They saw a total of 2 Drafts (NBA and NHL if we can consider it a "major sport"), 90 games (MLB), and a bunch of assuredly boring but optimistic labor talks (NFL) (There might actually be a season! Actually I am feeling more and more confident that there will be).
In case you missed either of the two drafts here are the run downs of the top ten of each:
NBA Draft Round 1 Picks 1-10
full rundown of the 2011 NBA Draft
NHL Draft Round 1 Picks 1-10
| Pick # | Name | Pos. | Team | Former Team |
| 1 | Ryan Nugent-Hopkins | C | Edmonton Oilers | Red Deer |
| 2 | Gabriel Landeskog | LW | Colorado Avalanche | Kitchener |
| 3 | Jonathan Huberdeau | C | Florida Panthers | Saint John |
| 4 | Adam Larsson | D | New Jersey Devils | Skelleftea |
| 5 | Ryan Strome | C | New York Islanders | Niagara |
| 6 | Mika Zibanejad | C | Ottawa Senators | Djurgarden Jr. |
| 7 | Mark Scheifele | C | Winnipeg | -- |
| 8 | Sean Couturier | C | Philadelphia Flyers | Drummondville |
| 9 | Dougie Hamilton | D | Boston Bruins | Niagara |
| 10 | Jonas Brodin | D | Minnesota Wild | Farjestad |
"The Cycle" - A brief summary of this past week in Major league Baseball
Despite a good week of baseball upon which I will soon elaborate the biggest and most disappointing news of the week has to be the injury to St. Louis Cardinal's first baseman Albert Pujols. Right when Pujols was starting to get heated up his wrist gets fractured and he goes on the 15-day Disabled List. The Cardinal's went on to win their game Monday night against the Kansas City Royals, but it is a major blow both the Cardinal's and baseball as Pujols still remains baseball's most dangerous hitter.
However, amongst Major League Baseball's innumerable games fans were privileged to see some spectacular performances by two of its rising young pitchers.
Justin Verlander (10-3, 2.38 ERA, 124 Ks) of the Detroit Tigers may have produced the most dominant performance of the week in his 8 innings work this past Saturday against the Arizona Diamondbacks with no earned runs and 14 Ks, but for the week overall he was outdone by James Shields (8-4, 2,29 ERA, 117 Ks) of the Tampa Bay Rays. Shields shut down both the Florida Marlins (6/19) and the Houston Astros (6/24) this past week for two complete games allowing a total only 7 hits and 1 earned run over 18 innings of work.Well done sir.
This Week's Golden Bat Award: J. J. Hardy of the Baltimore Orioles who batted .444 on week with 3 home runs, 6 runs batted in, and 7 runs scored.
Top Five Records of the Week 6/20-6/26/2011:
Atlanta Braves 5-1
Tampa Bay Rays 5-1
Los Angeles Angels 5-1
San Fransisco Giants 4-2
New York Yankees 4-2
Meanwhile in Sports (while America was most likely not watching)
The soccer world was a buzz as the conclusion of multiple male tournaments came to pass and the biggest women's tournament was on the cusp of beginning.
The Gold Cup (North American National Team Tournament) - The United States managed this week to beat Panama on Wednesday and then lose miserably to Mexico in the Gold Cup Final on Saturday. The U.S. has looked all out of sorts the entire tournament with uninspired match after uninspired match. The first time they played Panama on the 11th of June it cost them to the tune of a 2-1 loss. This week, however, they were able to avenge their loss with a 1-0 win thanks in large part to Landon Donovan and the sudden emergence of the U.S.'s star of the future of 8 years ago Freddy Adu. Their inspired play carried on for the next 22' of their match against Mexico as they scored two goals to go up 2-0, but quickly petered out as Mexico stormed back for four goals starting in the 29' for a 4-2 victory. Though the loss of a tournament is always painful it is the seemingly growing distance between the U.S. and Mexico which has to be more painful. Mexico appears to have a plethora of young buddings stars while the U.S. has a dearth. The U.S. can perhaps take some solace in Adu sudden improvement for at the age of 22 there seems to still be time for him to become the savior he was thought to be.
Copa Santander Libertadores de América (South American Club Team Tournament) - In a spirited match FC Santos defeated C.A. Peñarol 2-1 and things did end with a bang as brawl ensued after the final whistle. The Fight can be viewed on YouTube.
U.S. Track and Field Championships - Walter Dix emerged as America's favorite to challenge Jamaica's Usain Bolt by winning both the 100m and 200m, but his 100m time was still .76 off of Bolt's record, which is a lot of time in in the 100m dash. The women's field remained more convoluted with Carmelita Jeter taking the 100m and Shalonda Solomon winning the 200m.
College World Series - The field narrowed to two, Florida and South Carolina, for an all SEC finals. USC won a 3-2 13 inning epic against Virginia to advance while Florida defeated Vanderbilt 6-4 in 9.
Nascar - After quite a struggle, including a radio rant, Kurt Busch got his first win of the season with a 4s win over Jeff Gordon.
Wimbledon (Tennis) - The first three rounds came to a conclusion with most of the top players still standing. The only notables to fall were Andy Roddick (8) in straight sets to Feliciano Lopez (6-7, 6-7, 4-6) and Na Li of China (6-3, 4-6, 6-8)
NOT SPORTS (My favorite non-sport related things of the week)
True Grit - Jeff Bridges and unknown 14 year girl (Hailee Steinfeld), wow! If you haven't seen it and are a fan of awesomeness see it.
Cat says what? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aP3gzee1cps I'm still not convinced this is real.
Feel good flash-mob of the year - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgOyTNtsWyY I am not sure what language this is in, but you still get the idea.
If I missed anything or you have any thoughts, comments, or questions leave them in the comment box below or e-mail me at shannon.samuelc@gmail.com
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