SU is back from the road out in Boulder, CO and Dallas.  As always, we have our finger on the pulse of the sports world and have been following developments closely.  Thoughts for the day:

• The Yankees completed an impressive sweep of the Twins trailing in all 3 games.  Greg Bird has given them a nice offensive shot in the arm.  As SU has been saying all year, isn’t it more fun to watch these youngsters play vs. some of the veterans?  Time to bring up Refsnyder and put Drew on the bench.  How a guy can hit .190 or lower for 2 straight seasons and not see his playing time diminish is beyond me.  I know he’s a good fielder but hey, it’s 2nd base.  How bad can that be unless you are Chuck Knoblouch and you are trying to throw to 1st base?  The lead is still under 2 games and a long way to go.  But the Yankees are putting themselves in good position for a wild card at a minimum.
• The Mets are hanging tough with their 4-game lead on the Nationals but you feel like they should be expanding that more as Washington has been terrible.  SU believes that race is going to tighten up considerably down the stretch.  The Yankees-Mets series in mid-September should be important for both teams.  Fun viewing for the NY fans.
• SU has been enjoying some of the men’s tennis in Montreal and now Cincinnati.  The top players are in both events and there have been some great match-ups the last week or so.  As stated many times, SU is a big Djokovic fan.  Did you know that he paid for the Serbian special olympics team to travel to LA recently to compete in those events?  $30,000 of his own money.  Even Andy Roddick, who has had issues with him from several years ago and is a big promoter and supporter of the event, gave him special props.  Djokovic is a great ambassador for the men’s game and is always respectful of his opponent.
• It was fun to see the trash talking that went on in last week’s men’s tournament where the youngster from Australia, Kyrgios, told Stan Warwinka during a changeover that another Australian player was sleeping with his new girlfriend.  He ended up being fined $10,000 and may be suspended.  It’s funny to compare that to the trash talking that goes on in the NFL and NBA where this type of remark would be totally ignored unless it was made about Melo’s wife.
• FInally, we are slogging our way through the NFL preseason where most teams just want to avoid injury.  It’s silly that they play 4 games.  Strictly a money grab by the owners.  SU says 2 games is plenty in a sports where guys get hurt so frequently.