At the club level, Cristiano Ronaldo has won everything there is to win. Still, he is criticized and constantly compared, not just to Lionel Messi, but to the greats of all time like Pele and Diego Maradona. In regard to the latter two, Ronaldo’s critics love to mention that he hasn’t won a major tournament for Portugal. To be fair, his performances for his country haven’t matched those for his clubs. He has been surrounded by more talent at Real Madrid and, before that, Manchester United. Former Portugal manager Carlos Quiroz did him no favors with his negative tactics either.…

You always want your favorite sports athletes to go out gracefully. Not everyone can go out a champion like John Elway. You at least want them to retire before it gets sad watching them. That’s why it’s painful to see Venus Williams play in 2012. On Monday, Williams lost to Elena Vesnina in the first round at Wimbledon. Wimbledon is the same tournament where Williams won five championships and became one of the greatest female grass court players of all -time. Vensina, who is ranked No. 79 in the world, had lost 10 of her previous 11 Grand Slam singles…

On Friday, Tampa Bay Rays pitcher Joel Peralta was suspended eight games for coming into a game with pine tar on his glove. This whole fiasco went down on Tuesday, when the Rays were in D. C. taking on the Washington Nationals. Peralta had just entered the game in relief of David Price. While throwing warm-up pitches, Nationals manager Davey Johnson approached home plate umpire Tim Tschida, which everyone thought was a bit out of the ordinary. After their pow-wow, Tschida headed to the mound and inspected Peralta’s glove. Upon finding pine tar, Peralta was immediately ejected from the game;…

David Ortiz went on another one of his now patented rants on Thursday. The WEEI.com headline is that Ortiz says he isn’t having fun in Boston. Can you blame him? It is a new and different shit-show every day at Fenway Park. If I was David Ortiz, I wouldn’t find having to deal with the constant drama that surrounds this team to be fun either. Most of this drama has nothing to do with him. He wasn’t in the chicken and beer crowd. He didn’t piss away hundreds of millions of dollars on free agents who have literally contributed less…

After 143 winless races, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. proved yesterday that he can still find his way to Victory Lane. After four years without a win in the Sprint Cup Series, Dale beat Tony Stewart quite handily, finishing 5.393 seconds ahead of the No. 14 Office Depot Chevrolet. He dominated the 200-lap Quicken Loans 400, leading 95 laps; no other driver led more than 38 laps. With 11 top 10 finishes before Sunday’s win, this could prove to be Earnhardt’s year to finally win it all in the Chase for the Sprint Cup. He is second in points behind Matt Kenseth,…

Rajon Rondo’s performance in the Eastern Conference Finals has been underappreciated. All I read about still is LeBron James or Russell Westbrook’s 9-assist game that was spotlighted on ESPN’s First Take. LeBron James’ 40-point performance against Indiana was also analyzed and praised, but still, nothing on ESPN’s First Take about Rondo. There have only been a few articles here and there, but nothing mainstream about it. He only did something that has never been done before in the postseason, and had a 44-point, 10-assist, 8-rebound and 3-steal performance. That’s right, Larry Bird never did it, Magic Johnson never did it, Michael…