Soccer Basher Mad Tea Party
Dear FIFA, U.S. Soccer Fan, MLS, and Euro 2008:
I know you want America to love you, but it's just not working out. You aren't trying hard enough to make this relationship blossom -- and I think you should seek counseling.
The British-sounding guy doing all the Euro 2008 commercials just isn't sexy to America. You can do better soccer nation. If [read more...]
Tiger Joins Elite Company
I'm far from what you would call a golf guy. I know maybe ten players on the PGA tour, have never played a round in my life and my greatest education on the sport comes from Rick Reilly columns, "Caddyshack" and "Happy Gilmore". My lifetime highlights in the sport all involve mini-golf or video games, and I barley can hit [read more...]
Latest Win for Tiger a Super Knee-jerker
Once again, it is quite obvious that sportswriters and golf fans across the world haven't seen enough superhero movies or underdog epics. How do I know this? Well, because everyone was so quick to begin oooooing and ahhhhhhing over Tiger Woods winning the U.S. Open while hobbling around on a bum knee. I guess I should be in awe like [read more...]
The Brain Leak
(Week of 6/9/08 - 6/15/08)
As summer switches into high gear and temperatures across the country begin to rise, The Leak is creating new and innovative ways to keep you indoors and save you from those nasty CO2 emissions, twilight dinners with the in-laws and the neighborhood Cougar who simply should not be wearing that skimpy of a bathing suit.
Finally, a [read more...]
Tiger Woods
The Leak 3.0: A Belmont shocker, Jones goes abstinent, Becker (hearts) Nadal, Ozzie’s F-bombs and a one-legged Tiger on the prowl
The Brain Leak (Week of 6/2/08 - 6/8/08) The Leak has seemingly grabbed a solid foothold in the fickle landscape of sports commentary and thus pushes on with an unforeseen third edition. No longer worthy of some wordy, nagging and self-depricating rant of an introduction, TBL slowly matures to the point where it can afford to allow its content to [read more...]
Tiger Woods
'Watching Tiger Woods play his final round of the 2008 Masters I have to admit that maybe I’m wrong. See, I continue to believe that Woods’ failure to win when trailing after 54 holes in a major is a fluke statistic. But Sunday, after watching him blow opportunity after opportunity to make the shots that would allow him to post [read more...]
What’s Missing In Tiger
Watching Tiger Woods play his final round of the 2008 Masters I have to admit that maybe I'm wrong. See, I continue to believe that Woods' failure to win when trailing after 54 holes in a major is a fluke statistic. But Sunday, after watching him blow opportunity after opportunity to make the shots that would allow him to post [read more...]
Race and Sports: Maybe If the Cards are Laid Out on the Table…?
Racism, the 21st century version, is as insidious as it has been at any point in U.S. history. Gone are the days of knowing which side of the tracks to live to distinguish white and black. Gone are the days of knowing that for a black person, to cross those tracks is to cross at one's own peril. Though those [read more...]
Teed Off
There's not much that's funny about being a spectator at a professional golf tournament in Southern California. I went to the third round of the Buick Invitational in Torrey Pines, notebook and pen in hand, ready to make copious notes, and after a full day of spectating, could only come up with one funny line: Some men should not wear [read more...]
Kelly Tilghman: In Plain View
By now we know the words - in reference to how young golfers should attempt to stop Tiger Woods - that came from Kelly Tilghman's mouth."Lynch him in a back alley." Most of us also know that Tiger Woods called the incident a "non-issue." His response, through his agent, Leigh Steinberg, was this: "It is a complete non-issue. Kelly and Tiger are [read more...]
From Bonds to Clemens to Ankiel to Taylor to Tilghman: Context Lost
Months ago, when the Rick Ankiel-HGH news broke, I wrote that his being outed represented - potentially - a watershed moment in sports and sportswriting. It was the moment when the subjects of race and racism, of PEDs in football, and constructive criticisms of all sports, especially the NFL, could be broached by a large enough portion of the U.S. [read more...]
Hart Surgery: The Most Dominant Athlete Ever
I have this friend. To say he is stubborn is to say that Bobby Brown is slightly unstable. This friend is a running enthusiast, and because of his appreciation for the endurance and stamina it takes to compete in sports that require those traits, he has developed an incredible passion for and devotion to Lance Armstrong. Now, I am on the [read more...]
Hart Surgery: Insomnia
I have a cold. I know, I know, I should take vitamin C to help it (or euthanasia or whatever it's called), but I just don't believe in medicine for a cold. If I have the flu or something sure, but for a cold, I say grin and bear it and wait out the four or five days it will [read more...]
Hamilton at British Open, No Major Surprise
John Daly beating John Basedow in a fitness celebrity competition. Upset. Todd Hamilton - just another no-name golfer, baffling scribes, competitors and critics alike with a triumphant major title at the British Open? Darn near predictable. If golfs hallowed majors, and many other tournaments, have taught us anything in the past couple of years, it would certainly be that the talent [read more...]
Hart Surgery: Lefty Does it Right
Well, its official: I have become my father. I'm not sure when it happened. I suppose the receding hairline should have tipped me off, or the desire to win every argument I enter. But watching Phil Mickelson win the Masters on Sunday, it was confirmed. After he rolled in a birdie on the 18th hole to win, I literally said to myself, "It's nice [read more...]
Hart Surgery: The Silver Anniversary
Numbers play a huge role in sports. Salaries, milestones, averages: we are constantly trying to figure these figures and place them in a context that will give them meaning. Numbers are significant in our everyday lives as well, and this week I am confronted with a big number of my own. Tuesday I turned a quarter-century, the big 2-5. I'm not sure what to [read more...]
Hart Surgery: The Show is Over?
Many things attract us to athletics. The thrill of competition, the unpredictability, the common bond shared by fans of the same team. And there is one other reason. We watch sports because we see people doing things that transcend what 99.9 percent of the public is able to do. When we watch Tiger Woods, Barry Bonds, or Serena Williams, we [read more...]
From The Gallery
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Website Poll
Poker sites for US players are somewhat hard to come by these days. Aside from the big ones, PokerStars and Full Tilt, mainly smaller, fairly unknown sites are available to Americans. It s a good idea to read a poker room review before you sign up with a site you don t know very much about.
