While the Mets have not put an exact date or timeline on Wagner's return, initial estimates are now 3 more weeks. After Johan Santana pitched a complete game shutout earlier this week, Mike Pelfrey pitched a complete game 3 hitter last night against the Braves.

What should the Mets do? September 1 is not too far away and they can get by with relief pitching until Wagner gets back. But the team will have to count on its starters going 7+ innings. What happens if Wagner can't make it and the Mets make the playoffs? go with a four man rotation and make one of your starters your closer. I nominate Pedro.

Posted by Steve in New York

As of now (Thursday morning China time) Michael Phelps has more metals than all but 8 countries. How amazing is that? Phelps has almost 30% of US Gold Metals.

Also, China has more Golds than the US, but the US has more metals overall. A great Olympics!

--Source ESPN

Yesterday we saw two very strange things in Women's Gymnastics. The first was a Chinese woman doing a routine and then not landing on her legs, she landed on her knees. Other competitors landed perfectly and according to the TV announcers, who were Gymnastics coaches in the past, were "ripped off" and scored lower.

We also saw a Chinese girl score the exact same number as an American girl and the Chinese was awarded the Gold by the computer, the American the Silver.

Once again the experts on TV were not sure how to deal with it. They all agreed that the American deserved a higher score in the first place, but could not explain the tie going to the Chinese.

I ask, why is Gymnastics in the Olympics? If the experts can't agree and the judges are too subjective, you should remove it from the games. Or at least give a vote to the audience via the Internet.

While loyal reader Bill in VT says that internet voting could lead to fraud, I just remind you about previous Olympics where judges were paid to put certain figure skaters in the lead.

Bring on the internet. The All Star Game has it. Time for the Olympics to get on board.

It is our job here at Steve and the Tank to report the (sporting) news. In two weeks we will be making the news. Both Steve and Tom (the Tank) will be leaving for a trek to Mt. Everest Base Camp. The Tank leaves next week and I leave two week from today and we all meet in Kathmandu on Sept 3rd. For the entire month of September we will be blogging the experience right here. (No Internet at Base Camp? No problem, we are going to phone in the the post to Jack via sat phone and he will post for us.)

I have been planning this trip for a year with the Sherpas and our schedule looks like this. We should have Internet access in Kathmandu and in Namche Bizarre so we can also post some photos. Below is our proposed schedules, we hope that we can have enough bandwidth (and sat phone coverage) to blog. Stay tuned!

 

Sept 5: Fly to Lukla. Lukla (9,000’) to Phakding (9,500’) Overnight at Phakding

Sept 6: Phakding (9,500’) to Namche Bizarre (11,500’) Overnight in Namche

Sept 7: Acclimation day in Namche Bizarre (11,500’) Overnight in Namche

Sept 8: Namche (11,500’) to Pangboche (12,700’) Overnight at Pangboche

Sept 9: Pangboche (12,700’) to Pheriche (14,000’) Overnight in Pheriche

Sept 10: Acclimation day in Pheriche (14,000’) Overnight in Pheriche

Sept 11: Pheriche (14,000’) to Loboche (16,000’) Overnight in Loboche

Sept 12: Loboche (16,000’) to Gorak Shep (16,800’) Overnight in Gorak Shep

Sept 13: Visit Everest Base Camp (17,400’).  Overnight in Gorak Shep

Sept 14: Summit Kala Pattar (18,700’) Gorak Shep (16,800’) to Loboche (16,000’) Overnight in Loboche

Sept 15: Loboche (16,000’) to Kumjum (12,500’) Overnight in Kumjum

Sept 16: Kumjum (12,500’) to Namche (11,500’) Overnight in Namche

Sept 17: Namche (11,500’) to Lukla (9,000’)

Sept 18: Fly to Katmandu (weather permitting) Overnight at Katmandu

Dara, Congratulations on winning medals over the years and making the USA and whole world proud!

I know you have been divorced twice in the past.  Would you please consider marrying The Tank?  Your partner David might mind but hey, you're technically not married and I'm running for President and I'm single.  We haven't had a bachelor President since James Buchanan.  So, how about please helping me on the road to the White House? 

OK, maybe not, but I'll settle for a swimming lesson as I almost drowned when I was 10 and 18 years old.  My Vice President Steve will be too busy to take over the Presidency because he'll be the Mets next General Manager and still be traveling to places like NotNewYorkStan. 

Love!
Your Biggest Fan - The Tank

P.S. I want to confess to my readers that I write in the best loving traditions of the Onion's "Smoove B".  Have you ever seen The Tank and Smooth B in the same place at the same time?  Coincidence, I think not.

P.S.S. Congratulations to Michael Phelps on becoming the greatest athlete of all time in winning eight gold medals in a single Olympics!  Congratulations are also in order to Phelps' competitor, Milorad Cavic, who almost won by .01 of a second.  Milorad is from California but swims for Serbia.  Milorad was punished by the European Federation for wearing a "Kosovo is Serbia" t-shirt written in Cyrillic during the European Championships.  Bravo Milorad for standing up for the right thing!  Kosovo is Serbia! 

Posted by Smoove B / The Tank in Olympic Loveland.

The Royals and Yankees went to extra innings.  Youth was served when rookie Brett Gardner drove in Robinson Cano for the game-winning run in the 13th.  The Yankees won 3-2.  It helped sooth Friday's heartbreaking loss where Mariano gave up the go-ahead run in the ninth in a non-save situation.  He has given up seven of his nine runs in non-save situations.  He nor anyone else can explain it.  The Yankees have to keep winning while Wang, Joba, Hughes, and I rehab our injuries.

As for the Mets, they continue to roll as they beat the Pirates for their fifth straight win. 

Posted by The Tank barely keeping the faith for a Subway Series to close out Yankee and Shea Stadiums in NY.

