Critical Notes

Soccer star David Beckham made his debut Saturday with the LA Galaxy. (AP Images)

Surprising fans who thought he was out with an ankle injury, soccer superstar David Beckham made a 12 minute appearance to debut his US soccer career in the Los Angeles Galaxy’s 1-0 loss to English giant Chelsea.

The 32-year-old England star, who has an injured left ankle, came on as a second-half substitute in the 78th minute amid cheers from the crowd and an explosion of flashbulbs from a 27,000 sell-out crowd at the Home Depot Center.

Although he didn’t do much ball handling, the midfielder did take one corner kick in added time.

Victoria Beckham, David’s wife, was joined in the VIP section by Desperate Housewives star Eva Longoria, Katie Holmes with daughter Suri and Arnold Schwarzenegger.  

Other celebs in attendance were Mary-Kate Olsen, Brooke Shields, Alicia Silverstone and Jennifer Love Hewitt. With this much celebrity sighting, maybe Americans will embrace soccer after all.

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Yankees Shelley Duncan is congratulated by Miguel Cairo after hitting a solo home run against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays during the sixth. (AP Images)

The New York Yankees pounded out 25 hits and six homers and blasted the Tampa Bay Devil Rays 24-1.

Shelley Duncan had two home runs and four RBIs after making his Major League Baseball debut two days ago. The Yanks had a 10 run fourth inning, with Shelley batting in three. 

Alex Rodriguez hit his major league-leading 34th homer, the 498th of his career.The Yankees also got home runs from Hideki Matsui, Bobby Abreu and Robinson Cano. Matsui had five hits, Cano four, and Abreu and Jorge Posada each had three.

In Milwaukee, Barry Bonds didn’t start in the San Francisco Giants’ 7-5 loss to the Brewers and still remains three home runs away from breaking the major league career record held by Hank Aaron.

Brewers’ Ryan Braun and Corey Hart each homered and J.J. Hardy drove in two runs.

The New York Mets beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 5-4 in 10 innings, scoring single runs in the eighth and ninth innings to tie it before Chip Ambres hit a go-ahead RBI single with two outs in the 10th.

In other NL games, Philadelphia blanked San Diego 9-0, Florida beat Cincinnati 9-3, Washington beat Colorado 3-0 and Houston blanked Pittsburgh 1-0.

In the AL, Kansas City beat the Tigers 5-2, Toronto pounded Seattle 8-0, Los Angeles beat Minnesota 7-2 and Baltimore blanked Oakland 2-0.

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Todd Pletcher’s Red Giant wins the Virginia Derby and pays $76. (AI Wire Photo)

With three horses trained by Todd Pletcher, it was no surprise the winner of Saturday’s $1 million Virginia Derby (gr. II) was a Pletcher horse.  What was surprising was Red Giant, a 37-1 long shot winning the race by a nose over Strike a Deal.

Red Giant, under Colonial Downs’ top jockey Horacio Karamanos, stalked pacesetter Inca King for most of the race.  At the final turn, Inca King gave way to Strike a Deal who was ridden by Ramon Dominguez. The race ended with dash between Strike a Deal and Red Giant.  "I got a good position" said Karamanos, "I said ‘Go now. Go hard. Win it,’ and my horse responded very good."

Also in the race was the 6th place Kentucky Derby finisher, Circular Quay. This was Circular Quay’s first time on grass and he ended up favored at 9/5; however, he was not a much of a factor in the race and finished 6th. 

Assistant trainer to Todd Pletcher, Ginny DePasquale said "It looked like he was on the inside and when he needed to make the move the other horse was right outside of him. He does his best running when he’s on the outside and he just never made it to that spot."

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Adam Sandler and Kevin James are kings of the box office with their goofball comedy I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry debuting in the top spot. (Photo Courtesy Universal Pictures)

Adam Sandler and Kevin James’s comedy I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry has overcome negative reviews to debut at the top of the box office with $34.8 million over a very competitive weekend. 

