Football At Fenway?

The New England Patriots have defeated the Dallas Cowboys, thanks to a late field goal by Kevin Youkilis, by the score of 19-17.

Wait...Wrong sport? Could Have fooled me.

It was a slugfest to say the least in Boston on Tuesday night. The Red Sox, who scored ten runs in the bottom of the first inning, saw their huge lead vanish before the man they call "YUUUK" saved the day with a three run bomb in the bottom of the eight to lead Boston to victory.

Youkilis and David Ortiz each homered twice in the winning effort.

Every starter on both teams, except for Red Sox catcher Kevin Cash,had at least one hit in the game. The two teams combine for 36 runs on 37 hits. Certainly not a good night to be a pitcher.

Tigers Shuffle Roster

The Detroit Tigers made a pair of moves on Tuesday as they signed free agent right handed pitcher Freddy Garcia and placed DH/OF Gary Sheffield on waivers.

Garcia, who was coveted by several teams, has been out of the game since early 2007 when he was a member of the Philadelphia Phillies. It is expected that Garcia will be assigned to AAA for a few starts for conditioning purposes. Last week Garcia held a workout for major league teams where he was clocked in the 84-87mph range with his fastball. As many as eleven teams reportedly had scouts at the workout.

Sheffield, who is batting .219/10/33 in 76 games with season, has been beginning to show signs that age is starting to catch up with him. The former all-star outfielder had been known for his great power numbers which have declined greatly this season.

Best Olympian of All-Time

Michael Phelps has become the Olympian with the most gold medals (10) in a career. The thing is, the best is yet to come. Phelps still has four events left to hopefully take home gold medals in and break Mark Spitz's record of seven in one Olympics. Phelps earned this feat by securing the gold and a new world record in the 200 meter breast stroke.

Phelps is an incredible athlete, and will now be in the record books for one more thing. It is always fun to watch this man compete, and it should be very interesting to see if he can break Spitz's record.

Byrd Flying to Boston

The right-handed starting pitcher Paul Byrd has been traded from the Cleveland Indians to the Boston Red Sox. The Sox will give up a player to be named later or cash. Byrd, the Louisiana State graduate has had a pretty productive year. He has gone 7-10 with a 4.53 ERA through this season so far. He has been hot as of late, going 4-0 with a 1.24 ERA since the All-Star Break.

Byrd's name came up last year with the steroids controversy and the Mitchell Report. It should be very interesting to see how the Red Sox Nation and Boston media take to him. He will, however, be a much needed lift to this Red Sox team if all goes well.

Redeem Team Tunes Up For Tougher Contests

Team USA defeated Angola 97-76 earlier today in Beijing. Dwayne Wade lead the way for the red white and blue scoring 19 points in 16 minutes.Dwight Howard added another 14, going 6-6 from the floor in 15 minutes of play. All 12 Americans got in the game for at least 11 minutes against an over matched Angola team that never stood a chance. The one red flag that comes up is the 3-point shooting of the US, only going 5 of 21 from beyond the arc. In the Olympic opener against China, the US went only 7 of 24.

The United States needs to step up its long range shooting when they take on Greece, the only team to defeat the current USA team. Greece beat the Americans two years ago, 101-95 in the semifinals of the World Championship in Japan. If Team USA wants to prove that they aren't like Olympic teams from years past, knocking off Greece seems like the most obvious place to start. So far it's been easy for Team USA, now we really get to see what they're made of.

Bubble Burst?

For weeks and even months now people have been waiting and waiting, patiently, for the Tampa Bay Rays to come back down to earth. They have just been playing too well to be the same team that you could pencil in annually for about 100 loses.

"They will cool down after the all-star break."

"They will fall behind the Red Sox when Ortiz comes back."

"They won't stand a chance once the big guns restock at the trade deadline."

Well, here we are, mid August. Don't look now but those same Rays have a 4.5 game lead over the Boston Red Sox in the AL East. They have rode excellent pitching and youthful pop at the plate all the way to one of the best records in all of baseball to this point.

