Intermittent golfer...

I really enjoy playing golf. But due financial and time and other worldly constraints I don't get to play nearly as often as I like. Now, I hear guys complain about this all the time- how they've only gotten out to play once this week, blah blah blah. I am playing this weekend for the first time since last summer. Last summer. Yeah, that's how bad I've got it, you whiners.

Golf, like many, isn't a sport where you have the luxury of not playing for a long stretch and then coming back to with the hopes of achieving again what little success you had the last time you played. And that's really all that I ask for: a little success. And yet, for this weekend- that may just be to much to ask.

Somewhere near Princeton, New Jersey, a golf course is trembling. Not so much in fear of my conquering it, so much as it is in fear of what I may do the course: how many balls I will leave out there, what my wake may look like, how much I will be holding up the group behind us.

And yet, I'm looking forward to it. This relationship with golf is strange and troubling- but it's one that I can't refuse. To have few hours where all my frustrations lie in my attempt to make solid contact with a small, white, dimpled ball- and the frustrations of the outside world subside, or at least take a back seat. The adding of stress to relieve stress. It almost makes perfect sense.

In a perfect world, all this would happen more often. But for the sake of golf courses all over the world, we'll probably keep to a minimum for the foreseeable future.

Overrated!

The preseason college football top 25 polls came out this week. Ratings of teams that haven't played a snap yet, that are populated with kids who on any given week could amaze or flop. I continue to have a huge problem with this.

It's not enough that we have deal with a system in which people's (so-called experts) opinions of a team has a say in what amounts to the national standings. Not wins or losses, games played, or points scored- opinions. Now I understand there are too many teams, and varying competitive levels throughout the college game, so standings based on wins and losses doesn't really work. But the current system doesn't really work either, because it is based too much on these "expert" prognostications- or guesses, really. Something's gotta change.

The way things are done now, a team's preseason ranking has way too much to do with how they finish. Think about it. A team ranked at the top of the preseason polls can lose a game or two early, and still wind up with a shot to end up near the top- and a shot a big-time bowl game or even the national title. But a team the in bottom half of the rankings, or even just outside the top 25: they lose a couple games and they have to scratch their way back just to get back in the picture, let alone have any shot of inching towards the top. Now I'm not asking for playoff (although there frickin should be). I'm not asking for a drastic change to the way things are done. Just give everyone a fair shot.

Perhaps wait a month, maybe 5 weeks into the season before releasing the first official rankings. Have everybody play a few games, separate the contenders from the pretenders- then rank them. Have the experts gather information and base their opinions on fact- wins and losses, points scored- not on somewhat educated guesses. Is it a perfect solution? No. But there doesn't seem to be a perfect solution to this issue. And this one, seems a little less imperfect than the way things are now.

East Coast biaszzz...

Living on the east coast is great. Wouldn't trade it for anything.

That said, the only thing that stinks sometimes is nationally televised sporting events. Last night's MLB All-Star was a harsh reminder of that fact. But other things like the NBA Finals, or Monday Night Football for instance make it difficult to watch the game and get one's proper amount of sleep on any given night when one has to get up for work the next morning. And how about NFL Sundays on the west coast, where you roll out of bed and the day's games are about to begin; and the late games are over by 4pm- plenty of time left in the day to run errands or fix that doorknob or what have you. Although, then there is the Sunday night game... but I digress. Last night was the extreme example of us east coasters getting the time shaft.

Now I am no dummy, I know that an advertised start time of 8pm EST for an event like this doesn't mean that the first pitch will be at 8pm. And I thoroughly enjoyed the opening ceremonies of last night's game, all the Hall of Famers along side the night's starters. But when it came to throw the first pitch, it was practically 9 o'clock. On a school night! But dammit, I love the MLB All-Star game, and I am going to watch it in it's entirety. Well, I'm ashamed to admit- about 1:15am, and after 14 innings I decided I had to go to bed. I would DVR the rest of the game and watch it in the morning before I left for work. Which I did. About which my wife quipped, "That's why you got up so early this morning." To which I realized I had no strong argument.

Now, I realize the other side of the story is that on the west coast, I wouldn't have even been home in time to catch the start of the broadcast. Well, that's when you DVR the bad boy and catch up by fast forwarding through the multitudes of commercials. Problem solved.

Easy fix to this problem would to be move to the west coast. And that's just not happening. So I'll just complain about it, and the next time the Yankees go west to play Oakland or Seattle- I'll arrive at work a little more bleary eyed and cranky than usual.

