Phil's 5th Major

So, another boring week of nothingness goes along and sports really took another backdoor to the great outdoors (which is awesome). The only really thing that happened was the first NFL training camp started, making the Sunday teases finally slow down for a bit getting this Football thing rolling in another couple weeks. Other than that, let’s hit up this news from the past week once more.

Yoenis Cespedes gave us all chills during the homerun derby as he absolutely pummeled baseballs into the third deck at Citi Field in New York on Monday night. In fact, he hit them so hard he was out the first series back with the Oakland Athletics. Here’s the thing everybody, if he was that hurt after hitting the amount of bombs he did, along with considering his strength, don’t you think Josh Hamilton and Bobby Abreu took steroids? I mean let’s face it, when those guys put on the show they did back a 5-10 years ago, they were swinging pretty hard along with swinging a lot. Maybe Yoenis really doesn’t use drugs and maybe we can start slowly rolling away from this steroid era conversation especially after the monstrous performance by Yoenis, because he owned the night on Monday.

The All-Star game was a huge yawner and the only thing that woke me up while watching it was when Rivera got the standing ovation in the 8^th. That was when I realized it was the 8^th inning, and that bed time was in the near future. On a more serious note, Mariano Rivera is the greatest closer of all-time and nobody will ever over take that name. He will have an award named after him for the relief pitcher of the year for his greatness. The tribute was fabulous, but at the end of the day, the National League squad got shut out and the AL has home field in the World Series… yaaaay.

Metta World Peace is now in New York. So no more Godzilla, no more 9/11, and no more attacking New York in movies for the next 2 years right? You can’t do it! Especially after having that name in the city for the next couple of seasons. Either way, the circus will be in New York for the next couple of season, Metta is just taking Tebow’s place for the time being.

The Espy’s were on this week. How about we set up another forum for cancer research funding to roar it’s ugly money grubbing head. If you know me, I find this cancer funding minutia overzealous and ridiculous similarly to my use of colorful vocabulary. I know, I know, Jimmy V. I understand. I also respect the guy tremendously and wish he could have been my coach at some point in my life. But considering the amount of promotion that goes into this terrible disease we deem as the ultimate death of what we call “normalcy” when it comes to our way of our “healthy” lives, I also don’t want to be giving trophies away rewarding athletes because a certain four letter network has the dough to do so. It’s pointless, unimportant, and nobody gives a damn except for the people running the business which, let’s be honest, is a great business but at the end of the day isn’t the Golden Globes of sports (even though they make it seem like it is). Nobody cares! And the best part is they replay it every opportunity they can because they have nothing else to put on TV at 1 A.M in the morning. For those of you thinking I’m the Grinch in this whole ESPY's ideal, I really could care less. You know why? If I were an athlete and I had to go to this sham of a marketing award show, I would wish to have my eyes gauged out and given to the poor rather then watch some comedian try to make jokes about all the major sporting events that happened this season. Yes I understand “there is more too it” like the Arthur Ashe award (which brought me to tears by the way) but on the whole, it’s all a marketing ploy from the people who bring you the world wide leaders in sports. If you bought into watching this nonsense, call yourself a mindless zombie and jump into an abyss for becoming a spineless consumer that our great country is turning you into.

Some dude on the Astro's hit a cycle on Friday. His team also got swept by the Seattle Mariners and lost all three of their games. This isn’t news…

The Charlotte Hornets, I mean Bobcats, are changing their name back to what it should be… shocker. If there is one thing Michael Jordan is bad at, it is being a GM. We found his chink in the armor America, Jordan can’t GM! Hey LeBron and Kobe, you have a chance of being better than Jordan at something!

A dude named Froome won the 100^th time a bike race was done in France. Apparently it’s the biggest bike race in the world. Unfortunately, after seeing the Lance Armstrong saga unfold in January, the appeal of bicycle racing has just completely died. If you still find this race appealing, I seriously question your sanity and have some questions for your health in the near future.

Let’s get to the real news of the entire week and understand who the actual best golfer of the last 5 years has been. How about Phil Mickelson? The guy won his 5^th major title on Sunday morning and did it in complete comeback fashion. I turn on the TV, I see him holding the Jug, and I’m thinking… dang how did that happen? He shot a round best 66 and completely Mariano Rivera’d everybody in the field. Closed. It. Out. He shut it down at The Open and nobody was going to catch him. While we all keep wondering when Tiger Woods will finally get his act together, a guy like Mickelson keeps writing his legacy in such a San Antonio Spurs fashion; behind the scenes. This guy since turning 33 has won 5 majors and finished within striking distance 1/3 of the time, while Tiger Woods has done very little in comparison since turning 33. Let’s also recognize something that outweighs anyone’s conversation behind Tigers ability to comeback in a Major. He never has, and on Sunday Phil Mickelson came back 5 strokes down to win a Major. Tiger has no excuses on being great anymore. If Phil can comeback after being 5 shots down, the excuses should tone down for Tiger through the media. The only thing Phil needs to do to solidify his legacy in the conversation as one of the greatest golfers ever is to nail down a U.S. Open championship that has eluded him his entire career. Once that gets nailed in, Phil will be in the conversation with Tiger… at least when it comes to his performance in his mid to late 30’s.

Stay classy L.A. Puig is back to business. See you all next week.