In sports, athletes with spectacular performances earn all kinds of accolades – from MVP awards to trophies, and so on.

Here, at The Wife Hates Sports, gold stars are earned – kind of like a grade school teacher would place on a good student’s homework.

After another hot weekend in the world of sports, there were just too many great performances that yours truly had to break out the stars to honor some of the best…

Gold Stars: May 9, 2010

Dallas Braden

An extra gold star goes out to those who have even heard of the guy, as I’m willing to bet not everyone has.

Either way, Braden is a starting pitcher for the Oakland A’s, who not only shut down one of the best teams in baseball in the Tampa Bay Rays (second in runs to be exact) – but he threw a perfect game against them – the 19^th in MLB history.

On top of that, his grandmother – who raised him, was present to celebrate on Mother’s Day.

Congrats, young man.

Rajon Rondo

Honestly, Rondo is often overshadowed by a number of other point guards in the NBA – but you can’t ignore this ridiculous stat line in Game 4 against the top-seeded Cavs on Sunday:

29 points, 18 rebounds and 13 assists…

Yes, that’s a triple-double, and YES that’s 18 boards for a point guard.

Can we NOW put his name as one of the best, please?

Betty White

The WIFE has also put in high grades for White’s recent performance on SNL – and to be honest, I’m not a frequent viewer anymore, but the best thing that could have happened to the late-night skit show was the facebook press pushing for Betty to be host… because she was hysterical – and it was an SNL show that I laughed at consistently for the first time in a VERY long time.

Seriously… Betty may have joked that her “muffin hasn’t had a cherry since 1939”, but her performance on Saturday Night Live was the cherry on top of a few years of subpar late-night desserts.

If you haven’t checked out this Golden Girl’s performance, I’d recommend it – as a handful of SNL’ers were back to pitch in.

Orlando Magic

I’ve been saying it for days now – but amidst all the hype and desire for a Lakers vs. Cavs NBA Finals matchup, the Orlando Magic are a beast growing stronger and stronger.

Orlando remains unbeaten in the postseason, now taking a commanding 3-0 lead over the Atlanta Hawks, all of which were dominate victories.

The warning sign is this: the Magic could use some adversity.  After all, look at LeBron and Co. last year – who cruised into the Eastern Conference Finals, only to face adversity and bow out.  The same could happen if the Magic aren’t careful.

Tim Clark

Of all the other great stories this weekend, Clark’s story is right there at the top.

The PGA media is guilty of having a crush on Tiger and Phil – and deservably so as each has earned to be the talk of the town – but there needs to be more attention to the winners of the tournaments, too.

Clark, who put on a masterful performance at the TPC – earned his FIRST ever victory on the PGA Tour.

So congrats, Tim… it was a great weekend, and finally that monkey can hop off your back and take a friggin’ hike.

Mom on Mother’s Day

Finally, as this special day winds down, it’s important to acknowledge the mothers of the world.

In my case, Mom isn’t just a caring and fantastic family matriarch, but she’s grown into quite the sports fan – so much that she at times puts me to shame – which says something considering my obsession and aspirations to be more firmly cemented in the sports world.

I celebrate you, Mom – and thanks so much for everything you have done for me – and for talking sports with me, too.

And for that… the wife thanks you, too.

This has been Gold Stars… where there’s no back talk, because then we’ll have to wash our mouths out with soap.

It’s 4^th and goal – 0:15 to go – your team is down six but piecing together a drive that is clearly one for the history books.  You have seen every second of this masterpiece of a sporting event, and the icing on the cake would be your team escaping with a hard fought “W”.

And that’s when it happens…

She walks in front of the TV right after the snap.

“She” being “the wife” – we’ll call her that.  That’s what the boys call her.  She may be your wife, maybe a girlfriend, heck, maybe even an acquaintence.  No matter what, she’s the wife – and more often than not, she hates sports.

As a result, you see nothing.  All you can see is a silhouette of estrogen – yet you have to gauge the crowd noise to try and figure out what happened that very second.

This is one of MANY examples that the men of the sports world encounter throughout their lives.

We give you “The Wife Hates Sports” – a sports site with a twist, and this is how we’ll build on it from here.

The site will touch on many different fronts, featuring regular sports posts, pieces on the entertainment industry (music, movies, television and more) plus touching upon the relationship side of sports – but don’t fret ladies – it won’t just be like the aforementioned example.  We’ll try and tie in those females that are sports fans, too.

It’s all still a work in progress – but we’ll do the best we can to have as much fun as we can, while hopefully entertaining our readers and bringing in as much audience participation as possible.

On top of the random sports stories that develop, we’ll also be introducing various features in the future, including (but not limited to) the following:

Wife Wire – Live chats during key sporting and entertainment events

Throwing Tomatoes – A KP original from years back – showing disgust for stories in sports

Gold Stars – Another KP original, giving out awards in the sports world

Remote Controlling – A unique take on TV – we’ll keep it at that for now

Wife of the Week – At first, won’t be a weekly thing but we’ll highlight wives – famous ones, as well as nominations taken by our readers

Pick Your Knows – Game predictions across sports, both spread and straight up pick ‘em too

Sexy Seven – Another KP feature from the past, featuring a list of 7 across any topic

And that, my friends is “The Wife Hates Sports” in a nutshell…

So again, we’d like to welcome you to the site and look forward to talking sports and entertainment with you – hopefully in a tasteful, friendly and fun-filled manner.

More to come – stay tuned!