There are three different types of games on TV, in our mind: 1) The contests you know are on, and you have a moderate level of interest in, but that you could really care less if you miss. Best example: The Sunday night NFL game. 2) The ones you wouldn’t normally care about and really have no interest in, but stumble onto while flipping through channels and end up watching by default. Best examples: regular-season NBA games, MLS games or World Series of Poker. 3) The events that are so big and/or intriguing that you specifically carve out time to make sure you do not miss them. For us, Saturday and Sunday presented four Category 3 viewing opportunities, which is quite a few: the Belmont Stakes (obviously), the Sunday Twins game (morbid curiosity), Nadal vs. Federer in the French Open final (Sisyphus factor) and Game 2 of the NBA finals (obviously). And, as it turned out, it was a total buzzkill of a weekend.

Belmont: The odds flashed on the screen. Big Brown 1-4. No other horse better than 7-1. Maybe it was too much of a foregone conclusion. But we just didn’t see any way that horse was going to lose. When Big Brown was in prime position on the outside, just like always, we were just expecting the explosive breakaway and coronation of a Crown winner. Instead, it seemed like a new version of the commercial where famous moments in sports history are altered (Jordan’s big shot vs. the Cavs rims out, Jeter’s flip to get Giambi is too late, etc.). We’ll likely never know what happened because, with the exception of Mr. Ed, horses cannot talk. What we do know: not a great start to the weekend.

French Open: We turned it on around 10:30 (8 a.m. Sunday? Sorry, but no.) expecting to join things maybe early in the fourth set with an epic five-setter in the works. Instead, we saw Nadal vs. Federer … on grass. We don’t follow tennis closely, but we’re quite sure the French is played on clay. So we checked the interwebs to see if it the match was in a rain delay. Nope, Nadal had already routed poor Roger, giving up just four games in the process. They were showing a 2007 Wimbledon replay as a time-filler. So much for that.

Twins: The starting pitching was wafer-thin at the start of the year, overachieved for two months, and now is starting to crack. The bullpen, without Neshek, is square pegs in round holes except for Nathan. And we were a day late with the Delmon Young home run prediction. And on the pitch where Slowey should have thrown one of those comeback fastballs on the inside corner to Nick Swisher for strike three, he instead left one over the plate that was mashed for a three-run homer that got Sunday’s rout going. Ick.

NBA finals: We’re wondering the same thing Phil Jackson is wondering: how does Leon Powe shoot more free throws than the entire L.A. squad? The Paul Pierce “miracle” continued, and except for the final minute there was barely any tension. The Lakers can wake up for, say, 48 minutes of basketball anytime. The C’s were ripe to be beaten in both games. And they let them off the hook!

So we ask you: What was the most disappointing of the four things we just mentioned: Big Brown, French rout, Twins or NBA finals? Our money’s on Big Brown. Just not literally, thankfully.

Fasola-link! Hurling. In Minnesota.

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