Weekend winners
Rafael Nadal. How about this: No athlete ever has been better at any venue than Nadal has been on the clay at the French Open. He won his 12th title at Roland Garros - and his 18th major, which ranks second among men ever - and his career record on the clay there is 93-2. Yes, 93-2, which is so good, even Saban looks at it and says, "Dang, that's strong."
Mike Martin. In his 40th and final season as FSU's coach, the winningest coach in college baseball history will take his team to Omaha one more time in search of his first national title. FSU's two-game sweep over LSU punched one of six tickets to the College World Series this weekend.
Kumar Rocker. Yes, that's two college baseball names from the weekend. And it's deserved. In fact, if we were limited to only one college baseball name, it would be Rocker. The son of former Auburn legendary defensive lineman Tracy Rocker, Kumar took the ball with Vandy's season on the line Saturday. The freshman pitched the first postseason no-hitter since the 1970s and struck out 19 Duke hitters. Yes, 19. He was simply amazing.
The Braves. Sweeping the 23-40 Marlins is not parade-worthy, but the Braves handled their BID-ness in an impressive way this weekend in Miami. Friday was a runaway as Ronald Acuna homered and Mike Soroka continued his excellence. Julio Teheran pitched well Saturday and Austin Riley's hustle double turned into the only run in Saturday's 1-0 win. And Sunday, Atlanta scored four - three on another Acuna homer - in the top of the ninth to force extra innings before winning 7-6 in 12.
Kawhi Leonard. Wow, he was amazing Friday night as the Raptors grabbed a 3-1 lead in the NBA Finals and look downright untouchable right now. We all knew that Leonard was a dude, but did we realize he was this big?
Weekend losers
Warriors excuse-making. No KD is clearly a problem - the Warriors are 8-1 with KD in NBA Finals games and 8-9 without him under Steve Kerr. But as great as Kawhi has been, the Warriors are still more talented, and they are a six-minute stretch in Game 2 from this already being over in a sweep. And all this talk about "Golden State is tired" is junk.
St. Louis. Game 6. At home. Tied 1-1 entering the third period, 20 minutes from the franchise's first Stanley Cup. And the Blues blew it. Now Game 7 will be in Boston and, yes, if the Warriors can extend the NBA title tonight, a Bruins win would be the third consecutive professional sports championship won by Boston. (Red Sox and Patriots won the World Series and the Super Bowl.)
US soccer. Venezuela waxed the U.S. men's team over the weekend. Venezuela has 31.98 million folks, which is about the combined population of Texas and Kansas and is almost 10 million less than the state of California. As for the women, as they enter their World Cup, former goalie and lightning rod Hope Solo is piping off about how coach Jill Ellis is a poor leader who cracks under pressure.
David Ortiz. Dude was shot in the back and needed emergency surgery. He's OK and expected to make a full recovery, but you have to wonder why someone in the Dominican Republic would target Big Papi.
Dark Phoenix. As Marvel superhero movies continue to crush box office records, it appears the X-Men series is teetering on the brink of extinction. According to this report, Dark Phoenix is going to lose $100-plus-million.
US Open
OK, you know the drill by now. U.S. Open contest. Who's open to the idea? (Like that Spy?)
Same as the Masters - and the PGA and the rest of the golf contests we operate - submit five golfers in the comments or email (jgreeson@timesfreepress.com) and the top four count.
Giddy-up.
We are more excited for this U.S. Open than most because of the track. Pebble is an all-timer and we are hoping for the best from the treacherous folks at the USGA who have been known to make this major about surviving rather than succeeding.
That's fine, but when the course gets away from the USGA, well, you get Phil Mickelson putting a moving ball and there are few things worse than listening to multi-millionaire golfers complaining about their day job.
Here's a story about how the Pebble people are planning on avoiding last year's debacle at Shinnecock.
As for the players, well, Rory was amazing Sunday with a 61 to runaway with the Canadian Open. When he runs away from the field - he has four seven-plus-shot wins on Tour since 2010; no one else has more than one in that time - he's amazing to watch.
The other storyline is that Jason Day has hired Stevie Williams to carry his bag. Wonder if Day and Tiger may play a practice round in the next couple of days?
This and that
- Madison Bumgarner would fit in great with the Braves because somewhere Brian McCann is smiling. Bumgarner got huffy when Max Muncy launched a 426-foot homer into McCovey Cove and Bumgarner got his panties in a bunch. Munch flipped his bat - which according to McCann and Bumgarner and the rest of baseball's grumpy old men is a D felony - and you know, actually enjoyed a moment of success. Bumgarner started yelling at Muncy, Bumgarner, who faced Muncy two more times, did not throw at the Dodgers slugger, so there's that. I am here for the drama and the chirping, especially between rivals. (Side question: Did you know that Bumgarner once dated a girl who was also named Madison Bumgarner?)
- Speaking of college baseball, Michigan, Mississippi State, Louisville and Texas Tech joined Vandy and FSU in the College World Series chase. The winners of today's finales between Auburn-UNC (1 p.m.) and Ole Miss-Arkansas (4 p.m.) will complete the bracket.
- Justin Bieber has challenged Tom Cruise to a UFC-style fight. Seriously. And somehow I am amazingly interested in how this will play out. Here's the Tweet: "I wanna challenge Tom Cruise to fight in the octagon. Tom if you dont take this fight your (sic) scared and will never like it down. Who is willing to put on the fight? @danawhite?" Spelling and punctuation aside, the biggest question has to be why, right? Yes, "Eyes Wide Shut" was dreadful, but that was a long time ago Beebs.
- Speaking of the punching sports, anyone else noticed how the profile of MMA and boxing have increased since partnering with ESPN? I know more about those two sports right now than anytime since Tyson was doing his thing.
Today's questions
Weekend winners and losers, please share.
Also, who you got - Bieber or Cruise?
And, which two A-list celebrities would you pay to watch in the octagon?
As for today, it's June 10. Kate Upton and Elizabeth Hurley were born on this day, so if you were born on June 10, you have a real chance of being easy on the eyes.
John Gotti (2002), Ray Charles (2004) and Gordie Howe (2016) died on this day.
The Sopranos season finale aired on this day in 2007.
Speaking of Mike Martin, would he make the Rushmore of best college coaches (across all sports) to never win a title. Who you got and remember the Open contest.