Compared with Tank Johnson's previous missteps, driving 40 in a 25 zone while allegedly "being impaired to the slightest degree" (to quote the Gilbert, Ariz., police) isn't much. But it was more than enough for the Chicago Bears, who waived the defensive tackle yesterday, three days after his arrest in Arizona. And with that, Mr. Johnson's confounding, exasperating Bears career is over.

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In the Chicago Sun-Times, Jay Mariotti writes that the Bears "wasted two years trying to turn the problematic pinhead known as Tank Johnson into a law-abiding citizen. Monday, they admitted a defeat more lopsided than Super Bowl XLI by cutting him. And I hope they feel properly humiliated, having spent too much time trying to help an unworthy con man when, in retrospect, they should have cut him before the playoffs and avoided a hellish six months."

"Noble as it is to try to save and redirect a life, it's pointless to continue when a troubled man-child won't reciprocate," Mr. Mariotti continues. "Before Halas Hall, the NFL or anybody else can help Johnson, he must want to help himself. He couldn't grasp the message even after 60 days in Cook County Jail, even after his name was dragged through the national media mud, even after everyone from [Lovie] Smith to Michael McCaskey to Tank's teammates to the Rev. Jesse Jackson visited him in the slammer. You just wonder where he's headed now, with his professional name ruined and his reputation as a bungler of opportunities sure to chase away other teams. Will he find himself before a gutter finds him?"

Chicago fans got better news on the field -- well, sort of. The Cubs walked away with a come-from-behind 10-9 win over the Colorado Rockies, courtesy of a two-out, two-run single from Alfonso Soriano. But they'd led 8-3 going to the ninth, only to watch (deep breath) Kaz Matsui single, Matt Holliday walk, Todd Helton double (8-4), Garrett Atkins single (8-5), Brad Hawpe single (8-6) and Troy Tulowitzki connect for a home run (9-8).

As Al Yellon sums it up on Bleed Cubbie Blue, "All Is (Almost) Forgiven".

"This is, I think, what makes baseball so great, the game we all love -- the Rockies, down by five, didn't quit; a team in a sport with a clock, down by a similar margin so late, has no chance of winning, but in baseball, as long as you keep hitting, or as long as the other team gives you a chance by making mistakes, as long as you haven't made that third out, you can still win," he writes. "Both teams in last night's game lived by this -- and fortunately, the Cubs batted last."

Wimbledon began in soggy style yesterday, though Boston Globe's Bud Collins wouldn't be so gauche as to describe it that way -- he begins his column by reminding us that "as we know, it never rains at Wimbledon. Unless there's some moisture in the neighborhood, in which case they call it 'unsettled conditions.' "

From there, he checks in with Martina Hingis and Teimuraz Gabashvili before settling on Roger Federer.

"Currently he is in pursuit of Bjorn Borg, the erstwhile Angelic Assassin of Centre Court," Mr. Collins writes. "By winning for a fifth successive time, Federer would equal the Swede's 1976-80 parade as well as his 11 major championships. Borg has wished Federer well, saying he'll be here for the final -- if Roger is. Pete Sampras, who goes into the Hall of Fame at Newport, R.I., July 14, has admiringly conceded that the Swiss big cheese will punch holes in his record 14 majors and seven Big W titles. There are other multiple Wimbledon winners to be considered: Willie Renshaw won six straight, 1881-86, and Laurie Doherty five in a row, 1902-06. No word has been heard from Willie or Laurie, but they may be operating in unsettled conditions."

A change for all: The partial roof of Wimbledon's Center Court is being replaced with a full retractable roof, a process that will be complete in 2009.

"The club has calculated that the roof will be the size of 7,500 umbrellas and guarantee that at least some marquee matches can be played every day," John Branch writes in the New York Times. "But with the old partial roof dismantled and the new one not built, it has left the world's most famous tennis arena 'al fresco' for the first time in the 85-year history of the building. And if all goes to plan, for the last time. That has made Center Court the tournament's great curiosity, which has as much to do with aesthetics and ambience than the effect that the old roof had on combating weather. It was less a roof than an awning that covered most of the seats but left a large open-sky hole over the court -- a sunroof of sorts, but all too often a rain roof instead."

The weekend saw the return of Ken Griffey Jr. to Seattle, where his 11-year tenure made him a legend and quite possibly saved the Mariners as a franchise. The reaction from fans who hadn't seen Junior since August 1999? A wild outpouring of love. And Griffey celebrated with two home runs Sunday, passing Mark McGwire for seventh on the all-time list.

"This wasn't one last, long farewell to Ken Griffey Jr.," writes Steve Kelley in the Seattle Times. "He'll be back. There was too much leftover goodwill after the final out. Too many tears, too much love for this to be the last time he plays baseball in Seattle."

In Mr. Kelley's view, "things have changed in Seattle. At 37, after three kids and 18 big-league seasons, Griffey has matured. And, after a seven-plus year absence, the city fully understands what he has meant to the franchise. Griffey now knows he can return to Seattle. He can end his career with the Mariners."

If that sounds like idle talk, Griffey himself talked of finishing up as a Mariner. But some other columnists are offering caution flags.

"Not that there's anything wrong with nostalgia, romance and sloppy sentiment (this weekend again proved there is crying in baseball), but we interrupt this Hallmark card moment to offer this suggestion: Whoa," writes Art Thiel in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. "Good as he looked Sunday, he wasn't the Ken Griffey Jr. of 1995 or 1997, and certainly won't be in two years, which is when he would likely be a free agent eligible to consider a return to Seattle."

In the Tacoma News Tribune, Dave Boling goes beyond stats to sum up what Griffey meant to the Mariners. "That smile is at the center of the singular image that serves as the foundation of this franchise," he writes. "Nothing conveys the history of baseball in Seattle like the picture of Griffey, grinning as if he's about to dislocate his jaw, flattened out under a dog pile of teammates after scoring the clinching run in the 1995 American League division series against the New York Yankees. … The essence of it all is in that smile, in that picture, in the image of Griffey grinning out from under the weight of his teammates, all future Mariners and every fan the team has had since that moment."

In New York Magazine, Chris Smith dissects the relationship between New York Yankees manager Joe Torre and his troubled on-field child, Alex Rodriguez. To do so, Mr. Smith examines the Yankee manager's own youth, beginning with a searing recollection.

Joe Torre stands at the top of a cellar stairway in Marine Park, Brooklyn, looking at where his life nearly ended before it began. "This is where my father pushed my mother down the stairs," he says quietly, "when he found out she was pregnant with me."

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