"Open Championship" is right. Without Tiger, the British Open throne has been opened up for anybody and everybody. And I do mean anybody. Two of the guys at the top of the leaderboard are a 53 year old shark and a 36 year old snazzy sunglasses wearer, both back from the dead.
Remember Greg Norman? Yes, yes, that one old Australian dating that one tennis player lady. Apparently he found the fountain of youth while in the Bahamas for their wedding three weeks ago. No word on whether he found the internet there as well. He's been even par in both rounds, having two of the tournament's, at the moment, 13 rounds of 70. As hard as it is to believe, this grandpa may be the favorite right now. The two major wins of his career have both come at the Open Championship. Both times the runner ups he beat into the ground were British guys. I don't know why that's important, but it just amuses me to see British chaps lose at the British open.
Oh, at the moment, David Duval, who I am officially dubbing "The Mummy" for his come back from the dead routine, has fallen into a 7 way tie for third place at +2. That leaves the visor wearing K.J. Choi in a tie for second place with the Spiderman.
Some other notable names at that 2 over mark are Jim Furyk, Robert Allenby, and everyone's new favorite lovable, chubby loser, Rocco Mediate. That's right Phil Mickelson, the 8 over golf you've been playing thus far in this tournament, and your 8 major streak of only one top 15 finish has made you too much of a loser for the people not named Rick Reilly to be a fan anymore. Nobody likes salmon that much anyway.
FYI's: John Daly is currently at +25. He's in last place. Danny Chia had the worst round of the tournament so far, an 87 today. That's Tony Romo level. David Horsey has the coolest name in the tournament.
Two big hitters were acquired today by the Yankees and the Diamondbacks in an attempt to fill a need for power sluggers that could help their chances at making a strong playoff push.
Barry Bonds? Mark Texiera? Try Tony Clark and Richie Sexson.
Yep, that's right. Watch out NL West and AL East. Two sub-.250 hitters with a combined 12 home runs and 41 RBI's are about to help their teams dominate.
I live in San Diego. Clark is horrible. We let him go because a guy who has taken 8 years in the minor leagues to get a steady major league spot was outperforming him for a lot less money. He seems to be a clubhouse leader and a quality guy, and I'm sure he'll help his old DBacks with chemistry. They better hope he's like eHarmony to their team though because he won't be helping them much with his bat.
I can't speak for New York though. The only possible reason why Steinbrenner would pick up Sexson is because he wanted to put the Barry Bonds talk to rest. Well Hank, I have to say, you probably affirmed that you weren't going to sign Bonds as your power bat by signing Sexson as your power bat instead. The only problem is that Sexson isn't a power bat anymore. Or an average bat. Nice one Hanky.
Chris Mottram thinks Yankee fans are awesome. I think Chase Utley would disagree. (language)
Who does he think he is? No one escapes the wrath of New Yorkers. They tossed threats at Jonathan Papelbon's pregnant wife. You're an opposing player. You should be thankful you weren't put in a body bag and thrown off the top of the Empire State Building.
During the ninth inning of the All Star Game yesterday, I planned to write this article about how pathetic Fox Sports's performance was in covering Mariano Rivera's entrance at Yankees Stadium, the moment that was excitedly anticipated all week, and was pushed out of the way for some animated lizards advertising an energy drink. A few innings later, I realized that in the end, that moment meant nothing anyway because the batting was so porous that Rivera's appearance ended up being meaningless.
It was then that I changed my game plan to a breakdown of how bad Dan Uggla's night was. But then the alleged best baseball players the American League has to offer hit into three straight ground outs with the bases loaded.
By the end of the game, I was all set to discuss how much I wanted to light Frank Sinatra's music on fire by the end of the night.
It was at this point in time that I realized that there were so many cringe worthy, craptastic aspects of this years MLB All Star Game that I might as well combine them into one nirvanical blog post.
This time it counts...
The pregame show was possibly the worst piece of television programming I have ever seen. I do not consider the coverage of a parade where pitchers and their wives get threatened and legendary old timers get interviewed a "show."
The player introductions were complete shenanigans. Do these old all-timers really enjoy having to stand out on a field for an hour while their names get called and cheered? We already respect them. They get enough honor. Yes I understand that it was Yankee Stadium, and it was historical, and all that jazz, but seriously, these dudes are like 70 years old. You're gonna hurt their backs making them stand out their for such a long time just for a meaningless ceremony.
This bull crap about the starting pitchers only throwing two innings is nonsense. You complain about having to put guys in the game that just pitched on sunday, but then you pull starting pitchers who consistently go seven or eight innings just because you want to let everyone play. This isn't little league. The honor of the All Star Game is to be selected for it, not to play in it.
- Positivity Alert - Yogi Berra is hilarious. People have fallen in love with Charles Barkley lately. Yogi blesses the world with ten times more funny quotes than Barkley does. Plus he's unbelievably short. That alone is just comedic gold.
Are the best pitchers in baseball that much better than the best hitters? Seven runs in 15 innings. That's embarassing.
How in the heck did America vote Corey Hart into the game over Ryan Howard who leads baseball in home runs and leads the NL in RBI's? Hart swings like a stinking pitcher. Actually, most pitcher's swings look better. He was horrible.
Guess what else is horrible? Dan Uggla's game. Three strikeouts. Three errors. A double play in the 10th with runners on first and third and only one out. Aaron Cook probably wanted to drop kick Uggla when he almost blew the game for him with two errors behind Cook's pitching.
The coaches probably wanted to drop kick the hitters too. 3 for 28 with runners in scoring position. From All Stars. Apparently they just didn't think that "This time it counted" on the 25 other opportunities.
Russell Martin should have been the MVP. He was a part of the two most memorable plays in the game with two of his scoops and tags at home plate.
Bud Selig should have called the game a tie in the 10th or whenever like he did in 2002. I can't believe I just said that.
Yankee fans are ridiculous. I have a feeling that they would have rather had Papelbon blow the save than the AL win the game. Actually, then they would have realized what happened and started to boo Jonathan. They just seemed so confused on whether to boo people because they weren't Yankees (i.e. racial slurs at Ichiro, threats at Papelbon's pregnant wife) or cheer them because they were on the team that could get the Yanks home field advantage in the World Series. Just look at this clip of how they reacted after JD Drew's home run. First cheers, then jeers.
Props to Tim McCarver, for once. You stayed awake the whole game. I predicted you'd be out in the 12th.
Joe Buck, after watching that game on Tuesday, I now understand why you don't like or care about baseball anymore.
Finally, the commercial breaks went as long as this blog post has run. The broadcast was coming back on right before pitchers were releasing the ball. Absurdity.
I don't care if it counts. Make it entertaining next year MLB people.
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