Hosts: Sonny, Rich and Ryan

In this episode of the Soapbox, we took a look at ESPN’s horrific bias when it comes to their baseball telecasts. In just two and a half months, the Chicago Cubs have been featured four times. The Red Sox, Yankees and Mets aren’t too far behind. Compared to MLB Network’s weekly Thursday and Saturday night broadcasts, the bias of the Worldwide Leader could not be more obvious.

Hello. How about that ride in? I guess that’s why they call it the U.S. Open. Allow me to introduce myself. I’m Johnny Miller, announcer for NBC Sports. You might remember me from such masterpieces as the 1973 U.S. Open, where I shot a final round 63 to steal the championship. Did you hear me, people? A 63. In the FINAL ROUND of a major. WHO DOES THAT?

Firing that 63 at Oakmont has made me a golfing GOD. Does it matter that I was never regarded as the best player in the world? Or that I only won a single major besides my glory at Oakmont? Hell no, it doesn’t. Why? Because I shot a 63.  In the FINAL ROUND of a major

Allow me to be the first to congratulate Lucas Glover on outlasting the field to win his first major. It’s a hell of a feeling, being in this elite fraternity of major championship winners. But Lucas, lets be real here. You shot a 73 in today’s final round. That’s 10 shots worse than what I put up. You were handed the championship by Phil Mickelson. I went out there and TOOK my championship. While I admire you for not being a Eyetalian “pool cleaner” like that Rocco Mediate fella, you still can’t even shine my shoes. You know, my shoes. That I wore at Oakmont. When I shot my 63. In the FINAL ROUND of a major.

Glover did it the right way. He did it the way you have to do at the U.S. Open, when there are few birdie holes out there. He hit fairways. He hit greens. He hit putts. He won. That pussy shit ain’t my style though. I hit birdies (nine in the final round at Oakmont to be exact). THEN I hit the hotel bar and drink 63 beers, one for each stroke I used at Oakmont. How are you gonna celebrate, Lucas? By not smiling? By going to a Yankees game? Yankees suck, bro.

Unfortunately, you won’t be seeing me much until Pebble Beach next June. But for you aspiring young’ins out there that wanna lift some trophies when you’re older, just take it from ol’ Johnny. You better bust your little ass, cause 63’s don’t grow on trees. But they do grow in one place. My backyard. At Oakmont.

Going into Sunday, the United States needed a monumental effort from both themselves and Brazil. Brazil held up their end of the bargain, but could the United States shut out Egypt while scoring three goals? The answer, simply put, was yes.

Brazil didn’t need much to get by the Italians on Sunday, as the South Americans outplayed an aging Italian team. So it was left up to the United States. Score three goals, allow none and they would get the right to challenge Spain on Wednesday in the Confederations Cup semi-final.

Hitting the fast forward button after goals from Charlie Davies, Michael Bradley and Clint Dempsey, the USA looked like a completely different team from early on in the week. They played with heart, fire and most of all,  purpose. The United States didn’t quit for 90 minutes. They fought overseas and were determined to show the world that the Americans still cared.

Bob Bradley and the U.S. Soccer Federation have a lot of work to do before next summer, but the mindset and focus of the U.S. is apparent. After facing Brazil and Italy, the Americans should be proud of themselves. Nobody gave them a chance this week, but the Americans could very well be the story of the tournament aside from the host nation, South Africa.

Sunday was supposed to be about Italy and Egypt. Sunday was going to be the day that the United States media called for Bob Bradley’s head. Instead, the United States survived the “group of death” without a lifeline. Ladies and gentlemen, Sunday ended up being a good day for American soccer.

Hosts: Rich and Ryan

The Sportable Soapbox is something we attempted nearly a year and a half ago and never tried again and it took serious research into our archives to dig up the first episode.  The basis of the Soapbox is a podcast that goes away from the standard droning that we do about sports and instead allows us to open up and rip on athletes who have weaseled their way into the news.  Todays’ broadcast takes on Jeremy Mayfield’s positive meth test, the riots in Los Angeles following the Lakers championship win, and Donte Stallworth picking up DUI manslaughters at 7 am.

EA Sports has come out swinging again with their latest edition of the Tiger Woods series for golf fans everywhere.  For the first time since I started playing the Tiger Woods series, I’ve stumbled across a game that’s incredibly challenging.  Tiger brings back all the elements of the game that are fairly standard; the swing stick, hilarious animations, various created characters, and a ton more luck than I stumble across on a regular golf course.  In addition to these features, EA has added new features such as the ability to play a practice round and an all new putting system called “Precision Putting.”  Tiger has also welcomed two new voices to the broadcast booth; ESPN’s Scott Van Pelt and NBC’s Kelly Tilghman (yes, the same lady who said young players challenging Tiger should “lynch him in a back alley”).  But before I get into the new gadgets in Tiger Woods 10, let’s take a look at the basics.

As has been the case with Tiger in years past, the presentation is relatively simple.  It’s a golf game, nobody is looking to toy around with depth charts and injury reports.  For those hooked up to Xbox Live, the main screen offers a section that scrolls all new updates including downloadable courses, recent tournament winners, and rankings from all the players taking to the links on Xbox Live.  The new Tiger offers all the same games that you’ve become accustomed to; a plethora of traditional games including stroke play, stableford, and bingo bango bongo as well as the entertaining mini games that you can mess around with if you have some extra time and just want to squeeze in a quick long drive contest or a game of T-I-G-E-R.  It seems like this year the EA staff really vamped up the available players for use on the course, especially on the female side where there’s now golfers like Natalie Gulbis, Morgan Pressel, Se Ri Pak, and others to go alongside the tenured female veteran of Tiger, Annika Sorenstam.  On the male side, Tiger has added young guns Anthony Kim, Rory McIlroy, and Camilo Villegas to the standard grouping of guys that included Vijay, Mike Weir, Furyk, and Tiger to name a few.  So now that the set-up has been diagnosed, let’s hit the game play itself. Read the rest of this entry »

We’re pleased to announce the launching of Sportable’s very own Twitter account. Be sure to follow us for news and running commentary from all corners of the sports world.

Follow us at twitter.com/sportable.

Our Twitter will have more purposes than just serving as a feed for our articles. We plan on live blogging games, talking about the day’s top performances and linking/tweeting humorous tweets by athletes.

Follow us and tell your friends!