He's Ba-ack

Guess what? He’s ba-ack. After firing a blistering 7 under 65 today, Tiger Woods has taken complete control of the 135th British Open at Royal Liverpool Golf Club. He is tied for low round in the tournament with Chris DiMarco, who also shot 7 under today and is the closest competitor to Woods at -9. Even though a very talented golfer in DiMarco is only 3 strokes back, the engraver may as well enter Tiger’s name onto the Claret Jug one more time and for the second time in as many years, after he won by 5 strokes last year at St. Andrews.

Yes, Tiger is back and back in focus after his father’s death and his abysmal showing at the US Open, and the world of golf is better for it.

Like most people, I am a huge Phil Mickelson fan. If there was a pay channel where I could watch not only all of Phil’s shots, but just have a camera follow him around the course so we could see what he is doing the entire time he’s on the course, I’d pay for it. If there was some sort of a contest where the winner got a chance to play a round with Phil, I’d enter it. When I went to the PGA Championship at Whistling Straits in 2004, I made my dad walk the first 4 holes with me so we could follow Phil. And even though he has yet to get on the course this morning, and is -3 right now, there is no way he is making a big enough charge today to get to Tiger, and he isn’t going to come back over the weekend.

I’m not basing this on what happened on number 18 at Winged Foot last month, but on the fact that Tiger is the Mariano Rivera of golfers. He is the best closer in the game. He doesn’t come back the best, but he is unquestionably the best golfer in the world at finishing off a tournament. He doesn’t lose leads. Granted, there are golfers on the course still, so they can overtake him without him doing anything about it, but they won’t. He just golfed too well today to have anyone catch him today or for the rest of the weekend.

I feel blessed that I was alive and able to watch some of the best artists practicing their craft; Jordan, Armstrong, Favre, Maddux, Gretzky, and Tiger. With this latest domination, I think we may soon be saying that Michael Jordan was the Tiger Woods of basketball.

(and if for some ungodly reason, Tiger chokes this weekend and doesn’t win, the lesson as always is…. I’m an idiot!)

-Until next time…

Happy Birthdays!

This week marks a week in my life where many people I know turn one year older on the old clock. So, happy birthday to:

Yasmin
Ballback
Jon
My dad
Kelvin

and a speedy recovery wish for my dad who recently had arthroscopic knee surgery to repair some torn cartiladge, bone spurs, and arthritis. Get well soon, and thanks for giving me great knees to look forward to!

-Until next time...

A little dust in the air

I was watching "Rudy" last night on HBO and towards the end of the movie, somewhere during the sequence of the entire team wanting to give their jersey's up so Rudy could suit up for the last game, Rudy's dad saying, "This is the most beautiful sight these eyes have ever seen", and the crowd chanting Rudy, a small dust storm always seems to kick up wherever I am watching this movie. And it happens everytime.

Yes, I get a little welled up everytime I watch that 15 minute sequence, just like some others get a little welled up when they hear, "I love Brian Picollo". It's just something that happens. Why does it happen? Because great sports movies bring out the best qualities in people. The hero always seems like an everyman, so most people can relate to the hero, he/she goes through adversity and triumphs in the end. They give us hope, the one thing we should all have at all times. They let us feel like we've accomplished the same feat because on some level, no matter how small, we can relate to their challenge and feel redeemed when the goal is ultimately achieved.

It can be the movie as a whole like with "Rudy" or "Hooisers" which are end to end great movies, or it can be one speech, like Pacino's "inches and miles" speech in "Any Given Sunday" which was a terrible movie. There are moments, some fleeting, some capturing us for 2 hours that have us remembering a challenge we overcame or at least give us the hope to overcome a challenge.

I may be less of a man to some because I shed a tear everytime "Rudy" is on, but I can't wait until it's on again, because I'll watch, even if it is only the last 15 minutes, just to get the chills I still always get while watching it.

-Until next time...

P.S. British Open coverage starts July 20th at 6:00am CDT on TNT.

The most boring thing in the world

So last Monday, I started watching a bit of the home run derby before I went and played volleyball. This event has become quite boring over the years as the hitters see about 40 pitches each and there are 3 rounds, it is pretty ridiculous.

Anyway, that's not the most boring thing in the world, and until today, it was second. On the way home from John's house after volleyball, I turned on ESPNRadio and actually heard the home run derby being broadcast on the radio! What's next, golf? Why is this thing on the radio? It was even called by one of the best voices around and the best baseball commentator on the planet, Dan Shulman, and I still couldn't get into it. Here's a little recap of how it sounded.

Shulman, "So here we are, David Wright up to bat and.... oh, there's a home run.... and Paul Lo Duca his catch... oh, there's another home run.... his catcher is pitching for him he.... that was is way back and gone... pitching for him here at the derby. If he does well, he ma.... David Wright is in a grove with his 4th home run in a row...."

So yeah, you get the picture, it was terrible. I've said this before and I'll say it again, if I suddenly had a commentator walking behind me all day and giving play by play of my life the list would look like this:

4. Brent Musberger
3. Keith Jackson
2. Gus Johnson
1. Dan Shulman

There you have it, my favorite voice to listen to couldn't even make this event exciting. Hey, ESPN, how about you not put this on the radio next year, so I can keep my sanity.

And that was the most boring thing in the world until I saw the lineup on ESPN tonight. Preceeding the World Series of Poker, which I don't know why anyone wants to watch poker, and I like playing poker and I hate watching it, was the WORLD SERIES OF DARTS!! Come on! How are either of these sports? Why do either of these deserve to be on ESPN? It just baffles my mind to think that enough people are sitting around and think, hey, instead of sitting and drinking and playing cards or sitting, drinking, eating, and standing to throw darts for a while, I'll just watch other people do it instead. How lazy are we?

If it comes to the point where there is a weekly eating contest on television, I am done with tv.

-Until next time...

Sorry Friends and Fans

I had finally crawled out of my first half of the season cave over the weekend after hearing about another Carlos Zambrano domination and decided my hopes could be raised a little again. However, all of that came crashing back to Earth in the span of one inning, 2 grand slams, and 11 runs in the 6th inning of last night's Cubs/Mets game.

Don't worry, you will not read any more Cubs posts from me, back to what I was doing when this thing originally started, a wide variety of sports and me trying to be whitty.

But, just wait til next year!

-Until next time...