Re-Cupping The World Cup: Suarez Ends England & Colombian Team Celebrations!

We are going to do a short blog each weekday about the World Cup. There will be a little more on United States obviously, but when it comes to the other games, we will talk about the different games in short recaps like we used to do with the NBA. I am no expert, don't pretend to be, but I want to compile a blog featuring some tweets, GIFs, videos and a couple thoughts from yours truly. If you hate it, let me know or think you could do it better, you know where to find me @SnoTap12 

Uruguay 2 England 1 - In Uruguay's first game in a loss against Costa Rica, Luis Suarez could not play because he had knee surgery three weeks ago. Suarez said he thought it was possible to give it a go, but Uruguayan coaches decided against it. Suarez came back to the pitch and delivered like one of the best players in the world. He had the first goal of the game and the last one basically sending England home. Suarez is playing at such a high level right now.  We are a week into the tournament and possibly England and Spain not making the round of 16. I'm not shocked about England though. Big time game for Costa Rica this afternoon. (H/T South Dublin & @FlyByKite)

Colombia 2 Ivory Coast 1 - One of the best matches of the tournament thus far. It did not feature any scoring for the first 63 minutes and then next 10 minutes, things went HAM.  James Rodriguez, one of the stars of the tournament thus far, nailed a beautiful header to put Colombia up 1-0 and had an ESPN announcer say he was more popular Colombian figure than Shakira. Six minutes later, Juan Quintero had a breakaway after a Ivory Coast turnover leading to their second goal. Gervinho had a stunning goal to pull Ivory Coast closer, but it wasn't close enough. Ivory Coast will likely advance given the other two teams in their group. Colombia is practically through to the next round. (H/T @StoolPresidente) 





Japan 0 Greece 0 - BOOOOOOORIIIIING.  I don't know how people support Greece. Bless their hearts. I have a couple Greek friends and Giannis.  But the fact is they play a boring brand of soccer. Greece's captain Konstantinos Katsouranis received two quick yellow cards leading to his dismissal by the 38th minute. Greece played with 10 men for the rest of the game, and with their defensive nature, Greece held on with the only real chance coming from Japan in the 68th minute. Both teams still have a chance to win, but they need to actually score goals.

Charlie.

SnoTap Song of the Day: No Mediocre (Feat. Iggy Azalea) - T.I.

I am trying to figure out the last time T.I. had a Top 40 hit. It's been awhile for him. He has found some success here and there with certain songs, but nothing like some of the ones he delivered during the prime of his career. It seems like he will be making a push with this one. He has Iggy Azalea featured on the track which is looking like his smartest business decision of Grand Hustle Records as she had two number ones this summer already. It is funny to hear a song like this and then go over to VH1 seeing T.I. hanging out with all of his family. Like how you explain this one to the kids? I mean I don't give a shit, just find it funny. Iggy murders her verse. I say that with some extreme bias. Good night Tappers.

Charlie.

Challenge Power Rankings Week 11

Yes another season of The Challenge is upon us. Hard to believe this is their 25th season of it.  We are doing the rankings like we usually do starting from the worst making our way to the top.  We will rank them every Thursday. Preseason rankings will definitely change next week because we will know a lot more about the season.  

10.) Cara Maria, LW 10.) - As we know this is probably curtains for Cara Maria. If she pulls it out in a wall climbing mission with a broken finger, I will be amazed. She milked her injury and situation in the most disappointing way possible. Cara might be the next Sarah or Paula where she gets close, but no cigar.

9.) Leroy, LW 8.) - Leroy avoided The Draw for pretty much the entire time until the final two missions leading up to the Final. He will now have to face CT. If Leroy ends up winning here, it will be a Villanova beating Georgetown-like upset.

8.) Devyn, LW 7.) - It is pretty incredible to see her in the final mission. Devyn admitted to the cameras if she went to The Draw, she would have been finished. Instead, she gets a Final appearance on her Challenge stat sheet which is incredible. (Also I spelled Devyn this whole season wrong because I am a goddamn buffoon and no help to all of you who have read this blog.)

7.) Johnny, LW 9.) - Another guy getting the fortunate bounce of avoiding The Draw for the entire tournament. How does this happen?  Is he just a nice guy that no one really feels threaten by therefore no one wants to send him in? I like Johnny, but he is in no way deserving of the final. I would have liked to see him challenged a little bit more.

