Talking Points: Grunt eliminator unveiled

What’s the buzz from the world of sports? Here are some items that will have people talking:

1

First, there was sliced bread. Then, there was the spork. But this may hold the title of “greatest thing since” for centuries to come.

Folks listening to Wimbledon on the radio in the United Kingdom will no longer have to endure the grunting that has become so annoyingly associated with tennis. The BBC recently introduced a new program that allows listeners to minimize the sound of such shrieking during broadcasts.

Maria Sharapova, after all, is much more aesthetically pleasing to the eye than she is the ear, and now tennis fans won’t have to turn to the car-alarm station for ear-drum relief.

If only this were around during the Monica Seles days.

2

ESPN begged the question Thursday: Who had the greatest performance in June? Pitcher Justin Verlander, who went 6-0 with a 0.92 earned run average, pitcher Cliff Lee, who went 5-0 with a 0.21 ERA, goalie Tim Thomas, who led the Bruins to the Stanley Cup title, hoopster Dirk Nowitzki, who led the Mavericks to their first NBA title, or golfer Rory McIlroy, who shot 16 under par to win the U.S. Open by eight shots.

The voters picked Dirk Nowitzki, who received an overwhelming 40 percent of the vote. Talking Points won’t disagree, but it is pretty confident that had it been Tiger Woods and not Rory McIlroy, we would have seen vastly different poll results.

3

Oh, no. Now, two of the countries major sports are gridlocked in a labor impasse.

What are American sports fans going to do now?

Same thing they do every July … watch baseball.

The NBA and its players union will talk tough about the gloomy prospects of a prolonged labor dispute.

But as the NFL has found out, until that labor dispute actually results in canceled games, the fans won’t care.