Unforced Errors

Carter Woodiel on whether the NFL is truly committed to the...

Mon, 01 Apr 2013 16:42:30 -0400

Carter Woodiel on whether the NFL is truly committed to the safety of its players. Produced in association with Young Broadcasters of America.

Video

Mon, 01 Apr 2013 16:39:48 -0400

Carter Woodiel on the lack of American stars in the World...

Sun, 10 Mar 2013 23:40:18 -0400

Carter Woodiel on the lack of American stars in the World Baseball Classic — and what this says about America’s baseball culture. Produced in association with Young Broadcasters of America.

Carter Woodiel on the hideous new uniforms six teams will wear...

Sun, 03 Mar 2013 21:10:27 -0500

Carter Woodiel on the hideous new uniforms six teams will wear during the NCAA tournament. Produced in association with Young Broadcasters of America.

Finally Done With A-Rod

Fri, 01 Feb 2013 13:08:57 -0500

(Photo by Corey Sipkin/New York Daily News)

In 2007, when 11-year-old me opened up an issue of Sports Illustrated for Kids magazine, eagerly turning to the middle to see who was on that week’s pullout poster, and was greeted by Alex Rodriguez, holding his bat, gazing at the path of a home run. I put the poster on my wall, below Derek Jeter, above Mike Mussina. It stayed there for five years.

Yesterday I tore it down and threw it in the trash. After years of admiring, then merely observing, then barely tolerating A-Rod, I was finally done.

Of course, many people would have taken down the poster a long time ago. But when A-Rod’s postseason troubles became a citywide punching bag, I kept my cool. It was a small sample size. Just bad luck. What’re you gonna do? When A-Rod began struggling the past few years, I didn’t overreact. You can’t be the best in the game forever. Have to take the bad with the good. Even when A-rod admitted to taking performance-enhancing drugs during his years with the Texas Rangers, I didn’t go nuts. We had seen steroids before, and he hadn’t taken anything in a Yankee uniform. To me, A-Rod was like the dorky kid at school who everyone bullied. It seemed like he was just a scapegoat for the issues of a while team. And regardless, he’s one of the best ballplayers in history. Sure, he was annoying, but he couldn’t be that bad, right?

Wrong.

According to a report by the Miami New Times that followed a three-month investigation, Alex Rodriguez had purchased PED’s since 2009 from a sketchy Miami clinic called Biogenesis, meaning a Rangers uniform was not the only one he cheated in. His name is listed alongside the already-busted former Yankee Melky Cabrera, Nelson Cruz of the Rangers, and Gio Gonzalez of the Nationals in the personal files of Anthony Bosch, the man in charge of the operation. The evidence makes his 2009 admission of steroid use shocking. From his apologetic press conference:

“I’m finally beginning to grow up. I’m pretty tired of being stupid and selfish, you know, about myself. The truth needed to come out a long time ago. I’m glad it’s coming out today.”

The Miami New Times didn’t just report that A-Rod cheated on the ball field. They reported that he lied to me and every baseball fan. He said he had cleaned himself up. He said he was done. He wasn’t. And after years of avoiding it, I’m finally jumping on the “I hate A-Rod” bandwagon.

I hate his smug, arrogant personality. I hate how he smacks his bat into the ground when he pops out. And most of all (I’m cringing just thinking about it), I vehemently despise the face he puts on when he strikes out, pursing his lips together, yanking his chin up, putting his bat under his shoulder as he coolly unstraps his batting gloves on his way back to the dugout. It’s like he’s saying, “I don’t even care. I know I’ll be breaking the bank whether I strike out or not.” Watching A-Rod strike out is the most gut-wrenching thing a Yankee fan can suffer through.

And the worst part is, it’s true. Though the Yankees got the undisputed best player in baseball when they traded for and subsequently signed A-Rod, there’s no doubt that he is worth far, far less than the money he is currently earning. The Yankees are trying to void his contract, but their chances are slim. With Scott Boras as your agent, the language is usually pretty tight.

Tearing down my A-Rod poster in my room means the end of an era. It means that I finally have given up on my favorite team’s biggest investment ever. But, at least from what I’ve heard, hating A-Rod can be pretty fun.

