EL BRONX, EL BARRIO – Summertime is killer on the American sports scene. There are two things to talk about: Baseball or Sports No One Cares About. In order to keep our fans equally happy and disinterested, today’s piece will cover both. Today’s topics are: MLB Rumors, Copa America Centenario and Euro 2016.
MLB News: First up to bat is Baseball and word on the street is that one person that won’t be up to bat soon is Alex Rodriguez. Apparently, New York Yankees’ Manager Joe Girardi thinks A-Rod needs to sit and get his mind right. If that is the mandate, A-Rod could be sitting for a long time.
As I was typing this, the Mets were blowing a 4-0 lead, allowing the Nationals to score 11 unanswered runs… and this was after Noah “Thor” Snydergaard got in trouble. So now the Mets will drop to third. Once again the Flushing bats have went quiet. It has been a problem since last year. In 2015, Yoenis Cespedes showed up and added punch. This year, he has been bitten by the same crap hitting bug. So the Mets have decided to bring back Jose Reyes to help jump start their offense. It will be an interesting re-union since Reyes needs people to forget his domestic abuse charge and the Mets need the offense. I wonder what that guy that taped over the Reyes name on his jersey and put d’Arnaud is gonna do now?
One final tidbit is that the Nationals have called up their top pitching prospect from Double A to pitch against the Mets tomorrow. As a Mets fan, I would be insulted if the Mets weren’t batting as pathetic as a Double A side.
Copa America Centenario: The guy to left is Lionel Messi, not Leonardo, as reported in the USA Today last week. He is currently viewed as soccer’s Magic Johnson. The Larry Bird to this Magic is Cristiano Ronaldo, who I think is better. The two of them have been battling in the Spanish league for the title year after year as well as for the European club title. The problem, they both have is they can’t win anything with their international teams. Ronaldo plays for Portugal and they are centered around him. They had a great run once in 2004 when they hosted the Euro Championships but were upset in the final and have never been that close again.
Messi, though, plays for Argentina. They are like ’80s Lakers, with some of the most expensive and best players in the world all over the field. Yet time and again when ever there is the Americas Championship, aka the Copa America, Argentina choke. Last year they lost to Chile in Chile by penalty kicks in the final. This year as a celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Copa, they held another Copa in the US and it was the exact same result. This time with Messi’s penalty kick so bad it missed the whole goal.
Euro 2016: Europe is having its national championship in soccer. Iceland are this year’s bracket buster. They are in the big show for the first time and they defeated Austria to make the knock-out round. On Monday, they defeated England in the largest upset in the history of the tournament. Listen to their commentator, who is now a viral sensation celebrate the eventual game-winning goal.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AYN5ARuA4I
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