It will be quiet-solemn-serene sad today…there…not at ballparks or in the arena or on the tennis-golf course or race tracks.

Step away this morning from all the sports storylines, the Spurs-Heat, Kings-Blackhawks, baseball, NFL, the French Open-Golf, the Belmont Stakes or auto racing.

Close your eyes, see the grainy black and white video.  Listen closely and you might hear the sound of artillery, imagine the roar of engines.

70-years ago at this hour, men were landing and dying at Normandy.  D-Day, the day they sacrificed so much.  

Baseball is all about history… the stats… the teams… the personalities.  We lost one last night.

Popeye has left us.  Don Zimmer, the tobacco chewing, pepperpot 3rd baseman, turned coach, turned manager, turned baseball ambassador. passed away last nite in Floirda.

Zim spent 66-years in the game.

He was a grinder as a player, a star in the Dodgers farm system, who got beaned in the head, and was never quite the same again.  .  They put a metal plate in his skull to help the healing in the 1950s, and he said no problem, there’s not much there anyway.

He played with Jackie Robinson in Brooklyn; played for Casey Stengel on that (40-120) Mets team, won rings, and lost lots of games too..

The young phenom gets welcomed rudely… the old dog’s bite is pretty good.

A night at the ballpark was interesting.  The Padres lost another home game,  in what has been a downward spiral at Petco Park since early May.  Last place is in sight, and we’re not even to July 4th yet.

But last night’s game with the Pirates was an interesting display for young and old.  Rookie Jesse Hahn, who has only pitched as high as Double A-got the start and was good the first time thru the batting order.

Grizzled veteran Jason Lane, a journeyman at best, converting from outfielder to pitcher, was something to see, a 37-year old throwing perfection in his first ever major league pitching peformance.

Hahn struck out 5-early, then the 2nd time thru the batting order Pittsburgh waited him out, and took him deep, a Neil Walker opposite field blast, and a Pedro Alvarez screaming linedrive homer to right.  The kid hung tough, but he does not have enough stuff to stay in the rotation.

Lane was a power hitting outfielder, who began his career 15-years ago.  He had 3-good seasons with the Astros, stopped hitting, and got buried in the minors.  He converted to pitcher and has gotten better and better the last three years.  Out of desperation he got called up.

Lane retired 10-batters in a row, in 3-plus perfect innings out of the bullpen, and went thru the heart of the Pirates order too.  Impressive, his craftiness, his guile, his attitude.

So in what is turning out to be an otherwise dreary summer of baseball, we stop paying attention to the woeful seasons of Gyrko-Headley-Grandal, the injury issues of Quentin, and the pitching surgeries.

Hahn gave us a sneak preview and definitely has some stuff to do this.  Lane wowed us to the point he should get another chance, maybe even a start too.  There will be better days for Hahn; it was some day for Lane.

The logo on the sleeve of the uniform is the swinging friar.  The standings in the paper today read (26-33)-the swing and miss Friars.  But for 1-nite we paid attention to why they play the game, to get to the show, like Jessie Hahn, and to want to stay in the show like Jason Lane. 

We now return you to your regularly scheduled strugging franchise… 

Wear & Tear take its toll… not good news if this is bad news about this injury.

The Chargers need all hands on deck this season if they are going to make a push to go deep in the playoffs before the expiration date on Philip Rivers career takes place.

The Bolts don’t need this piece of news that leaked out.  That one of the last remaining veteran offensive lineman on the team, is out with double surgery.  Jeromey Clary, who served so ably at right tackle, then moved inside and played so wll at guard is ailing.  Surgery on his shoulder…surgery on his hip.

He has had a rock solid career, a blue collar guy, who came from Kansas State, and became a warrior out on the edge.  And with the arrival of DJ Fluker, he became an anchor and teacher and tough guy at right guard.

Clary has 100,000 miles on that frame and he played hurt all last year.  Like the other ‘last man standing’, center Nick Hardwick, they are all that is left in a once strongboy offensive line.  Marcus McNeill and Kris Dielman left with injuries ending thier career just two seasons back.

Hardwick has had his own on-going miseries with neck stingers and shoulders too, the aftermath of 10-years of struggles with big defensive lineman.

If tis is the end for Clary, it is a bad sign in San Diego.  Left on the roster are young Johnnie Troutman, who couldn’t hold onto a starting job; journeyman Rich Orhnbeger, a scrapper, but not a star, and just drafted, but undersized Chris Watt.

Fans have taken to bashing Clary over the years.  He may not be artistic, but he is combative and he is tough, and he is needed.  If he cannot come back, you’ll soon find out how valuable he was on the field, even if the paying public didn’t value him at all.

Not the kind of news the Chargers need going into next season…

We don’t know what to believe…but we will know soon if everything is alright with Lefty.

It was a stunner of a story on the PGA Tour at the Memorial.  FBI agents descending on the historic Jack Nicklaus course in Dublin, Ohio, to confront golfer Phil Mickelson.

This months after the golfer was pulled off a plane in New Jersey for questions too about his affiliation with a gambler.A rich player, has fun in Las Vegas, befriends a known gambler.  An athletes who likes the gaming tables, and likes to bet.

His friend, a longtime track record of gambling wins and gambling losses.  And an association with the CEO of Clorox.

And now all these questions about stock purchases, profits, and the red flag words “Insider Trading information”.

Mickelson says he is not a target, but did he benefit from deals?  Did he know what gambler-friend Billy Walters was doing.

Don’t jump to conclusions on this story till you get all the facts.  Yes there are too many good things that Phil Mickelson represents as golfer, businessman, father and husband.

But in this world in which we have come to lose faith in athletes who are pitched as one thing, and turn out to be something else, you wonder what he knew, what he did, did he profit from it?

Hard to believe Phil Mickelson is involved in this.  But then again it was hard to believe who Tiger Woods was and did, or what Alex Rodriguez became.  We know how all that turned out.

Until he is in front of a grand jury, I’ll sit and wait and hope he is on the fringe, and not involved at all.  Thinking this is a bogey of a story involving Phil.  Hoping all is right with lefty on this one.