Louisville has just been ranked #1. Duke is now #3. Duke beat Louisville.

Tue, 15 Jan 2013 16:44:00 -0500

Mourning The End Of Big East Ball

Mon, 14 Jan 2013 22:42:53 -0500

When I watch Seton Hall basketball games on my TV (now becoming quite a torturous experience) I’m often greeted by a commercial heralding the Big East Conference. This is typical when watching basketball in conference play, as nearly every league tries to tell fans that their conference does it right, does it better, than anyone else. The Big East spot has the same ambitions, but does things a little differently than, say, the Big Ten would. It depicts a group of young boys, who are “unified by the game, and a dream, to one day play at the Big East tournament at Madison Square Garden.”

As the camera tilts down to reveal the sold-out Garden in its Big East glory, I start to reminisce about tournaments of old. I think back to five games in five days, to monumental upsets, to a game that never ended. The Big East tournament was, besides the big tourney a week later, the biggest and best basketball event of the year.

We still see the Big East today, of course, as the commercial proudly proclaims. A player can be hit hard under the rim and thrown to the ground, but no whistle will sound, and the announcer will point out, as he does innumerably, that it’s simply “Big East basketball.” The giant of the game still lives.

But not for long.

Syracuse and Pittsburgh are headed for the ACC next season. Notre Dame and Louisville are headed there as well. Rutgers is bouncing for the Big Ten in 2014. And seven Catholic schools, Georgetown, DePaul, Villanova, St. John’s, Marquette, Providence, and my lackluster, infuriating Pirates, none of whom boast big-time football programs, are leaving the league in 2015 and reportedly plan to start their own conference. Don’t get me wrong, the new league will be great. Incredible, in fact. These seven Catholic schools decided that they were tired of being pushed around by big football programs, so they decided to start their own league, for [basketball]! I’m already counting the days until it becomes a reality.

But the new league struck a dagger into the heart of the Big East. Only Connecticut, Cincinnati, and South Florida will remain in the league by the time the Catholic schools leave, and that’s provided they don’t get a call from a conference looking to pad its resumé. The Garden will be honoring programs like Central Florida and Tulane, who have as much basketball pedigree as Lance Armstrong has credibility. The Big East as we know it will cease to exist. And that makes me sad.

It also makes me wonder what more basketball traditions could fall by the wayside. We’ve already seen conference reshuffling claim such storied rivalries as Missouri-Kansas and Syracuse-Georgetown, could the best of them all, Duke-UNC, be threatened sometime in the far, or not so far, future? Probably not, though we can’t be sure.

When I attend Seton Hall games, I now savor every moment, even when they look worse than my high school’s JV squad. Because I know Big East ball won’t last forever. In fact, it’ll be gone in the blink of an eye. Because that, for better or worse, is college basketball. We’d better get used to the idea.

"Cause we’re old as s*** … I don’t know how else to put it to you. We’re just..."

Wed, 02 Jan 2013 22:18:26 -0500

“Cause we’re old as s*** … I don’t know how else to put it to you. We’re just slow.”

- Kobe Bryant, explaining to the Orange County Register why the Knicks are 15-16 this season.

Bryant, who is facing a particularly trying year that already has claimed a head coach, was fed up with his team’s age following the Lakers’ loss to the 76ers last night, saying, “You just saw an old damn team.”

I’m sure Kobe just said this because he was frustrated. Losing to the Sixers to go below .500 is never fun, and he didn’t use his best judgement. Because if he really meant it, it would have been a really dumb excuse.

The Lakers are certainly an aging team. Pau Gasol, once Kobe’s reliable number 2, has seen his production fall off a cliff, and Steve Nash, considered a major acquisition by LA this offseason, is clearly not the player he once was. But the Lakers aren’t losing because they are old and slow. They’re losing because they aren’t playing well. They rank 25th in the league in defense, and only 19th in assists per game. If your team has some old players on the court, it should be able to feed them the ball.

But to really rebuff Kobe’s point, one just needs to look at the New York Knicks. They aren’t just the oldest team in the league, they’re the oldest team in NBA history, and yet they stand 11 games above .500, in second place in the Eastern Conference. Why? Because they make the extra pass and smart decisions on both sides of the ball. Kobe’s comments will do nothing to help the Lakers in this cause. Really, he should just stop talking and get to work.

