The Morning After on TSE - 7.12.2007

It's all downhill from here. In a good way. It's July 12th, the MLB All-Star Game is over and we past the slowest day in the sports world. From this day forward, every sport starts to pick up steam. Presented now is a schedule of what to expect in the coming weeks from different sports, different media outlets and the rest of the sports world.

Golf: The British Open

The event (called "The Open" by some, though I maintain that event is played in the States a month or so before and anyone who says otherwise is a Pinko-Commie nutjob who doesn't deserve the right to belt out the lyrics to "Proud to be an American" while shit-can drunk waiting to get into a bar. A little inside, I know) should be one of the most, ahem, open Opens in recent history. So many questions arise: Can Tiger win his first major as a father? Can Phil come back from his wrist injury and play as well as he did at the Tour Championships? Will the winner be an unheralded rookie like Ben Curtis (or Paul Lawrie, considering we're back at Carnoustie) or will it be an unheralded vet like Angel Cabrerra? We'll know in 10 days.

Baseball: August, September and (JTBI: Actober).

The All-Star break is where most teams can do one of two things. They can either use the break to rest up for the playoff push or they can fold like a cheap suit at Wal-Mart. The trade deadline is just over two weeks away and it should be a very exciting few days of transactions to say the least. At press, it seems like the best teams are in the American League, but that's what we said before the Cardinals won the World Series. Can Boston continue it's domination against the AL East (with 14 more games against the Devil Rays, I'd like to think so). Will the Yankees re-sign A-Rod and miss the playoffs? Who will come out of the very good AL Central? Are the LAAoA good enough to win the AL? Can any team from the NL hope to compete? Great teams cut their teeth on the end of July and August, getting ready for September. As Dane Cook tells us, there's only one October and the push to get there begins today.

Football: Hey, at least it's preview time...

OK, we're still pretty far from football, but at least we can almost see the football season in the distance. Several blogs and websites are beginning their football previews (most notably, the Gay Mafia at KSK, who's season preview is always funny). Here at TSE, JTBI has begun looking at his contenders and pretenders in the BCS conferences and college football is even in the news now, as Oklahoma went from 8-4 in 2005 to 0-4. We're getting so close to the beginning of the season that I can almost hear Big$Rich tuning up the band for the beginning of College Gameday*

*Aside to ESPN: please change the opening sequence this year. Big$Rich were kinda sorta popular when people liked watching poker on television a few years ago and it's time to shuffle loose their mortal coil as the intro to Gameday. Suggestions for improvement: I say go Old School and bring out Morris Day and the Time.

Basketball: I guess the summer league kind of counts.

The NBA has the luxury of being a nearly year-long sport, due mainly to the Draft lottery in May, the playoffs running into June and the actual draft after that, summer leagues after the draft and, this year, the FIBA Americas Championships, the qualifier for the 2008 Olympics, in August. Before you know it, NBA players will be reporting to training camps, playing in pre-season games and getting ready for the opening tip of the 2007-2008 season and the cycle will start over again.

Yes, it's just July 12 it's going to get better today. And tomorrow. And the next day.