#5 St. Louis Triumphant
No, not the Cardinals. We’ll get to them. The St. Louis Rams had to be the most improbable winner of the weekend. Who would have thought that the heretofore winless Rams were capable of beating the New Orleans Saints? Just looking at the performances the two teams put up last week – New Orleans absolutely beat down the Indianapolis Colts while the Rams managed to make Cowboys’ QB Tony Romo look like an All-Pro – this looked like it would be a rout for the Saints. What a difference a week makes.

#4 409 and Counting
Penn State Coach Joe Paterno’s Nitany Lions won a slushy, ugly 10-7 victory over an unranked opponent on Saturday. Meh – except that was the 409th win of Joe Pa’s long, long, long career. 409 is the magic number that makes Paterno the winningest coach in the history of Division I football.

#3 The Brady Sanction
Tom Brady looked like a mere mortal on Sunday against the Pittsburgh Steelers. The New England Patriots‘ quarterback wasn’t bad. He wasn’t very good, either.  He was just… OK. OK was not enough to beat Big Ben and the Steelers. The question is: was it an off-week for Brady, a fluke, or a template that other teams can copy to neutralize New England’s most consistent weapon?  I’m sure that I’m not the only one wondering.  In a league of copy cats, we shouldn’t have to wait very long to find out the answer.

#2 When 2 OTs Just Aren’t Enough
Stanford beat USC on Saturday, as expected. Stanford came into the game undefeated and carrying the #6 tag. Unranked USC gave them everything they could handle and then some more and then some more after that. It took a fumble in the third OT for Stanford to come away with the win.

#1 The World Champion St. Louis Cardinals
Friday night’s Game 7 of the World Series didn’t even make our top 5 most anticipated events of the weekend… because we didn’t really believe it would go 7 games.  But the St. Louis Cardinals, who we again remind you had absolutely no business even making it into the playoffs, forced a Game 7 and then won it, making them the Champions of the baseball world.

#5 Defense-Lover’s Special
The Cleveland Browns didn’t score a touchdown on Sunday, but their two field goals – each from more than 50 yards out – were one better than the Seattle Seahawks could manage. The 6-3 victory was ugly, but it still counts as a win.

#4 Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals Classic
The name is a mouthful, but the PGA’s annual trip to Disney World proved to be a dream vacation for Luke Donald. He was already the #1 ranked golfer in the world, but his gutsy, come-from-behind victory at Disney should erase the doubt from anyone’s mind that he is fully deserving of the title. Donald’s six straight birdies on the final nine holes were more than enough to put him over the top in dramatic fashion.

#3 QB Debut Sunday
Wunderkind Tim Tebow (pictured) made his debut as an NFL starter on Sunday. He spent the first 56 ½ minutes in sleep mode, putting up a goose egg against the winless Miami Dolphins. But oh, those final 3 ½ minutes. Tebow led 2 touchdown drives and managed a two-point conversion to come back from a 15-0 hole to force overtime, from which his Denver Broncos came away victorious.

Meanwhile, Washington’s new starter John Beck put up respectable numbers with 22 completed passes for 279 yards, but it wasn’t enough to get the stumbling Redskins past the Carolina Panthers.

And in Minnesota, the Vikings’ new starter Christian Ponder played well in the first half, starting his career with a 72-yard pass followed up two plays later with his first TD pass as an NFL starting quarterback. Unfortunately for Ponder, his top target in the second half seemed to be Packers cornerback Charles Woodson. Still, considering his first start came against the league-leading, undefeated Green Bay Packers, it was a solid debut.

#2 Rugby World Cup Championship
Rugby is foreign to most American sports fans, but the World Cup Championship game on Sunday opened some eyes to football’s rougher cousin. New Zealand looked to be running away with the Cup in the first half, but France came storming back to make it a close affair. As the final minutes ticked away – or ticked upward as the clock works in Rugby – the game degenerated into half the players in a pig pile and the rest standing around helplessly. When the clock finally hit 80:00, New Zealand kicked the ball into the stands and had their name engraved into the cup as champions of the world. Watching this game reminded me a little bit of when I first started watching hockey. I didn’t understand all of it, but I thought it was pretty cool.

