Golf Quiz: This is year six of the FedEx Cup. Name the five winners of the Tour Championship (held each time at East Lake GC in Atlanta). [Five different names] Answer below.
Catching Up
Oh, it was a fun time in Lahinch, Ireland for four nights and three rounds of golf on one of the best courses in the world. This was my 20th time to Ireland and No. 19 to Lahinch, where I belong as an overseas member. Each time I go I become more convinced it is the best place I’ve ever played…as hard as it for a hack like me. But I had my moments and we finished 20th out of 50+ teams so as Ronald Reagan would have said…not bad, not bad at all.
For those of you who want to go to Ireland to play, please go to Lahinch, play at least one round, and stay in town. I have a lot of friends there and they’d appreciate the business. My only request is you let me know beforehand and I’ll give you the best tips…like bring lots of golf gloves. It does rain and we had our share of it. If you can keep your grips and hands reasonably dry you’ll enjoy it more.
Now I have a ton to catch up on and I recognize some of the following is dated but must get it down for the archives.
Neil Armstrong…a Great American
I will have some commentary from others on our First Man on the Man and his passing in that other column I do on Saturday. But it was way back on 12/13/2000 in this very space I wrote of my trip to the museum devoted to him and the space program in Wapakoneta, Ohio.
I actually was trying to get to Bluffton, Ohio, per a suggestion by a friend (Liz S.) who said it was great at Christmastime, but a wicked storm blowing that way precluded me from venturing that far so I only made it to Wapakoneta, the home of Neil Alden Armstrong, All-American Boy. I knew there was a terrific museum there and for two hours I was the only American out of then 270 million people in the entire country walking the place.
Armstrong was born on August 5, 1930, on his grandmother’s farm near this charming town. He was fascinated with aviation as a child and actually received his pilot’s license before he could drive, at the age of 16.
The museum had a great collection of articles and his high school yearbook was pretty funny. Armstrong’s senior quote was, “He thinks, he acts, ‘tis done.” Actually, the fellow right across from him (the yearbook wasn’t alphabetical, they were rebellious back in 1947) is one Donald Frame. Frame’s quote was, “Not too serious, not too gay, but a very good fellow in every way.” I wish I could have broken the glass and looked at some of the others. It was a more simplistic time that’s for sure. [On the other hand, my senior quote from 1976 had to do with my love for spice cookies; perhaps the most moronic verse in the history of high school yearbooks and thus probably precluding me from ever running for political office.]
After high school, Armstrong attended Purdue on a U.S. Navy scholarship before serving as a fighter pilot in the Korean War. Neil received three combat citations for his 78 missions.
After the war he finished up his degree and did some graduate work, settling down at NACA, the forerunner of NASA in Cleveland (where our own Dr. Bortrum did a little work as well). Armstrong was a test pilot and in 1962, he was selected as part of the 2nd group of astronauts.
Neil took part in the Gemini program, one that tested some of the maneuvers that would be used in the upcoming Apollo mission. Commanding Gemini 8, Armstrong performed the first docking in space. This was almost a disaster as the module they were docked to began to spin out of control when they separated from it.
On April 14, 1969, the Wapakoneta Daily News ran the lead headline: “Neil probably first man on moon.” Just imagine the excitement in this small town. As part of the normal rotation of astronauts, Armstrong’s name was simply next in line to command the historic mission.
But Armstrong had already developed a reputation for being rather aloof. He shied away from the publicity. I read the following quote from reporter William Furlong in the 7/6/69 edition of The National Observer newspaper, Furlong having interviewed Neil.
“It slowly became evident that the man who will be first to touch the surface of another body in the universe is not simply an unemotional, robot like man in whom the flesh is perfectly subjugated by the intellect. He has other interests, only he doesn’t care to talk about them.” And Furlong added, “He does not display any sense of personal destiny.”
And so on July 16, 1969, commander Neil Armstrong was at the helm of Apollo 11. Accompanied by Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin and Michael Collins, the crew was headed for its rendezvous with history.
The purpose of this article isn’t to describe the mission in any detail, but I had forgotten a few things. One being that as the lunar module approached the surface, warning lights began to go off (which NASA told Armstrong and Aldrin to ignore) and then, just a few hundred feet above the intended landing site, Armstrong sighted some huge boulders. He maneuvered the craft at the last second and Eagle touched down on more level ground. Just 30 seconds of fuel was left. A billion people were to hear his famous words when he finally emerged. When Aldrin set foot, he spoke of the “magnificent desolation.”
