BSR

A balk?? The HBPs and walks are understandable given it was his major league debut, but a balk ... hooooooboy. As disastrous as his first outing was, I still hope the poor guy gets a second chance

Technically no, the government isn't locking people up or putting a gun to their head to "force" them to get the vaccine. But they are, for example, expelling people from the military for refusing the jab. Maybe taking away a person's job/career isn't your definition of "force," but it is some serious pressure. On the flip side, hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens refuse the vaxx yet are allowed to enter and stay in the US. If the government were enforcing the rules equally and to everyone, then I'd have no problem with Novak not being allowed to enter the country. But when the government at its whim enforces the rules on some but not others, we end up with a banana republic.

To clarify, Novak has never been anti-vaccine. He opposes government forcing people to get vaccinated. In that sense, I agree with him. If government can force you to put something into your body against your will, government can force you to do anything. In any case, I'm pretty sure Novak will be able to play the Australian Open next year. It sounds like the new government is amenable to lifting Novak's 3-year ban. He's already able to play Roland Garros and Wimbledon. Hopefully the US lifts its vaccination requirement for foreign visitors in time for the 2023 USO.

Correct, in fact, NYC has a law exempting pro athletes and entertainers from vax mandates. If Novak had somehow gotten entry into the US, he would 100% be eligible to play the US Open.

I don't think of armadillos as "cute," but you gotta love this one's athleticism.

Not relevant to the 2022 season, but when I read this, I had to post it ... OK, back to our regularly scheduled programming ...

Sometimes I am so damn weak. Tease me with a bunch of hot guys showing some skin, and I can be lured into watching almost anything. But in this case, I lucked out and happed upon a good documentary series, Spain's Elite Police: Beyond Limits. Spain's GEO (Grupo Especial de Operaciones) works the most dangerous assignments: drug wars, terrorist attacks, high-seas piracy. As expected, the training course is brutal, 7.5 months of excruciating physical tests (killer obstacle courses, lots of endurance tests like an hour in freezing water, an hour in a sauna in full gear) and intensive training (shooting, armed entries, street combat, judo, boxing, rappelling, parachuting, navigating stormy seas). 100 trainees started the course; only 12 graduated and became GEO operatives. All the guys were super-hot, although I did notice the dozen who finished the course seemed the most sculpted of the bunch. The series didn't disappoint, showing the trainees shirtless a lot and in undies a few times (they had to endure the freezing water a bunch of times, always in just skivvies). The men were separated from their families, wives, girlfriends for the entire time. I couldn't help but wonder what all these strapping lads did for sexual release, 7.5 months is a hella long time, but of course the documentary didn't go into that. On Amazon Prime Video, 8 45-minute episodes, English subtitles available but no English dubbing.

IV drips were trendy amongst professional tennis players in the early 1990s because they supposedly sped up recovery. An aging Jimmy Connors was the most prominent devotee, and Connors with his portable IV drip became a bit of a fixture in the locker room. With $millions at stake and players desperate to do anything legal to gain even the slightest incremental advantage, not a single pro does the IV thing today. That tells me all I need to know. How many bodybuilders or fitness models do IV drips today? I have no insight into that world, but my guess is the number is the same as the number of tennis players. Besides, I'd feel silly walking around the locker room like this ...

A super-polite little dog ...

I like your theory. I've thought for a long time that Stefanos needs to make a clean break (tennis-wise) from his father. If I were Stefanos, I'd offer a top-notch coach (Marian Vajda, Darren Cahill) a ridiculous amount of money to be my one & only coach, then tell dad to stay home.

