LeBron-a-thon continues

I've been away from the computer for a few days, but I will attempt to round up my thoughts on what we've missed over the long weekend. Starting ... wait for it ... now!

• LeBron James is still keeping his mouth shut about his plans for signing anywhere, if he has any. He's currently running his three-day basketball camp in Akron, and is reportedly behaving as if he's got nothing else on his mind. That's a good thing for those young men who are attending his camp; maybe not so good for media outlets that are trying to get a read on what he's going to do. It's been reported that he's likely to announce something as soon as his camp is over. Maybe so. I guess we'll just have to wait.

• Amar'e Stoudemire announced yesterday that he's agreed to a nine-figure contract with the Knicks, and has been recruiting LeBron to join him there. How much difference will that make to LeBron? Only one man knows. And that's assuming he even knows, which he may not.

• The Indians are 3-2 so far in the month of July, but continue to get hit with injuries. Shin-Soo Choo, who's been their best player all year, is out with a thumb injury that he sustained while diving to catch a fly ball on Friday, and we don't know yet whether he needs surgery or not. He's likely to be out a couple of months, but we'll see. Grady Sizemore and Asdrubal Cabrera are both out too; Sizemore for the season, Cabrera until late July or early August. Those are the Tribe's three best position players. It's tough for any team to overcome that, much less a young, cheap team like the Indians.

• Matt LaPorta continues to sizzle, but took an elbow to the head while covering first base on a ground ball in yesterday's 9-3 win over Texas. LaPorta's two-run homer gave him five on the season — four of which have come since June 29 — and he's hitting .333 with a .412 OBP and .767 slugging average since taking over first base when Russell Branyan was traded June 27. But he was dazed and nauseous after Elvis Andrus clocked him with his elbow while LaPorta was trying to field a throw that bounced in the dirt. Let's hope this doesn't throw him off his game, because he's doing some fine things right now.

• The Netherlands, which I'm on record as rooting for in the World Cup, has its match with Uruguay at 2:30 this afternoon to see who plays the Germany-Spain winner for the championship. Uruguay, you may be surprised to learn, won the first-ever World Cup in 1930, and also won the title in 1950. The Dutch have reached the final twice, most recently in 1978, but never won it. The nation then known as West Germany won three titles out of its six trips to the final, and the unified German team lost the final in 2002. Spain, much to my surprise, has never gotten to the final. I tend to root for teams that have never tasted the glory, so I'll be rooting for the Dutch and the Spanish to reach the title game. It should be interesting.