[Armstrong’s mother, incidentally, was worried her son “would sink in too deeply.”]
President Nixon addressed the men on the moon.
“Because of what you have done, the heavens have become a part of man’s world. And as you talk to us from the Sea of Tranquility it requires us to redouble our efforts to bring peace and tranquility to earth.
“For one priceless moment in the whole history of man all the people of this earth are truly one – one in their pride in what you have done and one in our prayers that you will return safely to earth.”
“I talked to my minister today and asked him if he had been saying a lot of little prayers. He said, just one big one. That’s what I said I had been doing. So, maybe God can take a rest now.”
These were incredible times. Often it seemed like the country would be torn apart. And the concerns on the international front were stupendous. If you ever get depressed, just remember what our space program accomplished back then. I guarantee you your heart will well up with pride. Sitting alone in this theater in Wapakoneta, Ohio, mine sure did.
–Teach your children: The original Mercury 7 astronauts were Scott Carpenter, Gordon Cooper, John Glenn, Gus Grissom, Wally Schirra, Alan Shepard, Deke Slayton.
–Initially, astronauts were selected using the following strict criteria: Due to size constraints, they couldn’t be more than 5 feet 11 inches tall. They also had to be under 40 years of age, have 1500 hours of flight time, and be military personnel.
—Freedom 7: Alan Shepard becomes the first American in space, going up and down without orbiting, 5/5/61. This was just 23 days after Russia’s Yuri Gagarin, 4/12/61. John Glenn then went up 2/20/62, orbiting 3 times and spending almost 5 hours in space.
–On January 27, 1967, Gus Grissom, Edward White, and Roger Chafee were performing preflight tests for Apollo 1. While sitting in the capsule on the launch pad, an electrical fire filled the cabin. They were asphyxiated. [Grissom had followed Shepard with a sub-orbital flight in 1961. Ironically, he almost drown on this mission when his capsule sank into the sea upon landing.] I have vivid childhood memories of the news bulletins on the tragedy.
Neil Armstrong (July 1969)
Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin (July 1969)
Charles “Pete” Conrad (Nov. 1969)
Alan Bean (Nov. 1969)
Alan Shepard (Feb. 1971)
Edgar Mitchell (Feb. 1971)
David Scott (July 1971)
James Irwin (July 1971)
John Young (April 1972)
Charles Duke (April 1972)
Eugene Cernan (Dec. 1972)
Harrison Schmitt (Dec. 1972)
Ball Bits
–King Felix…Seattle’s Felix Hernandez…continued his spectacular pitching with a 1-0 shutout over Minnesota, Monday night, as he went to 13-5 on the year. He is also 4-0 in 1-0 games this season; just the third pitcher since 1969 to be that successful in 1-0 contests. [Ferguson Jenkins and Bert Blyleven being the other two, 1974 and ’76, respectively.]
In fact, in his last 14 starts, Hernandez is 9-0 with a 1.40 ERA, 100 strikeouts, 17 walks and his perfect game. He’s allowed one earned run or fewer in 16 of his 27 starts.
By the way, for Minnesota, Joe Mauer passed Earl Battey for the most games caught by a Twins player, catching his 832rd. Earl Battey was a classic.
–Yankees closer Rafael Soriano blew just his third save in 36 attempts on Monday night against Toronto and, unlike Mariano Rivera or Derek Jeter, failed to stand up to the press afterwards and bolted the clubhouse. Not smart.
The writers are willing to give him a lot of leeway. He’s following the best ever, after all, and everyone recognizes Soriano’s temperament isn’t the same as Rivera’s.
But, that said, it’s all about how the Yankees, suddenly just 3 ½ ahead of Baltimore and 4 ahead of Tampa Bay entering Tuesday’s action, not only finish out the regular season but, hopefully, the playoffs.
–As for all the moves the Los Angeles Dodgers have made in just a few weeks, obtaining Hanley Ramirez from the Marlins and Adrian Gonzalez, Carl Crawford, Josh Beckett and Nick Punto from the Red Sox, the New York Post’s Joel Sherman commented:
“The Dodgers essentially found a will and a way to have free agency during a season, and that led to them not only absorbing expensive contracts from the Marlins and Red Sox, but also making a call to the Yankees to inquire about CC Sabathia and Mark Teixeira, The Post has learned.
