Quick hits!

-You better have watched that US soccer game last night.  Not only did the US earn the tie, we actually should have won the game after an American was thrown down from behind by his jersey after he got past the last Mexican defender for a breakaway.  This should have resulted in a red card and a penalty kick for the prevention of a goal scoring opportunity that Donovan no doubt would have buried.  The official of course only gave a yellow card. Apparently David Stern lent his referees to FIFA during the NBA lockout.  The bigger news though is that the Americans looked terrific in the final thirty or so minutes when Klinsmann made personnel adjustments to bring in players more suited to the new style of play.  Juan Agudelo looked unstoppable and remember this name: Brek Shea, he of the terribly hair cut and awesome soccer ability.  The latter player assisted on the lone US goal and was a force of nature on the pitch last night.  The Mexicans had no answer for his size and athleticism.  He has the potential to be great for Klinsmann. I don’t think we could have asked for more than that result last night. Very exciting.

-I have no doubt the Toronto Blue Jays are stealing signs.  The only question is why do baseball teams still act shocked when this happens?  Also, why aren’t teams employing ridiculous schemes yet to steal signs using advanced technology?  Couldn’t the Yankees pretty easily implement a system where the players have a microphone in their ear where a guy sitting with binoculars in a secret location relays the call to him?  That costs what, a million bucks tops?  Baseball is hilarious.

-Everyone should be in front of their television this weekend for the final major of the year.  Tiger’s not going to win though so don’t even waste your time reading articles that wonder whether this is finally the tournament where he gets his mojo back.  I’m looking to see whether young Rory can pull it together for his second major of the year or whether Dustin Johnson will finally decline to bring his stupid cap to the course for four straight days.  That guy has left at least three majors on the table in the past 12 months.

-If you’re like me and becoming a soccer nerd, here’s a little tip for you: the English Premier league opens up league play this Saturday.  Games will be on ESPN2 and Fox Soccer if you’re interested.

-You’ll never believe this, but the New York Yankees were on national TV last night.

-And finally, Showtime’s The Franchise continues to deliver the goods each Wednesday night.  Although I wish they’d have stuck with the hour long format of the series premier, I can’t tell you how fun it’s been to get an inside look at the stuff goes on behind close doors for a pro ball club.  They couldn’t have picked a better team than San Fran and its bizarre cast of characters. What’s impressive about it is that it hasn’t even reached it’s full potential yet because Tim Lincecum still hasn’t been featured in an episode.  If we could just get ten minutes of Lincecum and Brian Wilson hanging out in downtown San Francisco one night, it would make the entire series worth the amount of money it costs me to get Showtime every month.  I hope they’ll continue doing the show in the coming years.

Generation Y, where we’re also holding out for a bigger contract.  Show me the quan, Jerry!