The strong debut is a continuation of Sandler’s winning streak with goofball comedies, and marks the comedian’s eighth to debut at more than $30 million.

Chuck and Larry nudged out Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, which dropped from its winning debut weekend to take second place and $32.2 million.

Many Potter fans were likely at home reading the seventh and final Potter book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, which was released at 12:01 am Saturday. Order of the Phoenix has raked in $207.5 million since its debut.

The surprise of the weekend, however, was the strong performance of Hairspray, which took third with $27.8 million. The John Travolta, Michelle Pfeiffer, Queen Latifah musical outdid projections by almost $8 million.

Transformers was in the number four spot with $20.5 million, bringing its three-week total to $263 million, and Pixar’s animated comedy Ratatouille was fifth with $11 million.

Rounding out the top ten were Bruce Willis’s action flick Live Free or Die Hard in sixth with  $7.3 million, romantic comedy License to Wed in seventh with $3.8 million, thriller 1408 in eighth with $2.6 million, Steve Carrall’s comedy Evan Almighty  in ninth with $2.5 million and Knocked Up in tenth spot with $2.3 million.

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British Open winner Padraig Harrington is all smiles as he is greeted by his son Patrick after his final round of the tournament. (AP Images)

Padraig Harrington has won a 4 hole playoff versus Sergio Garcia to win the 2007 British Open Golf Tournament at Carnoustie, Scotland.

Harrington finished the fourth round with a 7 under 67 and after Garcia faltered and finished with 73, a playoff was forced.

Surviving the disaster of a double bogey on the 18th in the final round, Harrington beat Garcia by one in the playoff to become the first Irish winner of the British Open since 1947.

The pair began the playoff on the first hole where Harrington birdied and Garcia bogeyed. They both parred the 16th and 17th, and Garcia parred the 18th, but Harrington’s 2 shot lead was too much for Garcia to overcome and even with a bogey on the 18th, Harrington emerged the champ.

This is Harrington’s first major and he now moves to number six in golf ranking.

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Can he do it? British Open leader Sergio Garcia prepares for the final day at Carnoustie. (AI Wire Photo)

Sergio Garcia, the 27-year-old Spaniard, took a giant step toward his first major title with a fabulous round of golf Saturday at Carnoustie. 

Sitting at nine under after 54 holes, Garcia carded a bogey-free 68 to stretch his two-shot overnight lead to three with just 18 holes left to play.

Known as "El Nino", Garcia has now played 26 holes without dropping a shot, a huge achievement on the course that made him cry in 1999 when he went 89-83 and missed the cut with plus 30.

If he can maintain his form and luck, he will become the sixth man to win the Open after leading every round, and the first since Tom Weiskopf in 1973.

Garcia’s biggest challenger may be Steve Stricker, who is enjoying a stunning comeback on the tour. The 40-year-old fired a course-record 64 to march up Saturday’s leaderboard.

Tied for third at three-under are American Ryder Cup champs Chris DiMarco and Stewart Cink, England’s Paul Broadhurst, former champion Ernie Els, Korean KJ Choi and the Irish duo Padraig Harrington and Paul McGinley.

Five more players are at two under - Spain’s other challenger Miguel Angel Jimenez, Argentine Andres Romero, American Jim Furyk, Canadian Mike Weir and Fijian Vijay Singh.

No Tiger in sight here, as the defending champion is one under and eight shots back. For most golfers, this would render them completely out of it, but never underestimate the world’s number one golfer.

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Barry Bonds is holding steady with 753 homeruns after a hitless night in Milwaukee. (AP Images)

Barry Bonds remained three home runs away from breaking the Major League Baseball career record held by Hank Aaron as the San Francisco Giants blanked the Brewers 8-0.

Bonds went 0-for-2, but his teammates provided enough offense to power San Francisco past the Brewers in the second of a three-game series at Miller Park .

Tim Lincecum (5-2) gave up four hits and struck out eight over eight shutout innings for the win.

In LA, the Dodgers rallied with a five-run fourth inning to beat the New York Mets 8-6.

