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Tuesday World Cup — Paraguay vs Japan, 7 a.m., ESPN World Cup — Spain vs Portugal, 11:30 a.m., ESPN Wimbledon —Women’s quarters, 7 a.m., NBC, 10 a.m., ESPN2 MLB— Athletics at Orioles, 4 p.m., CSNC MLB — Pirates at Cubs, 5 p.m., WGN MLB— Dodgers at Giants, 7 p.m., CSNB Sports 1B Tuesday June 29, 2010 My brother ESPN 82nd ranked Lu upsets Roddick ESPN first went on the air seven months before I was born. Since then we’ve grown up and old together. I was there for the introduc- tion of The Deuce, ESPN Clas- sic, ESPN Desportes, ESPNU and the latest ESPN3.com. No matter where I’ve lived ESPN has been there with me in times of great joy and times of heartbreak. The friendship started early. Every morning before catching the bus for school I would eat my breakfast and watch SportsCen- ter. Back then they actually showed more than five seconds of highlights for each game and after an hour you felt as if you had attended every sporting event across the country the night before. I was obsessed. One time ESPN even caused me to lose a dog. We had moved into a new house and I had Bandit outside. After a few minutes Bandit barked, but I chose to wait until the next commercial break before letting him in. When the juicer commercial hit and I went to go Ban- dit, I realized my dog was gone. We never found him. Bandit probably got lost in a new neighborhood he was- n’t familiar with. Stupid ESPN. Well, I’ll be honest, stupid me. You see, I feel like ESPN is a brother at this point. And like most brothers, it’s a love-hate relationship. During these past couple months with no high school sports to tide me over, I’ve had to turn to ESPN more and more to fill that sports void — and it’s been letting me down. I know it’s easy to pick on the big guy, but like I said, I consider ESPN family and I just have a bit of brother- ly advice. Well mainly two things — enough with the negativi- ty and learn to put things into perspective. When it comes to negativity on ESPN it started with the influx of talk radio guys about a decade ago. Guys who have made a living dwelling in all that is wrong in the sports world — Jim Rome, Colin Cowherd, Skip Bayless. The only positive things these guys ever say is when something happens to make one of their 8,000 per week ego-driven predictions come true. The easiest thing to do is just switch the channels when they come on, but it’s not that simple anymore. This pessimistic attitude has been like a plague all across ESPN and frankly all across the national sports landscape. The negativity was cute when it first showed up. It was supposed to be a way to show the passion sports fans have and how upset they get when their team loses. But this has gone too far. Being disappointed is different than being negative. At times it seems ESPN is pulling for teams to lose. The Dallas Cowboys have lost two in a row — time for a 10-minute segment breaking down the end of America’s team. The Yankees lost a weekend series in Baltimore — full panel discussion on whether Derek Jeter should retire. Tiger Woods — we all know what they did with him. Yen-hsu Lu defeated Andy Roddick at Wimbledon, Monday. But will it be reported as what Lu achieved by knocking off one of the world’s best or will it be about Roddick failing? I have to say for the most part ESPN’s coverage of the World Cup and especially team USA has and was posi- tive. What it wasn’t, however, was placed in the proper historical context. Every United States World Cup game was dubbed as the most important in US soccer history. Each goal was the biggest ever in the history of the sport for Americans. Here’s an ESPN translation guide for you — when someone on the cable station says most important or biggest ever, what they mean to say is, “this is the most recent.” The U.S. beating England 1-0 in 1950, qualifying for the World Cup in 1990 after decades of failure, advanc- ing to the quarterfinals in 2002 and even last year’s vic- tory over Spain were better accomplishments than beat- ing Algeria 1-0. What they weren’t — was the most recent and any analyst could tell you that — as long as they weren’t try- ing to hype you to tune in for the game. What ESPN has done in the past 31 years is truly remarkable. They’ve basically created a perpetual motion machine and it’s sole purpose is advertising. Every week the games get bigger and more important. Brett Favre had the most important game of his 20- year career six different times last season. That’s impres- sive considering he played in two Super Bowls and nei- ther of them was this past January. I understand I’m being somewhat hypocritical when I bash ESPN for being negative, by going negative myself. But like I said, ESPN is my brother and I’m just trying to set him straight and unfortunately he’s rubbed off on me. It’s scary. More alarming to me however is, like usual, sports are just a microcosm for the larger world. We live in a time where everyone is being negative and we believe every decision being made will be the most important in the history of humankind. We live in a time where every month the biggest movie blockbuster ever is released every year the can’t live without gadget hits stores. Turned out swine flu was to the Black Plague what Mark McGwire was to Babe Ruth. It makes your life seem more important if everything that is happening in the world is the greatest or best of all-time. But before buying into the hype, don’t forget the little things that probably are more important, like paying attention to that barking dog in your life. Don’t worry, you won’t miss anything, the next great, biggest, epic event of all time is just a few days away. Courtesy photos Vanessa Latham (left) and Ted Smith (right) won the Fifth Annual Ladies and Men’s Bass Fishing Tournament at Lake Almanor. The Fifth Annual Ladies and Mens’ Bass Fishing Tournament and Family Camp Out was held on Lake Almanor on Memorial Day Weekend. And it was a case of either you had it or you did not. Lake Almanor was spotty fishing but the women turned in some good weights for a two-fish limit. Vanessa Latham took