Youkilis Picks Out His Clothes, Fans Eagerly Watch

Sun, 09 Dec 2012 15:15:00 -0500

Kevin Youkilis could play for the Yankees.

The fact still boggles my mind. I’ve been ruminating over it the past few days, wondering why a player who made his living hating the Yankees for years, who I have so despised through season after season, could suddenly suit up in pinstripes and call the Bronx home. It’s a thoroughly unthinkable scenario.

And yet it has become possible, even probable. The Yankees, according to reports, have offered Youkilis a one-year, $12 million deal that would put him at the hot corner in place of Alex Rodriguez, who will be sidelined possibly until the All-Star Game and beyond as he recovers from hip surgery.

The possible signing, which may not happen if Youkilis choses to play for the Cleveland Indians and Terry Francona, his former manager in Boston, is another reminder of the truth of a classic cliché. Baseball’s not a game, it’s a business.

I hate hearing that phrase, and not just because a friend of mine said it as an excuse for trashing my fantasy team a few years back. I hate it because it reminds me of the cruel reality that Jerry Seinfeld so expertly pointed out. When you cheer on sports, you’re cheering for laundry. Players come and players go. If a player moves to a new city, his old fans abandon him. As Seinfeld said, “This is the same human being in a different shirt. They hate him now!” Kevin Youkilis was once so beloved in Boston that fans would utter a personalized tribal “Youk” yell when he stepped to the plate, as Yankee fans dubbed him Kevin Useless. But now Youkilis is changing his shirt, and the roles may well be reversed.

The worst part is that I, and millions of others, will go right along with it. It might take some time, but if Youkilis signs with the Yankees, I’ll begin to ignore his questionable bald-headed goatee, his annoying batting stance, where he raises his bat above his head with both hands only to retreat to a traditional stance when the ball is pitched, his alleged skirmishes with others in the Red Sox clubhouse before subsequently being traded to Chicago. I’ll root for him, because I like his shirt. Because that’s the way baseball is.

Mystified By Maui Magic

Thu, 22 Nov 2012 22:34:30 -0500

Game one of the 2011 Maui Invitational [Photo by Alex Prosperi]

It’s like nothing else in college basketball.

Every thanksgiving weekend, eight college basketball programs, many used to the national spotlight, legions of fans, and large arenas, take a working vacation. The players try on leis. The coaches and staff trade suits and ties for Tommy Bahama and polo shirts. And they all agree to play three games each over three days on the wonderful island of Maui. But the EA Sports Maui Invitational isn’t just a pretty setting. It’s college basketball at its best.

Why it is so enthralling, at least to me, is hard to describe. Maybe it’s the history. The Maui Invitational, unlike many of the other events in the preseason universe, was not the idea of a large TV network or corporation, but of Chaminade University in Honolulu, which as a tiny NAIA school upset top-ranked Virginia, led by Ralph Sampson, in 1982. The game, considered by many to be the biggest upset in the history of college basketball, inspired the school to begin the first Maui Invitational two years later. Chaminade now competes in NCAA Division II, and has hosted the Maui Invitational ever since, their spot on the bracket a reminder of the history that Maui has which other early-season tournaments long for.

Maybe it’s the venue. The Lahaina Civic Center, where Illinois defeated Butler 78-61 for the tournament title, is not much more than a high school gym. 2,400 fans can fit in the building, with most seated on retractible bleachers. A large painting covers one wall. Yet it seems to be bursting with energy, a haven of basketball where no one seems to care that their gym has only two restrooms, only about the game on the floor.

But the true beauty of the Maui Invitational is found in the people sitting, or standing up, as they do often, on those bleachers. Everything about the tournament bursts with passion. As the championship game unfolded, a glance at the bleachers showed half of the fans in Butler blue, and half in Illini orange. Every time down the floor, whether it’s a rebound, blocked shot or drained three-pointer, elicits enthusiastic cheers from the crowd. In a sport where a neutral-site contest usually means a listless crowd planted firmly in their seats, the Maui Invitational offers the rare chance to see two fan bases square off, cheer for cheer.

