These 3 Mets were key to Saturday night's win............ Photo by Nick Laham - Getty	........while Wamback and Rapinoe were key against France in World Cup semi  Photo-Patrik Stollarz - AFP

This week is almost over.  WooHoo!  There was no baseball at all except for the worst telecast of an All-Star Game ever Tuesday night.  Jack Buck and Tim McCarver as hosts wasn’t bad enough.  There were also totally obnoxious people Fox threw into the dugouts as well.  One used-car salesman lookalike kept saying “talk to me, man”.  It was disgusting.  Fox now joins ESPN on my “don’t watch” list.

The game itself wasn’t all that bad.  The announcers were.  One boring guy would be bad enough but Fox felt they needed two.  Jack Buck just reeks of smugness.  McCarver’s full of insights ad infinitum in that drawl that puts me asleep.  Where’s Kevin Millar or Harold Johnson when you really need them?

Then, wonder of wonders, after three years of spending our hard-earned taxpayer money in an effort to nail the arrogant Roger Clemens for lying to Congress about steroids, the prosecution totally blows the trial by defying the judge’s direct order.  The judge was awfully quick to call a mistrial too.  The whole thing is really suspicious-looking.  And in the beginning of September, there’ll be another hearing to determine whether the case should be re-tried.

What a waste of money!  It’s just what the American people need right now.  I don’t know about anybody else.  I’m tired of the way this country is running, or not running.  I’m blaming Obama.  The same guy who’s dragging out the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan by printing money so that our existing money becomes worthless, the same guy who wants deficits up the ying-yang, the same guy who’s really done nothing but bankrupt the country, he thinks Roger Clemens needs to go down, no matter what the cost.

The government is now 0 and 2 in its perjury efforts against Bonds and Clemens.  Yeah, I know, the Bonds jury found Bonds guilty of one count but that verdict didn’t even make any sense.   They convicted him of obstruction of justice without one single guilty for perjury.  So that will still drag on making all the lawyers very happy.

As this is written, CC Sabathia shut down the Jays earlier in the day and the Mets are beating Cole Hamels and the Phillies 3-0.  Beltrans’s not playing today and supposedly has a fever.  I’m fine with Carlos sitting out if it’ll help ensure his good health prior to a deal being done.  It’ll be good to get some prospects in here.

The Mets traded K-Rod of course already and that move made sense too.  It made even more sense that K-Rod was the first to go, this despite his overall good performance this year.  That troublesome 17 mill option was negotiated away apparently so that K-Rod wouldn’t have to deal with any awkwardness as to games in which he’ll appear.  But it’s unclear what prospects the Mets actually picked up in that trade.  It was done mostly to improve their overall salary situation. 

If it will help the club to sign Reyes to another contract, or at the least to be able to make him an offer, it makes sense to trade Beltran as well.  The Giants had been courting him, supposedly, and there is interest coming from Philly and Boston and maybe some other clubs as well.

I don’t think there can be any question that the Mets will fare worse this year without their closer and leading hitter.  But with Wright soon returning and Reyes too, the Mets should at least be positioned to score some more runs.

Not that you could complain today about runs scored as the Mets are now leading the Phils and Hamels 5-0 and even Jason bay just contributed a hit.  Ike Davis and Santana are likely out for this entire season though, an eventuality that nobody expected earlier.  I’m hoping Wright comes back strong off his fractured back and can perform at least as well as the plug-ins have been playing.  He surely wasn’t impressing anybody before he went down.

Hamels is out of this game and now the Mets lead is 7-zip.  It looks to be still another hit barrage although Murphy did slug a rather long dinger off Hamels.  They’ll need all the hits they can get too.  Without K-Rod, the Mets are left with candidates who’ve either never closed or, in Isringhausen’s case, haven’t closed in a long time.

All in all, I’d expect them to still be able to play .500 ball throughout this season and maybe it’ll be next year that will smile on our heroes.  Gee, that sounds vaguely familiar.  Maybe that pirate of a lawyer for the other losers in that Ponzi scheme can finally be made to seek and sink some other unfortunate ships.

Oh well, at least the NFL lockout may be winding down.  Both sides seem fairly confident at this juncture.  I hadn’t been optimistic at all re a settlement.  I did think it rather amazing that the owners didn’t find out until Thursday that the Players Association had secured an insurance policy against a lockout, the proceeds of which would assure up to 200, 000 dollars per player.  That surely did speed things right along.

It’ll be great to finally be able to watch the NFL Network again.  And, with Mets prospects this year looking rather bleak at the moment, there’ll be some measure of happiness thinking about the ridiculous Giants and Jets fortunes for the upcoming year.  And fantasy football drafts can proceed without further ado.

It’s times like these that focus one’s priorities in life.  Continuations of ridiculous wars while we’re broke, stupid failed prosecutions for minor offenses, and the only winners are the lawyers and the judges.  If any country needs an outlet rather than reality, it’s our good ol’ USA.

And, speaking of the USA, tomorrow our women’s soccer team can win the FIFA Gold Cup if they can get by Japan, this after putting on the show of their lives against France in the semifinal.  I know I’ll be watching.