The Saga of Maid Marion - Wimbledon '07

It was surprise upset, a victory out of left field - but if it’s remembered for anything, it will be the loser, not the winner.

The 2007 Ladies Wimbledon championship was a grueling match under a hot English sun, with both Venus Williams and Marion Bartoli getting hurt. It was also one of the least expected match ups in any recent Grand Slam tournament.

Both players faced hard roads to this final and neither player was expected to make as far as the semi-finals, let alone win the championship. Williams faced a young, fiesty and unranked Russian named Alla Kudryavtseva in the first round, nearly losing in a dramatic match. Later on she faced a #2 seeded Maria Sharapova, upsetting her in the process.

Bartoli, on the other hand, went a different route. She not only upset both the #1 and #3 seeds (Justine Henin and Jelena Jankovic, respectively), but had to come from behind in each match as well! The Frenchwoman quickly went from being virtually unknown to a fan favorite among the crowds at Wimbledon, who did The Wave in support and cheered her during stoppages in play, dubbing her “Maid Marion”.

The final match started off a bit slow, with Williams taking a quick 3-0 set lead, but Bartoli battled back, eventually tying her at 4 sets apiece. However, William’s game was too fast for Bartoli, forcing her to run back and forth all game just to keep up.

This eventually was too much for Bartoli to bare. By the second set she was visibly fatigued and looking sluggish. Before long the running was getting to her - she had to call for a trainer: all the running had created a large and open blister on her foot.

However, this method of play also proved to be too much for Williams as well. During the same injury time-out, she also called for a trainer to deal with a sore thigh. And despite a wrapping for it, she looked hurt and finished the game despite a visible limp.

She limped, in fact, all the way to the Venus Rosewater Dish, winning in just two sets - 6-4, 6-1, ending the match with a blisteringly fast ace that hit Bartoli. Williams is now the fourth player to have won Wimbledon four times, joining such tennis legends as Billy Jean-King, Steffi Graf and Martina Natrilova.

Granted, Williams never looked to be in trouble. Marion started off with some sloppy play, such as her double faulting a number of times, and was never able to get the ball past Williams with much success.

In a world where seemingly every Men’s final is Federer vs. Nadel, it was refreshing to see a tournament that was as wide open as this years Wimbledon. Bartoli was seeded #17 going into the tournament, while Williams was #23. And while this win cemented Williams as one of the greats, it also thrust Bartoli into the spotlight.

Who knows what Maid Marion will come up with next?

Why 350 means everything

Even if it doesn’t seem like it, 350 is a very important number.

By winning his 350th game on Monday, Roger Clemens joined one of the most elite clubs in baseball history - one so elite that it has had just 7 other members over a century.

So elite that he’s the first new member since 1965 and the only one still alive.

So that win is a very big deal. Especially when you consider that only one other active pitcher, Greg Maddux, is even close to him - and Maddux benefited from pitching in the National League, never having to face the DH and never pitched in cozy Fenway Park - something that Clemens did for good portions of his career.

It’s an even bigger deal when you look at today’s top pitchers. Unlike home runs, where it’s not uncommon for a leader to hit 40, even 50 in a season, wins keep going down and down.

With the modern specialization of pitching, it is doubtful that we will ever see a 350 game winner from today’s crop. Last season, for example, we didn’t even have a pitcher who won at least 20 games for the first time since 1995. In the last 10 seasons, we haven’t had a pitcher win more then 24 games.

However, we have seen a player hit 72 home runs in one season.

Could any of today’s pitchers ever hit 350 wins? The closest are Greg Maddux, who has already 340 wins, and Tom Glavine, at 297. Both of those pitchers are nearing the end of their careers (they’re both 41) and are unlikely to catch Clemens. There’s only one active pitcher who is under 40 and has close to 300 wins - Mike Mussina, who has 243 - at the age of 38.

But what about today’s young, fresh pitchers? Well, let’s take last season’s top pitcher for the American League: Cheng-Ming Wang. Wang, who won 19 games for the Yankees at the age of 26, has a total of 27 wins coming into this season. For him to get to 350 wins, he would have to have 18 seasons of at least 19 wins. Then, when he’ll be 44 years old, he’ll just hit 350 wins . To ask him to be that good, for that long, is just not a possibility.

So, if this is the final season for Clemens, 350 wins looks like the cherry on top of the sundae of his career. It adds to his resume as the greatest pitcher of his generation, and perhaps the greatest pitcher of all time. Sure, he has a reputation as a hired gun, going where the money is. He’s even burned some bridges behind him, in Boston, Toronto, Houston and arguably in New York.

Were he somebody else, this could be a fatal flaw.

But this isn‘t somebody else; this is somebody who‘s career reads like a wish list for pitching. From the seven Cy Young awards, his multiple times leading the league in wins and ERA to his World Series rings, his career is the gold standard that pitchers will be judged against in the future. By every definition he is a hall of fame player - there are far, far lesser players in the hall of fame.

But still, those accomplishments can be repeated. A pitcher wins the Cy Young and a team wins the World Series every season. It’s possible to win 20 games in a season or to have back to back Cy Youngs.

However, 350 is still a very large number, and is one we may never see again - hence it's importance.