THE BIG SPORTS WEEKEND

Saturday marks the 1 month anniversary of The One To Watch. After 30 consecutive days of recommending the best in sports, I'm taking the weekend off. We've had over 700 visits here in the past month. Close to 200 could likely be traced to certain a dial-up connection from Fort Myers, Florida. But that still leaves about a 20 hit per day average which is a great start. Thanks for coming and spread the word!

One of the coolest parts of blogging is seeing who's visiting your little site. Below are my 5 busiest days so far. My recent tribute to the world's best female fans of soccer earned 1st place. Some of the others were a bit more surprising.

1st: July 12 - World Cup Retrospective
2nd: June 28 - NBA Draft Preview
3rd: July 6 - Wimbledon: Kim Clijsters
4th: June 19 - Stanley Cup Finals Game 7
5th: June 29 - Wimbledon: Maria Sharapova

Anyway, here are this weekend's ones to watch. Warning: NASCAR alert!

Friday, July 14, 2006 BASEBALL: Chicago White Sox at New York Yankees This could be a possible playoff preview. But if Detroit is for real, then one of these two teams could also not even make the playoffs. Jose Contreras takes the hill against his former team and faces the rapidly aging Randy Johnson. My pick: New York. A slugfest earns Contreras his first loss in nearly a year.

Saturday, July 15, 2006 AUTO RACING: IRL Firestone Indy 200 This always fun night race from Nashville features the IRL circuit's only 1.33 mile concrete track. It'll be a bumpy ride for Danica. My pick: Dan Wheldon. Only the Ganassi and Penske teams have speed this year and 2005 Indy 500 Champ Wheldon is past due for a win.

Sunday, July 16, 2006 AUTO RACING: New England 300 NASCAR invades the Northeast and makes its first of two stops in Loudon, New Hampshire. This is a flat 1 mile track and you'll see lots of braking, which tends to produce the best form of racing in my opinion. My pick: Jeff Burton. The younger Burton has 4 career wins at Loudon and will be a favorite to earn his first win for Richard Childress racing this week.



Today begins our month-long photo tribute female athletes. Anna Kournikova proves you don't have to win to be the best!