Derek Jeter one hit away

In the first at bat of today's game against the Tampa Bay Rays, Derek Jeter lined a single to left center to capture his 2,999th career hit.

He is now just one hit away from 3,000.

Yankee Stadium stood up and cheered each pitch during the eight pitch at bat against Rays' ace David Price.

The game is scoreless in the bottom of the first inning.

So much for the weekend; NFL Lockout meetings pushed back to Monday

Hence another example why optimistic rumors from this insane NFL Lockout should be taken with a grain of salt.

For the past week, the NFL spewed out information that the owners and players were very close to putting an end to the lockout and that discussions would continue through the entire weekend.

Well, late Friday word comes out that the discussions have become "frustrating" as "little to no progress has been made on the core issues," according to NFL.com. That means that the players still feel they are being cheated out by the owners when it comes to revenue, and that there are still owners who feel they aren't making enough money.

Now what appeared to be the end of the lockout will continue deep into next week, most likely, with talks now set to resume Monday morning.

Most of the owners have enforced a strict July 15 deadline to get a deal done. If a new CBA is not reached, then summer training camp and pre-season football will likely be canceled.

The NFL is now in total panic mode as they try to find common ground, but after four months of constant arguing over $9 billion, it would be stunning to say the least if both sides suddenly come to an agreement and save the summer.

If the summer schedule is lost, it will cost the league $1 billion in revenue, and both sides would have to start over again in negotiations if they want to save the regular season.

This is a total fiasco. It appears more and more likely that we are destined to have a fall without NFL football for the first time since 1982 when the league played only nine games that year. In 1987, the NFL used replacement players for a few weeks.

However a total wipe out of the NFL schedule from week 1 of pre-season to the Super Bowl would be unprecedented. The NFL has never had a year where they didn't have a season, and in a time when the league is more popular than ever...canceling the season would prove costly, and I don't mean just financially.

The NHL has never recovered from their lockout in 2004-2005. Hockey was the least popular sport to begin with before their lockout, now people don't even pay attention to it.

It took 10 years for the NBA to recover from their lockout in 1999, and now they are under lock down again.

Major League Baseball never truly recovered from the 1994 lockout that canceled the second half of the season. MLB was America's National Pastime, and since 1994, the NFL has replaced it as number one in American culture. Baseball used the steroid era to catapult it's way back into America's sub-consciousness.

If the NFL is willing to risk their popularity in this country, they will regret for years to come. With this lockout, and the ever present reality of Personal Seat Licenses, fans will stop coming to football games. Maybe then the owners and players will finally get it -- nobody wanted this lockout in the first place, except them.

Court throws out injunction to end NFL lockout

Of what should be of no surprise the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals has thrown out a ruling to lift the NFL Lockout, citing that the NFL conducted the appropriate measures in locking the players out of the league due to no new CBA.

Where does this leave the NFL, its players, owners, and fans?

Well, both sides have to continue to negotiate. That's it.

Both sides have been meeting as recently in New York City, and plan to meet through the weekend to hammer out a possible deal.

The huge point of contention has been revenue sharing. The owners initially agreed to share moneys 52-48 with players getting only 48 % of revenue. However, once the NFLPA calculated the funds they would receive, it came out to less than 45 % of actual revenue, causing the discussions to fall apart last week.

Both sides feel a ton of pressure to get this deal done. Rumors are that Tuesday or Wednesday of next week could be the final days to hammer out an agreement.

If the two sides don't have a deal in place by next week, training camp and pre-season are at risk of being lost, and with it, millions of dollars in possible revenue for both sides.

It appears that something will get done, although no details have been leaked out to the media, other than optimistic talk. Then again, we have heard optimistic talk for four months, and the lockout has been going on for 115 days.

Mets' short stop Jose Reyes will hit the Disabled List

Only the Mets would do something this sneaky as a way to decrease the value of their superstar short stop.

When Jose Reyes strained his hamstring, Saturday night against the Yankees it was not a good sign, at least for the on-the-field play of the Mets. Reyes, who is hitting .354, is having the year of his life, and has been a catalyst in the Mets surprisingly good season thus far.

Even though the Mets haven't missed a beat over the past four days, winning the finale against the Yankees, and three in Los Angeles to climb to a season high three games over .500, they would love to have Reyes in the lineup.

The Met aren't ready to DL Reyes. Reports from ESPN state that the Mets will try to keep Reyes active, with the hope that he is ready for their season against Philadelphia after the All Star Break. In a way the injury comes at a good time, with teams set to break up for four days for the All Star festivities. Thus giving Reyes more time to rest and heal.

Still the injury is a growing concern. Reyes has a history of leg injuries, including an oblique injury that sidelined him for most of the second half last year.

With this injury Fred Wilpon looks like a big winner in this whole thing. With Reyes injured and with the team in slight contention, the team will not trade Reyes come July 31. When free agency starts in November, and depending on the severity of this injury, it could be a damper on Reyes' ability to snag upwards of $120 million as a free agent.

