3 Up and 3 Down; Week of 7/13-7/19

Every week (probably on Sunday nights or Monday mornings), we will have a 3 up and 3 down post. 3 up and 3 down is designed to highlight the people, teams, and other aspects of sports that had good weeks, or bad weeks.


3 UP

• Prince Fielder- One of the premier power hitters in the NL, Prince Fielder defeated two local players en route to winning the 2009 State Farm Home Run Derby. There really wasn't any monster round during the derby, but it seemed to take forever. Prince Fielder defeated the little-known Nelson Cruz in the finals
• Tom Watson- Watson's story is well documented in the previous post. One thing that I had to disagree with that an announcer of the British Open said was that Tom Watson's legacy wouldn't change because of this tournament, and Stewart Cink's (the Open Champion) would. I think that in the eyes of my generation, Tom Watson became more of a legend than he previously was. Many more people are aware of his accomplishments today than they were last week.
• Richard Gasquet- A bizarre story in the tennis world happened this week as Richard Gasquet had his suspension taken away for testing positive for cocaine. His excuse? He kissed a girl in a nightclub that used cocaine, and he must have ingested it. Again, this story worked, and he avoided the suspension. Hopefully, the person in charge of this reversal will be my english professor next year. Dang, the dog ate my paper again.

3 Down

• Jeremy Mayfield- Another drug related story, this time, a bad one. Jeremy Mayfield, after declaring he was innocent, tested positive again for methamphetamine. Now, Mayfield is insisting that NASCAR is out to get him, and he is being set up. The situation became more ugly when Mayfield's mother-in-law became involved and mentioned that she has seen Mayfield use methamphetamine many times. Mayfield then said to reports that his stepmother is a "whore" and a "gold digger". Ugly situation here.
• Tiger Woods- For the first time in 3 years, and only the second time as a member of the PGA Tour, Tiger Woods missed the cut at a major tournament. The hole that was symbolic of Tiger's tournament was hole 10 on Friday, where he doubled bogeyed after hitting his tee shot into the heavy rough. A five minute search yielded no results, and he had to take an out of bounds. Three majors since the injury, and no victories, yet, we have seen 3 great tournaments. Maybe golf is bigger than Tiger Woods after all.
• The NL- This is an embarrassment, how can you call yourselves all-stars, or even professionals and not beat one team in 13 tries. The team has had different players, players haves switched leagues, yet no wins for the National League over the American League. Now that "this one counts" this game has had more meaning, and the NL has had poor records in the World Series, maybe based on this.