Some oil drilling, but mainly Base and Basket ball blogging

Been way too busy defending the existing moratorium on off shore drilling to blog much - actually at all - in the last few weeks.  I think the drilling ban will survive, mainly due to the personal interest and involvement in maintaining the moratorium by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and to a lesser extend the great messaging from Barack Obama and T. Boone Pickens.  If we make it to August 1st - the day Congress goes on recess - without a vote I think we'll survive. 

My hope is that between the Olympics, the Democrat and Republican conventions, and the end of the summer driving season, the hysteria fueling calls for more drilling will subside.

Now, on to the blog!  I've missed quite a few blog opportunities in the last two weeks, including:

BASEBALL

• the All-Star game, which I thought was a great game to watch.  Lots of action, defense, plays at the plate, etc. I'm glad I stayed up and watched the entire game.
• For me, the three most interesting stories of the first half had to be: Chicago, where the Cubs and White Sox lead their division - the Cubs stayed on top despite lots of injuries, and Guillen has the ChiSox playing over their heads; the Rays, who are coming of age sooner than anyone expected, and are a fun bunch to watch; and finally Josh Hamilton, a pretty powerful story of redemption and taking advantage of second chances.  What a phenomenal display at the Home Run Derby, and pretty inspirational too.
• Evan recently asked "how much worse can the Nats get?"  I wish I knew.  That line up, even with Zimmerman back, is Double A quality.  With a little more hitting our home town team could be decent; four of the Nats starters have ERAs below 4.25. 
• The bull pen has been almost as bad as the hitting; short term things will get worse with Rauch traded to Arizona.
• Long term, the Nats could be good in two years.   They have Lannan and Bergman as starters, with decent arms at Triple A and Double A, and Milledge (CF), Dukes (RF), Flores (C), and Zimmerman (3B) are all under 23.  Add the second baseman they acquired from Arizona in the Rauch trade, and the Nats could be solid up the middle.  Let's hope these guys develop into legit major leaguers, Stan Kasten fires Bowden, and hires a GM who can lure one or two power hitters here as free agents.

HELLENIC HOOPS

• For a while, this blog was not the ONLY spot for Greek basketball news.  The biggest splash was made by Josh Childress' decision to spur the Hawks and the NBA and sign with Olympiacos.  The signing put Hellenic hoops in the sports pages and on ESPN for two or three straight days.  In the course of the Childress coverage the Greek basketball league was acknowledged to be one of the top leagues in Europe, and Athens came out looking good too.  Though Olympiacos plays in Pireas not Athens, at one point Childress was quoted as saying he was unsure whether to go through with the deal - worth $21 million after taxes - until he visited and liked Athens.
• The oddest part of the coverage - at least for me - was the coverage itself.  Who knows who Josh Childress is? Greek hoop fans are pretty knowledgeable about the NBA, but I bet you would be hard pressed to find a more anonymous NBA player - in the US or Greece - than Josh Childress.   Despite that anonymity, the coverage of the signing was extensive.  
• Of course, most of that was due to the prospect that a weak dollar may lead to a larger exodus of NBA talent to Europe and a handful of players with similar talent, sixth men such as Carlos Delfino, Bostan Nachbar, etc., have signed with European teams.  But none of the players going from the NBA to Europe were front line players, so why make a big deal about it? I know I'd take $21 million to move to Greece.
• The Childress signing was not the only Hellenic hoops news to make it into the sport pages.  For the two days prior to the signing, Greeks hoops made into the American press for qualifying for the Olympics and then being placed in the same group as team USA.  
• Greece was one of three squads to qualify, along with Germany and Croatia, after playing in the Olympic tournament in Athens the week of July 14th.  Teams that did not qualify from their continents were invited to the tournament, with the top three making it to Beijing.   Greece routed Lebanon, Brazil and Puerto Rico in the tourney.
• Greece, the reigning world silver medalists, are grouped with the US, Spain (the world champs), China, Angola and Germany.  Greece, Spain and the US are three of the four best teams on the planet, so it will be a tough group.
• I remember watching the US play Greece - in the 2004 Athens Olympics - in the PIRG conference room. Although I was the only Greek-American in the office, I'm pretty sure I was the only person rooting for the US.  No big whoop; I always root for the US when they play Greece, and that team had fellow Tar Heel Larry Brown on the bench.  In addition, that team featured guys I like such as Tim Duncan, Allen Iverson and Shawn Marion.  But no one, at PIRG or anywhere else, liked that team.  I think that team was hamstrung by a roster with no outside shooters, and by bad/anti-American officiating.  Ironic that refs called lots of fouls on Tim Duncan, a classy player and great ambassador for American hoops, as opposed to 'less savory' players like Carmelo Anthony and Iverson.
• Childress, the qualifying tournament, and the announcement of the Olympic groups kept Hellenic hoops in the media four straight days.
• Finally, as most of you know, I rooted for Greece to defeat the US in the 2006 world championships, and will do the same in the Olympics due to Mike Krzyzewski and his right-wing running buddy Jerry Colangelo (BTW, Colangelo in Greek roughly translates into 'colon/butt angel').  Without a doubt, I am a Tar Heel first, so even when coaching the American team playing the American game, I can not root for a Dukie.  Having the motherland as a rooting option makes it a no brainer.
• That said, I think the US will win the gold medal.  I can't see a team with Kobe Bryant, Carmelo Anthony and LaBron James losing, even WITH Krzyzewski on the bench.  
• However, the one thing that should give the US pause is our lack of size.  Chris Bosh and Dwight Howard are the only big men on the roster, and they're skinny big men at that.  The international game is more physical than the NBA version, so watch if the US gets pushed around much on the boards.  If that happens, even with a team of all-star wings, the US could lose a game in the medal round.  Finally, watch the US at the point.  Krzyzewski should play Chris Paul more at the point; if he stubbornly sticks with a rapidly aging Jason Kidd the U.S. could stumble.  But both of those are ifs, and I expect the US to win our first gold medal in hoops since the 2000 Vince Carter Olympics [greatest dunk of ALL TIME! If you disagree, check out KG's reaction].
• I'm kind of conflicted about the Olympics.  I genuinely get hyped up for watching the summer games, but am not enthusiastic about China hosting.  I've said it before, but nothing can be more cynical than going from the cradle of democracy and individual rights to a totalitarian/hyper-capitalist state in four years.  

Finally, one semi-political sports note: Lance Armstrong is a cheater.  There are so many cheaters in that sport that it seems incredibly unlikely that a guy rehabbing from cancer could be clean.  I used to give him the benefit of the doubt but am now convinced that everyone in that sport cheats.  And on top of that, Armstrong is shilling for John McCain.  Perhaps the only thing more cynical that going from Athens to Beijing in four years is my attitude towards a cancer survivor who used to dominate the Tour de France.