#1 Pujols Power
6 RBIs sounds like a lot for one game, but when three of those runs batted in are yourself… it’s still a lot. Albert Pujols joined a select group of hitters with his 3 HRs, 6 RBI performance on Saturday night and brought his St. Louis Cardinals one step closer to a most improbable World Series title.

(U.S. Air Force photo)

#5 NBA Basketball… Not
After months of negotiations, the NBA owners and players seem to be farther apart than ever. It’s a battle royale pitting the big market owners vs. the small market owners vs. the marquee players vs. the rest of the players. The winner is yet to be determined. The loser is anyone who was counting on a full NBA season this year.

The Real #5 – It’s Timmy Time
Tim Tebow is not the prototypical NFL quarterback. Despite his impressive college credentials, many observers think that Tebow does not have the skill set to make it as an quarterback in the NFL. Even the Denver Broncos, who drafted Tebow, never seemed sold on Tebow as a real, live starting QB. But Sunday… what, the Broncos are off this week? That’s it. No number 5 this week. Moving on to the Top 4 -

#4 Bank of America 500
The balance of the NASCAR universe has been off kilter all year as ever-Champ Jimmie Johnson slugged along near, but not at, the top of the heap. In two weeks he surged from the brink of elimination to the cusp of victory. He’s now just 4 slim points behind points leader Carl Edwards (Kevin Harvick is in between the two, one point behind Edwards). Saturday could be the day (well, the night – the race starts at 7:30 PM ET) that Johnson takes back what’s been his for the last five years.

#3 San Francisco 49ers at Detroit Lions
The San Francisco 49ers look like winners. Two weeks ago, the pulled out a plucky, come-from-behind win. Last week they put on a clinic, annihilating the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 48-3 in the most one-sided game in recent memory. The Detroit Lions are 5-0. I can’t believe I just typed those words. But it is true – the Lions are, in fact, 5-0 for the first time since the late Precambrian Era. Will the Niners suffer a let down after last week’s nigh-perfect performance or will they be the ones to knock the Lions from the ranks of the unbeaten?

#2 MLB Conference Series on the Cheap
The teams from Milwaukee, St. Louis, Detroit, and Texas are baseball’s final four. The sight of the Brewers, Cardinals, Tigers, and Rangers battling for the crown is a beautiful thing for fans of parity in Major League Baseball. The big market teams in Philadelphia, New York, Boston, Los Angeles, and Chicago could not spend their way to the World Series. The total payroll for the four remaining teams combined is $388.9 Million. Put into perspective, the Philadelphia Phillies’ and New York Yankees’ combined payroll expenditures were $374.7 million, and both were ejected from the hunt in the Divisional Round.

#1 Bernard Hopkins vs. Chad Dawson
Bernard Hopkins, the 46-year-old WBC Light Heavyweight Champion, will make his first title defense Saturday against relative youngster Chad Dawson. BHop waxed eloquent about their age difference this week. “I could be his father… If you do the math, he could be my son.” Hopkins philosophized. “I’m 46, he’s 29. I had him early; it all fits into the scheme of the professor versus the good student who wants to be a great student.” Paternity potentialities aside, Hopkins does have more career knockouts (32) than Dawson has fights (31), although that particular statistic could change Saturday.

Football, Baseball, Golf, NASCAR, Tennis

#5 Texas Rangers at Boston Red Sox
The Boston Red Sox own the best record in the American League and have a tenuous 1 1/2 game lead in the toughest division in baseball. The Texas Rangers were the American League Champions last year and are currently 3 1/2 games ahead of their competition in the AL West. Both teams are putting their dominance in their respective divisions on the line when they square off for a three game series this weekend.