“Looking both short term in trying to win the NL West and long term in restoring the Dodgers’ brand, Los Angeles officials refused to wait for a free-agent class they anticipate being uninspiring. Instead, they began calling their counterparts in earnest in July with this message: We not only are unafraid of your big contracts, we are interested in them….
“This is how the Dodgers were able to get Ramirez…And it is how they obtained Beckett, Crawford, Gonzalez and roughly a quarter of a billion dollars of future contracts from a Red Sox team anxious to cleanse its payroll and clubhouse.”
Well, with the Yankees owing Sabathia $99 million after this season, and Teixeira another $90 million, both over four years, the Yanks told the Dodgers they weren’t interested.
“However, the more interesting concept is Alex Rodriguez. Now there are no signs the Dodgers were interested in A-Rod….
“But, if nothing else, this episode should dissuade us from using the word ‘untradeable’ to describe any contract.”
The Dodgers took the injured Crawford, who may not be ready next season after Tommy John surgery and has five years at $102.5 million left after this season. A-Rod has five years and $114 million after 2012.
“By now, most of us have discovered that helping a friend move is a grievous mistake, never as easy as promised, usually consuming the better part of a weekend, and always involving a moment in which you find yourself smushed into a narrow staircase, clutching a chest of drawers by the fingertips, wondering why a professional isn’t doing this, and cursing the day you befriended your alleged friend. Later, when other friends inquire about moving assistance, you concoct bogus excuses: niece birthdays, elective surgeries, the family dog’s graduation from Harvard Law. This is rude and terrible and makes us bad people.
“But the Dodgers will help you move. They don’t care…..
“Los Angeles proved it this weekend, when they helped the Red Sox transport not just one headache, but a whole series of them, letting Boston unload four players and enough cash to make at least three crummy Schwarzenegger movies….
“Red Sox fans are doing cartwheels, a good strategy, since they will need a hobby to amuse themselves in October, as their team will be windsurfing during the playoffs….this season had the whiff of something more personal and toxic, the kind of low from which a franchise might take years to recover.
“Along comes the Dodgers, wealthy, eager, hungry. They would take the $100-million-plus contracts of Gonzalez and Crawford, as well as Beckett, who seemed so miserable in his final years in Boston….
“The deal is wildly popular in Boston, which was sick of the 2012 team, and Red Sox Nation is pledging patience….But can Boston tolerate two or three years of getting pummeled by the Yankees or finishing behind the Orioles? Maybe more? Are they ready to manage expectations?”
Back to the Dodgers, as Steve Dilbeck of the Los Angeles Times notes, “That additional $260 million in salary commitments the Dodgers took on with their stunning trade…is going to have significant, almost mindboggling, payroll impact as quickly as next season.
“The bankrupt Dodgers under Frank McCourt started the season with an opening day payroll of approximately $91 million. Add $100 million to that, and you would still be shy of what they’ve already committed to next season’s salary.”
Gonzalez ($21.9 million), Carl Crawford ($20.4 million), Josh Beckett ($17.0 million) and Hanley Ramirez ($15.5 million) will have to be paid a combined $74.8 million next season. Then add the other players, including Matt Kemp, Andre Ethier, perhaps an extension for Clayton Kershaw…you get the picture.
As the L.A. Times’ Bill Dwyre notes, it is a great time to be a Los Angeles sports fan.
Look at all the money the Angels, Dodgers, Lakers, and even Clippers have spent. Look at their success….which today may seem small, and that would be true, but the future is great. [Assuming the Angels right the ship with a new manager in 2013 and the Clippers can hold onto Chris Paul.]
–But….what if the Dodgers don’t make the playoffs this year? Entering Tuesday’s play, they are 69-60, 2 ½ behind the Giants and 2 ½ behind the wildcard.
–I have been writing tons on how awful the Mets have been in the second half, but did you know their performance is currently the worst in history? That’s right. Entering Tuesday’s play, the Mets are 13-29 the second half, easily the worst all-time for a team that was at least five games over .500 at the All-Star break.
Mets…46-40 first half…13-29 second half (.310 winning percentage)
Such play doesn’t bode well for the following season, either, as only three of the ten worst, including this year’s Mets, or thus nine, finished .500 or better the next campaign.