first place with 5.78 pounds. She also caught the Biggest Fish weighing in at 3.51 pounds. The Men’s Fishing Tournament had a five-fish limit and the winner was Ted Smith with 15.21 pounds. The average of his five fish was 3.08 pounds The Biggest Fish event was caught by Jack Hogan weighing in at 3.91 pounds. Brazil, Netherlands march on Brazil 3, Chile 0 JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Five-time champion Brazil beat South American rival Chile 3-0 to advance to the quarterfinals of the World Cup on Monday. Juan opened the scor- ing in the 34th minute at Ellis Park Stadium with a firm header from near the penalty spot off a corner kick. Luis Fabiano added to the lead in the 38th, receiv- ing a one-touch pass from Kaka and drib- bling past goalkeeper Claudio Bravo inside the area before hitting the open net. Robinho scored his first goal in the tourna- ment with a shot from the top of the area in the 59th minute, a one- timer into the far cor- ner. Brazil will face the Netherlands, which ear- lier Monday defeated Slovakia 2-1. Chile is the first South American team eliminated. Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay are in the final eight, and Paraguay plays Japan on Tuesday. The victory in front of nearly 55,000 fans at Ellis Park extended Brazil's dominance over Chile. It was the eighth consecutive win; the last loss to Chile was 3- 0 in a 2000 qualifier for the 2002 World Cup. Brazil has now reached the quarterfi- nals of the World Cup every time since the 1990 tournament in Italy, when it fell 1-0 to Diego Maradona's Argentina in the second round. Brazil coach Dunga and assistant coach Jorginho were starters in that Brazilian team. The Brazilians won the 1994 and 2002 World Cups in that span. Netherlands 2, Slovakia 1 DURBAN, South Africa (AP) — The Netherlands reached the final eight when stand- outs Arjen Robben and Wesley Sneijder scored in each half of a 2-1 victory over Slovakia. The Oranje, who have never won soccer's biggest prize, went ahead in the 18th minute when Robben cut inside from the right wing and found the net with a low, precise shot from 20 yards. Robben sat out the first two group matches with a hamstring injury, but his return has rekindled the crafty Dutch offense. Sneijder doubled the lead into an empty net in the 84th after a gam- ble by Slovak goalkeep- er Jan Mucha backfired. Netherlands goal- keeper Maarten Steke- lenburg preserved the win with two key saves in the 67th and the Dutch extended their team-record unbeaten streak to 23 games. Robert Vittek scored on a last-second penalty kick for Slovakia, then rushed to the net to retrieve the ball, only to hear the final whistle. Rich Greene WIMBLE- DON, England (AP) — Andy Roddick’s mood was subdued, his words curt. Once again, he’s leaving Wimble- don without the champion’s trophy. Only this time, Roddick heads home much earlier than a year ago — and after being beaten by a far-less- accomplished opponent. The No. 5-seeded American erased an early deficit to even his fourth- round match against 82nd-ranked Yen-hsu Lu of Taiwan, then got bro- ken for the only time all day in the very last game and lost 4-6, 7-6 (3), 7- 6 (4), 6-7 (5), 9-7 despite hitting 38 aces Monday. ‘‘It never gets easier,’’ said Rod- dick, a three-time runner-up at Wim- bledon. ‘‘Of course I’m going to be (ticked) off when I wake up tomorrow. I mean, if you got fired from your job, you probably wouldn’t wake up the next day in a great mood.’’ This one sure looked like a mis- match going in, and not only because Roddick won all three previous meet- ings in straight sets. Roddick, after all, is a former No. 1 who won the 2003 U.S. Open and played in four other major finals, los- ing each to Roger Federer, including 16-14 in the fifth set at the All England Club in 2009. And Lu? The guy arrived last week with a 6-18 career record in majors, including five consecutive first-round exits. He also lost in Wimbledon’s first round the past four years. So even he had doubts as the match stretched beyond 4 1/2 hours. ‘‘Fifth set, I don’t believe I can win, because he’s (a) better server than me,’’ Lu said. ‘‘But I just tell myself, ’Even (if) I don’t believe, I have to fight.’’’ He pointed to the sky after ending the match with a forehand passing shot, dedicating the victory to his late father, a chicken farmer who died in 2000. Lu’s coach, Dirk Hordorff said: ‘‘Sometimes he’s mentally not strong enough. But today he showed he was strong enough.’’ The second Monday at Wimbledon is one of the great spectacles in tennis, with all 32 remaining men and women in action, and there was quite an array of stars spread around the grounds. With the temperature moving into the 80s, and a cloudless sky, past Wimble- don champions Federer, Rafael Nadal and the Williams sisters all played — and won in straight sets. ‘‘A wonderful day for the fans,’’ said Federer, who beat No. 16 Jurgen Melzer in the main stadium, then observed, ‘‘Obviously I know every corner of this Centre Court. It helps.’’ Serena Williams followed him out there and pounded 19 aces in her 7-6 (9), 6-4 victory over 2004 champion Maria Sharapova. ‘‘I had a few looks at her serve,’’ Sharapova said, ‘‘but even when you had a good look, and the ball’s coming at you in the 120s (mph), it’s pretty tough to do much with it.’’ In a matchup between former No. 1s and Grand Slam champions from Belgium who recently came out of retirement, No. 8 Kim Clijsters beat No. 17 Justine Henin 2-6, 6-2, 6-3. Henin slid and tumbled to the grass in the match’s third game, jarring her right elbow, and wasn’t the same the rest of the way. Lleyton Hewitt, the 2002 winner at the All England Club, lost to 2008 Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic 7-5, 6-4, 3-6, 6-4, while two-time major finalist Andy Murray — Britain’s hope for its first home- grown male champion since 1936 — defeated No. 18 Sam Querrey of Santa Monica 7-5, 6-3, 6-4 and is the only man yet to drop a set. Lu’s victory over Roddick was Monday’s most significant surprise, by far, but it wasn’t the only one. See LU, page 2B Latham and Smith win at Almanor