You're still not No. 1.

Not so fast Serena.

I hope everybody had a good holiday weekend....i'm so full of grilled meats (pause) i'd prolly bleed hot links right now.

While I was gone Roger Federer and Serena Williams won the men's and women's championships at Wimbledon. But neither one is number one.

ESPN is doing their usual agenda setting in trying to get you to believe that Federer is the greatest of all-time, but even after 15 Grand Slams I still can't see it.

They must've forgotten that just last year when Federer got bounced in the first round of the Aussie Open and he couldn't beat Rafa to save his life, everybody was saying he was possibly done.

Now that he's won his last two Grand Slams (with no Rafa) i'm supposed to believe that he's the GOAT? Better than Sampras? In this weak men's field?

NOPE!

If he had won these last two finals vs. Rafa I could probably buy it, but for now that notion is going to have to sit on the shelf (at least until I can get it 3/$1).

As for Serena, there's a difference between being the best and being the number one ranked player.

Serena is the best player in women's tennis by far, but she's not the number one player simply because she doesn't play enough.

Even with Serena's win at Wimbledon, Dinara Safina is about 2000 points ahead of her in the rankings...what does that tell you about Serena's activity?

I say if she wants to be seen as the world's number one player, she has to play in more than just the Slams.

If she wants the number one slot, she's gotta be willing to do what the number one player is doing, that's just my opinion.

NBA Free Agency: Where Expiring Contracts happen.

As Free Agency gets underway and speculation about who is going where flies around the league, the sexiest trades these days involve getting nothing for something.

The expiring contract deal is the new "in" thing in basketball. It works with a team trading players, draft picks and/or cash to another team in exchange for a player(s) whose contract is up at the end of the next season.

The giving team gets assets that may help their team, and the receiving team gets money off of their books the next off-season to go after whatever big free agents are out there (or just to save some money).

Everybody seems to be gearing up for the "big free agent class of 2010" that involves Lebron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh, Amare Stoudemire, Paul Pierce, Ray Allen, Tyson Chandler, Manu Ginobili, Richard Jefferson, Joe Johnson, Tracy McGrady, Yao Ming, Steve Nash, Dirk Nowitzki and Michael Redd....

What they cram to understand is that most of these players aren't going anywhere, and there will be a ton of teams with no big free agent signing and a lot of money to blow.

Something tells me that while 2009 will be where Expiring Contracts happen, 2010 will be where Highly Overpaid players happen.

Stevie Wonder Show Review: Summerfest 6-28-09

Stevie's Set:

Part 1: http://www.zshare.net/download/62052055888aaa64
Part 2: http://www.zshare.net/download/620516759df4dc2c/


Every now and then a concert is a bigger than just music...the Stevie Wonder/John Legend concert at Summerfest this past Sunday was one of those times.

Sunday's show was Wonder's second since the passing of his good friend Michael Jackson (Stevie was labelmates with the Jackson 5 when they first arrived on Motown in 1969.), and the pain clearly showed in his facial expressions throughout the performance.

He cried several times during the show, including a complete breakdown when "The Way You Make Me Feel" was played over the sound system during one interlude. His daughter Aisha Morris had to come console him on stage, and he nearly missed his cue for his next song.

The set list was virtually the same as last year's performance, with the exception of the Michael Jackson tributes. During the show he sang "I Can't Help It" with John Legend and another MJ tribute song that was unfinished.

Stevie decided to play a medley of MJ songs over the sound system instead of his usual encore at the end of the show, and the show ended on a positive note when he tried to moonwalk to one of the songs.

The effects of the economy were visibly apparent as well. While last year's show was virtually sold out, this year's show saw entire sections empty with the Marcus Ampitheater at about half-capacity.

John Legend joined Stevie on stage for several songs during his set (the only scheduled show with both artists all summer), but I missed his set because his forehead is big and he talks about cheating too much (jokes).

A New Day.

It's the dawn of a new era here at M&P News...

I like politics and I follow them on a regular basis, but there's 12 trillion political blogs out here, and at the end of the day that's not my passion.

I love music and sports, so from now on M&P will reflect that (along with politics when I feel like going there).

So tune back in and enjoy the show, you won't be disappointed.

Weeking Viewing: Inside the Meltdown

With the job losses mounting and the economy getting worse by the day, it's important to learn how this mess started in the first place.

This PBS documentary is a good look at the beginning of the financial collapse a few months ago.

Follow the Leader

Wait, that's not Michael Steele!

"It's been a long time, I shouldn'ta left you/without a strong rhyme to step to..." (c) Rakim

Me and Ty have been on a hiatus for a little while since life has been kicking our respective asses, but in the words of Ice Cube, once again its on.

This weekend, I watched an articulate man talk about the state of the GOP on DL Hughley Breaks the News. He didn't shout, he didn't bash Obama and he talked about plans to get the GOP back to the basics that resonated with him as a youth.

Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele even had the heart to call Rush Limbaugh an entertainer (which he is), his show incindiary (which it is) and proclaim that he is not the leader of the Republican Party (which he's not?).

Then he apologized to Rush for it.

*pauses for logic to set in*

Yes, the leader of the RNC apologized to a talk show host who's never held any type of public office for calling him a...talk show host.

Cube, take it away:



As soon as I had a shred of hope for the GOP, they cut the rope.

Barack Obama: Popular (for now)

NaDa SuRf - PoPuLaR
Uploaded by MiKaEl94

The approval rating polls of the Obama presidency are out, and President Obama is doing all right. He has a 68% approval rating overall, which is about where Reagan was for his first approval rating, but behind George Bush Sr. This isn't really surprising, as most incoming presidents start out with fairly high approval ratings. That said, he still isn't winning over many self-identified Republicans, as only about 1/3rd or them seem to think he's doing an okay job. So much for the whole post-partisan pipe dream.

But for the most part, Obama's a pretty popular dude. So popular, in fact, that even congressional Democrats are seeing their numbers go up. A whopping 50% of the country actually approves of the job the D's in the House and Senate are doing, which is huge because, cmon, who likes Harry Reid? Only 38% thought their Republican counterparts were doing a good job, because of, I don't know, we'll say the stimulus. Except less than half of those polled even think the federal government will manage to not screw that up, so maybe no.

Anyway, the point is President Obama is popular for now, and I'm still surprised this song was as big of a hit as it was.