Oh, THAT happened last week! We don't do politics here, but a 0 for 34 is an awful batting average! Also, LOTS of the 2nd Grand Slam French Open (tennis) this week! And Breaking news on a Dolly Parton project stuffed in this blog somewhere!
Yep, if you noticed, I changed up the cover pic for this blog post. The emphasis will still be on the sportsball, but it being pride month, I though i would add a little variety! I came across this story about the different pride flags, their origins, history, and what they stand for. I did give a couple of the "pride" flags the side-eye due to their origins, but overall the stories are fascinating and informative. I've provided a link to the story below, because information is power, just as reading is fundamental! :)
SF Giants: San Francisco welcomes the OTHER hottest team in baseball (talk about a test this week for the team!), the New York Yankees- I'm predicting sell-out crowds for the weekend. Starting the game on the mound for the Giants was Jordan Hicks, who went 5 plus innings and gave up four runs to get his second loss of the season. Giants bats were quiet again, but Yankees superstar Aaron Judge, the bane of all SF Giants fans when the local boy decided to sign with the Yankees instead of SF, showed the fans what we were missing, as he clobbered two home runs to lead the Yankees to a 6-1 victory. Another game, and yet another Aaron Judge home run bomb (464 ft) off of Giants starter Logan Webb, who pitched seven innings and gave up four runs in total to the Yankees. Late in the game, Giancarlo Stanton hit his 14th homer of the year for the Yankees. Casey Schmidt, recalled from AAA club, did smack a two run home run for the Giants. Yankees held on for a 7-3 victory over San Francisco.
Sunday's end of the home stand game, saw Blake Snell take the mound, and was fine till his usual 5th inning breakdown, leaving after giving up three runs on 99 pitches. Giants shortstop Casey Schmidt continued a good week, hitting not one, but two homers, but so did the Yankees Juan Soto. The backbreaker though was in the 9th when Giants closer Camillo Doval had a meltdown, giving up four runs, that lead to a Yankees 7-5 victory and a series sweep. On to Arizona for a short road trip. The first 2 games I did not see, and the Giants lost both, 4-2 and 8-5. Good news is that Michael Conforto has returned from the injured list and back to playing left field, while pitcher Blake Snell once again returns to the IL. Before the start of the last game of this series, the Giants activated OF Austin Slater from the IL and sent down to AAA Luis Matos. Matos very hot start had fizzled and was hitting just .217 as of last night. As for the game itself, well, that's one way to kill a bloggers headline! The Giants bats woke up, with Soler and Ramos both hitting home runs, but the kill shot was the grand slam that Wilmer Flores smacked out of the park, to help the Giants break their six-game losing streak and defeat the Diamondbacks, 9-3! From one hot climate (Arizona) to another, as the team now heads to Texas to play the Rangers in a three game weekend series.
Wilmer Flores- Baseball's biggest fan of the TV show, "Friends"!
French Open: Third-round has started to get to the sweet sixteen, and it is rainy in Paris this weekend, so we may get some midnight action under the shadow of the Eiffel Tower!
How we got to the 4th round: Two of the American male players fell to their opponent's; Ben Sheldon and Tommy Paul, while American Taylor Fritz had to fight for his life after going up two sets, to win in five sets over his opponent in a four hour match. Other ranked male players that moved onto round four were Zublev, Medvedev, Rudd, Rune, and Horcatz. On the women's side, Sabalenka, Rybakina, Svitolina, and American Navarro, who beat fellow American Madison Keys move on to the 4th round.
In what was the last match on Saturday night/Sunday morning, #1 Novak Djokovic and 30th ranked Lorenzo Musetti have made history, playing the latest match at Roland-Garros, passing the 1:30 am mark in the 3rd set. Novak somehow found another gear, and with his experience, after playing for 4 hours and 29 minutes, till after 3am Paris time, avoids the upset, winning the match over Musetti, 7-5, 6-7(8-6), 2-6, 6-3, 6-0. This was an EPIC match, and we are only halfway thru the tourney! Onto to 4th round!
