Right now, both of the top men in the world, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer are both in tight matches, and if either or both fall, the men’s bracket would really be up for grabs at Wimbledon.
But it would just look like the women’s draw. Over the weekend, everyone talked about the miraculous return of Serena Williams to the All England Club, but that run is now over. Serena was beaten 6-3, 7-6 (6) by Marion Bartoli of France. On paper it was the number nine seed defeating the number seven seed, usually a tight call, but to many this was a big surprise but it shouldn’t have been, Serena hasn’t played in over a year due to injuries. Maybe it was her star power; maybe it was the perceived weakness of the rest of the women’s draw, that made people believe in the younger Williams sister.
On the same day, Serena’s big sister Venus also lost – for the second straight year at the same score – to Bulgaria’s Tsvetana Pironkova 6-2, 6-3. Grass is the elder Williams’ best surface and if she can’t win more than five games in the fourth round at Wimbledon, maybe the end is coming closer.
Then there is the number one women’s player, Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki. She is getting dissed a bit by the Club, banished to Court Two. But maybe it just prevented embarrassment; Wozniacki was defeated by Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia 7-5 in the final set. I have to ask how this woman, who I’ve seen play very little, is ranked number one in the world considering that she has never won a major?
So, the question remains – who’s left?

While I was away, the e-Street Band’s saxophonist and Bruce Springsteen’s main foil for decades, Clarence Clemons died after having suffered a stroke the week before. When a friend and I saw Springsteen almost 2 years ago, we discussed the possibility of it being the last time.
Danny Federici was gone, and everyone knew that Clarence had numerous medical problems over the past few years. I said that maybe we would see some more studio music, but that the E-Street Band live may be no more.
But that’s alright. I saw them over 20 times over the years since my first time, when they played a 3+ hour show at Northwestern University’s McGaw Hall in 1978. It was and remains the best rock and roll show I’ve ever seen. At the time, I knew Springsteen’s music, but wasn’t really a fan. That changed that night – Springsteen played like a man possessed, and Clemons was his match. It was nice to see a black man featured in a rock show, and of course, the sax solo on “Jungleland” is one of the best, most memorable solos in rock history (and let’s not forget that Clarence’s solo was backed by Max Weinberg’s pounding drums – giving majesty to the solo).
The same friend who I saw Bruce with in 2009 texted me saying how sad it was that Clarence had passed, but I said that he had 69 years of a great life, and he touched millions of people and gave them joy. What more can you ask than that?

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I have a friend whose daughter attends university in Vancouver. Originally from the Toronto area, she and her dad were Maple Leaf fans, but in moving to Chicago, the dad, Brian, became a Blackhawks fan (we share the partial season tickets for the Hawks with him and other friends).
The daughter, Ashleigh, was in town a few weeks ago visiting the Indignant Family with her dad and step-mother and she told us what schmucks the Canuck fans are. Ashleigh has a couple of Hawks’ jerseys and when she wore them in town, men would say nasty things to her. She told us that if he had been male, she probably would have gotten into numerous fights with the fans in British Columbia.
Now, I think of Canadians as being a gentile sort. They are pretty mellow whenever I have been there, although I did see a video that Canuck fans made demolishing a van that had Blackhawk decals on it with chainsaws and sledgehammers. I thought that was pretty tasteless, and I should know that anybody has the ability of being an @$$hole. I knew that the Vancouver fans were going to take losing badly, but not to this magnitude.
By now, you have probably read about the riot that made downtown Vancouver a battle zone last night. According to reports, when the game was obviously over, fans, many of whom had been downtown since noon to watch the game on a giant screen outside of the Canada Post building, let loose their frustrations.
Apparently, a group of fans overturned a car and then hopped onto it, jumping up and down while hundreds more egged on the behavior. Once the crowd started chanting “Burn It,” the level of violence increased. Before long, trash fires were burring all over downtown and fights became common. Blue fences originally used to keep alcohol out of the fan zones were torn down and fashioned into weapons. The barricades were also used to fight off the riot police.
The riot police and regular police used as reinforcements used tear gas and smoke bombs to disperse the crowds. The rioters responded with their own explosions of some sort, which early on drew cheers from spectators that had climbed onto roof overhangs and transit stops to get a better view of the destruction. Rioters then turned to The Bay department store and numerous other businesses; smashing out windows and climbing through the open fronts to loot the stores. The National Post showed numerous pictures of rioters who were talking joy in being photographed in front of burning cars, broken store windows and other signs of the riot.
Although local officials did try to limit the violence, they obviously weren’t going to stop the bars from serving liquor (although the state owned liquor stores closed at 4:00 PM – the game started just after 5:00 Vancouver Time). The city closed off about 20 blocks downtown to make way for pedestrians at noon, and the drinking started early. Lines at the bars wrapped around buildings by mid-afternoon.
Once the game was out of reach it was just a matter of time before the powder keg ignited. As someone who used to work in crowd control, let me tell you that the worst thing that can happen in one of these situations is a blow-out. If the game stays close, people spend more time watching. If one side or the other takes a big lead, like Boston did last night, especially in that the third goal was a short-handed goal that turned a potential chance to close the gap into obviously defeat, and there was little more for the drunks to do but look for an outlet.
I said in earlier posts that the Canucks and their fans were showing no class, and didn’t deserve to win the Stanley Cup. Roberto Luongo’s comments about Tim Thomas early in the series; one of the Sedin twins “guaranteeing” victory in last night’s game, the goon tactics of several Canuck players, showed that the team wasn’t the feel good story that the Blackhawks had been last season. But I should say that I firmly believe that if the Canucks had won, there would still have been a riot – perhaps not quite as destructive as last night’s, but alcohol and large crowds never work out well.
As far as I’m concerned, Vancouver doesn’t ever need to win a Stanley Cup – 40 years is just the beginning.