Matt Kemp hit a three-run homer with Andre Ethier and Juan Pierre driving in runs to overcome a 4-1 deficit and take the game.

David Wright and Carlos Delgado each hit two-run homers for the Mets.

In New York, Shelly Duncan hit his first major-league home run to help the Yankees past the Tampa Bay Devil Rays 7-3 in the first game of a day-night doubleheader.

Hideki Matsui also homered for New York, while Andy Phillips hit a two-run single. The Yankees scored five runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to break a 2-2 tie.

B.J. Upton, Ty Wigginton and Raul Casanova all hit home runs for Tampa Bay.

In other games, it was Toronto over Seattle 1-0, Boston beating the White Sox 11-2, Arizona over the Chicago Cubs 3-2 and Washington blanking Colorado 3-0.

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On Friday, Saratoga Race Course announced that the schedule of races for the July 28Whitney Handicap (gr. I) has been changed to accommodate ABC’s two-hour live coverage of the event.

The winners in the following races in the Whitney Handicap will automatically qualify for the Breeders’ Cup at Monmouth Park in October.

– Race 7: $250,000 Go for Wand Handicap (gr. I)
— Race 8: $250,000 Alfred G. Vanderbilt Handicap (gr. II)
— Race 9: $500,000 Diana (gr. I)
— Race 10: $750,000 Whitney

For the 1^st time, the 2007 Breeders’ Cup World Championship is being extended over two days and includes three new $1 million stakes hosted for the first time at Monmouth Park. The addition of these new races means $23 million in purses will now be distributed over 11 races, compared to $21 million over eight races last year.

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Paris Hilton has just started a relationship with Hollywood’s latest "it" guy, Aussie designer Tyler Atkins. (AP Images)

Well, well, well, it didn’t take long for Paris Hilton to latch on to the latest heartthrob to hit Hollywood.

The socialite has recently been spotted with Tyler Atkins, an Australian car thief turned model and T-shirt designer.

Although Hilton isn’t saying much about her newfound love, Atkins has told the press that the celebutante is “really smart” and that the two share similar hobbies.

Claiming the couple had met through close friends, the confessed drug user said: "Paris and I are just getting to know each other. She is a really smart, amazing girl and we share similar interests. We have been hanging out at the beach, talking about fashion and it’s been lots of fun.”

Paris’ latest hookup has of course fueled some speculation, as Atkins has publicly dissed her on YouTube and boasted about hanging out with an unnamed ‘famous chick’ who drugged him with pills and gave him a spa bath with her best friend.

Atkins also had a list of other Hollywood friends, including Lindsay Lohan, Demi Moore and her daughter Rumer and the Olsen twins.

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Who’s number one? This guy is. Sergio Garcia holds a three stroke lead heading into Sunday’s final round of the British Open. (AP Images)

Sergio Garcia is heading into the final day of the British Open with a three stroke lead over Steve Stricker and no-one else closer than six shots. The Spaniard is sitting at 9-under 204 and holding the 54-hole lead in a major for the first time.

Garcia finished round three on Saturday with a bogey-free 3-under 68. He missed only two shots and escaped with par both times. He did hit a photographer on the 17th, and seemed shaken when paramedics were working on him, but managed to save the hole.

He ended the day with a birdie shot on the 18th, screaming after the ball, "Oh, be good, BE GOOD!” And good it was, as it hopped onto the green and rolled to within 12 feet of the flag.

Garcia enjoyed the crowd and told reporters, "I wanted to make the putt on 18 just for them, and to hear the roar, that would have been just out of this world.”

Tiger Woods, on the other hand, probably won’t become the first player in more than 50 years to win the British Open three straight times. He ended round three with a 69, putting him eight shots behind Garcia with a 1-under 212. He too hit a spectator, this time a 63-year-old woman who left with a bleeding and bandaged head.

Woods has never won a major from behind, and only once has he made up an eight-shot deficit on the final day of any tournament - the 1998 Johnnie Walker Classic in Thailand.

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