Sunday's 4th round clay court action on the men's side saw #3 Carlos Alcaraz cruise, while the other three matches were nail biters, with #10 Dimitrov beating #8 Horcatz in three very tight sets, and #2 Jannik Sinner got an early scare by his unranked opponent in the first set, but Sinner regained his form and mental toughness to win in four sets. Same tight match for #9 ranked Stefano Tsitsipas who had to go four tough sets to defeat his unranked opponent. On the women's side, all four top ten ranked women won their matches in straight sets, including Coco Graff, Ons Jabaur, and #1 ranked Iga Swiatek.
Monday's action saw Rybakina defeat Svitolina in straight sets, Sabalenka defeated American Navarro on the women's side, also in straight sets. On the men's side, #11 Alex De Minaur upset # 5 Danii Medevev in four sets, and #1 ranked Novak Djokovic went ANOTHER five set match to beat #23 ranked Francisco Cerundolo! #7 ranked Casper Rudd also defeated the last American male in the tournament, #12 ranked Taylor Fritz in four sets. and #4 ranked Alexander Zverev defeated #10 Holger Rune in a five set match to close out the evening. Bring on the Semis for this group of tennis titans!
In the quarterfinals, , Iga Swiatek won her match in straight sets, and the last American standing, #3 ranked Coco Gauff beat #8 ranked Ons Jabaur in three sets, both move on to the quarter finals! On the men's side, #2 ranked Jannik Sinner defeated #10 Grigor Dmitrov in straight sets; that and combined with the breaking news that #1 ranked Novak Djokovic has withdrawn from from the French Open with a serious knee injury, one that could keep him out of the Olympics and possibly Wimbledon. Sinner's win and Novak's injury means that no matter how this French Open ends, Jannik Sinner on Monday, will make history by becoming the first ever #1 ranked tennis player! This also means that #7 Casper Rudd moves automatically to the quarterfinals as well. Last match of the day sees #3 Alcaraz beat Tsitipas in straight sets to set up the ninth meeting between Jannik and Carlos in the semifinals. Get the popcorn ready!
The second set of the quarterfinals produced upsets of this tournament! Second ranked Sabalenka was upset by unranked Mirra Andreeva in three sets, while #4 Elena Rybakina fell to 12th ranked Jasmine Paolini, also in three sets. With Italian Paolini's win, Italy makes tennis history with both Paolini and Sinner making the semifinals! Last match of the day found #4 ranked Zverev defeating #11 De Minaur in a tough three set match to reach the semi's!
Semi's!: The last four standing on both the women and men's side to reach the French Open Final! Our first women's finalist is Iga Switaek, who defeated Coco Gauff in straight sets, 6-2, 6-4. She will face off against Jasmine Paolini, who beat Mirra Andreeva in straight sets, 6-3, 6-1!
In the men's quarterfinals, we now have our finalists for the French Open. In a match that went on for over four hours and five sets, Carlos Alcaraz defeats Jannik Sinner 2-6, 6-3, 3-6, 6-4, 6-3. Carlitos becomes the youngest male player to reach the finals on all three Slam surfaces: Clay, grass and concrete. Both players were playing with injuries, but Carlos found his second wind in the fourth set as his cheetah-like skills outlasted Jannik's precision play.
I can say this was a very entertaining match, no matter which player you were rooting for! Good news for Sinner is that no. matter what happens in the final on Sunday, Sinner will be the #1 ranked men's player on Monday!
Imagine what the rating would be if Carlos was able to play shirtless!
The other semi had Casper Rudd versus Alexander Zverev, with Zverev winning that match 2,6, 6-2, 6-4, 6-2 over Rudd. Write-up on the French Open finals next Grab Bag!
