Well, the dog days of summer are officially here.  Please let me emphasize dog.

As a life-long sports fan, I know there are plenty of reasons to love sports.  95% of the year, I love everything about sports.  That other 5% just happens to be the next week or two.  Here are my five reasons why it sucks to be infatuated with sports this week.

1.  The NBA Draft

Am I really supposed to care about this?  I gave up watching the NBA when Michael Jordan put on a Wizards jersey.  I don't think I'm alone.  Well, at least David Stern is excited about the increase in TV ratings for the NBA Finals.  The ratings were up 50% over last year's finals.  Who played in last year's finals again?  If you don't live in San Antonio or Cleveland (and you probably don't), then you probably can't name both teams.  Of course, what David Stern didn't tell you is that ratings for nearly all sports are up.  Way to go David Stern!  Way to hang in there with horse racing and hockey!  Maybe I'll be excited about this year's draft in seven or eight years when we'll really know whether our favorite teams blew it or made genius selections.  I think I'll use Thursday night to clear off my DVR for the 1,400 hours of Olympic coverage coming down the pike.

2.  One of the biggest sports stories this week involves Shaq

Even if I were a big NBA fan, I'd think this was absurd.  Shaq "raps" and Kobe gets trashed.  Hey, it happens every day I'm sure - just not on TMZ.  Then comes the "fall out".  Shaq loses his fake police badge.  Oh no!  Do you think Shaq will have trouble filling his time this off-season now that he's not an "assistant to the deputy" police man?  Goodness knows he won't be working on his game or his conditioning.  And he's certainly not working on his rhymes.  Too bad Shaq and Kobe didn't read this report on drinking with co-workers.  Perhaps they would have found that 85% of co-workers think that hanging out after work hours isn't the best thing for their careers.  If they had only drank and picked up women alone they could still be happily married.

3.  The Women's U.S. Open

Are Lorena Ochoa and Annika Sorenstam kick-ass golfers?  Absolutely.  Could this possibly be a historic battle between two golfers at the top of their game?  Quite possibly.  Do I care?  Nah, not so much.  I actually respect the women's golf game.  I know a few women who are trying to make it on the tour and I know how tough it is.  However, there aren't enough pictures of hot female golfers out there to make me forget about the scary ones.  Hey, I'm a guy.  I see hot chicks and I think of hot chicks.  Then I see some of the not-so-hot chicks play not-so-hot golf - and then I change the channel.  I'm sure my DVR will still need some cleaning this weekend, also.  Someone tell me if Annika wins.  I think I'm pulling for her.

4.  Interleague Play

Am I really supposed to get excited about a Phillies-Rangers match-up this weekend?  Because if I am, I need to get started now to be ready by Friday.  Unless I live in New York, Chicago, or Los Angeles, I'm not so excited about the final pairings of interleague play other than the fact that interleague play is almost over.  I loved the idea of interleague play when it started.  I was really excited about it for the first few years, but I think I'm over it.  Apparently Greg Cote isn't over it.  He's super-psyched about some fake oranges.

5.  Wimbledon

Major tennis is the only competition for major women's golf this weekend?  Ugh.  All of a sudden an ESPN-hyped Subway Series is looking pretty good to a fan who really doesn't care for either New York team.  At least there's some history there - playing games on Saturday in two stadiums that will be destroyed (foolishly) at the end of the year (who are we kidding?  They can have those things torn down by mid-October).  There's plenty of history at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club also.  I just don't care.  I'd lump tennis into the same category as the NBA, but I at least used to be a fan of the NBA once upon a time.  I've never really fallen in love with tennis on TV.  I love playing it on the Wii, though!  In honor of those players killing the grass in London (I'm not even going there with the pigeons), I'll open my window, look at the dead grass in my yard, and play some Wii Tennis.  I'm a pro, you know.