My apologies for the late publication.  The SportDorks have been frantically preparing for our annual 4th of July party.  Now that the horseshoe pits are complete, it's time to get back to business.  Here we go!! 

Tough week to be a Georgia Bulldog fan, eh?  After last week's entry, I had a few people ask me how I could ignore the tremendous feats of the Bulldog baseball team.  After all, as of last Tuesday, they had not only made it to the best-of-three finals series, but had won Game 1 and were one victory away from the championship.  It looked to be a foregone conclusion that the trophy would be theirs.  But the Fresno State Bulldogs had other ideas, winning games two and three by a combined score of 25 - 11 and making history in the process by becoming the lowest seeded team in the history of the College World Series to win it all. Now that's a tremendous feat - one that The SportDork absolutely can't ignore.  Let's take a closer look, shall we?  Georgia managed to lose to a team with more losses than any champion has ever had - Fresno State finished the year with a 47-31 record.  Fresno was also the first number four regional seed to ever make it to the College World Series.  To put it into perspective, consider that the number four seed they received was equivalent to a 13-16 seed in college basketball's March Madness.  That translates into Fresno State being a bigger underdog than Villanova was when it won the basketball championship in 1988 or George Mason was when it made the Final Four in 2006.  And to add insult to injury, not only did Georgia lose to the lowest-seeded team to ever even make it to the finals, they were beaten by a team with the same nickname.  What an agonizing way to lose a championship.  So agonizing, in fact, that only two days after the final game, UGA VI, Georgia's mascot, died of heart failure.  (http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/football/ncaa/06/28/uga.obit.ap/index.html)  Coincidence?  I think not.  Maybe, though, Georgia had other motivations in losing to Fresno State.  Maybe they were tired of watching Florida write its name in the record books with back-to-back-to-back national championships, so they decided they needed to get in on the action, and they realized the only way to do it was to lose the championship to the biggest underdog in the history of the College World Series.  That's one way to make history.

You may not believe this (particularly in light of the preceding paragraph), but I was rooting for Georgia to win it all.  I call it my "blindly support all SEC schools when they play non-SEC schools" philosophy.  However, when the afore-mentioned philosophy is unsuccessful, I immediately revert to my "rip on all Gator rivals whenever the opportunity presents itself" philosophy.  Another great example of a win-win for The SportDork.

While I'm piling on my good friends in Athens, I thought it only appropriate to contrast the recent fortunes of the Bulldogs with those of the Gators.  While Georgia was coughing up the baseball title to Fresno State, the Gators were making news on two fronts.  First, Ms. Britany Raymond, Gator Cheerleader, had the honor of being named Cheerleader of the Week on CNNSI.com's Extra Mustard.  As you can see from the photo below, the honor was well-deserved:

I am told that her cheerleading technique is flawless, which I am confident is why she was selected.

And not only did Britany score top honors, but the Gators' own Ryan Lochte came up big at the U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials on Sunday.  Both he and Michael Phelps broke the previous world record in the 400 meter individual medley, with Lochte finishing only .83 of a second behind Phelps.  (http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/writers/kelli_anderson/07/01/swimmingtrial.phelpslochte/index.html)
Here's a shot of Ryan making the Gator Nation proud:

After the week that Britany and Ryan had, what more can you say than . . . . . . .

Go Gators!!!