Ahh.... life is good in the sports world. And here's why:

The Cardinals continue to dominate as we swept the Padres this week in true ass stomping fashion. This is a team that's fighting for a playoff spot too. Sweeping teams like the Pirates or the Reds is nice, but to beat three great pitchers and play an entire series where we were never down even a single run is pretty damned awesome (we out-scored them in the series 20-7). Edmonds, Pujols, and Walker are all playing home run derby now. Edmonds has 8 in 7 games (now 1 HR shy of 300 career) and Pujols has homered in 4 straight. We now have three players with 100 RBI's this season for the second year in a row. Oh yeah, and we reached the long awaited double over .500 mark!! The next big test is this weekend against the NL West Division leading Los Angeles Dodgers. Could be a quick preview of the NLCS, seeing as besides the Cubs, the Dodgers will present the biggest challenge to the Cardinals in the postseason. I can't wait for the Walker, Pujols, Rolen, Edmonds VS. Gagne matchup. Look for Ankiel this weekend as well.

Kobe's a free man. The money hungry slut who he supposedly "raped", dropped the criminal case because she refused to testify. Reports are saying that if her past and recent sexual activity (which reportedly includes in excess of 50 sexual partners before as well as after the date of the apparent rape) came up when she was on the stand, it would pretty much completely cripple their case. Not to mention her apparent affinity for being attracted to wealthy black men, specifically those of celebrity status that visited the Vail Resort where she worked. The accusations came out, as the defense argued, as a means to get attention from or make jealous an ex-boyfriend, or possibly even for pure financial gain. This theory becomes even more compelling now that the criminal trial was dropped, yet the woman still plans to follow through with a civil trial where money can be the only reward for winning the case, as opposed to the criminal trial where justice prevails with a prison sentence. I'm horribly disgusted by rape and I think next to cold blooded murder, its the worst thing you could possibly do to someone. But not every girl who wakes up the next morning and regrets having sex with some guy the night before, or has a one nighter and then gets burned cause he doesn't call her back, gets a free pass to yell out "RAPE" just because they can. And yes, I understand what date rape is and that it does indeed happen quite often. And yes I even realize that most of this evidence is circumstantial. But it's pretty overwhelming.

On a lighter note, it's pretty awesome to get a taste of Hockey in late August.

- these thoughts flowed through Jeff's fingers @ 1:55 PM