–The Washington Post’s John Feinstein…on limiting Stephen Strasburg’s innings pitched per the current plan at 160 or 180 innings. [Strasburg is at 145 entering Tuesday’s start against the Marlins….oops I can update this one before posting…make it 150, as he allowed five earned runs in five in getting shelled by the Marlins.]
“Strasburg should not be shut down at some arbitrary time based on innings, pitch count, Rizzo’s eye test or Robert Griffin III’s completion percentage. He should only be shut down if and when there is any tangible evidence that his shoulder, elbow or arm are hurting in any way at all. Because here are the facts on young pitchers and Tommy John surgery: There are no facts. Oh sure, there are numbers, but what applies to Jordan Zimmermann doesn’t necessarily apply to Strasburg and what applies to Strasburg may not apply to this year’s No. draft pick, Lucas Giolito, who also is about to undergo Tommy John surgery.
“(Strasburg’s agent Scott) Boras likes to scream about Steve Avery, one of his clients whose career was allegedly ruined by being over-pitched (for the record, he never had Tommy John surgery) before the age of 25. Avery, it should be noted, pitched almost 900 innings in the majors before 25. If Strasburg pitched another 50 innings this year (giving him 195 for the season) and then pitched another 100 by his 25th birthday next July, he would still be under 400 innings.
“What’s more, for every Avery, one can find a Tom Seaver, who pitched 800 innings by the time he was 25 and was still pitching quite effectively – for 250 innings – at the age of 40. Ancient history you say? Okay, how about Felix Hernandez, who pitched 1,152 major league innings before 25 and seems to be doing just fine a couple of years later?
“What do these statistics prove? Nothing. When it comes to predicting injury, statistics tell us nothing because everyone’s body is different, especially when it comes to pitching. Sandy Koufax threw a laser-like fastball and had a knee-buckling curve ball. He was through at the age of 30. Nolan Ryan threw a laser-like fastball and had a knee-buckling curve ball. He pitched a no-hitter when he was 43 and pitched until he was 46….
“The great Earl Weaver always said, ‘I’ll worry about next year, next year.’
“That doesn’t mean the Nats should be callous or careless with Strasburg. It does mean they should be aware that a plan hatched in February when you aren’t certain you’ll contend needs to be recalibrated in August when you have a chance for a very special season….
“Pitching a healthy Strasburg in October is not a betrayal, it’s simply recognizing that circumstances have changed.
“Not pitching him is a betrayal: to the pitcher, to the team, to the fans and to the city.”
–Cubs hurler Chris Volstad broke a 24-game winless streak as a starter in Chicago’s 5-0 win over Colorado the other day. He was 0-14 over that span.
“Who is the phoniest player in baseball?”
Alex Rodriguez…26%…ding ding ding!!!
Nick Swisher…14%…can’t stand him
Nyjer Morgan…11%…primo jerk
Brian Wilson…9%
Brandon Phillips…5%
—Japan kicked Tennessee’s butt in the Little League World Series championship, 12-2, as 24-year-old Noriatsu Osaka blasted three home runs and a triple.
–And in case there is one of you out there that cares, Roger Clemens threw 3 1/3 scoreless innings in an independent league contest in Sugarland, Texas. He struck out two and walked none. Scouts from the Houston Astros and Kansas City Royals were in attendance, showing the rest of us what jerks they…and their organizations…are.
College Football
–Play ball! Thurs. night, No. 9 South Carolina vs. Vandy. Saturday’s highlight is No. 2 Alabama vs. No. 8 Michigan. My Wake Forest Demon Deacons host mighty Liberty. [Personally, I hate these filler matchups, which when your program is so-so can prove quite an embarrassment.] Anyway, I’ll say the Deacons finish 6-6, and I’d be pleased with this. I’d love for one of the six to be at Notre Dame on Nov. 17.
–Dick Weiss / New York Daily News…on Penn State’s decision to remove “Sweet Caroline” from the PSU football routine.
“When pop music legend Neil Diamond woke up Monday morning, he could have never fathomed that one of his most beloved songs would be in the crosshairs of the Jerry Sandusky child abuse scandal.
“But such is the case of Penn State these days, where the culture police are in full force in an attempt to save the once-proud school from any more embarrassment. On Monday, it was revealed that Diamond’s ‘Sweet Caroline’ – a Beaver Stadium staple – will not be on the playlist…
“While the school denied the song’s removal had anything to do with the lyrics, ‘touching me, touching you,’ it’s hard to imagine the powers that be at Penn State just decided the song had run its course.”
