It all starts today.  The History is out there and they will be out there on the pitch too.

The beautiful game kicks off this afternoon in Brazil.  The World Cup.  The Golden Boot.  The Hand of God. The Man of the Game.

The next couple of weeks will show the global stage how great the game of soccer is.

The World Cup is Pele-who forever changed the game.  It is Brazil and its heritage players, Ziko, Dunga.  It’s Zenedine Zidene and Diego Maradona of Spain.  It’s Michel Platini and Thierry Henry and the French.

Name it-they’ve got it, and they’re going to get it again.

No one could have predicted this.  A team in a free-fall, gets hot at the end of the year.  A team on the brink of extinction, comes back from a 3-0 deficit to stay alive.  A team, with its backs to the wall, wins 3-straight Game-7’s on the road.

The LA Kings are 3-periods-60 minutes away, from winning the NHL Stanley Cup again, if they take out the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden tonite.

The Kings, with a “Cowboy” leader of a coach, Darryl Sutter, bounced out of Calgary, who brought passion-respect-and hard work to the room, about to win another Stanley Cup.

You think it’s rough watching this team…you should be there watching that team.

The city of brotherly love, or something like that.  Philadelphia, where the summers are hot and humid, the winters-cold and raw, and the fans and media brutal.

San Diego Padres fans may not be pleased with the product on the field, nor the 87M payroll on a team supposedly flush with TV revenue.  But it’s worse where the Friars play later today, Philadelphia.

It’s pretty bad baseball back there.  Losers of 22-of-32, with an injured old pitching staff, and an older everyday lineup, paid well, but not producing well.

What are you going to do?  You have a mess.  I don’t think there are any answers.

Some home stand by those Padres.

Some week by the Friars.

Some serious discussions should take place. Today is a travel day for the Padres, after a weekend of awful hitting, shaky pitching, and anger from the manager.

The Friars head out on an 8-game road trip with holes in the batting order, and hurts on the mound.  And little help on the way.

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.