Swimming

Michael Phelps kills his own World Record in the 200 IM for his 6th gold medal of the Beijing games and 12 gold overall. He has two more events, the 100m Fly tonight and the 400m medley relay. The 100m fly is Phelps' signature event, last time he lost it was like in High School. He he wins that tonight that will make 7 golds in one game, tying Mark Spitz. On Sunday the US is a heavy favorite for gold in the relay, which would put Phelps in a league of his own.

Tennis

James Blake's impressive win over Roger Federer on Thursday did not help him today as he lost to Fernando Gonzalez of Chile 4-6, 7-5, 11-9.Blake had three match points that he failed to convert. Blake is not out of it, Gonzalez will play the winner of the Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic match for gold and Blake will play the loser. Facing Rafael Nadal or Novak Djokovic for Bronze is a daunting prospect.

Baseball

"Red" China defeated "Free" China (Taiwan) 8-7 yesterday. Cuba defeated the US 5-4. Who said politics is not part of the Olympics.

Women Gymnastics

The USA took 1-2 in the women's all around on Friday.Shawn Johnson finished second overall to teammate Nastia Liukin in the women's all-around Friday. This was not without judging problems. On the vault Liukin  had a perfect landing and a near perfect routine but was heavily penalized. This leads me to believe that all scored sports need an overhaul in the Olympics. Maybe make the last judge an Internet vote?

Russia v Georgia

Speaking of politics. Two nations at war, Russia and Georgia, had events against each other this week. Georgia and Russia faced each other in Judo and Women's beach volleyball (my favorite event). Georgia won both events (and took gold in Judo) and the women's beach volleyball team embraced after the event shown here. (I just needed an excuse for a photo of beach volleyball.)

 

Posted by Steve in New York

Roger Federer has been having a bad year. Having lost in Austrailia to the Tank's cousin in the semi's and to Nadal in the finals in both Paris and London, Federer's bid for his first Olympic medal ended yesterday when he lost to American James Blake.

As reported by Steve and the Tank in the past, we think that Roger Federer is human after all. Having never defeated Roger Federer in the past, actually only winning 1 set against him in the past, Blake defeated Federer in straight sets 6-4, 7-6 (2).

Roger Federer showed some negative energy with an angry scream toward his feet. Then he swatted a stray ball in utter frustration. Next was his thigh and then stomped behind the baseline. Federer even got desperate and started to challenge calls, something that he almost never does. That backfired and was 0-4 on the replays.

And as a last resort, he questioned calls, something he hates to do. That merely made him madder: He went 0-4 on replay challenges.

Federer had been seeking his first Olympic medal after losing in the singles semifinals in Sydney and in the second round in Athens. Blake has never won a medal and has never gone to the finals in a grand slam. He got a call of good wishes from the US Mens Basketball team to wish him luck. Just 2 wins away from gold.

Michael Phelps has done the impossible. He has achieved something no one has ever done before, won 11 gold medals, more than anyone else in history. He is 5-5 in Beijing and will most likely tie or break Mark Spitz's record of 8 in a single games in route to 14 gold metals in total and 9 in Beijing.

While that is amazing, what is more amazing is how Phelps is winning. He took the world record in each of his 5 events and the 800 meter Freestyle relay was not even close. Watch that here.

Unless injury hit him, Phelps will be back in 2012 at age 27 and can tack on to his records. He is already the best ever, not it remains to be seen just how great it will be.

Posted by Steve in New York

Team USA has won convincingly over China and Angola in early Olympic play.  Their dominance is as close to a 1992 Dream Team as you are going to get.  It's not hard with players like Kobe, LeBron, Dwight Howard, D-Wade, and on-and-on. 

Coach K makes sure that they are doing it with grace and class.  Coach K finally gets to coach Kobe as he recruited him out of him school and almost took the Laker coaching job a few years ago.  I met Coach K in Los Angeles in 1991 while I playing goalie for the North Region in Team Handball in the U.S. Olympic Festival.   (We took the Bronze Medal.)  During halftime of a basketball game, a few teammates and myself went up to Coach K to introduce ourselves.   He looked straight ahead and was very intense.  You thought he was still a cadet playing for Bobby Knight at West Point decades ago. 

Barring some catastrophe (God forbid), Team USA will win gold and reestablish global basketball dominance.

Posted by The Tank in NY.

The US Men's 4x100 meter swim team set an Olympic and World Record in Beijing.  Wow!  I thought the favored French were going to win as they took the lead from Jones on the third lap.  But, Lezak dug deep in the anchor leg and set a new Olympic and World Record.

Lezak silenced his critics by beating the Frenchman who said they would "crush" Team USA.  In so doing, Michael Phelps dream of winning eight gold medals is still alive.  He will hopefully best Spitz's 1972 record.  He has won his two hardest events. 

Posted by a celebrating Tank, Honorary Swimmer At Large, in an Olympic State of Mind. 

After a great start following the All Star Break and great trade deadline deals, the Yankees have fallen on tough times.  Joba is out injured on the DL.  Ian Kennedy had attitude issues after melting down on Friday in Anaheim.

The Yankees were swept by the Angels over the weekend.  This is morally devastating because two of the three games were winnable, especially Saturday. 

It is still mathematically possible to catch Tampa as they have a 8.5 game lead but the Yankees will need help.  The Red Sox are still in striking distance with 4.0 games with 6 head-to-head games remaining.  The Yankees have to leap frog the Twins who have a 2.5 game lead.  The Yankees can help their cause in a four game set in Minnesota starting tomorrow night.

Can the Yankees weather the storm until Hughes and Wang return?  I like the offense but the Yankees can't afford any more bullpen meltdowns.  We have to keep the faith in the darkest hours.

Posted by a concerned Tank in NY.