The passion extends to the players on the court. Maybe I’m crazy, but it seems like every player and coach works and plays a little harder in Maui. Maui games become simply more passionate. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen Mike Krzyzewski jump up and down like he did in Maui last year after Duke sealed the tournament with a three-pointer by Tyler Thornton. It’s also hard to remember when I’ve seen Butler coach Brad Stevens more energized than two days ago in the semifinals, following a play where his players dove onto the floor for a loose ball, eventually forcing a tie-up. Gum pushed to the back of his teeth, mouth wide open, and fists pumping, it looked as if he too wished to lay out on the floor for the ball.

The passion found in Maui is like almost nothing else in sports. Next to March Madness, it’s the best college basketball has to offer. I’m already counting the days until next year.

Basketball Is Finally Back

Tue, 13 Nov 2012 21:23:16 -0500

Ahh. It’s been a while, hasn’t it. Far too long really.

I can hardly remember the last time I was pumped for a basketball game. Duke, which I arbitrarily chose as my favorite team at the age of five following their 2001 national title, was preparing for their first-round NCAA tournament game against Lehigh. I remember expecting an easy victory, then throwing my mutilated bracket into the trash following a crushing and humiliating defeat. Needless to say, I’ve been rather impatient to shake those feelings off. And tonight, I finally will, as Duke plays its first game of the season tonight at the Georgia Dome against third-ranked Kentucky.

Yeah, I know. Duke already played their first game of the year, demolishing Georgia State 74-55. But that one doesn’t count. I knew Duke was going to win. I went to the movies and watched the first half on my DVR. Though seeing the Cameron Crazies again gave me some relief (and rekindled some old fear) the game didn’t make me feel like, well, what I’m feeling now.

Duke is about to take part in a nationally televised showdown between the two most hated teams in basketball, in the bowels of a football stadium. They will win, and give the men’s rankings their first big shake-up with the Wildcats’s inevitable drop. I will remember again what it’s like to watch a truly entertaining and exciting basketball game. And it begins another year of gut-wrenching, heart-pumping, beautiful basketball.

Hopefully, I’ll feel the disbelief I felt when Austin Rivers hit that game-winning three-pointer against UNC last season. Later in the year I’ll probably feel the dejection I felt after watching all 40 minutes of Duke’s 22-point thrashing at Ohio State last year. And if I’m lucky, at some point this season, I’ll feel the joy that coursed through my body when Tyler Thornton, who I insist to my friends is the best player in basketball, hit this shot against Kansas in the Maui Invitational title game, sealing a contest that was one of the best I have ever witnessed.

Boy, it really has been a while. Hopefully I’ll remember tonight with fondness a year from now. But if I don’t, there’s always another game.

scutaromarco: Robinson Cano @RobinsonCano Very proud day for me,...

Tue, 13 Nov 2012 20:32:40 -0500

scutaromarco:

Robinson Cano @RobinsonCano

Very proud day for me, I just became a US citizen, God bless America!

Robinson Cano @RobinsonCano

This is while I was being sworn in

Carrier Games Cancelled, Hopefully For Good

Sat, 10 Nov 2012 23:49:53 -0500

Last night wasn’t a good night for aircraft carriers.

Thought after last season’s much accredited Carrier Classic, a basketball game between North Carolina and Michigan state on the flight deck of the USS Carl Vinson, to be a perfect venue for hoops, people realized tonight that playing a game with squeaky sneakers on hardwood outdoors in cold weather next to the ocean is a bad idea.

A game between Syracuse and San Diego State on the USS Midway in San Diego scheduled for tonight was canceled for “excessive condensation” on the hardwood, which as seen here, was a better hockey rink than basketball court. According to ESPN, the game will not be rescheduled. In addition, a game between Florida and Georgetown on the USS Bataan in Jacksonville was called at halftime, again due to a slick playing surface.

Last season’s game, years in the making, also saw condensation issues. Michigan State guard Brandon Dawson slipped and fell on top of a center court decal (also a slick issue). Though he would return and finish the game, it was a scary moment for everyone watching. And although the carrier looked beautiful lit up at night, complete with the presentation of the evening colors four minutes into the game, it showed why the aircraft carrier concept should not be seen again.

