Are Wie Serious?

Take a 6’1” man who drives a golf ball 280 yards. He tells you that he’s pretty decent and wants to tee off with the big boys in the PGA tour. You wish him luck but everyone knows he’ll need more than that.

That 6’1” specimen is Michelle Wie and she wants to play on the men’s tour. At age 12 she qualified for her first LPGA event, she placed in the top five for numerous other events, and even played in a few men’s tournaments (where she missed the cut every time).

She has a lot of motivation, which is admirable; people all over the world are rooting for her, hoping this girl will give the big boys a run for their money.

I am not one of those people.

She wants to play in the PGA Tour, be my guest, but she should at least prove her worth. The PGA is the best of the best and one must earn the right to play there.

Her credentials:
- Never won an LPGA event
- DQ-ed after forgetting to sign her scorecard

Michelle Wie needs to prove herself by first dominating the LPGA scene, and by dominating, I mean winning.

I feel terrible for the players and reputation of the PGA, which is currently being tarnished by an overzealous feminist who can’t admit that she’s just not good enough.

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Random Sports Ramblings

There are a lot of things going on in sports right now, so I'd just like to clear the pileup caused by my train of thought:

• Where are all these old guys coming from at the British Open? Seriously Greg Norman? I thought he was in a care home drinking Arnold Palmers. Tiger leaves, and everyone just decides to awaken? Either that or now people aren't scared and hiding anymore.
  
• It was already written about here, but I really have to say, Brett Favre needs to stop with his on-again-off-again mid-life crisis. He's double the age of most other NFL quarterbacks, and even if he is useful, what exactly does he want to prove? He's already outdone Michael Jordan on the fake retirement ridiculousness and has most likely broken the record for most cortisone shots taken in one season. America loves you Brett, don't tarnish it.
• C.C. Sabathia is gigantic. He's been stellar with two straight gems, but how many more complete games can that guy healthily chug out? I'm sure the stress isn't good for him.
• Sometimes you've gotta feel sorry for Lamar Odom. Every offseason without fail, he's been in multiple trade rumors. Yearly stories are posted about how close he is to being traded (for Shawn Marion, for Richard Jefferson, for Kevin Garnett, etc.), with the latest incarnation, actually reincarnation, as a trade to the Sacramento Kings for Ron Artest. From the Lakers standpoint, if Artest can keep his head on straight and play Dennis Rodman Jr. for at least 3 years, this could be great. If the Ron-Ron of Auburn Hills comes out, then you can only hope that Jack Nicholson doesn't have a courtside heart attack. Honestly however, Odom is a great player who just either got outplayed by a better player (KG) or bullied by a buffer troll-looking man (Perkins) in the Finals. If Andrew Bynum and Pau Gasol stay alive, having Odom as the willing fourth option behind the both of them and Kobe Bryant could work out much better than having Ron Artest actively forcing himself into the first mate role.
• As a casual boxing fan, I must admit that seeing a Manny Pacquiao vs. Oscar De La Hoya matchup would make my year. The newly heralded pound-for-pound king facing off against the aging Golden Boy could be the most entertainingly brutal passing of the guard ever seen. Well if Oscar has any gas left in his tank, because otherwise Pac-man will demolish him.
• After watching the Josh Hamilton Derby, it got me to reminiscing. MTV and its Rock N' Jock basketball, baseball, and football were the sh*t. Tim Hardaway draining 50 point shots, Nelly nabbing passes from Dan Marino while he was chilling in a Laz-e-boy, Ken Griffey Jr. hitting bombs into gigantic metal gloves... why did this all stop? They were so entertaining. By the way, the home run and the half-court-buzzer-beating shot are two of the most overhyped things in sports. Home runs are ludicrously common nowadays, while those last second heaves make way too many top 10 countdowns over actually legitimately better plays. Maybe add in one per month, because of another one pushes out a clip of Kobe posterizing someone, I will flip out.

See you all next week for more random ramblings.

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The Pain of Prestige

As one who has bled Purple and Gold from the day I was born, it's hard not to write about my disappointment and grief after having watched the demolition. But another aspect in sports has grabbed my attention much more harshly, so in short, Kevin Garnett should be admitted to an insane asylum, Pau Gasol needs to hit the weight room, AND EVERYBODY NEEDS TO REMEMBER THAT KOBE'S FREAKING FINGER IS BROKEN. PAUL PIERCE'S ANKLE MIGHT BE SLIGHTLY SPRAINED, BUT KOBE'S FINGER HAS BEEN BROKEN FOR OVER TWO MONTHS. Oh yea, and Bynum has yet to return.

Speaking of injuries, in wake of Tiger's US Open triumph, horrible news hit the golf world. Tiger has a tear in his ACL and shredded cartilage in his knee, is going into yet another knee surgery, and has stress fractures in his leg. Now I must admit Rocco Mediate is a likable guy, but if Tiger was healthy, no one would have any idea who he was. A one shot win with that kind of injury would have been a twenty stroke victory in full health. What Mr. Woods did was nothing short of miraculous.

I'm not going to pretend that I'm a certified doctor and I have no specialty in diagnosis of any type of injury, but after speaking to a few arthroscopic surgeons, Tiger's knee is in pretty bad shape. After the deterioration of his cartilage, the bone grinding on bone is horrible and Tiger is light years away from acceptable playing shape.

Tiger will be resting for the rest of the season, but with the torque and force put into the left knee with every golf swing, the condition can only get worse. It's hard to imagine, but we may not see the same Tiger that we know and love today. When you watch Tiger swing, you can see the harshness that travels into that part of his body. The amount of twisting and pulling that goes on can only make his knee worse and worse. So if he's hurt now, with the style Tiger plays and the rigorous workout he consistently puts himself through, this injury won't be the last.

A damaged Tiger doesn't only hurt him and his fan base, but the whole golfing world as a whole. It's like when Michael Jordan retired from basketball for the first time; dark days lay ahead, with no comparably dominant and attention-capturing player present on the Tour. A poll taken by ESPN shows that over 80% of the viewing public will watch less golf during Tiger's absence.

We can just hope that he's going to come back the same and win those five additional majors that would cement his status as the best in history. Then again, I wouldn't hesitate in the least bit to already call him the G.O.A.T. Good luck with your recovery, Tiger.

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