6.) Theresa, LW 6.) - Easily, my breakout star of The Challenge on the female side of things. Sure, Cara Maria deserves some credit for her performance, but Theresa was always someone who would have one freakout, early exit and leave. She put all together for a good campaign.

5.) CT, LW 3.) - I didn't like to see CT campaign for himself especially when Bananas knew all along he was throwing CT into The Draw. I also didn't like CT playing the nice guy by telling Cara to pick him when he knows if it is him and Laurel, they are likely winning or coming damn close.

4.) Laurel, LW 2.) - What a fall from grace for BAWSE LADY LAUREL. Not a good couple of weeks for her. She completely mismanaged the situation with Cara Maria even though they are cool now if you check out social media. It is clear she doesn't have her head in the game. I expect her to win tonight, but man, she isn't the same player as she was to start the year.

3.) Johnny Bananas, LW 5.) - Michael Jordan of The Challenge is making his push towards the top. I don't know if Bananas has enough to make it through the entire Final, but he will contend for the title like he has so many times before. This is why we need Challenge stats though. I would love to know how many finals Bananas has been in.

2.) Nany, LW 4.) - First time this season, Laurel isn't the top female. Nany is gaining momentum, and I am starting to believe she could win this damn thing. She has enough smarts combined with the will to win. I could totally see it.

1.) Zach, LW 1.) -  I think this is his Challenge to lose honestly. Zach seems like the biggest, fastest and strongest player left in the game plus the idea of him being alone in the mountains seems to suit him well.  

-Charlie.

Running Diary of Cardinals Fans Mad at Jonathan Lucroy

In the last couple days, St. Louis Cardinals and their fanbase haven't been happy with the Milwaukee Brewers ad campaign for Jonathan Lucroy to make the All-Star Game. The whole thing went viral with a ton of tweets from angry Cardinals fans. But ESPN affiliate in St. Louis gave us video of Cardinals fans watching the video in real-time and reacting. I have to say, it is one of my favorite videos I have watched in a long time. Therefore, I had to do a running diary of the two minute video. (H/T @BradWeimer for finding this glorious video)  



.14 - Sarah Palin!  Real topical politician buddy. Acceptable answers would have been Lindsey Graham, Elizabeth Warren, Marco Rubio, Diane Feinstein. Watch the news once a century.  

.18 - That man was a laugh of someone you never double cross. Pretty sure he is putting out a hit for Lucroy.

.20 - His buddy trying to settle him down a little bit with a 'Oh it's the Brewers, what do you expect?' Like dude, it's just a video, no big deal.  

.23 - How do you not know there is a FOX Sports Wisconsin?  Like how do you think we get our baseball games? We gather around the radio like the 1940's?  Also sweet sweat stains or beer spills from your 16 oz Bud Light tallboys. Only thing worse than a 12 oz Bud Light is a 16 oz one.

.29 - This man whom shouldn't really be rocking stripes in any way shape or form. He puts out a challenge to Brewers fans like he is a professional wrestler, or a war will be started between the two cities.

.42 - The Brewers aren't a threat?  Oh, that's right, they have been leading the National League Central for over 70 days. My bad.

.48 - Nice #HOTTAKE on Molina there guy, but not a crybaby?  I present this as evidence.



  And this....



.51 - SHOUTOUT TO EVANSVILLE, INDIANA!!!!!!!!

.57 - That's one of the most obscene things you have ever seen in your life?  Gosh, you must not get out enough bud or not watch a ton of porn. One of the two.

1:01 -  What does this guy possibly want reversed exactly? Molina is in the lead for catcher of the National League. This isn't a challenge call, my man.

1:08 - FOX Sports Midwest (I didn't know that existed! What?!?!?!) wanted to do a response ad which would have been awesome, but naturally, St. Louis threw a wet blanket over it.

1:14 - I am honestly shocked it took us 74 seconds for someone to call the Cardinals organization 'classy', I really am.

1:19 - Proper way is building up the players... Jonathan Lucroy is a homegrown talent for Milwaukee. I have no idea what this guy is talking about.

1:23 - In the basement?  Your baseball team has been looking up to the Brewers for the last 70 or so days, dude. But keep living in fantasy world where the toilets are gold and everything tastes like candy.

1:27 - Honestly?  The guy with the Chive shirt and Cardinals jersey is probably right. Lucroy has quite the mountain to climb here with how popular both St. Louis and San Francisco are in the United States.

1:32 - FAT MACKELMORE TOUGH GUY ALERT!!!!!