An assistant athletic director used the excuse the song “happens to be played in so many other professional and collegiate venues and has no real origination here at Penn State.”
“It’s nice to see the school has its priorities straight.
“Again, Penn State is more worried about its image than the real crime here.
“First, the school decided to put names on the backs of uniforms, now this ‘Sweet Caroline’ fiasco. What’s next, close down The Waffle Shop, a pregame hot spot, because Sandusky once ate there?”
Diamond said back in 2007 as his 1969 classic became a cult favorite at so many sporting events that the inspiration for the song was President Kennedy’s daughter Caroline. But it wasn’t for another few years he wrote the words and music in less than an hour.
“It was a No. 1 record and probably is the biggest, most important song of my career, and I have to thank her for the inspiration,’ he said in an interview with the AP. “I’m happy to have gotten it off my chest and to have expressed it to Caroline. I thought she might be embarrassed, but she seemed to be struck by it and really, really happy.”
“The culture police are everywhere in Happy Valley, looking for ways to cleanse the university’s soul in any way possible. But it is hard to believe there is any connection between this song and the worst scandal in the history of college sports.
“This is like putting a Band-Aid on a patient after open heart surgery. If the school or the administration thinks replacing one song can change the culture that engendered the Sandusky scandal, good luck to them. It’s not that easy.
“Everyone inside 109,000-seat Beaver Stadium knows what happened and it has nothing to do with Neil Diamond or his song.”
NFL Bits
–Back on 4/26 in this space I said I ranked Seattle Seahawks rookie QB Russell Wilson third in the recent draft behind Andrew Luck and Robert Griffin III. Well, while the regular season is yet to begin, Seattle tabbed him the opening week starter as he’s played terrifically in the preseason. Wilson beat out Matt Flynn, he of the $26 million – $10 million guaranteed – contract, as well as Tarvaris Jackson. [Jackson then went to Buffalo to back up Ryan Fitzpatrick.]
So Kevin Clark and Michael Salfino of the Wall Street Journal had a piece on Wilson and the history of short quarterbacks, Wilson being just 5’11”. “Only eight players shorter than Wilson have thrown an NFL pass since the 1970 NFL merger, with varying degrees of success. While a handful of quarterbacks have thrived at six feet tall – Drew Brees and Michael Vick among them – it’s clear that the one extra inch can be the difference between stardom and struggles. The most successful of the short quarterbacks was former Redskin and Eagle Sonny Jurgensen, who made five Pro Bowls at 5 feet 11 inches. The only player shorter than that was Doug Flutie, who was listed at 5 feet 10 inches and threw 86 career touchdown passes.”
By the way, of the 309 passes Wilson threw at Wisconsin last year, “only two were deflected at the line of scrimmage.”
–For my New York Jets, the long, national nightmare is part over. Starting right tackle Wayne Hunter was traded to St. Louis in exchange for tackle Jason Smith. Former Jets offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer is in St. Louis, which is kind of funny, while Smith, the No. 2 overall pick in 2009, had lost his job this preseason and has missed time due to a number of concussions. Great.
Last season, Wayne Hunter allowed 11 sacks and committed 11 penalties, all of which seemed to be in the most crucial stages of a game.
Meanwhile, the Jets have become the first NFL team in 35 years to go through their first three preseason games without scoring a touchdown. I asked Charlie Brown (the cartoon figure, not the former wide receiver) for a comment. “Good grief,” he tweeted me.
I mean we are talking 35 drives and 174 plays. [Source: Bloomberg].
Oddsmakers in Las Vegas now suggest the team has just a 42% chance to go 9-7 or better vs. 59% earlier. [The odds of winning the Super Bowl have gone from 25-1 to 35-1. I’d put them realistically at 50-1.]
Tim Tebow, by the way, is just 13-of-36 through the air but has rushed for 84 yards on 11 carries. There are some around here who actually believe the Jets should scrap the experiment and turn Tebow into a full-time running back. I’m starting to like that idea. Run him ten times a game with a goal of getting 45 yards…that would be fine with me…and have the danger of the half-back option.
Actually, I don’t know what to think of this year’s team aside from my stated 6-10 record.
1. Aaron Rodgers
2. Drew Brees
3. Tom Brady
4. Cam Newton
5. Matthew Stafford
6. Michael Vick
7. Eli Manning
8. Tony Romo
–The very little of the preseason I have seen thus far has confirmed what everyone else has seen…the replacement referees truly blow.
