Liguori: What A Weekend!

By Ann Liguori
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As I head to San Francisco to cover the U.S. Open, starting Thursday at the Olympic Club, and navigate amongst the crowd who will be following the marquee threesome of Tiger, Phil and Bubba, let’s give some love to LeBron James, Union Rags, Maria Sharapova, Rafael Nadal, the Seawolves and to a Chinese woman named Shanshan Feng, who shot the lowest round of the tournament, a 5-under-par 67 on Sunday at the Wegmans LPGA Championship, to become the first player from mainland China to win a Major Championship.

Let’s start with the Belmont Stakes. As disappointing as it was that I’ll Have Another retired the day before due to a ligament strain, relinquishing the possibility of becoming the first to win the Triple Crown since 1978, Union Rags gave the racing crowd a thrilling finish by finding an opening and barely edging Paynter at the end. Wow. What a race!

LeBron James is on a mission and if he has to single-handedly beat the Thunder to win his first NBA Championship, he’ll do it. As tough as Kevin Durant, the Thunder and their fans will make it for the Heat to win, LeBron is primed to shut his critics up.  I say, the Miami Heat in six.

Rafael Nadal owns the French Open, winning more French Open titles — 7– than any other player in history. Nadal wrapped up his rain-delayed final against Novak Djokovic Monday morning, winning 7-5 in the fourth set. It’s Nadal’s 11th Grand Slam title.  If Nadal stays healthy, he could win 7 more!

It was such an incredible sports weekend. The only blemish was the suspect judging in the Manny Pacquiao v. Timothy Bradley, Jr. Welterweight Championship bout. What were the two judges who scored Timothy Bradley beating Manny Pacquiao in that split-decision smoking? Ridiculous! I covered many a fight during the days of Sugar Ray Leonard, Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield, Leonard Lewis, etc. Since the days when Don King controlled the sport, and the purses, there seemed to always be chaos amongst the governing bodies and judging. It’s been difficult to take the sport seriously.

Congrats to the Stony Brook baseball team beating LSU, the Goliaths of college baseball teams. Chalk one up for the underdogs and local underdogs at that. Go Seawolves as they head to the College World Series for the first time ever and hopefully continue to shock the college baseball world.

Be sure to listen to Ann’s U.S. Open reports on WFAN 660 AM starting Thursday.

Be sure to ‘friend’ Ann on Facebook, follow her on Twitter and visit her web site at www.annliguori.com.

What was the best moment of this past weekend? Be heard in the comments below…