There’s just too much that can go wrong. Any aircraft carrier game could involve fans that pay huge amounts for tickets and get nothing, troops that are left with their hopes up, and players that risk serious injury. Hardwood belongs indoors. Let’s keep it there.

Impatient Firings Keep Popping Up

Wed, 24 Oct 2012 21:06:51 -0400

I wouldn’t say that the season went exactly the way I hoped it would.

The Yankees fell short of winning their World Series, as a shocking inability to score runs plagued them throughout a four-game ALCS sweep. This New York Post cover explained just how many felt after the crushing blow to the franchise.

But, as the Miami Marlins reminded us today, this season could have been a lot worse.

Miami, fresh off a massive re-branding of their franchise which included an ugly new logo, intolerable color scheme, and unnecessarily wacky new blue and green stadium, only to wind up at the bottom of the NL East, admitted that it was wrong in hiring the outspoken and unpredictable Ozzie Guillen as its manager, firing him yesterday after just one season with three years left on his contract.

Guillen isn’t this season’s only one-and-done manager; it’s hard to forget the Bobby Valentine fiasco in Boston, as the Red Sox gave him the boot the day after the season ended following an embarrassing year for the franchise. The two are just the latest examples of how coaches have been given a hefty, and often inappropriate, amount of criticism for their failure to produce immediate results. Valentine and Guillen were readily available scapegoats in the face of teams gone haywire.

Of course, the case of Guillen is hard to defend. Four games into his career with the Marlins, he was suspended for five games after he told Time magazine that he loved Fidel Castro. His notoriously big mouth would be a problem from then on, including an in-game verbal skirmish with Bryce Harper later in the year, and he didn’t seem to do much to inspire his players.

In Boston, Valentine was treated not as just a bad manager, but as a demon, a concocter of clubhouse discourse, fighting among the coaching staff, and embarrassing losses on the field. He became the most hated man in the city. Naturally, he needed to be removed, and was swiftly fired. Red Sox fans rejoiced. The managers office had been purged.

But was Valentine deserving of the blame? Though he is the one who delivers the lineup card before the game, the rest is played out by his athletes, many of whom were not invested in the game before Valentine took office. When he was hired, Valentine promised to take an aggressive stance on the team’s problems, and now that that hasn’t worked, shouldn’t the front office take the blame for hiring him on that fact?

Guillen’s firing brings out similar skepticism. The Marlins were a pretty bad team anyway, and judging from the decisions they made before Ozzie could do anything, they didn’t really know what they were doing. Would firing Ozzie, and thereby creating managerial instability, really help the team all that much?

Guillen and Valentine both did a horrible job with their teams last season. But one year is often not enough to measure the quality of a coach. Vince Lombardi and Mike Krzyzewski, two of the most legendary coaches in sports, struggled mightily through their first few seasons. In today’s sports environment, they almost surely would have been fired. What would have happened to Packers football and Duke basketball if their coaches were kicked out after their first year?

I’m not saying Bobby Valentine is a legendary manager. I’m just asking GM’s to think twice before they are quick to fire their coaches. Implementing a winning philosophy takes time, and we will never know what Valentine could have done.

Rally Towel Gimmick Is Getting Old

Tue, 09 Oct 2012 22:16:00 -0400

This year’s MLB postseason contains a variety of teams, players, ballparks and fans. Each postseason series has taken on its own identity, and each stadium has been seen at its best during the exciting week.

But one fixture is present in nearly all of the postseason ballparks. Once used by only a few teames during their playoff matchups, it has become a fixture of the MLB postseason.

In every key moment, fans from Baltimore to San Francisco are wielding brightly colored rags, twirling them above their heads with intensity during key moments of the game. Rally towels are present in baseball now more than ever before.

Originally contained to places like Philadelphia, the rally towel epidemic has spread to Great American Ballpark in Cincinatti, Comerica Park in Detroit, and Busch Stadium in St. Louis. And it must be stopped as soon as possible.

I’m not sure why the rally towel was ever introduced to baseball. It looks slightly cool to see fifty thousand of them waving around in a key moment of the game, but I can’t help but feel like rally towels are just a gimmick, something that (with the notable exception of the Steelers’ Terrible Towel) is borrowed for the postseason because everyone else is doing it.