1:47 - Yes, this is a mudslinging campaign. Lucroy is secretly running for President. I think this guy has us figured out, you guys.

1:59 - FAT MACKELMORE IS OUT FOR BLOOD. Not very 'classy' of him to want to kick Lucroy's ass.

-Charlie.

Clayton Kershaw's Perfect No-Hitter

People say all the time no-hitters are overrated. The reason being is usually one or two happen a year plus there are some like Edwin Jackson where they walk eight batters, hit one, yet still get a no-hitter. People revel in the perfect game with 27 up and 27 down because it is much more rarefied air. Los Angeles Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw added a no-hitter to his resume last night in an 8-0 victory against Colorado, and it was not an overrated one by any means. Kershaw had quite possibly one of the best no-hitters in Major League Baseball. That is said without overreaction or hyperbole.

The only reason Kershaw didn't deliver the perfect game was Hanley Ramirez had an error at shortstop. Not a walk, but an error by the shortstop. Kershaw didn't walk anyone to lose his no-hitter.  In fact, he had only one count that reached three balls all night. This means out of the 28 batters Kershaw faced on Wednesday night, only one of them saw a three ball count. For reference, that would be .03 percent of the batters. What's possibly more impressive about Kershaw's no-hitter is it came against Colorado, one of the best hitting teams in baseball. Coming into the game, the Rockies led the lead in runs, only team with 700 hits, lead in doubles and home runs. Kershaw shut them down like Jon Taffer does to a kitchen serving under-cooked chicken.

Kershaw's no-hitter also featured him striking out 15 batters, a career-high for the Dodgers left-hander. He came within two strikeouts to tying Nolan Ryan for the most strikeouts when throwing a no-hitter. Kershaw struck out every batter whom started the game at least once. Josh Rutledge was the only player without a strikeout in the starting lineup, and Kershaw dusted him with a curveball in the eighth inning. For percentages, Kershaw struck out 53.5 percent of the batters he faced last night. Additionally, Colorado has only 528 strikeouts as a team this season, the only team with less strikeouts in the National League is the St. Louis Cardinals. No one should ever say this no-hitter is overrated.

Kershaw is moving into the category of one of the best to play the game.  With only being 26 years old, he is just beginning the prime of his career. Pedro Martinez went through a stretch from age 25 to 32 where he was virtually unhittable earning three Cy Young's in four years. I don't think it is out of the question to think Kershaw could do the same thing. There was some concern this year for him with the injury to begin the year, his blow-up start against Arizona, but the last month has been masterful for Kershaw as his ERA has gone down a full run. No-hitter probably aided it a little bit, yet he is rounding into form at the right time as the Dodgers push a struggling San Francisco for the top spot in the National League West.

In the last couple years, Kershaw has became a player where if he faces your team, you have to see him. That's how Randy Johnson was in his career, same for Martinez and Roger Clemens. Right now, if the Dodgers are playing Milwaukee at Miller Park and Kershaw is pitching one of the games, I am going without question. It doesn't even matter that the Brewers will likely lose the game, it's not about the win or loss. Rather it is about watching one of the best to ever play the game and telling those you have seen Kershaw pitch a game whether he dominated your team or not. He is that special of a baseball player.

Game Score is a stat by Bill James where it values the strength of a pitching performance. Kershaw scored a 102 which is the highest in Major League Baseball for any pitcher, and the second-highest in history next to Kerry Wood's 20 strikeout game. Kershaw's no-hitter was not your prototypical one where the pitcher survives a couple walks here and there, no it was a perfect game by a pitcher with one mistake by a position player.

Charlie.

Kohl's Cronies Begin to Fall: Walter and Burr Step Down

Two of former owner Herb Kohl's henchmen have taken their golden parachute in as many days.

It was announced on Tuesday that Ron Walter was stepping down from the position of Executive Vice President of Business Administration that he'd held under Kohl since 1999. 

This is pretty much the first domino to fall in line of dominoes that need to fall. There's really no telling how much of the last 20 years of mediocrity and losing was tied directly to Walter and the rest of Kohl's inner-circle but there certainly wasn't much winning in that time.

According to the story by Don Walker of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, Walter had been a law partner at Milwaukee law firm Foley & Lardner before coming to the Bucks and had worked with the Selig family (when they owned the Milwaukee Brewers) as far back as 1992. 

