So even before Charlie Manuel enjoyed the rare event of a Brad Lidge save, the Fourth of July headlines had triangulated into adulation for Manny in Petco, the unexplained shooting death of McNair involving a 20-year-old woman who was not his wife, and preparations for tomorrow's Staples Center memorial for Michael Jackson. Authorities have been beefing up for as many as a quarter-of-a-million fans converging on the home of the Lakers for the Glovefest.
It remained for the Williams sisters, Serena, the upset Wimbledon ladies singles winner, and older sis Venus, the favored runner-up, to inject an element of dignity into an unruly Fourth where the most dangerous and unstable nation on earth fired off seven test missiles capable of striking anywhere in South Korea or Japan. All the Williams gals did was fire aces at each other in an annual ritual where they climb into white costumes and do for cash and glory on Centre Court what they did daily on public courts as kids under the tutelage of their mad genius dad.