The Yankees, I am proud to point out, have yet to follow the trend, and are one of a select few that elected not to do so. The Braves (as far as I could tell) omitted towel twirling for their wild-card game against the Cardinals, and the Nationals have yet to play their first game at home in the postseason (though something tells me that when they do, white towels will be everywhere). [UPTADE: The Nats did break out rally towels for their postseason series, though they were red, not white.] But besides that, every other team in the postseason thinks rally towels are cool.

In reality, they make the teams look bad. Rally towels look like a team is trying too hard to create a raucous atmosphere. The rally towels are a cheap and easy way to make a crowd appear more passionate than it is. And because of this, a rally-toweled crowd looks like it needs to find passion through a gimmick instead of from the heart.

At least that’s how it seems to me. If teams want to add their own unique fan item (The Braves had foam hammers at the end of last season) that can be charming. But it dosen’t work when every other ballpark is following suit.

So please, fans, put down the towels and clap your hands like normal people. Let’s forget this ever happened.

The Top Four Things That Annoy Me About Touch Football

Tue, 02 Oct 2012 19:15:59 -0400

As my junior year of high school begins, I have the luxury of choosing my gym classes. Well, not choose them exactly, there are far too many schedule conflicts, but at least narrow down my choices enough to come up with a tolerable schedule. For the first quarter, I’ve been placed in Football, where I play two-hand touch for the period on the field outside my school.

For the most part, it’s pretty enjoyable. I get my fair share of catches, the guys are relatively nice, and it’s a much better alternative to lifting weights. But there are a few things that have come to annoy me about the games I play every day, and touch football games in general.

4. Arguing

Whether it’s who should be captains, whether that last play should be pass interference, or how many seconds a lineman should have before rushing the quarterback, touch football is loaded with things to argue about. For the most part, they amount to nothing. My group (thankfully) dosen’t keep score, but if we did, that would add one more issue to the pile. No argument is worse, however, than touch football’s perennial quarterback controversies. The cry of “Lemme be Q!” frequently resounds. One feud grew so intense that we had to make them separate captains just so they wouldn’t have to decide which would play quarterback You know what they say. When you have two quarterbacks, you hav none. True story.

3. Players yelling the quarterback’s name incessantly

This is something I’m noticing more and more. As soon as the quarterback (I won’t give his real name, lets call him Lafawnduh) snaps the ball, he immediately becomes the most popular kid on the planet. “Hey, Lafawnduh! Lafawnduh!” “Look left, Lafawnduh!” “I’m wide open, Lafawnduh!” It gets old quickly, and is especially annoying when I, wide open over the middle, am passed over for a double-covered receiver that couldn’t stop yelling.

2. That one guy who is a dick to everyone

Every touch football game has That Guy. The guy who always thinks he should get the ball, yelling “Lafawnduh” from snap to down. He thinks he’s the best QB. He thinks he’s the best wide receiver. He thinks he’s the best linebacker. The worst part is when he’s actually good (not the case in my group) and you can’t argue with him.

1. When people call running plays ‘gay’

This has gone passed annoying me and started to piss me off. In the wake of Tebowmania, running plays, however many yards they may gain or drives they may extend, are treated by the defense as heinous crimes. orst of all, they are marked with the stupid slur that won’t go away.

Besides the above, touch football has become one of the highlights of an otherwise dreary school day for me. As soon as you decide on quarterback, it’s a great way to spend an hour.

Well, I just finished my history. I probably did a lackluster job. After these hours of scribbling...

Mon, 01 Oct 2012 22:23:27 -0400

Well, I just finished my history. I probably did a lackluster job. After these hours of scribbling and quarreling and erasing, I can barely tell the difference between Maryland and Ohio. Now I’ve got to get started on my Calc work, which I’m already behind on. I feel sick and tired, and just want to sleep when I know I can’t.

But the Yankees won, and the Orioles lost. What more could you ask for?

It’s hard to believe that the USA somehow lost at the...

Sun, 30 Sep 2012 23:21:46 -0400

It’s hard to believe that the USA somehow lost at the Ryder Cup today. At least ESPN’s headline was right on the nose.

