With a few exceptions, professional sports seem to take a vacation from the national spotlight during the June through August months. SportsCenter is typically dominated by repetitive replays of home runs and the occasional soccer or WNBA highlight. The summer of 2007, to put it kindly, was a little more eventful.

There were plenty of major sports-related headlines over the three-month span. There was the return of integrity to baseball when Commissioner Bud Selig banned Barry Bonds from the MLB and declared that all of his prior individual achievements would be eliminated from the record books.

There was the beginning of a corrupt-free NBA when it announced that it would become the first league to ban all public betting on its games. And of course, there was the touching story of Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick joining PETA.

Yep, all of these things happened in the summer of 2007—only the exact opposite. In reality, Bonds continued to be a huge pain in the asterisk; an NBA official had big bucks on his mind (not Andrew Bogut and Dan Gadzuric); and Michael Vick got himself into some deep Shih Tzu.

The best part about the 2007 summer of sports? It’s almost over.

For the lucky few who were too busy at work or at the beach to keep up with sports, here’s a recap of the three major professional sports leagues from a summer in serious need of a mulligan.

In the MLB, Bonds, who has “allegedly” used steroids, “allegedly” broke Hank Aaron’s home run record when he muscled No. 756 out of the ballpark. After surpassing Hammerin’ Hank, “Barroid” has hit a few more dingers, including his most recent, the 761st of his career.

Hank’s record wasn’t the only one going down this summer. Locally, the Brewers annual post-All-Star break slump has them on the fast track to a sub-.500 finish, and they’ve all but handed the division crown to the, gulp, Cubs.

Unlike the MLB, where the players cheat, the NBA has a bigger problem—the refs are cheating! Or at least, one ref. Veteran official Tim Donaghy pleaded guilty to two federal charges that he bet on games that he officiated over the course of the last two seasons. Good luck getting a team now, Vegas.

The summer wasn’t any better closer to home, where the lottery-bound Bucks ended up with the sixth overall pick in the NBA draft—the lowest possible selection they could receive. Pick six was then used to select Yi Jianlian, the Chinese basketball equivalent to Eli Manning. Yi is currently refusing to play in Milwaukee because there aren’t enough Chinese buffets or something.

The NFL had an even bigger mess to deal with. Superstar quarterback Michael Vick was charged with multiple felonies after it was discovered that he operated a dog fighting enterprise known as “Bad Newz Kennels.” Vick later admitted in a plea deal to gambling on the dogs, as well as to hanging and drowning dogs deemed unworthy of participating in the fights.

As for the Packers, Nick Barnett managed to get arrested over the summer, although he avoided nation-wide scrutiny due to the fact that he didn’t kill several household pets.
Fortunately for the world of sports, the NFL and NBA seasons begin in the fall, and baseball concludes with its exciting, yet, likely Brewer-less postseason.

After a miserable summer of sports, fans can bet that the fall season will be much more rewarding. Tim Donaghy and Michael Vick already have.

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