First half is behind the Twins, things have gotten a little better

Whether you call 81 games the first half of the Major League Baseball season or wait until the All-Star Break, the first half is definitely behind the Minnesota Twins.

It's behind them. In many ways, the first part of the season was a disaster. One of the worst disasters in franchise history, some have said. The Twins start the second half today, after the Break, sitting 20 games out of first place in the AL Central. They're one of the worst teams in baseball, competing with the rebuilding Braves and now the Reds, with a 32-56 record.

So, that's not great.

A piping-hot July, so far
They went into the Break winning seven of their last nine games though. In 10 games so far in July, they've scored double-digits in runs in four games, scoring a total of 78 runs. How significant is that? Well, the Twins managed just 80 runs in the entire month of April. The pitching and run support has been much better recently.

The pessimistic Twins supporters could easily be annoyed that the All-Star Break came at the worst time for this ball club.

Just a reminder that the season was pretty much declared dead nine games in during the 0-9 start in April. Some were a little more optimistic and waited until the end of the month to say such things. Yes, it's a long season. Yes, there are ups and downs. However, statistics do not support a team that had the kind of start the Twins had. Being 20-some games below the .500 mark is just such a deep hole. They're on pace to drop more than 100 games for the season.

The positives
Things have turned around a little bit, but it's also come after some roster shuffling. Still, plenty of reasons to watch the boys of summer.

Eduardo Nunez was the lone representative at the All-Star Game for the Twins - after he wasn't even listed on the ballot. Fans had to write him in. Regardless, and whether you like the rule or not, Nunez was chosen by the AL manager. He was the only All Star who didn't get an at-bat and played just a quick 9th inning at second base, helping to turn a game-ending double play.

Nunez has no doubt been the team's star of the first half. He's hitting the ball, he's hit the 20-mark for stolen bases and his helmet has flown off his head too many times to count. His .321 batting average leads the team (minus Kennys Vargas, who's been on a tear in his recent call-up). He's always got a big smile on his face, too, which you'd think would help lift some spirits.

The other hot bat early on was in the hands of Joe Mauer. He started the season with a 28-game on-base streak and was in his usual form from a few years ago, drawing walks and slapping singles around the field. He's trailed off a bit the past few weeks.

Last year's first-half hero and All-Star, Brian Dozier, had an ice-cold start. So did a lot of guys, so I guess he can't be faulted too much. His bat has flared up recently though, and he leads the squad in RBI with 43 and is tied for the home run lead with Miguel Sano at 14.

Oh, Sano. In the beginning when the team was strikeout prone, he was one of the main culprits. As a power guy who can hit home runs, he'll strike out some. He's dealt with a hamstring injury that probably could have been worse. There was his time in right field. Yeah. On his return, he's starting hitting again and has showed off what a nice arm he has at third base.

Rookie leaves his mark
That brings us to perhaps the most pleasant surprise: Rookie Max Kepler. He was called up and got significant playing time in right field after Sano went down. In the final game before the Break, he hit his first career grand slam in Texas as part of a route-win, 15-5, over the Rangers.

When he hits home runs, they've been huge. His first career homer was a 3-run shot to the right-field seats at Target Field, in a walk-off, 10th-inning win over the Red Sox. He's also at 33 RBI, which ranks fourth on the team - and he only has 46 games under his belt. He's fun to watch.

There have been plenty of injuries and players being sent down to AAA. Trevor Plouffe has had a couple stints on the disabled list, Eduardo Escobar and Danny Santana have, too. Byung Ho Park struggled after his good start, so he was sent down to AAA. Eddie Rosario spent some time down there, too. Oswaldo Arcia and Kevin Jepsen were both designated for assignment - and now they've ended up with the Rays.

Starting pitching has turned around as well, with pitchers tossing quality starts after massive struggles. It's maybe not where it should be but has improved.

So, there are a few thoughts about the Twins in their first half. Some good things and definitely some not-so-good things. Here's a the second-half of the summer!

No competition for the accomplished Serena

Serena Williams won the women's Wimbledon singles title this year, her seventh, giving her 22 Grand Slam titles for her career. That ties her with Steffi Graf for the most-ever in the Open era. Serena has been praised as one of the greatest (female) athetles of all time.

I say, she's one of the most accomplished athletes. In my mind, it's difficult to judge how good she really is - because she hasn't had a lot of strong, rivalry-type competition.

For years now, it seems every Slam is Serena's to lose. She's the dominant favorite. Has she won every Slam? Of course not. Sports are still sports. Upsets happen and sometimes she had an off day, as anybody does. Still, who has challenged her reign consistently?