Awestruck By The Ryder Cup

Sat, 29 Sep 2012 20:05:53 -0400

I haven’t really watched the Ryder Cup before. I had seen bits and pieces, noting how short puts were conceded and formats like four-ball and alternate shot twosomes were showcased. It seemed to me like a stately biennial affair heralding golf’s tradition.

When I turned on the golf this morning, I found that this was, for the most part, true. But one critical aspect of the three-day showdown between the United States and Europe that makes the tournament so engaging, and that I, somehow, overlooked, was the passion and intensity of the fans.

There are no golf claps at the Ryder Cup. There are hoots, hollers, whoops, cheers, and roars. The crowd at Medinah, just outside Chicago, is unapologetically partisan, on occasion cheering for European misplays in key moments. As Sergio Garcia stepped back to take another look at a critical 18th-hole birdie putt, the crowd jeered, taunting him. When the putt went just right, the crowd grew even louder. When Steve Stricker’s birdie putt, which would have squared a match that featured a furious comeback by Stricker and Tiger Woods, the crowd mustered as energetic a groan as one can hear on a golf course. One tee shot by Bubba Watson featured unbelievably vociferous flag-waving fans cheering as he addressed his ball, a time usually reserved for silence. Even the chant of “U-S-A!! U-S-A!!”, which I can find seriously irritating in events like the Olympics, seemed right at home on the 18th green.

The fans at the Ryder Cup are not the only people on the course with energy to spare. The golfers, as announcers use clichés usually used to describe football teams, are having the time of their lives. The team of Phil Mickleson and Keegan Bradley, who won their first two matches on Friday, made Medinah look like heaven on earth. Laughing, joking, and playing at their best, the pair tied a Ryder Cup record for largest margin of victory with a 7-stroke win, ending the match on the 12th green. Ian Poulter, one of the few bright spots for a European team that faces a 10-6 deficit heading into tomorrow’s singles matches, made five birdies to finish his four-ball match, each followed by a double fist-pump and a game face that could melt glass. His partner, world #1 Rory McIlroy, shook his head and smiled.

The Ryder Cup is a showcase of passion by everyone involved. I turned it on at 11:00, and never turned it off. I bet you’d do the same.

"This is a special experience to play with Jeter and the Yankees. When I am an old man I will look..."

Fri, 28 Sep 2012 23:10:15 -0400

“This is a special experience to play with Jeter and the Yankees. When I am an old man I will look back and say ‘What an experience it was to play on this team.’ … That is what I envision what it will be like when I am close to dying.”

- The one and only Ichiro, showing his love for the Yankees like only he can in a New York Post article. Yet another instance where Ichiro’s acts of baseball statesmanship never cease to mystify.

Hearing that Ichiro had been traded (at his request) to the Yankees in late July was probably the best news I’ve heard all year. During a season where the Yankees are constantly criticized (with good reason) for their reliance on power hitting and inability to “manufacture a run,” Ichiro, champion of the infield single, stolen base, and well-placed bunt, is a beacon of hope. Seeing him gracefully round second on his way to a seventh-inning triple in an August game against Texas was truly awe-inspiring to watch.

This was not helped by the jeers of the pugnacious man sitting behind me who couldn’t stop yelling about how Ichiro was “over the hill.” and “a waste of money” (even though Seattle is paying the bulk of his salary). The guy’s argument had some basis in fact. Ichiro’s numbers have dropped (he’s hitting .282 this year) and he is found at the bottom of the Yankee order if he is there at all. (The fact that he was hitting third in Seattle’s lineup shows why he wanted out.) Some of the classic kinks in his swing, as inefficient as they were mesmerizing, were removed at the start of this year.

But he’s Ichiro! The man who begins his elaborate pre-game stretching routine hours beforehand in the clubhouse, then continues to bend over between nearly every pitch, even at the plate. The man who dresses impeccably for press conferences, and will never speak a word of English during them. The man who does everything in his life right-handed, except batting, so he can be that much closer to first base on a ground ball. I will never get tired of seeing Ichiro pull out his sleeve as he takes his stance, especially now that the sleeve is pinstriped. Ichiro is a living legend, a man who trancends the game of baseball.

When I am close to dying, I will remember quivering with pride when I saw Ichiro play for my favorite team.