In June...
Detroit Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga's attempt of the 3rd perfect game this season was thwarted by an incorrect safe call at first base by Umpire Jim Joyce on what would have been the clinching 27th out. Said Joyce immediately after the game, "It was the biggest call of my career and I kicked the shit out of it. I just cost that kid a perfect game." (06/02)
Legendary University of California-Los Angeles basketball coach John Wooden, whose teams won 10 NCAA championships in a period of 12 years, died of natural causes at the age of 99. Wrote former UCLA star Kareem Abdul Jabeer, "Coach Wooden's office was about the size of a walk-in closet. I was brought in, and there was this very quaint-looking Midwesterner. I'd heard a lot about this man and his basketball wisdom, but he surely did look like he belonged in a one-room schoolhouse." (06/04)
Drosselmeyer won the 142nd running of the Belmont Stakes ridden by Hall of Fame jockey Mike Smith, a late sprint edging out Fly Down by 3/4 of a length. With both the Kentucky Derby winning and Preakness winning horses withholding from the race, the ABC telecast of Belmont endured its lowest ratings in a decade. (06/05)
Francesca Shiavone won the women's singles title and Rafael Nadal the men's singles title at the 109th edition of Roland Garros. Said the 12-year tennis professional Shiavone, "It's the day of my life. [Stosur's] great, she's amazing, she's so powerful, but today I was more aggressive." (06/05-06/06)
The Chicago Blackhawks defeated the Philadelphia Flyers, 4-3, in overtime to clinch the NHL's Stanley Cup in 6 games. Said captain Jonathan Toews of Patrick Kane's overtime winning goal, "You don't predict something like that. You just hope to God it was an actual goal, or we would be celebrating for nothing." (06/08)
Washington Nationals pitcher Stephen Strasburg debuted to a sellout crowd of 40,315 at Nationals Park defeating the Pittsburgh Pirates, striking it out 14. Said Strasburg, "The only thing I really remember was the first pitch. It was a ball inside. Everything else was a blur. At one point I lost track of how many innings I threw. It was like I'm just going to go out and have fun." (06/08)
The University of Texas staved off the implosion of the Big XII Conference by announcing that, despite defections of Colorado to the Pac-10 and Nebraska to the Big Ten, they would remain in the conference, dismissing an expected to move to the Pac-10. While an era of 16-team super conferences was avoided, the Big Ten and Pac-10 conferences now include 12 members each and the Big XII only 10. (06/14)
The Los Angeles Lakers defeated the Boston Celtics, 83-79, in a decisive Game 7 at the Staples Center to capture the franchise's 16th NBA Championship. The largest audience for NBA Finals deciding game since 1998 - 28.2 million viewers - tuned in to watch a game with an ugly factor of 2.3, according to Wall Street Journal's David Roth, the 2nd-highest ugly rating for a Finals in the last decade. (06/17)
Graeme McDowell of Northern Ireland held off Frenchman Gregory Havret to capture the PGA's US Open championship at Pebble Beach shooting 3 over par on the final day. Said Havret before the final round, "I know too well that golf can hell or paradise." (06/20)
John Isner topped Nikolas Mahut, 6-4, 3-6, 6-7, 7-6, 70-68, in a 1st round match at Wimbledon which lasted 3 days, 11 hours and 5 minutes of play in total, the longest recorded match in professional tennis history. The record number of games in the fifth set broke the courtside scoreboard as well as the one at Wimbledon's official website. (06/24)
In July...
The Wimbledon Championships women's singles final are scheduled for 07/03, the men's singles final for 07/04. For the first time in 33 years, Queen Elizabeth visited, watching Britain's Andy Murray defeat Jarkko Nieminen, who each bowed 3 times toward the royal box. Murray described his bows as "a bit awkward."
The 97th Tour de France will begin 07/03 with an 8 km prologue in Rotterdam, Netherlands, and conclude 07/25 on the Champs-Elysees in Paris. About a 3rd stage featuring sections of cobblestones, said Team Garmin Transitions manager Jonathan Vaughters, "Someone will lose the race that day, I just don't know who it's going to be. It could be Lance (Armstrong), could be (Alberto) Contador, could be (Andy) Schleck."
The final for the 19th FIFA World Cup will be held 07/11 at Soccer City Stadium in Johannesburg, South Africa. The prize money for the tournament totals $420 million USD with $30 million going to the winner and $24 million to the runner up.
The 2010 MLB All Star Game will be held 07/13 at Angel Stadium in Anaheim, California. Starting with this year, changes to the All Star Game include making the Designated Hitter a permanent position and each manager is allowed to select one player to re-enter a game should the last available position player at any position is injured.
The 139th Open Championships, commonly known as the British Open, is scheduled to begin 07/15 and conclude 07/18 at the Old Course at St Andrews. This will be the 27th time the British Open is played at St Andrews, the oldest golf course in the world, the earliest written evidence the course being a license issued in 1552 to use the land to rear rabbits and play golf and other games on the links.
[Cian is a writer and editor based in Brooklyn, New York. If you like the magazine, he suggests subscribing for free.]
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