News flash: The AL East is still up for grabs.

In my mind, nobody cares about the MLB All-Star Break, unless you are a retired, obese baby-boomer or a spoiled, fugly wife of one of the players who will be taking part. That said, those who are calling the race for the AL East pennant to Boston are fools, and for good reason: the New York Yankees are catching up. Right now, they are literally crushing the Los Angeles Angels, 12-0, heading into the late innings. As if things weren’t bad enough for my favorite teams. Mike Scoscia going to have to get these players more focused on the task at hand, and that’s win games. We’re still on top of the AL West, but by the seat of our asses.

That said, I’m more interested on the football: the arena football (the Avengers face the defending ArenaBowl champion Chicago Rush tomorrow), the Canadian football (Saskatchewan takes on Calgary in a few hours), and the associated football (can Team USA U-20 go far in the knockout stages, and will the Socceroos rebound from their dismal performance against Oman? And what of the Galaxy? Can they dispose of the Richmond Kickers on the 10^th, while seeing David Beckham take care of things as he jumps aboard?).

One thing is for sure: those Damn Yankees are back. Shoeless Joe from Hannibal, Mo. and Lola send help!

Bryan Brothers choke in the final. The world turned upside down.

All you doubles teams playing tennis right now, whether competitively or for recreation, here is a perfect example of what not to do: give up three straight sets while winning the first. I seriously have to question Bob and Mark Bryan’s preparation against Arnaud Clement and Michael Llodra in the gentlemen’s double final at Wimbledon. After steamrolling through most of the bracket, the last thing you want is to give up three straight sets in the final after not dropping a single one until then.

Overconfidence? Divine intervention? Karma being a bitch after Venus Williams defeated Frenchie Marion Bertoli? The conspiracies, accusations, and water cooler double talk will no doubt linger in the local tennis circles regarding this match. It’s an unpredictable game, tennis is. And a loss of this magnitude is something the local papers love to rip apart.

Speaking of choking, a few of my favorite soccer teams came out with draws. Ties. Not victory or a loss. Melbourne Victory ties Tianjin Teda 1-1, Australia drew 1-1 with Oman, the LA Galaxy tied 2-2 with Kansas City, Toronto FC tied Chicago Fire 1-1, and the Japan U-20 played to a scoreless draw with Nigeria’s U-20’s. What a drag. This means the only new torrent downloading right now (outside of Toronto’s victory over doormats Real Salt Lake and USA humbling Brazil in the U-20 world cup) is Saskatchewan starting their season off right with a victory over the Montreal Alouettes in the CFL.

Well, my Angels won, the Dodgers choked, and the Armada got back on the winning track after Orange County prevented a 5-game sweep. Not the best weekend for me, but not the worst in terms of futility, either.