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When one was asked to describe the Seinfeld program, the most common phrase was that it was “a show about nothing”. That’s the way I approached this past weekend in terms of sports interest and viewing. As far as I was concerned, there was a bunch of nothing on and I was not really interested.
But, wouldn’t you know, after my wife and I returned from running some errands and doing some shopping, she wanted to go back out and do some shopping on her own. She was positive there was a sporting event that I wanted to watch. And, I must admit, that is almost always the case. I could not convince her that she was wrong. There was really nothing I wanted to watch. But off she went.
After doing some reading, I finally decided @ 4:15pm that there must be something on to watch. I quickly discovered there were three golf matches on, Wimbledon tennis finals, and the Phillies. My interest was not really peaked, but I figured I could go back and forth and stop at the more interesting spots.
When I turned on the TV, I found myself on the American Century Championship on NBC, a golf tournament I knew nothing about. It was celebrity golf with players like Justin Timberlake, Stephen Curry, and Aaron Rodgers. Former Dallas Cowboy quarterback Tony Romo was in the lead. The scenery was beautiful and it would be interesting to see some of the celebrities hit the ball like I do. I made a point of coming back to that.
Then, I clicked over to ABC and there was Wimbledon. I joined the match between Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer in the fourth (and what could be the final) set. I am not a fan of watching or playing tennis. I always thought the only fun way to play the game was to find an opponent with equal skill so you could actually have interesting volleys. Otherwise, I was always chasing after a ball after a lost point or watching my opponent walk after a ball after I won a point. Seldom were there points with more than three returns. Not fun in my estimation.
I never thought watching tennis to be that much fun either. But I found myself unable to turn this match off. It was historical, great tennis, and the end result far from assumed. Okay, I will watch this except for commercials between sets.
It was off to check out the Phillies against the Nationals. The Phils were fading fast, having lost both games in the series to the Nats. I joined the game in the top of the ninth and watched the Phils pitcher strike out the side. I had to come back to this for the finish!
Back to the golf. Tony Romo was running away with this tournament. Good – I can leave this for now.
Back to the tennis. Federer won the fourth set. I had to stay with this to determine the winner. The match set records for length and was the first to ever see a fifth-set tiebreaker. Again, I was hooked to the finish, but I did go away during the commercials.
It was the bottom of the ninth in the Phillies game which was tied 3-3. Maikel Franco was at bat (yes, that’s when I tuned in) and he hit a walk-off home run to give the Phils the win. I thought it was nice of the Wimbledon people to have a commercial at this point.
Back to Romo. He won easily.
Back to tennis. Now, my wife came back home and was ready to have dinner. I had to explain to her that I was wrapped up in a tennis match! And that took some explaining. She knew I found tennis to be boring. The match went almost five hours and ended @ 6:00pm.
Djokovic won 13-12 in the fifth set (that’s not even a real tennis score) and it was one of the greatest matches ever. And I just happened to watch it!
So, I concluded, that just like watching a Seinfeld episode about nothing and enjoying it immensely, I spent this past late Sunday afternoon expecting nothing in the way of sports and ended up enjoying it immensely. Go figure!
ABOVE THE EARS (SOME MUSINGS)
- Did you notice that 15-year-old tennis sensation Coco Gauff lost to in the fourth round won the Wimbledon Women’s title? Simona Halep won the women’s title in just 56 minutes over Serena Williams. It took Halep longer to beat Gauff, the youngest player to ever win a singles match at Wimbledon.
- The best team in the National League comes to Philadelphia this week. The Dodgers are in town for four games and the Phils are 8.5 games behind the Braves and 1.5 games behind the Nationals. They are a half game ahead in the Wild Card race. Some upset wins against LA would be welcome.
- Robbie Gould, the former Penn State kicker, reached agreement with the 49ers on a two-year $10.5 million deal that could go $19 million in four years. It’s a great deal for the former Nittany Lion.
- With all the movement in the NBA in the past couple of weeks, the 76ers right now are projected to be the fourth best team in the NBA. Remember they came very close to beating the Raptors, losing in Game 7 at the buzzer. The Bucks, Nuggets, and Clippers are projected right now to be the top three teams.
- Our final BML Game of the Week is next Tuesday. The Berlinsville Braves will host Martins Creek. The BML Game of the Week comes on at 9:30 PM. Join the RCN-TV sports team.