Teams get very wary of players with injuries, especially players who rely on their legs to make plays both offensively and defensively.

The longer the injury keeps Reyes sidelined the better it is for the Mets front office, and long term future. The odds that Reyes will get top money from somebody like the Yankees, Red Sox, Phillies, and, hell, even the Nationals decreases. That doesn't guarantee that Reyes will remain a Met past this season, but it give New York some bargaining power.

Fearing the worst, Reyes' agent has requested a second opinion on the hurt hammy -- he doesn't want to see his prized short stop lose out on making it big in free agency. The question is will the Mets DL Reyes and keep him there for three or four weeks, even if he is healthy, even in spite of what he can bring to the table now for a team six games out of the wild card, just to make sure it will make him cheaper come November?

Stranger things have happened.

Brett Favre...you guessed it...ready for another return

Ahhh, what is a summer without the, now, annual Favre Watch.

Brett Favre might be getting that itch to make a return to the NFL, according to Gil Brandt of NFL.com.

Brandt believes that Favre is looking forward to the idea of another comeback, possibly with the Vikings, who drafted Christian Ponder in the draft, and still have Joe Webb, who impressed down the stretch last season.

It's hard to believe that any team would be interested in the 42 year old quarterback, who ended his iron man streak of consecutive starts last December because of a shoulder injury. Favre looked like a defeated old man, and any team that brings him in would risk hurting the development of any young quarterback.

Rumors have also spread that Carolina, Minnesota, and an NFC West team (think Arizona, or San Francisco) would be curious about Favre. I doubt Carolina will go for him, considering they drafted Auburn's Cam Newton. San Fran and Arizona would be the best places for Favre to go, especially the Cardinals who have a talented team, but need a QB to orchestrate the whole thing.

Plus, there is the lockout. With negotiations getting bleaker and bleaker by the day, it looks like pre-season will be get cut short, or canceled all together. We know Favre doesn't like training camp, but I don't think any team will try to squeeze him in in the last minute among the hectic schedule of a blitzkrieg off-season, if there is one.

I wouldn't count my chickens on this story -- probably just a rumor, but an interesting one at that, because with Favre -- never say never!

Six Yankees, two Mets qualify for All Star Game

Another annual addition of the idiotic MLB All Star Game has its rosters set, and to say the least the American League leans heavily toward the New York Yankees.

The Yankees are sending a league high six players to the Mid-Summer Classic. Derek Jeter, who is injured is scheduled to start at short for the AL, while Alex Rodriguez and Robinson Cano round out the All Star infield. Curtis Granderson who is having a monster season with 21 homers is the starting center fielder for the AL.

Mariano Rivera will make his annual return to the game as the league's closer. Russell Martin, who has play surprisingly well for the Yankees this year, will be the All Star reserve at catcher.

Meanwhile the Mets are sending only two players to the game, two players, ironically, who probably won't be on the team by the end of the month in Jose Reyes and Carlos Beltran. Reyes who is first in the NL in most batting and on base categories has put together an MVP type year in the walk year of his contract.

Beltran, who is also a free agent, has 11 homers and 53 RBI in his first year after a knee injury sidelined his 2010 season.

REPORT: NFL negotiations are trending "backwards"

So much for all that good will and happiness that was supposidly going on in the NFL.

When the owners agreed to divey up a contract that would pay the players far less than what they were making the previous five seasons in the revenue stream, you had to figure that a quick resolution was too good to be true.

Well, as it turns out the players are upset yet again.

"Players calculate that under the owners' proposal, it would leave them with approximately with a 45 percent take on revenue, an "unacceptable" amount that one player source said "sets us back to March 11 ... before the lockout"(ESPN).

Apparently...

"Player sources contend the owners' terms changed when the two sides convened a day after owners met June 21 in Chicago. A source said the players went into Thursday's negotiating session with owners at the table, hoping to "get them back on track. They wouldn't move. It's disappointing"(ESPN).

So here we go again. While players and owners are supposed to meet yet again in Minneapolis today, chances are the self imposed deadline by some of the owners to have a deal in place by July 5 is looking pretty bleak.

The players feel they are being screwed by the owners and they certainly are. 48 percent of revenue, no matter how you slice was going to be a hit to the players bank books. Add on top of that the calculations by the owners (i.e. a tax) the players are making only 45 percent. That is a whopping eight percent less than they were making over a year ago.

Don't expect a resolution any time soon.

Mid to late July is now all we can hope for to have this CBA settled. It is comical in a way, considering the NFL has the longest off-season (seven months) of any sport in the country, and yet they can't come to terms on anything.

The first preseason game is a month away, and training camp is schedule to start in two and a half weeks! Say good bye to all of that if these two sides can't agree on a 50/50 split of the pie.