Fourth of July Weekend in Sports
This weekend is just fantastic for the sports afficionado. The pickin's are just great:

NASCAR. The Nextel Pepsi 400 in Daytona is Saturday night in prime time, so you can relax after a good long day of beach fun and watch Tony Stewart beat the pants off of his racing competitors.

Tennis. The Wimbleton finals are Saturday morning for the women and Sunday morning for the men. While Base10has lost some interest in the game since his current object of tennis affection--Maria Sharapova--was rudely unseated by Venus Williams on Thursday. The current matchup between Williams and Davenport should be classic tennis and well worth watching. On the men's side, Roger Federer meets either Andy Roddick or Thomas Johansson on Sunday.

Baseball. The Fourth of July is about summer and the sport of choice during the summer is baseball. With the All-Star break coming a week from Monday, Base10's beloved Mets have something to prove. Now let us first take the pat on the back for winning the series against Philly. Pedro once again had a fantastic outing. Once again, the Mets are at .500. Once again, we have achieved mediocrity. This weekend, the Metskies play Florida and on Monday begin a four game series against the red-hot Nationals. How does it stand now? The Mets are 8 games back but that's deceptive. They are only 2.5 games behind Atlanta in a virtual dead heat with the rest of the division and Base10 thinks that Washington will come down to earth during the second half of the season. With the next seven games at home against division teams before the break, a little winning streak could go a long way. Mediocrity may be all you need in the NL East. Click here for a preview of tonight's matchup with the Marlins.

Caveat: Base10 predicted last year that the Mets might do something if they managed to be .500 at the All-Star break. Technically speaking, Base10 was correct. The Mets did in fact do something. They ended as the worst team in their division.

Not to shun our up town cousins, the Yankees play Detroit over the weekend and start a series against powerful Baltimore on Monday. Click here for a preview of tonight's game. Another game of interest on the holiday is Boston-Texas.

The Peloton. The Tour de France is on. Base10 saved this for last because he looks forward to this all year. The downside: the live coverage starts at 8:30 AM. Ouch. Can Lance Armstrong go for seven straight victories? Puuuuhlease! There are naysayers as well, of course. But at least Lance can count on the support of his mom. The Prologue starts on Saturday morning. However, Base10 thinks that stage 10 and 16 will be the ones to separate the men from the mere testosterone bearers. Click here for the stage profiles. Armstrong's camp issued a statement that they thing they'll get the most competition from Ivan Basso, Alexandre Vinokourov, and of course Jan Ullrich. Base10 already has plans to find a place to watch it in the early hours and still make the beach later.

One more thing. There are now 38 days until the NFL Hall of Fame Game and 69 days until the start of the Regular Season. Hurrah!
- posted by Base10 @ 12:48 PM