In the earlier years of her career, it was her older sister, Venus. The sisters matched up in a few finals together. Venus, 36, is still playing, though her game has understandably dropped off. Venus actually made it to the semifinals at Wimbledon this year though, and she and her sister took home the doubles title.

Wimbledon

Playing the rest of the field
So who else on the women's side? Caroline Wozniacki looked like she had a chance, but she's never won a Slam after being ranked No. 1 in the world in 2010. She's choked away matches, and her distracting relationship with Rory McIlroy probably didn't help her game either. Entering the tournament unranked, she was ousted from Wimbledon in straight sets this year.

Maria Sharapova is a five-time Grand Slam winner and also a former world No. 1. The Russian-born Sharapova added screams and small fist-pumps to her the game, but her career has pretty much been killed by a drug test violation at this year's Australian Open. Before that, her career was plagued with shoulder injuries.

Victoria Azarenka is one of the top players, ranked No. 1 in 2012, and if she spent less time shrieking the entire match and more time focusing on tennis, she might have a shot at rivaling Serena. The only two Slams for Azarenka were back-to-back Aussie Opens in 2012 and 2013. She just announced this morning via Twitter that she's pregnant, so she'll be out of competition for the rest of this year but hopes to return.

Genie Bouchard looked to be on the rise, too, until a fall in the locker room at the U.S. Open last year resulted in a pesky concussion. I'd like to see her come to normal form again, but we'll see. Like I said, pesky concussions. She's made it as far as a singles final at Wimbledon.

Americans are still waiting for Sloane Stephens to break out as the next tennis phenom, perhaps taking the torch from Serena. Her best year was in 2013, when she reached career-best rounds in the Slams, including the semis in Australia. She's still just 23, so maybe give her a little more time.

Madison Keys is an up-and-coming American player as well. 2015 was her best year so far, reaching the semifinals in the Australian Open. Maybe the 21-year-old has what it takes to dominate. Most of the Slam results for Stephens and Keys have been first through fourth round exits however.

No women's rivalries to be found
All of these players have had a shot. They've had a chance. They give a glimmer of hope that they'll be a consistent threat at Slams. Then they'll make a first-round exit a couple times, and it's two steps back. Mostly, it's different players winning at different times.

Who's a consistent threat in women's tennis? Serena Williams. That's it. Gone are the days of Chrissy Evert-Martina Navratilova rivarly. If you want rivalries of top players, look to the men's side the past few years, or even past decade.. It went from Connors-McEnroe, to Sampras-Agassi, to Nadal-Federer and Djokovic-Federer, with a little Andy Murray thrown in there, too.

The women's bracket is a totally different match.

She's a great player, but...
I'm not saying Serena isn't talented. You don't win that many Slams without some raw ability and strong performances over a career. If she gets into trouble in a match, she can serve up those high-powered aces for an entire game to get the momentum rolling again. She pulls off shots that you wouldn't think anybody else could. She never seems to let a first-set loss get her down; it usually means a three-setter is on the way, and that she'll be victorious.

She's packed with plenty of amazing talent.

I just think she hasn't had the competition along the way. No one has consistently challenged her. That's not her fault, of course; I just think it's significant and why I say she's one of the most "accomplished" athletes. I'd love to see her go up against Djoker or Federer, actually.

What will be really interesting in the next few years is to see how Serena's career will end. She's 34, so already playing past her prime and the domination at this age is remarkable. Will she step away near the top? Or will she continue on and have a tough time walking away from the sport, even as her success and her play drop off?

I'll be interested to see which players are thrust into the spotlight after Serena's exit, whenever that may be. Maybe things will continue as they are and it will be a smattering of upsets and new faces making names for themselves in Grand Slams. Or maybe new rivalries will develop. It would be refreshing to see a few players rise to the top and stay there for a while.

Because Serena won't be the tennis queen forever.

IndyCar's triumphant return to Road America does not disappoint

Welcome back, Road America. We've missed you.

Last weekend, the Verizon IndyCar Series returned to one of the greatest road courses around: Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wis. It's been nine years since the then-ChampCar Series visited the four-mile road circuit for a race. Really, it's been too, too long.

Open-wheel racing has been at RA since 1982, missing just one year during its run through 2007. For anyone that followed the Indy Racing League (why, I'm not sure), they haven't seen RA on the schedule since the early 1990s before the split.

It's been, 9 years
In 2008, the two open-wheel series merged back together as IndyCar. For some reason, I'm sure money related, Road America was left off the schedule. As the years went on, I gathered that part of the reason was because the schedule already held the Milwaukee mile oval track, and RA was just too close to run both. This made absolutely no sense though, since for years both tracks were on the schedule.