The one thing the Rays have not faced, however, is adversity. Sure, a guy may miss a couple games here or there with some minor stuff, but they have not had that major injury to really set them back. That is until now.

The Ray placed two time all-star left fielder Carl Crawford and rookie of the year favorite Evan Longoria on the DL Monday. For the first time this season the Rays will have two gaping holes in their line-up for a minimum of 15 days, in the case of Crawford likely many more.

It will be interesting to see just how they handle this setback. All year they have gotten little contributions from their "role players" but never before have they been put in the position where they were going to be relied upon to help carry the offense. Guys like Eric Hinske, Gabe Gross, and Rocco Baldelli are going to have some big shoes to fill if the Rays are going to hold their ground on top of the AL East.

Can they do it? I have been one of the many counting them out all year but for some reason they just refuse to lay down. This the real test. It is time for the Rays to stand up and show the world whether they are going to be a true contender or just a team that put together one hell of a start to a season but couldn't finish.

Its A Dunn Deal

The Arizona Diamondback today acquired slugging outfielder Adam Dunn from the Cincinnati Reds in exchange for four minor leaguers. Dunn, who had to go through waivers before being traded, was batting .233 with 32 homeruns at the time of the trade.

This is a good move for the Dbacks as they need to add some pop to the heart of their lineup if they are to keep up with the likes of the LA Dodgers, who are now rolling on the hot bat of newly acquired Manny Ramirez.

Phelps Two for Two!

The foursome of Michael Phelps, Garret Webber-Gale, Cullen Jones, and Jason Lezak brought home the gold medal for the USA in the 4x100. It will go down as one of the most exciting swimming relays in Olympic history, as an arrogant French team (who had bashed the USA prior to the games) saw their lead diminish in front of their eyes on the final length of the pool. Jason Lezak brought up the rear for team USA and not only caught up with the French but gave the Americans the 8/100ths of a second victory.

This means that Michael Phelps is well on his way to beating American Mark Spitz's record of seven gold medals in the 1972 Munich Olympics. Many regarded the first two events that Phelps would compete in as his most difficult challenges to breaking Spitz's record, and with these now under his belt it should be clear sailing the rest of the way. It is the Olympics, however, and surprises are almost guaranteed to happen, so stay tuned to see if Phelps will be victorious.

Thats Two For Harrington

Once again it was a Harrinton-Garcia showdown in the final round of a major and once again it was Harrington who came out on top.

Padraig Harrington fired a four under 66 in the final round of the PGA Championship on Sunday to win his second major in a row. Paired with fan favorite Sergio Garcia, Harrington marched from two strokes back going into the day to claim his third career major.

Just like the final round of the British Open in 2007 it came down to Garcia and Harrington for the championship. Garcia, who shot a two under 68, had a two stroke lead at one point on the back nine only to see it slip away at the hands of his putter yet again.

Garcia is considered by many to be the best players in the world not to have won a major championship. He, much like Greg Norman, is becoming more well known for his collapses than his victories.

As for Harrington, the win, his second major victory in a row (2008 British Open was the other) makes him the front runner now for PGA player of the year, an award annually given to Tiger Woods. With Woods injured and out for the better portion of the year due to knee surgery it has left the door open for the likes of Harrington to seal the spotlight and make a name for himself.

USA Routs China

The "Redeem Team" as they call themselves, otherwise known as USA Basketball, made a huge statement today as they defeated host China 101-70. Lebron James and Dwayne Wade led the way way offensively with eighteen and nineteen points respectively.

In with all the hype and expected record viewers it was never really that close. China came out with a lot of emotion and adrenaline feeding off the home fans, but USA weathered the first quarter storm then stepped on the gas in the second half to blow open the game. All but two players on the USA roster (Kidd, Prince) had points.

Yao Ming led the way for China with thirteen points in a losing effort.

Hopefully this win is a sign of things to come for Team USA. Lebron James, who guaranteed gold coming into the Olympics, held up his end of the bargain in game one making big plays on both ends of the floor. If Lebron and company can bring it every game as they did tonight there is no reason why this team should not head back to the States with gold.