#4 Seven Days in Utopia
Really good sports movies are too few and too far in between. We haven’t had a treat at the theaters since The Blindside in 2009. Seven Days in Utopia, hitting theaters on Friday, may be just the film we’ve been waiting for. There are no explosions, no aliens – there isn’t even any tackling. But a fictional movie about golf has to be at least as good as watching the real thing, right? (Tin Cup excluded.)

#3 Advocare 500
There are 12 races left in the 2011 NASCAR Season, but for all but 12 of the drivers, there are only two that really mean anything. For the drivers on the bubble, this weekend and next are the last two opportunities they have to make their case for inclusion in the Sprint Cup Chase for the Cup. New rules introduced this season put a huge premium on wins for those drivers on the cusp, so there will be plenty of Ricky Bobby-style “win or crash trying” racing in Atlanta on Sunday.

#2 The U.S. Open
Sure, it’s just the third and fourth rounds this weekend, but considering how much trouble Maria Sharapova had in the first round and the fact that Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova has already been kicked to the curb you can’t take anything for granted.

#1 Oregon Ducks vs LSU Tigers
NCAA Football is gearing up this weekend. While most of the top schools are building up to full steam by playing an arranged patsy to start the season, LSU and Oregon have a different plan. The #3 and #4 ranked teams in college football will meet at a neutral site on Saturday to kick off the 2011 season with verve. One will be on the path to BCS recognition, the other will find themselves in a 0-1 hole. That’s a lot to play for in the first week of the Football year.

5. Arsenal Issues

First, the Arsenal lost to Liverpool on Saturday by a score of 2-0.  During this match, their coach, Arsene Wenger, had to be seated in the stands instead of the sideline as the result of a penalty from the end of last season.  Unfortunately for Wenger, he sent hand-written notes to the coaches on the sidelines, which officials didn’t like.  Instead of serving his one-game penalty and returning to his rightful position, Wenger now has two more games in the stands.

4. Penant Races

In two divisions, the race for first place is pretty intense.  For the American League East, it is a matter of half a game.  The Yankees are in the lead with the Red Sox right behind.  Both teams won their last games, so we’ll need to see who decides to continue that streak.  In the National League West, it is almost as close with a 1-1/2 game difference between the Diamondbacks and the Giants.  Unfortunately for Arizona, they’re amidst a five game losing streak.  If that continues, we may see San Francisco take the prime position.

3. Plaxico’s Return

After three years away from the NFL, Plaxico Burress made an impressive return on Sunday.  Catching three passes for 66 yards, which included a 26 yard touchdown, the Jets must have been pleased to have him on their roster.

2. Wieber Wins

US Gymnastics Nationals were completed this past Saturday night with a win that will be noted in the books.  Jordyn Wieber took first place with a final score that was 6.15 points ahead of second place.  While 6 points may sound small when considering the size of blowouts in other sports, for gymnastics it is enormous.  In fact this 16 year old’s win margin is the biggest since a new score system was implemented in 2006.

1. One More Week of Little League

The Little League World Series is off to a fabulous start with 16 teams representing the US and the world for the chance to be named the champion.  Currently, four teams are showing that they might have a slight advantage, as each stands at 2-0, four days into the tournament.  Both the Northwest and West teams from the US and Latin America and Mexico are the leaders in the series.

#5 The Gold Cup
The Gold Cup Final match is this weekend. With four teams left in contention there is still hope that the US could make it to the Finals. Of course, they won’t get anywhere near the weekend match if the Panama team has anything to say about it. Oh yeah, either Mexico or Honduras will be there, too.

#4 Mariners at Marlins
The Mariners will have to travel about as far as you can go across the continental US this weekend, from Seattle to Miami. Once there, they will face the wrath of an 80-year-old man trying to fix a struggling ball team. Jack McKeon may be old, but he’s feisty. He’s got experience. And he’s not afraid to smack you with his walker if you talk back.

