Summer is one of those times of the year where it can seem like there isn’t an awful lot going on in sports, at least compared to other seasons. The NFL season is already long over and by Independence Day, so are the the NBA and NHL seasons. MLB is a couple months away from the postseason, college and high school athletes are off on vacation and there isn’t even all that much on TV. The thing is, the summer of 2011 has actually been pretty interesting sports-wise.
Since my last post for the Extra Point on May 7, sports fans have witnessed
- Two no-hitters (one of them thrown by likely AL Cy Young winner Justin Verlander just hours after I posted on this blog).
- The resolution of one major sports lockout in the NFL and the beginnings of another one in the NBA.
- The Boston Bruins winning the Stanley Cup in seven games for their first title since 1972, ensuring that Boston sports fans officially have absolutely nothing to complain about anymore (sorry, Jared Dionne).
- The Dallas Mavericks defeating the Miami Heat to win their first ever NBA title, much to the delight of sports fans in pretty much every city except Miami.
- Tiger Woods failing to win a golf major for the third straight year.
- Rafael Nadal winning yet another French Open, Novak Djokovic dominating at Wimbledon, Li Na winning the French Open and becoming the first Chinese athlete to win one of tennis’ major tournaments and Petra Kvitova upsetting Maria Sharapova to win Wimbledon.
- Two of the biggest college sports scandals in recent memory, courtesy of (The) Ohio State University and the University of Miami
- And finally, Hurricane Irene disrupting pretty much every sport still playing last weekend.
Who knows what’s going to happen this fall?
