Then Harrington injured his wrist hitting an impact bag, and his British Open odds started tumbling, from 14-1 to 16-1 to 33-1. But sure enough, Harrington shot a 74-68-72-69 to finish at +3, four strokes better than Ian Poulter and six ahead of Greg Norman, who held the lead after three rounds.

Sergio Garcia, who was the favorite going into the Open at 8-1, got progressively worse as the weekend wore on. He shot a 78 on Sunday and ended up tied for 51st place with a +17. Ernie Els rebounded from his opening round 80 to finish at +12, and Phil Mickelson came in at +14, tied with the immortal Jean Van de Velde.

The most successful corporations know how to spread the wealth around the community. Major League Baseball is very successful indeed. They’re turning the All-Star Game into a big-time display of philanthropy, giving away over $7 million to the New York City area and spending countless hours on charity work.

My personal favorite on the week’s list of events was the stickball tournament they played on Sunday in Harlem. Willie Mays (above photo) was on hand to cheer on the kids; the game ended in a 9-9 tie, but this was one All-Star event where a tie was entirely satisfactory.

Mays was a stickball legend in Harlem. When Mays was a member of the New York Giants, he would sometimes play with the neighborhood kids before a home game. “That’s how I learned to hit a breaking ball,” Mays told Salon back in 1999. Mays could hit it three sewers, i.e. three manhole covers away. Now that would make a great All-Star competition.

Online gambling can be done in the blink of an eye. Baseball moves along at a snail’s pace. Combine the two, and you open up a world of possibilities for live betting on MLB games.

A sharp bettor can really clean up in these situations. Consider Sunday night’s matchup between the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees. The game was tied going into the bottom of the ninth inning; you can picture all the Yankees fans watching the game, itching to bet on New York to win the game before it went into extra innings. It didn’t. Nor did the Red Sox win in the top of the 10th.

Beating the betting public is still the name of the game; live betting puts pressure on bettors to make choices, widening the gap between sharps and squares. Live betting also offers that many more chances to build a bankroll. The more, the merrier.

Even ignoring the recent retirements of Justine Henin and Martina Hingis, Wimbledon belongs to the Williams sisters. Their power game is perfect for the grass courts at SW19, although Venus has an even bigger advantage because of her faster serve and longer limbs.

The men were still in the semifinal stage at press time, but it would take a monumental upset to prevent Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal from reaching the final for the third straight year. Federer is the favorite on the futures market at 2-3; Nadal is even money to end Federer’s five-year winning streak on grass.

Now that Euro 2008 has come and gone, the biggest event of the summer – betting or otherwise – is the Summer Olympic Games in Beijing. The International Olympic Committee doesn’t keep official records of which countries have won how many medals, but the United States has dominated this competition ever since the modern movement began in 1896.

China is spending a lot of money to change that in 2008. This is an incredibly important event for the Chinese Communist Party as it tries to move even further into the international community (i.e. marketplace) without giving up its one-party grip on the Chinese people. The recent victory at Wimbledon by Zheng Jie over world’s No. 1 Ana Ivanovic is testament to how far Chinese sports has come in the past 20 years.

If you’re going to bet on the Summer Games this year, China is making inroads in just about every sport under the sun – not just tennis, diving and gymnastics. Money is power.

It should be a no-brainer. During the offseason, Major League Baseball general managers voted 25-5 last year in favor of instant replay. It looks like they’ll get their wish as soon as August 1, at least on disputed home-run calls.

Whether or not a ball clears the fence in fair territory should be an easy call with the support of existing video coverage – the occasional Jeffrey Maier moment notwithstanding. So as long as the league can crank out a workable replay system that is acceptable to umpires, players and front-office personnel, what’s the problem?

Tradition. Baseball prides itself on being old school; they’d often rather get the call wrong and chalk it up to human error. Noted conservative and baseball fan George Will pooh-poohs the idea of instant replay. But even Will, after making the usual straw man and slippery slope arguments, accedes that using replay for boundary calls is acceptable. Byzantine whimsy, indeed.

Woods was the –400 favorite at press time, casting a huge shadow over Mediate at +275. But how much longer can Tiger compete on his recently scoped left knee? “I took some things to kind of relieve that,” Woods told the Associated Press after sinking his 12-foot birdie on 18.

Mediate is the No. 126 golfer on the PGA Tour’s money list. That ranking is about to go up substantially. He’s 45 years old, with five career Tour victories – most recently the 2002 Greater Greensboro Chrysler Classic. This would be Mediate’s first major championship. He’s been quite consistent thus far: 69-71-72-71 in the first four rounds. Woods is 72-68-70-73 with four double-bogeys compared to one for Mediate.

It is being known as one of Roger Federer’s most embarrassing losses of his career; his loss at the French Open this weekend against the Champion Rafael Nadal.

Most experts did pick Nadal to be the favorite on the clay but such a great win was unexpected. The winning match ended at 6-1, 6-3, 6-0 and even Nadal himself realized that Federer wasn’t playing up to his usual standard.

Federer said he will continue to work with new coach Jose Higueras at least through Wimbledon. He might need the moral support after absorbing his worst thrashing in 173 career Grand Slam matches. His previous nadir was a straight-sets defeat to Andre Agassi in the fourth round of the 2001 U.S. Open in which Federer won just seven games. The third-set bagel was Federer’s first in any match since 1999.

“I could lose every time in the semifinals and tell myself I don’t want to face [Nadal] in the finals, but I’ve been strong and I’ve been tough, and I made my way there,” Federer said. “That gives me great, great feeling, you know, a good satisfaction.”

Taking point guard Derrick Rose might not change anything in the short term. The Bulls already have incumbent Kirk Hinrich at that position, even if he is coming off a sub-par season. Michael Beasley is a better candidate to have an immediate impact, but the 6-foot-10 (allegedly) forward might only replicate what Tyrus Thomas and Joakim Noah already do. These are picks for the future.

Whoever lands at No. 2 will be an instant upgrade for the Miami Heat. But coach Pat Riley reportedly isn’t impressed with Beasley, so point guard O.J. Mayo remains a possibility with the second pick. All three were one-and-done college freshmen, and there’s more where they came from in the 2008 Draft.

Bet on the NBA playoffs!

As for Big Brown’s much publicized cracked left front hoof, trainer Rick Dutrow says it continues to improve. “He’s in better shape now than he has ever been,” Dutrow told reporters.

Hoof specialist Ian McKinlay will make one final repair to the injured hoof on Friday, replacing the sutures with new ones, adding a drain if necessary and an adhesive to close the crack. “The adhesive that we’ll rebuild that wall with is stronger than the hoof itself,” McKinlay told the Associated Press.

If all goes according to plan and Big Brown wins the Belmont Stakes and the Triple Crown, the colt will then be entered int the Travers Stakes on Aug. 23 at Saratoga in upstate New York, then he’s off to the Breeders’ Cup World Championships and then finally — Big Brown will be retiring to stud.

“The only thing that will keep Big Brown from running in the Breeders’ Cup Classic is Big Brown,” Michael Iavarone said. “If he is healthy, he will run.”

According to a press release, Michael Iavarone and Richard Schiavo, the managing partner of International Equine Acquisitions Holdings (IEAH), which owns Big Brown, and trainer Rick Dutrow Jr. all said they plan to run Big Brown in the Breeders’ Cup.

The Breeders’ Cup takes place over two days from Oct. 24-25 at Santa Anita Park. With a total purse of $25.5 million awarded (up from $23 million in 2007), it is the most important and richest event in American horse racing.