Heat Add 3 More to Roster

Garza becomes first pitcher in MLB history to no-hit AAA team

Matt Garza wowed last night throwing a no-hitter while facing the minimum 27 hitters for the Tampa Bay Rays. Brennan Boesch was the only Tiger to reach base, but was quickly sent back to the dugout after a double play. Not to take anything away from Garza, but the Tigers lineup tonight was filled with names even the staunch MLB fan wouldn't recognize. Guys like Will Rhymes, Ryan Raburn, Gerald Laird, Don Kelly and Danny Worth were in the lineup, none of them but Worth (.250) hitting above .206 on the season. Throw in Boesch, who has only had 1 hit since the All-Star game and Garza really only had Austin Jackson, Johnny Damon and Miguel Cabrera as capable MLB hitters to face last night. Garza threw 120 pitches, 101 of which were fastballs.

Max Scherzer also took a no-hit bid into the 6th but the Tigers saw yet another no-hit opportunity taken away by a Joyce; this time ex-Tiger Matt, as he hit a grand slam to not only blow open the game but give Garza a comfortable lead to pitch. The other Joyce, umpire Jim; had previously blown a call that famously cost Armando Galarraga's perfect game with 2 outs in the 9th inning just 6 weeks prior.

We've now seen five no hitters in MLB this year, including two perfect games (six and three respectively if you count Galarraga's. I will use this opportunity to announce that the streoid era in baseball is officially dead. This is the year of dominating pitching performances, and fewer home runs. I expect to see at least one more no-hitter before the season is over, with plenty more close calls.

Lost in the fact of Garza's no-no last night was Joe Mauer's 5-5 7 RBI performance, which may have been more spectacular than Garza's performance. A five hit, seven RBI game has been done just 41 times in the liveball era compared to 171 no-hitters. Sorry Joe.

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Dez Bryant - Another NFL prima donna

If Dez Bryant makes headlines on the field like he does off he's in line for a hall of fame career. The Cowboys rookie wide receiver grabbed attention again today after refusing to carry fellow wideout Roy Williams's pads after practice, a common rookie hazing ritual and team building exercise. Williams was displeased by Bryant and has threatened to take this issue to "step two", which when asked he replied that he did not know but mentioned that "I've seen guys take people's credit cards and fill them up."

This comes just months after he told reporters that the Miami Dolphins had asked if his mom was a prostitute, but when the context of the questioning came into play the accusations were shrugged off.

Dez Bryant: "My dad was a pimp."

Jeff Ireland: "What did your mom do [for a living]?"

Bryant: "She worked for my dad."

Ireland: "Your mom was a prostitute?"

Bryant: "No, she wasn't a prostitute."

After a spectacular sophomore season at Oklahoma State University, Bryant had spent the last year sitting out after violating NCAA rules by failing to disclose a relationship with Deon Sanders. Dallas selected him with the #24 overall pick in the 2010 draft. He will wear Cowboy's legend Michael Irvin's #88, a fitting tribute considering the immense talent both had and the off field headlines both had made.

Can't say I didn't see this coming...

Two London-based English Premier League clubs, Tottenham and Arsenal, have banned vuvuzelas from their matches. I would expect many more, if not all squads to follow suit. Singing crowds are a huge part of the English game and the vuvuzela's buzzing noise would easily drowned it out; not to mention annoy the millions of viewers watching on television. Luckily for supporters wanting to re-live the magical noises of World Cup 2010 there is always http://www.vuvuzela.fm/ .

***UPDATE***

Birmingham, Everton, Fulham, Liverpool, West Ham and Sunderland all announced vuvuzela bans today.

7/19 Tracks to check out

Passion Pit, Brendan Benson, The Libertines, John Frusciante and more.

Entourage Season 7 Episode 3 "Dramedy"

After two extremely mediocre episodes to start the season Entourage got a little bit back on track with "Dramedy" due to the fact that something actually happened that developed some sort of a plot. Ari and the NFL storyline is mildly intriguing, I'm curious how Drama's comedy goes and what kind of skirmish he starts with John Stamos to ruin it and everyone can agree that Vince's new bromance mate Scott Lavin is the douche equivalent to Kardashian baby daddy Scott Disick. This episode didn't deliver anywhere near what past episodes of Entourage have brought to the table but it at least sets up some story lines that could get this series back on track after multiple sub-par seasons comparable to Chris Webber's career . With only a dozen episodes to go before the series is over and the feature film is released Entourage has a lot of work to do if it wants to become recognized as one of the "elite" series. The first few were some of the best TV out there but the writers have been unable to develop the show past the boys hanging out doing next to nothing and hot coeds walking by in every scene. If they can pull of the NFL as the major story line to finish out the season, craft Johnny Drama with some fresh new jokes, and turn Vince into an entertaining, likable character again the movie will draw some huge numbers at the box office. If not we will be talking about the series with loads of potential that ended up as boring as an Eli Manning dialogue. Either way I've had too many memories with the boys to not tune in for these last few episodes to give up now. Scenes like this remind me that the writers still have it in there somewhere.

Starcraft 2

It's finally here (well, almost). The long-awaited, highly anticipated sequel to one of the biggest computer games of all time will be launched on July 27th to the delight of millions of fans around the world. This real time strategy game from Blizzard Entertainment gives users the choice of three very distinct, yet amazingly equal races; the human Terrans who were exiled from Earth, the insectoid Zerg, and the humanoid, technologically advanced Protoss. Each have vastly different units and abilities, yet Blizzard has been able to carefully craft the game so precisely that no one species is dominant over the other two. And carefully crafted is no understatement. It has been 12 long years since the original Starcraft was released in 1998 and though the game is still widely played online through Blizzard's Battle.net servers, fans have been anxiously waiting the new units, improved graphics, and better Battle.net support since this installment was officially announced back in 2007, although rumors of its development had swirled since 2005. This game is so huge that it is considered a professional sport in South Korea, home of many of the best gamers in the world, and matches are televised routinely.

Now that beta testing has closed all there is to do now is wait. The game will have a midnight launch at many retailers across the globe and is expected to be one of the highest grossing games of the year. For those looking to purchase Kmart has a great offer, giving a $20 voucher for a future game purchase to anyone who buys Starcraft 2, retailed at $59.99. The wide consensus on this game is that it will be absolutely incredible, and with the ginormous player pool, user created maps that keep games fresh and evolving, and the insane amount of time and attention to detail that Blizzard has put into this game it is easy to see it will be well worth the price tag.