Gameplan

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Giants at Rockies
O.K., who thought this would be a big series back in April? Didn't think so. The surprising leaders in the NL wild-card race (at week's end Colorado was up by a game and a half) meet four times beginning on Friday (MLB.tv). Big-swinging Pablo Sandoval gets to hack in the thin air of Coors Field, but the Rockies have actually allowed fewer home runs at home than on the road.

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To John Daly's latest hit
Things didn't go so well for Big John at the PGA—he dropped out after a first-round 78 because of a bad back—but he had the blues long before that. Daly's newest song, the downbeat country tune Lost Soul, is now streaming at twiturm.com/jrzd. It won't cheer you up, but there's good news for fans of Daly's music: He's working on an album of the same name.

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Solheim Cup
The women's version of the Ryder Cup is up for grabs this weekend at Rich Harvest Farms in Sugar Grove, Ill. (Golf Channel). The U.S. is looking for a third straight win, and for the first time it will have Michelle Wie, 19, to help the cause. There were critics when the LPGA rookie was added to the team, but Wie, one of the Tour's longest hitters, could rock on the lengthy course.

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The Long Snapper
In December 2003 Brian Kinchen, who hadn't played in the NFL for three years, was teaching a seventh-grade Bible class in Baton Rouge when his cell rang: The Patriots needed a long snapper. Two months later he set in motion a Super Bowl--winning field goal. Jeffrey Marx tells Kinchen's story with wit and grace, spotlighting a position often lost in the NFL trenches.

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WPS title game
By finishing with the best record in the first Women's Professional Soccer league season, the Los Angeles Sol won the right to host Saturday's title game. (L.A. will face either St. Louis or Sky Blue FC at 4 p.m. on Fox Sports Net.) Don't expect a lot of goals (even for soccer): The Sol, behind Canadian keeper Karina LeBlanc, yielded only 10 in 20 games.

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Hard Knocks
Think life in the NFL is easy? A reality check came in the first episode of HBO's five-part documentary series on Bengals training camp, when a front-office exec knocked on J.D. Runnels's dorm-room door at 5:30 a.m. and informed the bleary-eyed running back that he was being cut. Ouch. New episodes premiere every Wednesday on HBO through the end of camp.

The Pop Culture Grid
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