“In one National Football League preseason game, the referee announced a penalty with his back to the television camera. In another, an official twice referred to a team from Atlanta as Arizona. That referee, whose previous experience included a stint in the Lingerie Football League, also mixed up which team had won the coin toss.
“These preseason games usually carry little meaning beyond an excuse for fans to tailgate, but this year’s batch has presented something different: an unintentional comedy routine from a roster of replacement officials, many of whom might have had trouble even dreaming about working at the game’s highest level just a few months ago.”
And as Borden concludes with the rest of us, “the replacements’ performances so far have done little to dissuade visions of an impending disaster.”
Heck, how can you possibly bet on an NFL game with these bozos?! You’d be nuts to wager anything substantial.
“Giants wide receiver Victor Cruz said recently, ‘I actually overheard one of the refs saying he only refereed glorified high school games. I don’t even know what that means.’”
Of course this wouldn’t be an issue if college referees could do the games, the bulk of them being highly experienced at a top level, but they aren’t available.
So what will Commissioner Roger Goodell do? He has the refs under a barrel but he can’t let the product be cheapened so much. In 2001 the league employed replacements for the first week of the regular season before a new contract was worked out with the regular refs.
–In making room for Tarvaris Jackson, the Bills got rid of Vince Young.
–We note the passing of NFL great and Hall of Fame running back Steve Van Buren, a five-time Pro Bowler with the Philadelphia Eagles. He was 91.
Van Buren averaged 4.4 yards per carry in an eight-year career in which he accumulated 5,860 yards and led the league four seasons. He also racked up 77 touchdowns. Van Buren was the first Eagle to get elected to the Hall in 1965.
In 1948, Van Buren scored the only touchdown of the NFL championship game, leading the Eagles to their first title over the Chicago Cardinals, 7-0. There was a driving snowstorm that day and, as the L.A. Times noted, “Van Buren almost didn’t make it to the kickoff. A foot of snow blanketed Philadelphia the morning of the game. He woke up, saw the snow and went back to bed. But he got up an hour later and decided he should head to the stadium. So he took a bus, then a trolley and finally the subway.”
Van Buren said later, “I couldn’t believe it when I got there and saw they were going to play. It was snowing so hard you couldn’t see.”
A year later in a torrential rainstorm in Los Angeles, Van Buren ran for 196 yards and the Eagles beat the Rams, 14-0, to become the first – and only – team to shut out opponents in consecutive championships.
Van Buren once told the Philadelphia Daily News, “I used to take maybe six [pain-killing injections] each half. Into the ribs. And the big toe, too. Once you hurt that big toe, it never gets better…The only time [the shots] bothered me was when they hit the bone. The needle would bend and sometimes it would break. I didn’t like it.”
Van Buren played his college ball at LSU and in his senior season led the nation in scoring and rushing.
Lance Armstrong
“ ‘Enough is enough,’ Lance Armstrong has declared, and another sports icon enters the gray. Not fully diminished, but not pristine, admired by some, radioactive to others. Spoils are expected to be scrubbed – seven yellow jerseys from the Tour de France, pulled from the wall – the memories muddy, but harder to erase.
“ ‘I know who won those seven Tours, my teammates know who won those seven Tours, and everyone I competed against knows who won those seven Tours,’ the 40-year-old cyclist said in a statement late Thursday, announcing he would not continue to battle doping allegations brought by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency.
“Step right up, declare a side. Armstrong did it. Or he didn’t do it, as he still insists. Or let the battle become about the battle – whether USADA was justified in bringing action, or whether its pursuit of Armstrong was an ‘unconstitutional witch hunt,’ as the cyclist termed it….
“(Armstrong) knows he has built a reservoir of goodwill, from his charitable work and his position as a cancer survivor and inspiration. That aura may not be what it once was, but it’s enough to absorb or at least deflect serious charges….
“I know what Armstrong means. I know why this subject is emotional and tangled. But I also want to know what happened. Instead, there is gray.”
“The problem with believing that Lance Armstrong was innocent of the doping charges laid against him was that it meant you also had to believe he was the victim of a huge conspiracy. How else could you explain the fact that so many people were prepared to testify against him?
