The Rock Almost Lays the Smackdown on Tiger

Going to start doing this more regularly so...

ITEM ONE: A Great Walk, Enjoyed by all

The item headline refers to the old Mark Twain line that golf is, "a good walk, spoiled." Well, anyone that dialed in for even a few minutes of the drama that unfolded over the weekend at Torrey Pines knows that the feelings of Mr. Twain cannot be applied to the 2008 U.S. Open. In fact, to paraphrase another of his famous lines, "the death of the golf game of Tiger Woods is greatly exaggerated."

Tiger has always been a freak of nature when it comes to golf, and he proved yet again that he is in singular company as an athlete. After all, who else takes 8 weeks off following knee surgery, and comes back to win the championship after 91 holes? You could see him grimace after many a tee shot, and anyone that has had one of their knees cut on to any degree will tell you there is no faking that pain. But the thing about Tiger is that he's not just a guy that can drive 30-50 yards further than anyone else and use that to his advantage. Sure, he does that from time to time, but what was unreal to watch was how he kept missing fairways consistently, yet still staying in the tournament. He was playing, as he described it, military golf off the tees (you know: left, right, left, right). I think I actually hit more fairways in regulation than he did, and I didn't play at all.

The thing about Tiger is actually two things: first, his incredible imagination with his shot making after getting into so many problem areas off the tee. As someone who plays golf, I have found myself off the cart path and in tall rough more times than I care to count. The thing about him that is impressive is how calm he always seems to be in these situations, and the trust he has in making the perfect shot just moments after hitting a tee shot so badly that the rest of us would just pick up and wait for the next hole.

The other thing is his sense of drama, and how cool he is with the putter. Friday's back nine, when he shot 30, was ridiculous even by Tiger's standards. The long putt he made on Saturday was incomprehensible, and the way he sank that last putt on Sunday to force the playoff was beyond description. It's like watching a super hero; every time you think there's no way he's going to get out of this one, he does.

The only problem with what Tiger did is that, with rare exceptions, there are no bad guys to root against while pulling for Tiger. Often times, it is a guy like Rocco Mediate, who you are also equally pulling for in these situations. The guy is 45, has never won a major, never even come close to winning a major, and there is no way based on his resume that he should be hanging with the best player the game has ever seen for 91 holes like that!

Yet Rocco was his ever charming self. I briefly got a chance to know him in Jacksonville when I lived there a decade ago, as he was a regular in a bar I used to work/hang at. If you don't like a Rocco Mediate, then there is something seriously wrong with you. The guy is very charming and very easy to be around. I was rooting for Tiger, but also rooting for Rocco. And that's the beauty of golf; you can root for multiple competitors at the same time. The 2008 U.S. Open will be long remembered for Rocco's valor in placing second just as much as Tiger's vigor in winning another major.


ITEM TWO: So long Willie

What the hell are the Mets doing? Last fall, as I wrote about on this blog, the Mets collapsed and failed to make the playoffs in a way that was hard to watch. But instead of firing manager Willie Randolph, they brought him back. And when things started slowly this year, they let him twist in the wind for several weeks.

Then this morning, around 3:15 AM Eastern Time, after the first game of a West Coast road trip that they won, GM Omar Minaya fired Randolph and two coaches. Which leaves me with one question:

When exactly did the souls on the Steinbrenners and Wilpons switch places?

This was a bush league move to break him off this way. Are the Mets underachieving? Yes. Was his firing a forgone conclusion? Hey, I'm 3,000 miles away and I knew they needed to make a change. Whenever I watched them, they lacked the firepower and intensity they had in 2006. It turns the Mets lost more than just the NLCS on that October night in 2006 at Shea. The team also lost their edge, and maybe it seems their soul.

How else to explain this? And then to have the Mets claim they didn't want to fire him on Father's Day is a reason they waited a day? Makes me ashamed to be a Mets fan, something that has happened in a while.


ITEM THREE: It's over tonight

I'll be brief on this one: the Celtics will win the NBA title tonight. It's obvious that the NBA wanted a Game 6, just look at how Garnett quickly got into foul trouble in Game 5. Fact is, the Lakers have only been the better team for 48 minutes in one of the five game so far. And the Celtics will come out with a lot more fire in the belly before the hometown fans tonight. Kobe has been inspiring to watch, but tonight the C's get the kill shot. I'll be back tomorrow to write more about that and other NBA thoughts, see you then...