Welcome to the Mid-Week Grades. We’re taking next week off for a little summer vacation. It’s a Houchins-free zone at WGEM SportsCenter again today, so Broc Hampsmire and I will break these down around 8:20 or so on Wednesday. If you’d like to text in a grade to the show, zip it to us at 217-617-9437:

A — College World Series. South Carolina wrapped up its second straight CWS title on Tuesday night with a win over Florida, sweeping the best-of-three series at the new TD Ameritrade Omaha Park. The Gamecocks made every play they needed to make on defense, especially in the Game 1 win against Florida on Monday night, to win the title. The CWS was all about pitching and defense and a lot less about the high-scoring games we’ve seen the CWS produce in the past. Thanks the new aluminum bats for that.

B — Soccer news. It was a pretty newsy day on Tuesday in the soccer world. Sure, the U.S. women’s national team opened World Cup play with a 2-0 victory over North Korea, but that wasn’t the biggest headline from the match. That came afterward when the North Korea coach said his team lost because his players were struck by lightning during training. If that wasn’t enough for you, Mexico’s men’s U-22 team that will play at the Copa America Cup had eight players suspended for having a party with prostitutes and having a bunch of stuff stolen from the ladies of the night.

C — Old guys. The Major Leagues has welcomed back two old guys to the bench in Florida’s Jack McKeon and Washington’s Davey Johnson. The good news for those guys is that they’re back in the saddle again. The bad news is that they have to manage the Marlins and Washington. It’s good for McKeon and Johnson that they’re back, but why don’t these teams give some new guys a look on an interim basis?

D — Pittsburgh. The city really needs this NFL lockout to get over and fast. In lieu of having anything to root for — although the Pirates are having a pretty good season — the city will have a celebration on Thursday to commemorate Hines Ward’s victory on “Dancing With The Stars.” There’s no word on whether the Steel City will also celebrate Ben Roethlisberger if he can make it through the rest of the off-season without getting into any trouble.

F — St. Louis Cardinals. The Twitter and Facebook worlds were buzzing Tuesday night after Ryan Franklin came in and promptly gave up his eighth home run of the season. The fact that the team still has him on the roster, is rather amazing and it’s something that no one can seem to figure out. Franklin’s days with the Cardinals should be numbered.

Welcome to summer school, where the grade book is always been filled out. I’ll mull these grades over with WGEM SportsCenter host Josh Houchins around 8:20 a.m. on the award-winning radio show on ESPN 1440. Feel free to chime in with your grades via the text line at 217-617-9437. Here we go:

A — Rory McIlroy. He lost at the Pepsi Little People’s Golf Championships in 2002, but the pride of Holywood, Northern Ireland found Congressional to his liking during the U.S. Open. His eight-stroke win says a lot about his ability to bounce back after a miserable finish at the Masters when he melted down on the back nine. Just 22, McIlroy has the look of a guy who’s going to be in the major mix for a long time.

B — Boston Bruins. The team won its first Stanley Cup in four decades last week and threw one heck of a party, running up a bar tab of more than $150,000. Loved this graphic done by Sixteenwins.com, although I’m starting to get sick of Beantown teams winning everything.

C — Pepsi Little People’s Golf Championships. It was quite a week for Nan Ryan and company. First came the new of McIlroy’s U.S. Open win, which means the LPGC needs to find an alum to win the PGA Championship to give it the grand slam. The tournament got a nice boost on Monday night with the announcement that Titan International is going to come on board as a co-sponsor in 2012. There’s still the issue of getting Quincy kids out to play and growing the tournament back up, but it was still a good week for the tournament, which seems to have gone off without a hitch.

D — David Roth. No, I’m not talking about the former front man of Van Halen. This is about a guy whose son plays for the University of South Carolina baseball team, which is playing in the College World Series in Omaha. Roth missed seeing his son, Michael, play in the CWS last year when the Gamecocks won it all. He said if the team made it back to Omaha, that he was going to be there. The Gamecocks made the return trip this year, but David Roth was out of vacation. So he decided to quit his job. Hopefully, South Carolina makes it worth the guy’s effort.

F — Florida Marlins. Much to the chagrin of the proprietor of Topp’s Tips, I have to tee up Florida’s Worst. The fish are flopping badly this season. Going into Tuesday night, they’ve lost 20 of their last 22 games, had their manager leave and get replaced by 80-year-old Jack McKeon, who says he’s not a mircale worker, and play their games in front of thousands of empty seats each night. And the team is opening a new park next year. Unless they get LeBron and Co. to slide over to play up the middle — I’m think LeBron at short, DWade at second and Bosh in center — no one’s going to show up there either.