“Last year an investigative article in Sports Illustrated claimed Armstrong had admitted doping to teammate Frankie Andreu and his wife Betsy; had gotten hold of a drug named Hemassist which did the same job as EPO without the side-effects; had been discovered with drugs and syringes in his luggage by Swiss customs officials; had lied about cutting ties with Michele Ferrari, an Italian doctor implicated in doping scandals who has been banned from sport for life; had shown abnormally high testosterone levels in several tests and had pushed his teammates to take EPO.
“These allegations came on top of testimony from Armstrong’s former teammates Tyler Hamilton, who said they’d doped together, and Floyd Landis, who detailed a systematic doping program by the seven-time Tour de France winner’s U.S. Postal team.
“Armstrong denied the allegations…But while, singly, the allegations might conceivably have been explained away, their combined weight tipped the scales towards guilty in most people’s minds despite Armstrong’s ongoing protestations of innocence….
“Right now it seems Lance Armstrong may well go down in history not as one of the world’s greatest athletes but as one of its greatest cheats. Maybe he was the greatest of them all because none of his fellow miscreants protested their innocence so loud and so long.”
Armstrong, by the way, is no longer eligible for events like the New York City Marathon because it’s an event the USADA tests. Armstrong ran the race in 2006 and 2007. [The second time he finished 232rd out of nearly 40,000.]
“This was five years ago, federal court in White Plains, N.Y., so far from the Sydney Olympics when Marion Jones thrilled the world.
“Now she stood in front of U.S. District Court Judge Kenneth Karas, about to be sentenced to jail for lying about her use of performance-enhancing drugs. Not everybody is Roger Clemens and beats the rap on drugs.
“And if you don’t remember what Judge Karas said to Marion Jones that day in White Plains, here is what he said, to Jones and everybody else:
“ ‘People live with their choices. The choice not to play by the rules was compounded by her choice not to tell the truth.’
“ ‘(It’s) a very difficult thing to believe that a top-notch athlete, knowing that a razor-thin margin makes the difference, would not be keenly aware and very careful about what he or she put in her body and the effects,’ Karas said, referring to such an explanation by athletes as the ‘worldwide lie.’
“This isn’t about why athletes use drugs to get bigger and faster and stronger and richer. We get that.
“This is about the lies they tell before and after they get caught, all the way from home run hitters in baseball to Marion Jones to Lance Armstrong, who now gives up his fight and his case against the United States Anti-Doping Agency and is stripped of his Tour de France titles forever….
“Greg LeMond – who now becomes the only American to officially win the Tour de France – took on Armstrong and Armstrong did everything possible to run him over. Armstrong went after LeMond in public, and privately, as if LeMond was the one who had committed some crime of their sport because he had questioned Armstrong, who was in the process of raising millions and millions of dollars through his Livestrong foundation to fight cancer….
“But if Lance Armstrong, stripped now of his titles, doped and lied and built his empire on a lie, how does anybody ever think he was better and braver and cleaner ever again?
“How is Lance Armstrong any better than any other athlete who cheated and finally got caught and then wanted you to feel real sorry for them afterward?”
Meanwhile, Lupica points out there are a number of lawsuits in which Armstrong received huge sums in the past…including one in which he walked away with $7.5 million from a company, SCA Promotions, a Dallas insurer of bonuses, with Armstrong saying he was owed $5 million for one of his last Tour de France wins. And then you have the U.S. Postal Service, which paid Armstrong a reported $60 million to $80 million in bonuses. Now Lance could be on the hook big time.
–Nice job by 15-year-old Lydia Ko, to say the least. She became the youngest to win an LPGA Tour event last weekend at the Canadian Women’s Open. Ko is from South Korea but her family moved to New Zealand when she was five so as the locals are now saying there, she’s Kiwi!
But Ko ain’t no pro, yet, so she forfeited $300,000 in prize money. Bummer. She plans on remaining an amateur and attending college in the U.S., probably Stanford. [Go to Wake Forest, Lydia!!!]
–Speaking of Stanford, did you catch Michelle Wie the other week as a blonde! Can’t comment further…wouldn’t be prudent.
—European Ryder cup captain Jose Maria Olazabal selected Ian Poulter and Nicolas Colsaerts to round out his 12-man squad, and there is virtually zero controversy. None of the other possibilities, including Padraig Harrington, can honestly say they deserved to be picked. Colsaerts, the Belgian, is the only rookie and was once known more for partying but is now well inside the top 50.