#3 Infineon
NASCAR takes it to the streets for the Toyota / Save Mart 350 on Sunday. There’s something special about seeing NASCAR on a road course. I’ve had this one circled on my calendar for a while now. It’s one of the shortest races of the year, but it’s also one of the curviest. Just like women, race tracks are better with lots of curves.

#2 The College World Series
College Baseball’s annual double elimination tournament to determine which team full of players that did not get signed by Minor League Baseball teams at age 18 will reign supreme. The field is narrowed down to the top eight. Lose once, you still have a chance. Lose twice and you’re out. The playoffs run through the weekend leading up to the CWS on Monday through Wednesday.

#1 Wimbledon
You know, the biggest problem with spending the weekend watching sports is those pesky early morning hours with nothing to see. Thanks to Wimbledon Tennis, that’s no longer an issue. Matches start at 7AM Eastern time. Can Rafael Nadal make it two in a row? Does Roger Federer have one more in the tank? Serena Williams is already crying and we’ve still got a full week of tennis action ahead of us.

#5 Boston Ascendant

#4 Alvarez – Rhodes
Saul Alvarez, at 20 years old, already has 5 years of professional boxing under his belt. And speaking of belts, he’s got one of those, too. The WBC Junior Middleweight belt to be specific. Saturday night he showed that he’s got endurance, pelting a hapless Ryan Rhodes in the twelfth with a flurry of punches sent boxing writers to their thesauruses looking for a more intense word for flurry.

#3 The College World Series
It’s not like there weren’t enough MLB games over the weekend to satisfy even the most hard-core baseball junkies. But it’s still nice to diversify a bit, and the College World Series has the same kind of intensity as March Madness, only with baseball. Watching Vanderbilt dismantle North Carolina while Florida mopped up Texas was a reasonable substitute for the pro games. And the ping of the aluminum bats is just plain cool; I don’t care who you are.

#2 Gold Cup
OK, I admit it. I only like soccer when the US wins. Today, I like soccer. Sunday’s 2-0 win over Jamaica was a beautiful thing. The US team gets to move on to play either Panama or El Salvador on Wednesday in the Gold Cup Semi-final round. Not bad for a country that likes sports where you can actually touch the ball with your hand.

#1 US Open
I wanted to be the first writer to use some form of “Roring” to describe Rory McIlroy‘s amazing US Open victory, but I was beaten to it by… well, a lot of online sports writers. Still, it’s not about who comes up with the most clever pun, it’s all about who shattered Tiger Woods‘ record for the best score ever at the US Open.

#5 Gold Cup Quarterfinals
The US team isn’t quite what you’d call dominating. But then again this is soccer, one of the two sports (along with Cricket) that we’ve ceded to the rest of the world. As of this writing, the US team is working to squeak past Guadeloupe – which it turns out is a country and not a type of dip as I thought – so they should still be around to face some tougher competition come this weekend.

#4 Terrelle Pryor vs Perception
Ohio State phenom Terrelle Pryor finished his college career watching the games from home. By accepting “improper benefits”, he cut short his college career, ended coach Jim Tressel’s tenure, and missed out on the NFL draft. Now he’s hired super-agent spawn of Satan Drew Rosenhaus and announced his availability for this summer’s supplemental draft. This week will be all about the PR battle and changing the (well-earned) public perception of him as a rotten, self-centered brat.

#3 Busch vs Harvick II
Technically, the name of the event is the Helluva Good! Sour Cream Dips 400. Most people will just call it the Michigan 400. But what we’re all watching is the rematch between Kyle Busch and Kevin Harvick. Last week at Pocono, while still on probation for Busch vs Harvick I, they managed to put on a fairly good imitation of bumper cars before NASCAR warned them into submission. Now the probation is over, the gloves are off, and the bumping will be fierce.

#2 Inter-League Play
MLB is offering up a weekend of inter-league play, designed to pander to the rivalries that exist in schoolyards and barrooms across the fruited plain, but don’t mean all that much to the players. If proximity breeds contempt, then the most intriguing matchups this weekend are the Tampa Bay Rays against the Florida Marlins and the Kansas City Royals against the St. Louis Cardinals.

