Baseball
All quiet on the baseball front: Both the Orioles and the Nationals had their scheduled games against the Indians and the Phillies respectively postponed. The O’s and Indians scheduled a split-admission doubleheader for Sunday. The first game, a 1:35 start will honor tickets from Saturday’s game. The second game will start at 7:05. The Nats and Phillies will also play a Sunday doubleheader in the city of brotherly love.
The O’s fell to 1.5 games behind Tampa Bay by virtue of the latter’s 4-1 win over Boston. The Nationals lost no ground on their 3.5 game lead as the game between the second place Mets and Cincinnati was suspended with the score tied at one after six innings.
Women’s Soccer
The semifinals of the women’s World Cup are set. The United States advanced totheir seventh consecutive semifinal with a 1-0 win over Colombia Friday and will play the world’s top ranked squad, Germany who eliminated France 5-4 on penalty kicks after the squads played to a 1-1 tie after 90 minutes of full time and 30 more in overtime. The USA and German will play at 7:00 pm Tuesday in Montreal for the opportunity to play for the Cup.
On Saturday, England held on to eliminate the host country Canada 2-1 after scoring twice in the first 14 minutes. Defending champion Japan scored the lone goal of their game against Australia in the 87th minute and will face England Wednesday in Edmonton.
Women’s Tennis
This noteworthy element here is not simply that Wimbledon starts play Monday but that, after winning the Australian and French championships, Serena Williams has the chance to win the first true Grand Slam in 27 years. Steffi Graf is the only player in that span – men’s or women’s – to win what has now come to be called the Golden Grand Slam which is winning the four major titles – Australian, French, British (Wimbledon) and U.S. in a single year. (Note: My buddy Jake Nazar has corrected me that the “Golden Slam” includes the four majors plus the Olympics. The four majors alone is a “Calendar” Slam.)
And now we come to one of my many pet peeves. We now live in a world where it seems that everyone gets a trophy and everyone seems to need validation that makes them feel special. Because actually winning a Grand Slam in golf or tennis is such a rare feat, golf now has the “Tiger” Slam – which is winning the four major titles consecutively even if that spans two years and both sports now have the “Career” Grand Slam. This title is conferred on any player who has won the four major titles at any point in his or her career.
To which I say, “BAH!” Do we credit every baseball player who his at least four home runs in his career with a career grand slam? Do we credit a player with a career triple crown if he wins the batting average title in one season, the home run title in a second and leads his league in RBI in a third?
If we allowed horses older than three years old to return and race a second, third or fourth time in the Kentucky Derby, Preakness or Belmont Stakes would we cite them as career Triple Crown winners?
Serena Williams is simply a great tennis player. She has an absurd 33-4 record in the singles and double finals of the major championships. She’s 4-0 in Olympics finals. She’s played 61 tournaments since June of 2011 and won 30 and seven of those are major championships. As she has said heading into Wimbledon, “I don’t think that’s [winning the Grand Slam] going to define my career or make it or break it.”
Here’s a list of tennis players who have won a true grand slam (singles only):
Don Budge – 1938
Maureen Connolly – 1953
Rod Laver – 1962 and 1969
Margaret Court – 1970
Steffi Graf – 1988
That’s it. Five players. Six Grand Slams. Think about some of the names that aren’t on that list: Jack Kramer, Pancho Gonzalez, JimmyConnors, JohnMcEnroe, Ivan Lendl, Roger Federer, Althea Gibson, Billie Jean King, Chris Evert, Martina Navratilova. Five players. Six Grand Slams. Serena Williams is right.
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