Locker Room Buzz: Well, if you have been reading the last Grab Bag AND the Monaco Zoom posts, F1 team Alpine has made it official, they will NOT be renewing Esteban Ocon's contract after this current Grand Prix racing season ends. I will have more on this in the Canadian GP Zoom Zoom blog. On a more positive note, Red Bull and Sergio Perez have agreed to a two year extension for "Checo" to remain with the team till 2026! A bit of a surprise there, as Perez had been rumored to NOT be part of Red Bull racing after this season. SF 49ers: It's official! 49ers star running back Christian McCaffery has signed a two-year 38 million dollar extension to remain with the Niners till 2027! We will get more years to see more of CMC...just a refresher pic below:
Christian McCaffrey in training. CMC is in GREAT shape!
Baseball: There are basically two ways (outside of retirement) that an athlete does not ever play in the sport they have chosen to play in. One is a career-ending injury, the other is what San Diego Padres Tucupita Marcano did, which he was caught cheating by betting on baseball games. The MLB found out, and have banned him from life. Don't be cheating , kids!
Doctor Who goes Black Mirror lite. So, there is a show on Netflix called Black Mirror, an episodic show that usually deals with the darker aspects of tech when tech isn't used for its intended purposes, or it is with dark results. The last two Who episodes have dropped that same type of feel for me, starting with "73 yards", probably the most baffling Doctor Who episode in the show's history! I am (along many other fans) guessing that this episode's theme was dealing with the issue of abandonment using a time paradox as a story engine. It was fascinating, but by the end, us Who fans were left scratching our heads over what we saw!
The next episode, "Dot and Bubble",dealt with how society has locked themselves into a social bubble (in this case, literally), it was the Gen Xer kids from another planet who have been sent to this planet for vacation time. Problem is, with all these spoiled, privileged, self-absorbed kids have NO CLUE as to whats happening outside their own choosing of friends in those literal screen bubbles. So there is that. But the big twist comes later in the episode, and upon reflection, the clues were there all along. The bland banality of ignorance with regard to prejudices is what really hit home for me on how I liked how the episode led to the shocking conclusion. If you haven't noticed by now, I am straining HARD not to tip off any spoilers for this episode, which, after only a few days after it debuted, it has already been called by many as the most divisive Doctor Who episode ever done! For both these episodes, you need not know previous Doctor Who stories, as these as I mentioned, are pretty much stand-alone. Doctor Who airs on Disney Plus.
In other odd news, apparently the phrase, "Right in the butt" is trending. Nope, nada. Butt if you are really curious, "Google "Jeopardy! ( I am now concerned about the content of this blog...has it lowered it's standards? Remains to be seen! ) Spoiler alert: Not yeeeeet! :)
Movie review! Godzilla Minus One, now airing on Netflix. I was not expecting to like this Japanese 70th anniversary of a Godzilla flick, by my goodness, what a great film. Very obvious now that I 'v seen it why it won this years Oscar for best visual effects. What made this film so great to me was a strong character development that made you care about the humans in this monster movie. This Godzilla is a bad lizard, so we not rooting for the reptile in this flick. The film, who time period is mid 1940's after WWII, touches on social and political issues, as well as the affects of a post-war civilization, in this case, Japan. I actually cried a bit during a couple of scenes, which is how good the writing is for a monster movie. Also beautiful cinematography and the cutest little girl I've seen in a while! I highly recommend Godzilla Minus One, with a 4.5 out of 5 stars! Promo below!
Yea, when Godzilla's "fins" start to light up, that is NOT a good thing!
Breaking news! Dolly Parton has announced that she has been working on a Broadway musical on her life for the last decade, and now she has spilled the beans about it! Target date for Broadway debut is 2026! I predict sellouts!
To close, let's refer back to that opening paragraph...This Melania skit on Colbert is just too funny, especially when the term "house arrest" comes up! Enjoy your weekend, and thanks for reading/viewing!
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