Coric wins his first Masters 1000! Coric was solid, but frankly, Tsitsipas played like sh*t. Tsitsi needs time to hit a decent backhand, which is why clay is his best surface. Unfortunately for the Greek, the ball shoots off the lightning-fast Cincinnati courts like a hockey puck. Also, he stopped running after a few balls that he easily could have reached. During other points, he was slow to recover to center, giving Borna an open court and a chance at an easy winner. I couldn't figure out whether Tsitsi's problem was physical (fatigue) or mental (simply gave up trying to win). With his win, Borna jumps 123 spots in the ATP ranking, from 152 to the 29. He'll be seeded at the US Open, which makes both him and the 31 other seeded players quite happy. He'll also get direct entry into any tournament he wants, which is good because he was running out of protected-ranking tournaments (Cinci was his 9th, the USO his 10th, you get only 12). Jim Courier mentioned another couple of keys to Borna's beefed-up serve. Besides dropping weight off his racket, Coric started stringing his rackets 5 pounds looser (a huge difference), giving the string bed much more of a trampoline effect. Arguably most important, after surgery Borna spent 7 long months in the gym to rehab the shoulder. The joint had been bothering him since 2018, but all that hard work obviously paid off because the shoulder is working like a charm now. Here's a photo of his rehab ... (uh, try to keep your eyes on his shoulder)

I just finished Caronte on Amazon Prime Video, and I definitely recommend it. The protagonist is an ex-cop who spent 10 years in prison for a crime he didn't commit. He got a law degree while inside and now works to help the wrongfully accused. He also seeks justice for the man who set him up, his old police commissioner. After seeing Samuel Caronte work a case, the idealistic daughter of the fanciest lawyers in Madrid asks that they work as partners. Marta likes his drive and principles, he needs her money and connections. The two other series-long storylines are Caronte's strained relationship with his 17yo son who has spent most of his life raised by his stepfather, and Caronte's 2nd wife, who understands Caronte's mission but doesn't like the demands and dangers of the job. Marta and Samuel work some interesting cases with great success while she struggles to fend off her parents' demands that she work for the family firm and while he struggles work things out with his first family (17yo son & ex-wife) and keep his second family (new wife is 3 months pregnant) happy. Also in the mix is Samuel's ex-partner Aurelio, loyal to the death to Caronte, and as a bonus, the most likable gay character I've ever seen. Another bonus is the actor who plays the ex-commisioner who framed Caronte makes the villain deliciously hate-able. The scriptwriters wrap things up nicely in the 1 season run. Unfortunately, the show was not renewed. 13 70-minute episodes, original dialogue in Spanish, English subtitles available but no English dubbing.

You have to open the photo in Twitter to see the uncropped version. Trust me, it's worth the bother.

The number 1 ranking, along with all accompanying pressure, seems to freak Medvedev out. Whenever the #1 is on the line, Daniil turns into a head case. This bodes poorly for him at the US Open, where Carlos could snatch the #1 ranking away by winning the title. Even if Meddy defends, Rafa could overtake the #1 spot just by reaching the final. In other words, gobs of stress on the Russian, who hasn't handled the pressure of the top ranking at all well so far. Apparently Coric's new beefed up serve is thanks to dropping weight from his racket, going from 330 grams to 315. Hard to believe that such a minor tweak could make such a big difference, but he claims he hasn't changed anything else about his serve.

Borna continues to bang in huge serves. Against Felix Auger-Aliassime, he won an astonishing 31 of 32 points when he got his 1st serve in. Wow, even the monster servers (Isner, Opelka) don't win that high a percentage. This week in Cincinnati, Coric has averaged an eye-popping 127mph on 1st serve. The only guys who serve bigger than that are Opelka (6'11"), Isner (6'10"), Zverev (6'6"), and Berrettini (6'5"). Note that Borna is the "shrimp" of the group at just 6'2". Rafa's loss to Coric doesn't look so bad now that Borna beat Roberto Bautista Agut and FAA. Coric started the tournament ranked 152. He is now up to 66 in the live rankings, goes up to 48 if he beats Norrie in the semi, and 29 if he wins the tournament. Most players in the US Open draw would probably be relieved if Coric won the title because that way he'd be seeded at the Open. Nobody wants to face Borna in the 1st round given how he's playing. Norrie got the other spot in the bottom-half semi by upsetting Alcaraz, although lower-ranked players beating Carlos is less and less of an upset lately. Carlos has spoken about how nerves are getting the better of him, and once he feels the pressure, he starts spraying the ball. Well, he just turned 19 in May, oodles of time to sort things out. The top-half semi is one of my favorite matchups, albeit more for the drama than the tennis. Medvedev and Tsitsipas just f*ckin' hate each other, so I crack up whenever they face off. I wonder if they'll start cussing at each other in Russian again (Tsitsipas speaks Russian because his mother is Russian). Here is the confrontation that started their animosity ... https://youtu.be/mDX6K7t-JcE (Hahaha, I could only post the link because YouTube doesn't allow the video to be embedded.)

