South Africa Sport Report

Over at the FPA I have written a postmortem on the Springboks and Bafana Bafana. The Boks lost 11-9 to Australia in the quarterfinals of the Rugby World Cup in a game they absolutely dominated in every way but the scoreboard. Bafana crapped out of the African Cup of Nations in a way that boggles the imagination with the sort of coaching decision you'd expect from Andy Reid.

The Arms Race

I say it all the time, but it is always worth reiterating: There is no such thing as too much starting pitching. This is worth remembering as John Smoltz prepares to make his Red Sox debut in a seemingly too-crowded Sox rotation. At his fine Boston Globe blog, "Mazz," Tony Massarotti agrees:

Too much pitching? No, no, no. You can never have too much. You can have an abundance, perhaps. Maybe even a stockpile. But you can never, ever have too much.

He also sketches out some of the seemingly endless options that the Sox have as the season's engine revs and begins to accelerate.

The pennant race is under way, and in the American League East it looks more and more as if the natural order has been restored and the Red Sox and Yankees will be fighting it out to the finish, though the Wild Card is almost certain to go to whichever team gets second. With the NBA Finals done (no comment) and the NHL finals in the rear-view mirror, baseball gets to take center stage. I love a lot of sports. But baseball will probably always be first among equals for me, so I always look forward to summers when baseball gets pride of place in the American sporting firmament.

That said I am very excited about South Africa hosting the Confederations Cup as something of a tune-up for the World Cup next year. Go Bafana Bafana! And this weekend marks the beginning of the British Lions rugby tour of South Africa -- I'm arriving in Joburg this weekend, just in time to dive into some great sports.