LET'S LOOK FOR SWEDES

Quick mid-morning update:

• World Cup: It's all about Group B and the Tre Kroner, who will not have keeper Andreas Isaksson for Saturday's opener against Trinidad and Tobago; their other group matches are against Paraguay on the 15th and England on the 20th .... really feeling good about this decision to cast my lot with the Swedes since a) it's a nod to my own heritage; b) Sweden and northern European soccer in general, according to my buddy Neil, is often given short shrift; and c) after losing to Senegal in the round 0f 16 during Japan /Korea 2002, they're out for redemption. As Quagmire says on Family Guy, allllllright.
• Women's softball drew more viewers than Game 1 of the Stanley Cup final -- and neither Jennie Finch or Lauren Bay was playing. (Via Back In Blue.)
• Chris Zelkovich says it's time for Bob Cole to retire, or at least scale back his schedule.
• Actually, Bill Simmons should retire, or at least be cuffed about the head and shoulders for this atrocious analogy:
  
  

  "In the seventh, Grady Little strolled to the mound for a pitching change and I
  found myself disgustedly staring at him the entire time -- looking a little
  like Fred Goldman during any of O.J.'s entrances during the Simpson
  trial."

  OK. Is that not in incredibly poor taste? Fred Goldman's son was murdered. Grady Little only cost the Red Sox a pennant -- and even though it was against the Yankees, Boston won the World Series the following year. Nothing brings a lost loved one back. If you're going to use an analogy that conveys pure loathing, describe the first appearance of Jesus Quintana in The Big Lebowski and the look fixed on the face of Walter Sobchak (John Goodman's character).
• Hometown breakdown note: Congratulations to the Regi-Notre Dame Panthers for becoming the first Kingston-area school to win an Ontario AAA soccer championship. Of course, the failed-sportswriter hat is never taken off here. One minor quibble:
  
  

  They join the Holy Cross Crusaders, Frontenac Falcons (girls and boys basketball teams, respectively) and Regi’s boys volleyball squad as the only local teams to prevail on the triple-A stage incredibly, all in the last four years. (Italics mine)

  Well, not really, since all those victories have come since Ontario high school sports went from three divisions to four a few years back -- taking the Ottawa, Toronto and London schools who were bumped up to AAAA out of the picture, as far as Kingston's AAA schools are concerned. (Frontenac did win a quad-A basketball bronze medal in '04.)
  
  It's funny since Neil (a one-time Falcon) and I were talking about this just last night, completely unaware of the event in question. By the way, no passing reference for my Ernestown Eagles and their AA boys basketball title in 2004? Well, space is tight. It's cool.