What a crazy week in the world of sports!

Sports fans have tons to look forward to at the close of this week and on into next week with the Soccer World Cup tournament starting in Brazil; the U.S. Open Golf Championship in Pinehurst, N.C.; the end of Stanley Cup Finals; and the end of the NBA finals.

In soccer, host country Brazil will be opening the tournament against Croatia, and local eateries and bars will surely be tuning their big screens to this game. The U.S. team does not start playing until Monday, June 16 at 6 p.m. The U.S. will be playing Ghana and has a better than 50/50 chance to win that game.

In golf, the U.S. Open is being played at The Pinehurst Resort for the third time, but the course is completely different, having had a major restoration in the last few years. The remake of the course was an effort to bring it back to the look it had in the 50s. I am picking Matt Kuchar to win the tournament and I will be watching it on ESPN and NBC over the weekend.

My record for this year has not been all that good on predicting outcomes of sporting event finals. But I am going to go out on a limb and pick the Los Angeles Kings (who are up 3 - 0 ) to win the Stanley Cup over the New York Rangers. Even though the Kings are my pick to win, I do hope the Rangers don't get swept. By the time you read this article, we will all know that answer.

In the NBA playoffs, I'm rooting for the San Antonio Spurs to win over the Miami Heat in seven games. I'm going with the Spurs because of their shocking game three win with a score of 111 - 92 in Miami. The Heat are known to play well at home, so this was a complete surprise. I don't think the Heat will be able to recover from that loss.

As a side note, I just wanted to say that as a part time horse racing fan, I was very disappointed that California Chrome wasn't able to pull off the win at Belmont and earn the coveted Triple Crown. Not only would it have ended the drought of 38 years without a Triple Crown winner, I just really liked the story of this horse. Chrome's owner may have sounded like a bit of a sore loser, but I actually agree that the horses that get to race at the Belmont Stakes, when there is the chance of a Triple Crown, should be required to have run in one of the two prior races. Maybe next year will be the year.