Euro Excitement

The passion and excitement that is European football (soccer) was well on display today in the Euro 2008 quarterfinal match between Croatia and Turkey. When 90 minutes weren't enough to decide the winner, the match went to 30 minutes of extra time. It took over 28 minutes for Croatia to capitalize on an error by Turkey's goal keeper, and put one in the net. The celebration had begun, Croatia seeming lock to move on to the semis against Germany.

Well some one forgot to tell Turkey, because just over a minute into injury time they sneaked one into the net, forcing a penalty kick shootout to decide the match. It was all Turkey in the shootout, with Croatia going wide with a couple shots, and Turkey's goal keeper coming up with a fantastic stop to seal the victory.

When I watch a match like that, and see the passion of the players and fans, I can't believe that this football still fails to capture the attention of the US. I know, I know, there's a list as long as my arm of reason why Americans don't watch soccer. But I guarantee that most of them have never taken the time to watch a meaningful match. I defy anyone to watch a match like today's, and not want to watch another.

Specter wising up?

Senator Arlen Specter, R-Pa., has decided he will not seek a congressional hearing on the "Spygate" matter after weeks of threatening to do so, stating that the judiciary committee already has "too much to do."

Oh really Sen. Specter? Are you sure it's not also due to the fact that Senate should have nothing to do with what happens in day-to-day operations of the NFL? Getting involved in the whole steroids issue, I can understand. It actually involves more than sports- there are legality and other larger issues in play. But whether or not a team cheated against the rules of it's league? Please. NFL rules were broken, not laws.

And it's a dead issue. The Patriots admitted it, and were punished. It's not a national crisis.

If the Stanley Cup falls in the woods...

One of the better Stanley Cup finals in recent memory ended last night, bringing an end to another reasonably anonymous NHL season. It's too bad. While the ratings were up over last season, and games 3 through 6 six aired on NBC- the fact is that hockey remains far from the heart of the bulk of this nation.

What many people missed was the new face of the NHL, the Penguins' Sidney Crosby, taking on one of the old guard- one of the original six- the Red Wings. They missed a triple-overtime game that was won by the Penguins, forcing a game six, when they were some 34 seconds from elimination before tying the game in third period. They missed the first European-born captain to lead his team to the Stanley Cup, in Niklas Lidstrom. Exciting stuff, and- save for some smallish, hockey-crazed regions of this country- we seem to be left with the tree falling in the woods analogy. Left with a situation where it come to one of the most popular athletes in the world in another sport saying things like,"I don't think anybody really watches hockey anymore." The fact is, Tiger Woods probably isn't in the minority with that line of thinking.

I love hockey in case you couldn't tell. It boggles me that more people don't. So far the post-strike NHL hasn't made much of splash in the national conscience: one needs to make a concerted effort these days to follow the sport. It's buried in the sports pages and on national TV- relegated to the Versus Network or sporadic segments on Sports Center. And commissioner Gary Bettman still keeps a rosy outlook despite all the evidence of his league's lack of visibility.

Maybe it'll just take some more time to get people back. And maybe the ratings will increase again next year. And maybe I'm wrong- maybe there are more NHL fans still out there than it seems... but I hate to see the league I grew up watching (a kid in southern California growing up watching hockey- an anomaly in of itself) flounder now in some sort of nebulous mediocrity- especially when, as proved by this year's finals, the game has so much to offer fans.

JT deserves more, people

Pretty shocking to me, the outrage of people in the media and throughout the blogosphere at Jason Taylor. All he has maintained is that he wants to win before it's too late for him, that he wants the best possible situation for himself. A little selfish? Perhaps. Monstrous and egotistical? Hardly. 

Now I don't think he deserves a free pass by any stretch of the imagination, but I think after all his time in Miami he deserves the benefit of the doubt. It's June 1. If he doesn't show up for training camp, by all means- fire away, people- be angry that he isn't on the field. But to sit there and call him a liar, to say he is no longer needed, to attack the character and question the loyalty of a guy who has given his heart and soul to his team and his community for so long is a bit much.  

And why the hell should he or any player these days feel the pull of loyalty? Yes he is under contract. But what does that mean in today's NFL, where that contract isn't even guaranteed? Everybody's hopping on the Parcells/ Sparano train before it has even left the station. As a fan I am pleased with what they have accomplished so far, but until wins are on the board- what have they done? JT has been a Dolphin, has led his team, has proven results. You want loyalty Fin Fans? How about showing a little but yourself, rather than jumping ship at the first sign of trouble.