Tuesday, March 9th, 2010

Images of the Day 9-14-09 The Week in Sports

Today we have a series of pictures to make up for the weekend. A lot has happened in the sports world in the past week. The NFL season got underway, the U.S. Open was contested, and something amazing happened in The Bronx, and something important even happened in the basketball world. Here are just a few images from the past week, as well as a few videos to go along with them.

My personal favorite moment was the historic thing that took place in The Bronx. (Disclaimer: I am a lifelong Yankee fan.) Derek Jeter surpassed the legendary Lou Gehrig as the all-time New York Yankees hit leader. It is a record that has stood for some 70 years since The Iron horse was forced to retire due to ALS. Jeter collected his 2,722nd career hit on Friday in a rainy game against the Baltimore Orioles.

Derek Jeter celebrates his 2,722nd Yankee hit.

Yankee owner George Steinbrenner has said many bad or just plain wrong things over the years, but on this occasion he said something that could be more correct.

He said, “For those who say today’s game can’t produce legendary players, I have two words: Derek Jeter.

He will always be one of the greatest Yankees ever, and one of the Major League’s greats as well.

Here is a clip from ESPN which includes the actual hit and celebration.

The next sports image from the past week is also from Friday. This one is from the NBA Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony. This year’s class included greats like David Robinson, Jerry Sloane, and John Stockton. The star of the class without a doubt was #23 Michael Jordan. They probably should have let him have his own ceremony, or just make it so no one else was inducted in the same year. This way, as with his playing career, he would be in a class of his own.

Michael Jordan having fun during his speech at the Hall of Fame ceremony.

Here is a clip of his near ten minute acceptance speech.

The U.S. Open of Tennis wrapped up this week in between rain delays as well. We have four images from Flushing Meadows.

First up is a still shot of Roger Federer make what he called, “the greatest shot I ever hit in my life”.

Roger Federer hits an amazing shot between his legs in his semi-final match at the U.S. Open.

To fully appreciate the shot here is a video clip of it. WOW!

Next up we have Serena Williams with a meltdown that rivaled / surpassed even some of John McEnroe’s best tirades.

Serena Williams has a meltdown in her match.

Again, here is a video clip of the incident which cost here some money and closed out her match.

After beating Serena in the above mentioned match Kim Clijsters went on to defeat Caroline Wozniacki to win the U.S. Open. Clijsters had retired for two years before coming back for an exhibition match to tryout the new roof at Wimbledon. She realized then she still loved the game of tennis and mounted a comeback. This was just her 14th match since coming out of retirement and only made the Open as a wildcard.

She is just the third mother to win a Grand Slam Tournament (Australians Evonne Goolagong-Cawley and Margaret Court were the other two.) so we felt the image we should share is the one of her celebrating with her daughter Jada and the trophy.

Kim Clijsters celebrates her U.S. Open victory with daughter Jada.

On the other side of things Juan Martin del Potro unseated five-time defending Open champion Roger Federer. This is a great shot of his immediate celebration, with a beaten Federer in the background.

Juan Martin del Potro celebrates his U.S. Open victory.

Finally we give you three images from possibly the biggest sports story of the weekend, the start of the NFL regular season.

Brett Favre started his season with his new team, the Vikings. He did great at handing the ball to Adrian Peterson (180 yard, 3 TDs), and completed a few passes too as they beat the Browns.

Drew Brees picked up right where he left off last season. He completed 26 of 34 passes for 358 yards. He also had a team record-tying six touchdown passes, one short of the NFL record.