Incidentally, 1992 was the last winning season for the Brewers before they became the laughing-stock of Major League Baseball from '92 until 2007 when they finally saw another winning season. Remember when the Brewers would trot out a lineup that included the likes of Jack Voigt, Matt Mieske and Jesse Levis? When they had no one (outside of Jeff Cirillo) even sniff a .300 batting average? 

I'm not saying, I'm just saying, he might have been involved in some of those decisions.

Anyway, as a member of the Bucks' front office, he said his best accomplished was joining forces with Kohl to help enact a league-wide revenue sharing plan to help small market franchises compete with the larger markets.

That's really great, guys. However, how well did they end up using said revenue sharing plan? 

Who's next?

Gery Woelfel tweeted out on Tuesday that Mike Burr could be the next of Kohl's lap dogs to take his golden parachute.

As expected, VP Ron Walter is leaving Bucks. Is another long-time Herb Kohl crony, CFO Mike Burr, next?
— Gery Woelfel (@GeryWoelfel) June 17, 2014

Then, on Wednesday, Woelfel took a victory lap and confirmed that Burr will indeed be searching for greener pastures himself.

Yesterday, I hinted Mike Burr, Bucks CFO and Kohl crony, could be leaving Bucks? Told today, he is indeed moving on.
— Gery Woelfel (@GeryWoelfel) June 18, 2014

It would appear that there are two remaining "cronies" are John Steinmiller and Theodore Loehrke. However, Steinmiller's son, John Steinmiller, Jr. announced via Twitter that he and his wife took new jobs were moving to Arizona. Steinmiller, Jr. had worked in the Brewers' PR department for the last several years.

Does this mean that Steinmiller, Sr. could be joining him out in the desert? I wouldn't count on it but I also wouldn't rule out him being the next to go.

As far as the basketball side of the organization, Lasry and Edens have been fairly coy about their intentions especially when asked about the fates of GM John Hammond and head coach Larry Drew. 

They've been adamant that they're working with Hammond on the draft and not necessarily promising anything after that. However, the longer this drags on, it would appear that the basketball side might make it out to see next year. 

While I'd be disappointed to see Drew retained, I could talk myself into being bad again next year for another high draft pick.

P.S. As I'm writing this, news breaks that Joel Embiid might have broken his foot. I'm glad the Bucks have the #2 pick so we're at least guaranteed one of Wiggins or Parker. We'll see what happens next Thursday night when the draft gets underway.

Re-Cupping The World Cup: Spanish Disappointment, Dutch Hold On, Cameroon's Collapse

We are going to do a short blog each weekday about the World Cup. There will be a little more on United States obviously, but when it comes to the other games, we will talk about the different games in short recaps like we used to do with the NBA. I am no expert, don't pretend to be, but I want to compile a blog featuring some tweets, GIFs, videos and a couple thoughts from yours truly. If you hate it, let me know or think you could do it better, you know where to find me @SnoTap12 

Chile 2 Spain 0 - Just like that, the defending World Cup champions are eliminated. They gave up two goals in the last World Cup, and in this one, they gave up seven in two games. It sent shockwaves through the soccer community as people expected the Spanish to at least make it to the knockout stages. Instead, the upstart Chile group led by Alexis Sanchez get another win in their group giving Chile six points for the tournament thus far. Not taking anything away from Chile, but Spain seemed like a team whom only played with each other for about two weeks before taking the pitch. Sloppy, disorganized and deserving of the last two outcomes. The scene in Chile's capital, Santiago, was absolutely wild. (H/T @JulioWright for the pic)

Netherlands 3 Australia 2 - Easily, the most entertaining game of the day by far. Australia and Netherlands went back and forth for the whole game with the Aussies taking a quick 2-1 lead on a questionable handball leading to a penalty kick which Mile Jedinak buried home. Netherlands would strike quickly as Robin Van Persie came through again with a great turn and finish tying this game again. Australia missed an opportunity to go-ahead again, and Memphis Depay made them shortly after it giving Der Oranje their second win of the World Cup.



Croatia 4 Cameroon 0 - While we should spend some time talking about Croatia and their ability to battle back after a heartbreaker against Brazil, this was more about the unraveling of the Cameroon team. Alex Song headbutts a player putting Cameroon with only 10 men for 50 minutes of the game. Croatia took full advantage in the second half with three goals putting them up by four and then things for Cameroon got worse as two teammates headbutted each other during extra time. Cameroon had a full meltdown.  Croatia is now thrown into the mix with Brazil and Mexico with all three having a shot at winning the group.