#1 The US Open
Tiger’s out. The reigning champion is some guy named Graeme McDowell. This weekend’s US Open in Bethesda, MD is wide open for some dark horse to take the course by storm and propel himself into the national spotlight… for a little while, anyway. Be honest, how many of you could name last year’s winner before reading this column?

#5 Triple Crown Trisected
That’s the last we’ll pay attention to horse racing this season. No horse claimed the Triple Crown – again. In fact, as usual, the crown was shared among three horses. The winner at the Belmont Stakes on Saturday – Ruler on Ice – was a surprise long-shot that at least provided us with the joy of seeing the ‘experts’ confounded.

#4 200 MPH Bumper Cars
The 5-Hour Energy 500 itself was entertaining. But the real show was the bumper to bumper grudge match between Kevin Harvick and Kyle Busch. The two somehow managed to finish the race (in 5th and 3rd place, respectively) without violating their mutual probation from their last scuffle. If these two are this willing to push and shove at 200 mph now, things should be very interesting next week in Michigan, their first race together after their probation ends.

#3 The Mavs Roll
To misappropriate a misquote of Sarah Palin – the team from Dallas has looked downright mavericky in their bid to unseat the Team of Destiny from Miami. Dirk Nowitzki has his team within one win of the NBA Championship. LeBron James has looked overwhelmed and overmatched against the Mavs. But neither is a one man team and James, Wade, and the boys aren’t out until they’re out. Which may be tonight… (Editor’s note: The Mavs took the NBA Championship last night, with a 105-95 win over the Heat.)

#2 The Bruins Bounce Back
The Boston Bruins got mad. And mad is good in the NHL The Bruins’ two wins upon returning to their home ice were absolutely domination. Then the Canucks returned to their stingy defensive ways once back on the northern side of the border. Home ice has never looked as important as it has in this series. Back to Boston for one more then – if the trend continues – one more in Vancouver to close things out.

#1 Inside the Park Home Run
Evan Longoria of the Tampa Bay Rays pulled off the rare and elusive inside the park home run on Sunday. Not only was it an unusual individual accomplishment, but those two runs came in very handy in a hard-fought 9-6 victory. And it will be a nice addition to the third baseman’s eventual Hall of Fame highlight reel.

Baseball, Soccer, Hockey, Basketball,

#5 USA Soccer
No, not the Men’s team, which lost to Spain 4 – Nil in a game that was even more one sided than the score suggests. It was the US Women’s team that did the nation proud by beating Mexico 1-0. What passes for a regular season in soccer is over now and the team heads to Germany to start their World Cup run later this month against North Korea.

#4 Pujols’ Homers
Most players can only dream of hitting a walk off homer. Even the greats can only hope to do it a couple of times in a season. Albert Pujols of the Saint Louis Cardinals hit walk off home runs against the Chicago Cubs two nights in a row – the second one in extra innings for added dramatic effect.

#3 French Open
Same old, same old. Rafeal Nadal and Roger Federer in the final round of the French Open. This was the fifth time we’ve seen this in the French Open and they all ended the same way. Nadal holds the trophy, Federer goes home disappointed.

#2 Stanley Cup Finals
How can the Stanley Cup Finals get any better? How about overtime? When three periods weren’t enough to settle Game 2 between the Boston Bruins and Vancouver Canucks, they had to go to OT – all 11 seconds of it. The Bruins didn’t fare very well in the Great White North, but the series shifts to Beantown for Game 3.

#1 NBA Finals
As predicted by me and… a lot of other people at the start of the season, the Miami Heat are in the NBA Finals. Not quite as many of us picked the Dallas Mavericks to be lining up across from them at tip off. We all expected LeBron James, Chris Bosh, and Dwayne Wade to be here, but who knew that Dirk Nowitzki would put the Mavs on his back and carry them to the promised land? And what’s more, have the series tied up after two games in the unfriendly confines of South Florida?