“Fairy tales can come true;
It could happen to you; If you’re young at heart”
– “Young at Heart – music by Johnny Richards and lyrics by Carolyn Leigh.

When the NBA Playoffs started, I was rooting for the Bulls, but barring that, I wanted anyone to win other than LeBron James and the Miami Heat. In hockey, my list was longer – I didn’t want the Red Wings (I do hate them), Flyers (the Blackhawks beat them in last year’s Finals) and the dreaded hated Canucks, who eventually beat us in seven games in the first round.
Coming into the Finals for each league, I suddenly became a Dallas Mavericks fan, and a Bruins fan in the NHL. But it looked like a long shot – the Heat had dispatched the Bulls quickly in the Eastern Conference Final, and Vancouver won the President’s Cup for most points in the regular season (by a huge margin), and after beating the Hawks, no one had come close to them. They were on a roll. I was thinking that I could go 0 for 2, maybe the best I could do is .500. Being on the right side of both series, that was too much to ask.
But the Mavs came through last week (humiliating LeBron), and last night, the Bruins were the only team to win a road game in the series, defeating Vancouver 4-0. Again, Bruin goalie Tim Thomas showed Canuck netminder Roberto Luongo who was the better goalie, and the Bruins grinded out the throughout the playoffs to win Lord Stanley.
They weren’t the best team (in my opinion) – their power play sucked – they looked slow to me, especially against Tampa Bay; they had no superstars or big names; they just kept finding ways to win.
Congratulations – now I can have a peaceful summer for the winter sports. The Cubs suck, so it will be fun watching them for the rest of the season. Now if we can just settle the labor problems in the NFL and NBA, and the White Sox could put together a winning streak, life would be grand.

As a brief respite in the economic problems in Cleveland, Ohio, the sports fans there are rejoicing today, as are many NBA and sports fans elsewhere. You know that it would take quite a villain to make people happy to see Mark Cuban’s Dallas Mavericks win an NBA title, and there is one – LeBron James.
Once again disappearing at crunch time, the Mavs went onto the Heat’s home court and defeated them 105-95 for the franchise’s first title. Remember last summer, after “the Decision,” was announced that James and Chris Bosh would be joining Dwayne Wade in Miami – there was lots of partying, especially by “the Three Amigos,” and talk of multiple championships. Up to then, fans in Cleveland were the only ones who hated James; after that, fans in every city wanted James to fall on his ass.
Those wishes are granted. From the outset, the three signings were problematic – simply, the Heat didn’t need Bosh, a player with a similar game to James. If the Heat had signed just Wade and James, they could have spent a lot of money on the other pieces of the championship puzzle – rebounders, point guard, bench. But they had to play together, and this is what they’ve got. And, these guys have been celebrating ever since they got together, but only Wade has been on a championship team.
James was a non factor late in games in the finals, although an injury to Wade may have hurt the team more. So, Dirk Nowitzki has his first title (and may be his only one). Congratulations to them, and let James sit in his mansion all summer like Charles Foster Kane, surrounded by his family and his millions, but no title. All we need is a shattering snow globe and James saying “Rosebud.”

It’s bad enough that the hated Vancouver Canucks are one game from winning the Stanley Cup, but they continue to make people hate them by saying stupid comments. Goalie Roberto Luongo, who fluctuates between hero and goal faster than any player in the NHL to the silly Vancouver fans, was talking about the crucial goal in the third period of Game 5 and said that he (Luongo) would have made the stop on that goal, a cheap shot at Tim Thomas, who has been talked about as the Conn Smythe Trophy winner for most valuable player in the playoffs. The Bruins wouldn’t be anywhere near this deep in the playoffs without Thomas.
Meanwhile, Luongo has been shelled in the games in Boston, giving up 8 goals in game 3 and 4 in game 4 and he got yanked in that game. Luongo says that the comment was taken out of context, but he should know better than to put something that the other team can put on their lockers for motivation.
Wouldn’t it be funny if the best team in the NHL up to now, lost to a team that can’t score a power play goal? If Boston wins, they would be one of the weaker champions in recent memory.

Time.com reported this last week, but I didn’t have time to post it then A woman pretended to be a 17-year-old to draw out incriminating evidence from her ex-husband via Facebook, but he turned the tables on her. The pair are in the midst of a nasty custody battle apparently.
The woman, 29-year-old Angela Voelkert, created a fake account for 17-year-old “Jessica Studebaker,” complete with the picture of an attractive photo, if just a bit slutty. “Jessica” friended her ex-husband. Then, in an attempt to gain information she could use against him in the battle, she chatted him up.
The ex-husband, David, 38, said he put a GPS tracking device on his ex-wife’s car to easily to monitor her every move. And he told “Jessica” that “you should find someone at your school…that would put a cap in her ass for $10,000.” He had plans to “take care of” Angela. Based on the exchanges, the FBI arrested Voelkert, but did he ever have a surprise for them.
Suspecting it was his ex-wife all along, Voelkert had gotten a notarized affidavit shortly after “Jessica” came online. In it, he said that he believed this was not a real person but rather his ex-wife or someone she knows. He said he was engaging with this person and lying in order to gain proof that his ex-wife was tampering with his personal life; proof he would then use himself in court.
The statement said “in no way do I have plans to leave with my children or do any harm to Angela Dawn Voelkert or anyone else,” he wrote above the Indiana notary’s stamp. He kept one copy and gave another to a relative for backup.
The timeline worked, his affidavit coming days before he said anything incriminating. The notary was interviewed, the document authenticated, and his case was dismissed.
These are obviously people who have some problems, not the least of which is too much time on their hands. But, I have been getting some lewd texts lately… I have been erasing them immediately? I swear!