Team Penske paddock.

For the past few years, the IndyCar schedule was released without RA. This is why I would offer up my #BringBackRA hashtag every so often. It was frustrating because it's such a fan-favorite course, but the drivers love it, too. Some of the best drivers in the sport identify it as their favorite circuit.

If it sounds like I'm gushing over this place, that's because I probably am. Road America has a special place in my heart. Our family isn't the typical go-to-the-cabin type during the summer. We don't camp. Instead, our annual summer trip was a journey to Road America. We'd typically go for the Friday-Saturday-Sunday weekend, watching as much racing as we could.

This place has history, sentimental value
Our first visit was in 1990. We've also gone back for American LeMans races in the 2000s. The rain-filled race weekend in 1997 taught us to always be prepared race fans, bringing ponchos and extra tennis shoes with us on future trips. We ended up buying Andretti ponchos in '97 because the rain was just non-stop. We've seen plenty of crashes, spins, walked through the paddock and seen plenty of drivers during our RA tenure.

Anyway, when the series announced it would make a return to RA in 2016, the racing community went crazy with excitement. Me, too.

Juan Pablo Montoya after Canada Corner.

The vibe on Twitter, seeing the increase in race fans and hearing the driver interviews on TV, the consensus was pretty clear: Everyone was happy to be back. Funny thing is, I think only about half of the drivers have driven at the track before, since the hiatus was so long.

Back home again, at Road America
Friday, we could already tell that the attendance was up and rivaling the "good ol' days." We took in a couple practice sessions and walked the paddock. It's really the best day to take in the action from different spots around the 14-turn track and take photos. I just had my point-and-shoot camera but was able to get some nice shots in (cropping will help). We watched from Canada Corner and then later as they came up the hill in turn six.

One of the cool things was to see all the improvements at the track, including a few new vantage points to watch. There's a new path surrounding the before-and-after of Canada Corner (turn 12), plus the spot around turn six and then you can walk down and see the cars come through turn seven, too.

Saturday, it was more practice, paddock time and then qualifying. We watched from inside turn 14, which I don't think was open in previous years. That's when we saw the legendary Rick Mears, who works for Team Penske, watching the field. For qualifying, we saw team owner Bobby Rahal pull up before turn 12 along the new path to watch his son Graham Rahal. We didn't think we'd see an owner just hanging out around the track like that, but there he was.

Oh yeah, and the weather was perfect if you like sunny, summer days.

It's always fun to see the paddock where teams are working their magic on the race cars, always trying to make them better for qualifying and race day. Always be on the lookout for driver sightings, too. We spotted: Helio Castroneves, Juan Pablo Montoya, Will Power, Simon Pagenaud, Jack Hawksworth, Takuma Sato, Josef Newgarden, James Hinchcliffe, Graham Rahal and also team owner (and former driver) Jimmy Vasser, who we stopped and talked with briefly. My dad had him autograph one of his racing photos, then got Bobby's signature later, too.

Sunday Funday Race Day
Race day, we set up our chairs in the inside of turn 14, so we could see the cars come through into the turn, then head up the huge hill to the main straightaway and the start-finish line. It's also sometimes nice to see which cars head into the pits. There was also a large videoboard in the corner, which really helps when it's a four-mile track. For reference, the cars take about a minute and 45 seconds to get around for one lap, give or take.

Will Power got off in the grass after turn six in practice.

Will Power had the pole and led all but four of the 50 laps, just because of when he came in for pit stops. He was pretty much untouchable as he drove to the win. He jumped out of the car in victory circle and was "stoked" to get the victory. Tony Kanaan finished second. If he would have had a few more push-to-passes left near the end, or if the race had a few more laps, he might have had a chance to overtake Power.

The race only had one yellow flag, with 11 laps to go that made for a fun final stint. Something broke on Conor Daly's car, sending him into the sand in turn one. It bunched everyone up for the restart and was an exciting finish. Pagenaud was running up front all day, until an engine problem had him fighting to keep the car going; he fell to 13th. Graham Rahal rounded out the podium in third.

The racing was even better as I re-watched it on the broadcast. Newgarden - who raced with an injured wrist and broken clavicle after his Texas crash - battled with Montoya. Good, clean racing. Scott Dixon was done just a few laps into the race with a mechanical problem. Castroneves got penalized for blocking and then didn't give up the position right away, because of course he did. He still finished 5th.

It was just a great race weekend all around. Power may have been stoked about his win, but the rest of the drivers, teams and fans were certainly stoked for the great show that was the Kohler Grand Prix at Road America.

See you in 2017, RA.