These are the last grades for spring. (What? You thought summer was here? It doesn’t start until June 21, people.) Hopefully, all of this rain will go away soon. Anyway, we’ll hash these over on WGEM SportCenter around 8:20 or so on Wednesday. Listen in and text in your grades to 217-617-9437:

A — Dallas Mavericks. This is probably a stretch, but I think these guys deserve almost as much love from the American public as the guys from Navy Seal Team Six got for getting rid of Bin Laden. The Mavericks’ NBA Finals win was a win for America. The only people pulling for the Heat were the bandwagon jumpers and the fake, tanned South Beach combers. It was good to see Dirk Nowitzki, Jason Kidd and Co. win their first ring. Gotta love Mark Cuban, too. Too bad MLB wouldn’t let him buy the Cubs.

B — Quincy Gems. I realize they’re only a fifth of a way through their season, but a 10-1 start is pretty darned impressive. Tuesday night’s 3-2 victory over Dubois County was their second walk-off win of the season. They’ve been pounding the ball and getting some good pitching. The team’s only real flaw so far has been its defense, but the offense has helped make up for that so far.

C — The Golf Boys. For some reason, PGA Tour pros Bubba Watson, Rickie Fowler, Ben Crane and Hunter Mahan have decided to form a band called “The Golf Boys.” They released their first single on Tuesday — “Oh Oh Oh.” Oh, no. It’s pretty awful. The guys looked like they were having fun filming the video and all proceeds from anyone dumb enough to download the song go to charity. They need to stick to the fairway and leave the microphone alone.

D — Greg Anderson. You probably only know him as Barry Bonds’ trainer. The guy who gets thrown in the slammer each time Bonds is on trail because he won’t testify. Well, Anderson’s out of the clink right now and tried to coach his kids’ baseball team in Northern California. Thankfully, some parent objected and Anderson’s out of the dugout. Would you want the guy knee deep in the BALCO scandal coaching your kid? I didn’t think so.

F — LeBron James. Look, LeBron’s going to win an NBA title eventually. Probably with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh by his side. But the Miami Heat’s first go-around together ended with a loss to Dallas. LeBron doesn’t earn the F here for his repeated ability to fade away in the fourth quarter. No, he’s getting teed up for what he had to say after the Game 6 loss. When asked what it’s like to have so many people root against him, James basically said that we’re all losers and we’ll have to go back to our meaningless lives and he’s going to do whatever he wants to do. Take away the “c” and the “l” from class and you have what LeBron really is.

After flunking everyone last week, we get things back to normal with this week’s edition of the Mid-Week Grades. I’ll talk these over with WGEM SportsCenter host Josh Houchins on Wednesday’s program. We’ll yap it up between 7 and 9 a.m. on ESPN 1440. We’ll look at the grade book around 8:20.

A — Luke Guthrie. I usually like to wait awhile before putting the same person or team in the grades, but the former Quincy High School golf star has certainly earned another mention. He got ripped off an A last month after winning the Big Ten Conference championship. There’s no denying the University of Illinois golfer this week. He had another strong showing a the NCAA Tournament, helping the Illini reach the match-play portion of the team event. On Monday, he went out and came this close to making it into the U.S. Open field during a qualifier in Springfield, Ohio. Guthrie could still make the field as an alternate, but I think he’s shown that he’ll be playing in some pretty big tournaments down the line.

B — Francis Kallon. The suburban Atlanta teen recently committed to play for the Georgia Tech football program. Not that big of a deal until you consider that Kallon has never played a varsity game. The 6-5, 245-pounder had to be coaxed to play spring ball at Lawrenceville Central Gwinnett. Kallon, who lived in London for much of his life until moving to Georgia last year, thought he was going to be a basketball player until he stepped on the football field and turned heads. Illinois was one of a dozen schools who tried to get Kallon to sign.

C — Los Angeles Loyola High School track and field. The team took second in its class in the California state track and field meet over the weekend. Not bad, huh? It is when you consider that the team should have finished with a state championship. Pole vaulter Evan Barr’s third-place finish was wiped out after he was DQ’d for cursing after his last attempt. When his points came off the board for Loyola, it would up taking second to Long Beach Poly. In what other sport would points be taken off the board if a player cursed? Are there any?

D — Bryce Harper. The Washington Nationals’ can’t-miss prospect made another bone-headed play on Monday night. After hitting a home run for the Class A Hagerstown Suns, Harper decided to blow a kiss to the Greensboro pitcher as he made his way home. It’s a pretty bush league move by Harper. If he tries to do that when he gets to the bigs, he’ll get a 98 mph fastball to the dome the next time he steps to the plate.

F — Lenny Dykstra. The former Mets and Phillies star would love to have Harper’s problems. Dykstra’s facing 25 misdemeanor and felony counts on grand theft and drug possession. Dykstra and two buddies were trying to run a scam by leasing the cars. Cops wound up finding a mini drug store at Dykstra’s house while they were investigating the crime. “Nails” could be in the pen for 12 years if he’s convicted.