That's a beautiful moment. To give some idea of just how big a deal it is to get to The Show (the major leagues), MLB minimum salary is $700,000 whereas Triple-A players make just $502-700/week for a ~21 week season. I once spoke with a guy who was helping out his son financially while the son struggled in the minors. This dad told me that only 1 kid per county per generation ever makes it to the majors. So yeah, getting called up is a Really Big Deal. Congratulations to Wynton Bernard!

So did I, partly for the tennis, partly for the aesthetics. Borna was sidelined for more than a year with a shoulder injury. Given that he hit a number of serves at 130+mph, the shoulder is obviously as fit as a fiddle. Rafa, sidelined with an ab injury since he withdrew from the Wimbledon semi, showed clear signs of rust, most glaring of which was the easy putaway he sent wide on set point in the 1st and the doublefault on set point against. Gotta give credit to Borna though, his world-class backhand withstood the onslaught from Rafa's crosscourt forehand. Of all active players, only 2 have winning records against Rafa (minimum 5 matches), Novak and Borna Coric. An interesting but useless factoid: Rafa is a natural right-hander who plays lefty whereas Borna is a natural lefty who plays right-handed. Borna says that when he started playing tennis, no one taught or pressured him to play righty. The racket just felt more comfortable in his right hand. I gotta like Borna just on his looks alone. What makes him even more appealing is unlike most guys who look like he does, he seems quite humble about his sex appeal, even though he's got plenty of it.

First, I like this instrumental cover of Billie Jean, great arrangement. More notable, it's the only time I've seen 3 guys playing 1 guitar.

Does your young friend absolutely have his heart set on the LV socks? 1) I don't like the socks, and 2) if your young friend is wearing a $330 pair of rather loud socks, the rest of his outfit needs to be similarly posh. A pair of LV socks with an ensemble from Chez Tarzhay would look ... odd. How about a pair of Louis Vuitton shoes and matching belt? Unlike the socks, they don't scream "LV" and would match up well with any decent, not necessarily posh outfit. Plus you could buy the shoes+belt for $400 less than the 6-pack of socks.

I just searched the US LV website. I didn't find socks like the ones in your post, just 2 sets of 6 pairs of socks for *coughsputtergasp* $1,990(!). To add insult to injury, the patterns are FUGLY. Even if you're a billionaire, anyone who spends 2 grand on ugly socks needs to get their head examined.

Marcos Giron, 29yo currently ranked #57

Great photos! All the models stayed in great shape. A couple even have a much nicer body today than they did 17 years ago. With only one exception, I found the older version more attractive than their younger selves.

I do most of my grocery shopping at Smith's (Kroger) and Trader Joe's. At Smiths, I've definitely noticed prices creeping up, but more than that, I notice that far fewer items go on sale and when they do, the percentage discount is a lot less than in the past. At TJ's on the other hand, I haven't noticed any increases at all, at least not on any items I buy regularly. It amazes me that they've been able to keep prices so low. Unfortunately, TJ's is pretty far from me (I do a big shop only once/month) whereas Smiths is less than a mile. The cheapest gas is still $4.59/gallon in my area.

I finished Boundless, the story of Magellan & the man who actually first circumnavigated the globe but never gets credit for it (at least not in this country). A little cheesey, not the most convincing shipboard scenes, but I liked how the series filled in the gaps (I only knew the bare bones of Magellan's voyage). With early 16th century technology, Magellan left the port of Seville with 5 ships and 239 men. Almost 3 years later, only 1 ship and 18 men made it back. It's a helluva story. It could have been told better than this miniseries did, but I guess Boundless did an OK job. 6 35-minute episodes on Amazon Prime Video.