nadal vs federer, again. really?

i don't follow pro tennis like i used to, back when i played all the time and taught it for a living.  but i still have a casual interest and pay it a little bit of attention.  having said that, i thought the days of federer/nadal grand slam finals were over.  the last time they played each other in a slam final was in australia over 2 years ago.  the first final they played in was exactly 5 years ago at the 2006 french open (also the first time dallas and miami played in the NBA finals.  totally irrelevant, but i think mildly interesting).  they then made the next 3 and a half years of men's tennis pretty boring by playing each other in 7 grand slam finals from '06-'09.  and now here they are, back again in the french open final.

i did not see that coming.

i don't want to jinx anything.  so even though i'd love to, i will not rip on miami today.  in all likelihood they still probably win in 6.  i'm trying to plan my summer around the total avoidance of all nba news, because there is no way i am going to be able to handle the media crush that will go along with a heat championship.  but at least for now, this thing isn't over.  for dallas to win, dirk will probably need a legendary performance that will make people start thinking of him as an all-time great.  but, from what he's done so far this playoffs, that doesn't seem impossible.

dice K is having tommy john surgery. what?!

there's tornadoes flying through the state, the bruins are playing for the stanley cup, and shaq retired. so well timed daisuke.  way to sneak this in under the radar.  it's the 8th lead story on espn/boston right now.  not espn, espn BOSTON.  i guess it's not official yet, he's planning to tell the sox today that he is going to have the surgery.  and i know he hasn't been that great, but this is a pretty big deal.  at least now wakefield may get his shot to stay in the rotation till he's 50.

Public Service Announcement about "Skinny Girl" drinks

i work in a bar that serves a LOT of tequila.  and more and more often i've been getting orders for "skinny girl" margaritas.  it's the same thing, just with lime juice and soda water instead of sour mix.  a few weeks ago a girl told me that the reason for this is because of some lady named bethenny frankel who was on "the real housewives of new york city."  apparently she's become famous for "inventing" a number of lower calorie alcoholic drinks.  now here's the point of this blog: 

there are calories in alcohol.  a lot of calories.  just a straight shot of vodka or any average liquor has about 100 of them.  the thing that makes light beer light is that it has less alcohol.  regular bud is 5% alcohol.  bud light is only 4.2%.  mich ultra is 4.1%.  mgd 64 is 2.8%.  and bud select 55 is only 2.4% alcohol. 

so sorry "skinny girl" drink drinkers, the only way to actually avoid the calories is to take out the booze.

what do bartolo colon and jose bautista have in common?

in his first 4 big league seasons, bautista hit 16, 15, 15, and 13 home runs.  then out of nowhere he hit 54 bombs last year, and now he's hit 20 more already this season.  how does a guy who's been totally average for 4 years suddenly become the greatest slugger in baseball at age 29?

colon did not pitch in major league baseball last year.  yesterday he threw a complete game shoutout.  two weeks ago he tossed 8 shoutout innings.  the last time he'd done that was in 2006.  the last time he'd even PITCHED 8 innings in a game was in 2007.  he's 38 years old.

anyway, the answer is obvious: they're both dominican.  that and they're both on the new super secret undetectable steroid.

i'm thinking of betting a lot of money on the heat

it's been about 7 years since the peak of yankee hatred, so i probably don't quite remember exactly how much i despised them pre-2004.  but having said that, i think this year's miami heat is one team i can't stand to see win more than any other in the history of sports.  i am certain that lebron is my all time most disliked athlete.  so the question is, how much money would i be willing to pay to guarantee they lose to dallas?  $100?  definitely.  $200?  i think so.  i'm going to stop there before i freak my mom out in case she reads this.  so if i bet that much money on miami to win, then at least there's a silver lining if they do, right?  is there any reason why i shouldn't?  and if this sounds familiar at all it's because i just wrote about it not that long ago:

http://lucidsportsfan.blogspot.com/2011/05/my-guaranteed-way-to-win-at-sports.html

on the boat to the vineyard

this may be it for the blog today.  we'll see.  whatever, it's memorial day weekend, nobody's going to read it anyway...