An Amazing Day

What a day yesterday. Honestly, I can't remember a day with as many dramatic/awesome moments across different sports as I saw yesterday.

First there was the US-Algeria game, which I watched with one friend and 20-30 random coworkers in a tight little corner of the 39th floor of our building.

As the US missed opportunity after opportunity and time wound down, the crowd, so excited initially, started to hate soccer again. Hardly anything can describe the elation when Landon Donovan put home the go-ahead goal with the game in stoppage time.

It was an incredible moment, not just to witness the feat of perseverance by the US team, but to see the reaction of the crowd.

To me, that was why the US victory was so important. For 90 minutes yesterday, a lot of people cared about soccer. For it to have come to nothing might have confirmed a lot of people's inhibitions about the game, which essentially boil down to a feeling that it's too long and there's not enough scoring (also, that the refs are out to get the US).

In the end, whatever new fans soccer has cultivated in the US were rewarded yesterday in extraordinarily dramatic fashion. The US will play move on... I know what I'll be watching Saturday afternoon.

Segue! After the soccer game, Sip sent an email out to a bunch of people asking where they planned to watch the game this weekend. After a few emails bounced around, Sip mentioned that everyone should turn on Wimbledon, where the most amazing thing was happening.

Now, I don't think of Sip as a huge tennis fan; maybe that's not fair but honestly it's just not a sport we've ever talked much about. I could hardly imagine what on earth in tennis could qualify as the most amazing thing ever.

I flipped over to ESPN.com and my jaw dropped. By that point the 5th set of the Isner-Mahut match was something like 46-46. I didn't see any of the match, but the idea that a match could go that long is truly staggering.

These guys must be completely wiped. They'll pick it up again at 9:30am; somehow I'm convinced that it'll end after just a few games, but what do I know?

Capping it all yesterday was the Mets game, which featured another great performance from R.A. Dickey. What more can you say about Dickey at this point? He's been a complete godsend.

Now the Mets are back where they were before the two losses to the Yankees, back to that 11 games over .500 mark that some in the media thought they'd never reach again. One thing we're learning about this 2010 team -- you can't count them out. As was said last night, they're not as talented as the 2006 team, but it's possible they want it more.

The game aside, I quite enjoyed Jerry Seinfeld's commentary; I appreciated that he wanted to talk about baseball. Perhaps the highest compliment I can pay him is that I wouldn't mind if he came back and did it again some time.

Anyway, what do you say we make it a sweep tonight?

- A.F.O.M.G.