Monthly Sports Round-Up - August 2007

India wins test series in England for the first time in 21 years

This was truly an achievement. Though Dravid's decision against enforcing the follow-on in the 3rd test would be a black mark on the otherwise perfect series for India, I was so excited about this victory. And more than anything else, I felt happy for Sachin bcos his cricketing resume now would include a series victory in England. Same goes for Dravid and Ganguly too. These 3 guys have really stuck together after the world cup debacle and have guided this team to an extraordinary achievement. Though umpiring errors cost Sachin 2 centuries in this series, I was very happy that Sachin was able to make some sizeable contribution in 2 of the 3 tests. Zaheer Khan deserves special appreciation bcos it was his spell in the second innings of the 2nd test that ultimately tilted the test & thus the series in India's favor. Way to go, Team India.

Barry Bonds breaks the all-time HR recordSo, there it happened. Barry Bonds finally broke the most significant record in all of team sports, as the ESPN analysts would say. Though it has been only the last 3-4 years that I have been following baseball, I can kind of get an idea what this record means, by watching all the ex-players and Hall of Famers dwell on it. It is definitely a remarkable achievement, given the fact that he has had to maintain his HR hitting practice over a period of well over 20 years. But the one thing you can find when you talk to folks here about Barry Bonds is this - he is an extremely polarizing figure. No matter what side of the fence you are, this is one heck of a record.

A-Rod reaches 500 HRs mark
It was a special week where 3 important milestones were reached - Bonds breaking the HR record, Tom Glavine becoming the 23rd pitcher in MLB history to record 300 wins and A-Rod breaking the 500 HR barrier. He is having a dream season and though I am not a big fan of him, I do follow each one his HRs. He becomes the youngest MLB player to break the 500 HR mark and in all probability, unless a major injury or some scandal impedes him, the experts expect him to break Barry Bonds' record in the year 2013.

Tiger gets one step closer to Jack
With the 13th Major victory of his stellar career, Tiger moved one closer to the most holiest of golf records that stands in the name of Jack Nicklaus. As many ESPN analysts point out, it is now a matter of when rather than if and they are already predicting the British Open in the year 2010 when he will ultimately break the record. Tiger came into this tournament 0-3 this year in majors and by winning it, made sure that 2007 won’t be year when he will go without winning one. The tournament as such was over when he shot a mind-boggling 7 under par in the 2nd round, after which others were merely playing catching up with him. Tiger's record of winning a major when he is leading or sharing the lead at the end of the 3rd round remains intact. This BTW was Tiger's first major victory after the birth of his daughter.

Is he the answer to our prayers?
In a span of 3 days when he beat the top 3 players in men's tennis (Nadal, Federer and Roddick), Novak Djokovic made many experts come out in the open with the very question we all have been asking ourselves the past few years: Have we finally found the answer who can break the monotony of the FedEx? May be it is too early to speak about it but he has done something for the first time in 13 years (since Boris Becker did it in 1994) - a player has beaten the top 3 players in the world enroute to an ATP tour championship. Though he is yet to reach the final of a Grand Slam tournament, he has already gotten to the semis twice (at the French and Wimbledon) before losing to Nadal on both the opportunities. This US Open will serve as a perfect platform for him to put all the questions about his true talent & promise to rest. And Oh, BTW, he is all of 20 years old.

The US Open begins
The final Grand Slam tournament of the tennis calendar begins in New York city. Last year, this time around I was in NYC watching the matches, amidst all the rain delays and even as the Andre Agassi farewell story was unfolding. My only wish as far as this Open is concerned is that we should have a new men's champion whereas on the women's side, I would like to see Serena win it all. When the draw was released, there was a headline in ESPN saying that Federer could meet Roddick in the quarters. I was like 'So what?". Like Roddick has any chance against Federer. With the sport losing its ground in the US in terms of both popularity and the quality of up & coming players, the experts do all they can do summon up interest in the Open but then it makes for some awful media coverage when all you can write about is Roddick meeting Federer in the quarters where Federer is most likely to sweep him off without breaking a sweat.

Michael Vick pleads guilty
In a widely expected decision, Falcons star QB, the face of their franchise and one of the NFL's most exciting players, Michael Vick pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy and involvement in the killing of 6 dogs. This incident kind of completely took me by surprise. I mean, why would anyone do that when they know it can cost them their whole life. Of course, news of professional athletes getting involved in petty crimes (you know, DUIs, marijuana possession, strip club fights, etc) have been doing the rounds. But then, none of the players involved in them were big time players. Here, the case was different though for Michael Vick is the highest paid NFL player. When you have that kind of money at stake (130 mil in 10 years), it just did not make sense for me as to how someone can risk all of that for something as trivial as this dog fighting? Weird are the ways these athletes behave. But amidst all this, there was something I really liked - when Vick addressed the media, he did not read a prepared statement but rather spoke from the heart. That was definitely rare and the media rightly picked on it. Now the question that is on everyone's mind is - will the NFL let the ban coincide with his jail term? Bcos that decision could well be the difference between his career taking off again or not.