation had to be setting in for older Watson.  And it showed in the play-off as his shots weren’t as crisp as they were all week bogeying three of the four holes.  Cink on the other hand came up with three birdies to take the championship and steal the storybook ending for Watson.  It was still fun to watch the last round and play-off.  Part of me wishes that Watson could have won but on the other hand Cink deserves to get the win also.  He was asked a question after if he “felt like the villain in the movies that comes in at the end and steals the girl away from the main character.”  He responded laughing and said jokingly, “as long as I get the girl” and that he did.

Image Source:  Getty Images

It was an interesting weekend for sports.  The marquee event the U.S. Open had rain and bad weather all weekend so it needed to end today.  Tune in if you can as big names like Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson are still lurking for the win.  It has been a surprising tournament so far as two unknown players (Lucas Glover and Ricky Barnes) have been pacing the field.  The first two rounds they were playing unbelievably well, but they started to fade back toward the field in the 3rd round leaving an opening for others to win on the final round Monday.  I would say that its all up in the air right now and the player that shoots best today will win the U.S. Open.

In soccer, Team U.S.A. pulled off one of the most improbable runs to the Semifinals in the Confederations Cup with help from Brazil. Needing just about a miracle to happen, it just did.  The only way the U.S. could advance to the next round after losing the first two games to Italy and Brazil was with a win over Egypt and an Italy lose to Brazil.  Not only that they needed to make up the 6 goal differential tie-breaker.  Brazil did their part beating the Italians 3-0 giving way for the U.S. to advance if they won 3-0 also.  And they did, playing their best game of the tournament.  It was very exciting to watch as both games were going on simultaneously, but you could tell that the players on each field knew the score on the other.  When the U.S. game went final there was pure jubilation amongst the players as they knew they pulled off the improbable.  They’ll take on number one in world Spain on Wednesday in the semis.  It will be a very tough game and I don’t see the U.S. advancing, but we will see.  In the other semifinal Brazil will take on the host South Africa.

In baseball, the College World Series has its two final teams as LSU will take on Texas in the Final series.  It will be a good match up between two college baseball powers.  Keep an eye on it during the week.  In the MLB, there were some good inter-league series with my personal favorite, the Freeway Series between the Angels and Dodgers.  The series concluded on Sunday night with the Dodgers pulling the 5-3 victory and World Champion Kobe Bryant was in attendance enjoying the game.

Image Source: Getty

So what do you buy your multi-million dollar, actress/singer girlfriend for the her 20th birthday?

Well, it better not be a pair of earrings or a pass to a day spa.

For New York Islanders’ Mike Comrie, he decided to surprise girlfriend Hilary Duff with a brand new Mercedes G-Class SUV, which start at a modest $86,000.

Great Mike. Way to splurge on the first birthday. You should have gotten her a jersey or something and saved the car for Christmas. It’s all downhill from here buddy.

Source: ABC Action News

Photo Source: Hilary Duff, Mike Comrie

Shaun Livingston, of the Los Angeles Clippers, was in attendance at the Friends of the Family charity benefit at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel on June 1st.