FIFA World Cup: Yesterday’s matches was just as eventful as the first day’s.  Trinidad and Tobago played to a scoreless draw against a strong Sweden team, who just couldn’t take advantage of their opportunities.  However, Shaka Hislop did take it to another level tending goal for T&T.  The England/Paraguay match was odd in that, within three minutes of play, a David Beckham kick deflected off of Carlos Gammarra’s head into Gammarra’s own goal.  And the scoring ended there with England winning 1-0.  The Argentina contest with Ivory Coast pretty much went as it probably would have with the young, but talented Argentinians winning 2-1.  Here are today’s matches:

*Group C: Serbia and Montenegro VS. Netherlands
*Group D: Mexico VS. Iran
*Group D: Angola VS. Portugal

NBA Finals: In Game One of this final series of the NBA, the Dallas Mavericks won 90-80 against the Miami Heat.  The Mavs’ Dirk Nowitzki had a subpar game, but “The Jet,” Jason Terry turned it up and scored 32 points, seemingly not being capable of missing any shot that left his hand.  Credit must also be given to the Mavs’ defense and Erick Dampier for doing better than expected and not totally succumbing to the force that is known as Shaquille O’Neal.

*Game Two takes place tonight once again in Dallas.  The Heat will try to steal one on the road, but to do so they’ll need to play just as big in the clutch as they did to start off Game One, where they faded in the second half.  Their shot selection will have to improve as I thought they either shot too early or tried to shoot the three when a two would have been sufficient.  See what these two things do?  They take away from using Shaq and utilizing his ability to score down low.  Also, the Heat will hope that Dwyane Wade is feeling better and the sinus infection that affected him in Game One has either healed or subsided to a significant degree.  The game jumps off at 9pm.

MLB: There is a falling out in Arizona as the Diamondbacks are refusing to pay the rest of Jason Grimsley’s salary.  Grimsley, whose house was raided by federal agents recently looking for performance-enhancing drugs such as human growth hormone.  Grimsley requested to leave the team, so that the controversy surrounding him wouldn’t be a distraction for theD’Backs.  The organization accommodated Grimsley, but now feel they don’t have to pay him.  Grimsley and his agent feel otherwise.  I feel that he cheated and I’m not crying for him.  The only thing I’ll do is rub my thumb and forefinger together playing the smallest violin in the world.

*Since yesterday’s doubleheader between the Texas Rangers and Boston Red Sox was canceled, they’ll play two today.  The first game’s matchup will pit two pitchers with similar records, but with different styles against one another.  The Rangers’ Kevin Millwood is all about control and finesse, something that served him well enough to win the ERA title last season with the Cleveland Indians.  The Red Sox’s Josh Beckett is all about the power, possessing excellent K ability.  However, because of the tight grip he puts on the ball to make his pitches effective, Beckett has suffered numerous finger blisters and has never had a healthy full season.  Will finesse or power rule the day?

*The San Diego Padres’ Jake Peavy has been having a very bad season, bad for him anyway.  Peavy has won an ERA title and a strikeout title in his young career.  This season, Peavy is 4-6 with a 4.56 ERA, something that most did not see happening for Peavy as he is a perennial Cy Young candidate.  He’ll try to get back on track towards that Cy Young caliber season at home against the young Florida Marlins batting order. 

*Tonight’s spotlight game has A.L. Central rivals, Cleveland Indians and Chicago White Sox matching up in Chi-town.  Both were considered frontrunners for the division before the season, but the Cinderella Detroit Tigers are sitting atop the division at this point.  However, the Pale Hose are only a half game behind living up to expectations in contending.  However, the Indians are trailing by several games.  A late season surge is always possible as the Tribe showed last season, but they fell just short.  There’s no better time than the present to get it going and the Indians will try to do that tonight.

Enjoy the games!