A Guy Walks Into A Bar

From The Vault: Terry Tate Office Linebacker

I was casually stumbling through the internet today when I came across the iconic Terry Tate. A little humor is always necessary.

American Men's Tennis Players Fail Once Again

Ever since the retirement of US Men's tennis greats like Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi, the Americans have become increasingly irrelevant in the men's tennis world. In this year's French Open only one American, Robby Ginepri, even reached the 4th round (before he was easily dispatched by Serbia's Novak Djokovich). Currently there are only 3 Americans ranked among the ATP's top 50 players in the world. It's safe to assume most people could name Andy Roddick who is the only American in the top 10, but can anyone name the other two?

If you said John Isner and Sam Querrey take a bow, I'm fairly certain that 98% of sports fans can't name those two. The fact of the matter is that no American player has won a Grand Slam event since Roddick took home the 2003 US Open title. Now to be fair when you're competing with Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal winning any tour event is a pretty tall order but still. The American tennis culture needs a new start to generate to kick-start our interest. That may just be wishful thinking at this point but it's something to keep in mind.

Just Another Day At The Park For Albert Pujols

St. Louis Cardinals 1B Albert Pujols busted out of a "slump" today by casually blasting 3 home runs in a 7-1 victory over the Chicago Cubs and now has 12 HRs and 38 RBI in this young season. In case anyone hasn't realized it yet, Pujols is the best player of our lifetime and will likely one day be considered among the best players ever to play the game along with the likes of Babe Ruth, Ted Williams and Willie Mays. There hasn't been a hitter of Pujols' caliber in the last 25 years at least. Don't be believe me? His career stats speak for themselves

Year	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	SB	CS	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG
2001	161	590	112	194	47	4	37	130	1	3	69	93	.329	.403	.610
2002	157	590	118	185	40	2	34	127	2	4	72	69	.314	.394	.561
2003	157	591	137	212	51	1	43	124	5	1	79	65	.359	.439	.667
2004	154	592	133	196	51	2	46	123	5	5	84	52	.331	.415	.657
2005	161	591	129	195	38	2	41	117	16	2	97	65	.330	.430	.609
2006	143	535	119	177	33	1	49	137	7	2	92	50	.331	.431	.671
2007	158	565	99	185	38	1	32	103	2	6	99	58	.327	.429	.568
2008	148	524	100	187	44	0	37	116	7	3	104	54	.357	.462	.653
2009	160	568	124	186	45	1	47	135	16	4	115	64	.327	.443	.658
2010	49	184	27	55	13	0	9	34	3	1	35	26	.299	.409	.516
10 Seasons	1448	5330	1098	1772	400	14	375	1146	64	31	846	596	.332	.426	.624
162 Game Avg.	162	596	123	198	45	2	42	128	7	3	95	67	.332	.426	.624

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 5/30/2010.

The man is an absolute machine and has been ever since he took the field opening day as a 21-year-old rookie in 2001. He's also developed into a Gold Glove 3rd baseman and has made the All Star team every year he has played with piling up 3 MVP awards. Perhaps the most overlooked stat here is that he has never struck out more than 69 times in a season since his rookie year in an era where 100 K's in a season is considered average.

Obviously with a hitter as good as Pujols the steroid question will rear it's ugly head and rightfully so, baseball fans have to be weary of everyone. However there is a much to be said in Albert's defense including how is play has been consistently terrific his entire career, there has never been any jump in power (he's never hit more than 49 HR's in a season) or that he's never suffered a serious injury that might lead him to take PEDs to recover. His swing is simply a thing of beauty and a masterpiece of the craft that combined with him being the one of the smartest players in the game has made him into a demi-god of hitting. I fully expect to be telling my grandchildren about the time I saw Pujols hit a home run in Shea Stadium for years.