The Nike Company has just introduced its new football which is to be used in some of the top leagues in Europe for the upcoming season. The ball is named the Total 90 Tracer and the company’s obviously calling it the world’s top performing football.  It will be kicked about in the English Premier League, Spain’s La Liga, and Italy’s Serie A.

Nike stated the ball was designed with the help and input of some of the world’s top football players and teams and was meticulously engineered down to every detail including hand-sewn seams, surface texture and the bladder’s tension.

Detroit Tigers (51-50) @ Boston Red Sox (58-44)

Date: Saturday July 31st, 2010

Time: 4:10 pm EST

Preview: The Detroit Tigers will play the second of a three game series on Saturday at Fenway Park. The Tigers are coming off a 4-2 loss to Tampa Bay on Thursday, which drops them to just one game above .500. Detroit, fighting through all their injuries, are six games out of first place – in third place in the American League Central. The Tigers are led by Miguel Cabrera and his .347 batting average, along with 25 homeruns and 89 runs batted in. Detroit, as a team is batting .270, which ranks them 7th in all of baseball. Detroit has lost 10 straight road games. Max Scherzer will take the mound for the Tigers. The 26 year old from St. Louis is 7-8 with a 4.45 earned run average. He is coming off a loss to Tampa Bay, in which Matt Garza threw a no-hitter against him. In that game, he went 5.2 innings, allowing 2 hits and 3 earned runs.

UFC on Versus 2 is Sunday night, and it offers fans another chance to see the electric Jon “Bones” Jones in the Octagon. Here are our free picks.

Tyson Griffin (14-3) -325 vs. Takanori Gomi (31-6) +250

Gomi was rudely welcomed into the UFC by Kenny Florian, getting beat up and finally choked out in the 3rd round. He’s on a 3-fight losing streak. He was supposed to fight Joe Stevenson but will instead face Tyson Griffin after Stevenson suffered a knee injury in training. The result would be the same for Gomi either way. Griffin should suffocate Gomi and do what he does best — work out a decision victory.
Pick: Griffin -325

Jake Ellenberger (22-5) -175 vs. John Howard (14-4) +145

The Boston Celtics are still thinking about how they lost in game seven of the NBA Finals to the archrival Los Angeles Lakers, but they have come to the conclusion that they need some more size and length in the paint, especially with defensive minded center Kendrick Perkins being out for a significant amount of time next season.

As a result, the Boston Celtics went out and signed former All-Star big man Jermaine O’Neal to a free agent deal, but they may not be done there as they have shown interest in signing four-time NBA champion Shaquille O’Neal.

Throughout the NBA offseason this summer, Shaq hasn’t really received much interest around the league as only a handful of teams have shown any interest in signing the 15-time All-Star. Despite the lack of interest in arguably one of the greatest players of all-time, Shaq has been linked to teams like the Dallas Mavericks, San Antonio Spurs, Miami Heat, Atlanta Hawks and the Atlanta Hawks.