U.S. captain Davis Love III will announce his four captain’s picks on Sept. 4. Nick Watney threw himself in the mix in a major way with his win last weekend at The Barclays.
—Gabby Douglas told Oprah she was “being bullied and isolated from (her teammates at her native Virginia Beach, Va., gym) and they treated me not how they would treat their other teammates. I felt like, why am I deserving this? Is it because I’m black? Like, those thoughts would go through my mind. One of my teammates was like, ‘Could you scrape the bar? And they were like, ‘Why doesn’t Gabby do it, she’s our slave.’” [Joyce Chen / New York Daily News]
Two years ago her mother took her plea and moved Gabby away to train in Iowa.
—Jerry Grant, a great auto racer, died at the age of 77. But he drove in hard luck, including a heartbreak loss in the 1972 Indy 500.
Grant was a 10-time competitor at Indy, with a best finish in 1970 of seventh. But in ’72, he was leading with just 12 laps to go.
“Driving a car owned by legendary driver/owner Dan Gurney, Grant was forced to fix a tire and pulled into the pit stall of teammate Bobby Unser, who was out of the race.
“During the stop, ‘one of Unser’s pit guys automatically dumped some gas in my tank, which is against the rules’ because it came from another competitor’s supply, Grant later recalled to The Times.
“After leaving the pits, Grant still thought he had won the race, but the victory went to Mark Donohue, with Grant second.
“Later, after Gurney filed a protest, the race’s sanctioning body disallowed Grant’s last laps due to the refueling incident and dropped Grant to 12th.”
Grant earned $24,156, while Donohue earned $218,763, or about $1.2 million in today’s dollars.
Three months later, Grant became the first driver to eclipse 200 mph in an Indy-style car during qualifying at the now-defunct Ontario Motor Speedway.
“A female zookeeper has been killed in Germany after a tiger escaped from its enclosure and attacked her.
“The 43-year-old was cornered by the animal after it found its way through a gate that had not been properly shut and wandered into a nearby storage building, police said.
“The woman was mauled and bitten and later died of her wounds.
“The director of the Cologne Zoo, Theo Pagel, then shot the tiger dead with a rifle from a safe vantage point….
“It was feared that the tiger had been about to make its way into visitor areas.”
“Yikes, now Hope Solo has to get out of the way because Serena Williams thinks she’s the most interesting person in the world.”
“A hiker was killed by a grizzly bear at Alaska’s Denali National Park in the first known fatal mauling in the park’s history.
“The victim was 49-year-old Richard White of San Diego…
“Photos recovered from his camera showed that he lingered after encountering the bear near the Toklat River and took several pictures instead of backing away.”
Mr. Grizzly no doubt was very pissed. I’m sure he warned Mr. White, “Look, if I ever see those photos on your Facebook page you’re toast.”
White must have countered [none of this is actually provable, you understand, but I have experience in these things], “I would never do that (heh heh).”
Anyway, rangers “found that a bear had dragged (White’s) remains to a more secluded brushy area. Later in the day, they shot a grizzly believed to be the one that killed White.”
Well, since it was a ranger, can’t blame them, rangers being in the Most Favored People category.
Our sympathies to both victims’ families. No doubt Mr. Grizzly’s will now seek revenge. Make sure your screen doors and windows are secure.
Top 3 songs for the week 8/30/75: #1 “Get Down Tonight” (K.C. & The Sunshine Band) #2 “Fallin’ In Love” (Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds…would put this in my all-time Top 100) #3 “Rhinestone Cowboy” (Glen Campbell…hang in there, Glen!)…and…#4 “One Of These Nights” (Eagles…still my favorite of theirs) #5 “How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)” (James Taylor…mailed it in) #6 “Jive Talkin’” (Bee Gees…dreadful) #7 “At Seventeen” (Janis Ian…brilliant tune…Janis Ian was brilliant) #8 “Someone Saved My Life Tonight” (Elton John…who?) #9 “Why Can’t We Be Friends?” (War…these guys are so underrated it’s pathetic) #10 “Fight The Power Part I” (The Isley Brothers…love them but this was far from their best)
Golf Quiz Answer: Five winners of the Tour Championship during the time of the FedEx Cup.
2007 – Tiger Woods
2008 – Camilo Villegas
2009 – Phil Mickelson
2010 – Jim Furyk
2011 – Bill Haas
