A few thoughts on the burning issues of the day(s).
Tiger I know everyone wants to flip out on what’s going on with Tiger Woods, but let’s all just take a deep breath and relax. If he’s still shooting +18 next year, then we can start talking about the biggest fall from grace in sports history. But, given what he’s been dealing with this year, I don’t see how you can chalk this up as a normal year.
I haven’t written much about it because I’m really not sure what to say. I do think it is wise to delay making judgements about his golf career until he has more time to get healthy, rebuild his swing (again), and better deal with the mess he’s made of his private life. He may never be the fearsome competitor of his prime, but I think it’s far too early to write off the rest of his career.
Lance OK, depending on what happens with the investigation in Lance Armstrong’s past, maybe Tiger has some competition for the biggest sports fall from grace. I’m indifferent to PEDs; I believe everyone in cycling was doing something. But I tend to agree with those who say, at least in America, people won’t care if we do eventually learn that Lance was doping. They will talk about all that he’s done in the fight against cancer and say that was a reasonable bargain. I don’t know that I completely agree with that argument, but there is some logic to it.
Colts Like the rest of the NFL, the Colts arrived at camp a week ago and have been working out hard in preparation for another 12-win season. The normal questions abound: Will Bob Sanders play more than two games? Can the offensive line continue to protect Peyton? Can the running game move the chains? Will there be enough balls to go around for a fantastic, deep receiving corps?
But the biggest question surrounding football in Indianapolis is what’s going to happen to next year’s Super Bowl, scheduled for Lucas Oil Stadium? Will a lockout, which seems to be a given at this point, destroy the 2011 season? Will owners try to run out replacement players like they did in 1987? What if, in a worst case, the season is cancelled? Will Indy get another shot to host or was this our one chance to be in the rotation?
Prediction: if for some reason the Super Bowl does not take place in February 2012, the day it was scheduled to be played will be unseasonably warm in Indy and people will be saying, “What a great day this would have been for the Super Bowl!”
Baseball Thank goodness the Royals made a few moves around the trading deadline. The smartly wrote off the rest of the season in exchange for finally figuring out if some of their young guys will factor in what happens to the team over the next couple years. I expect them to mess up the bushel of prospects in the minors, but I remain cautiously optimistic about the future.
One other baseball note: we keep hearing about what a tough year it’s been for the Red Sox. They’ve been hammered by injuries all year, with nearly every key player spending time on the DL. They are basically out of the race in the first week of August, despite their massive payroll. Then you look at the numbers and see that they’ve won 63 games. Before the Yankees took three-straight over the weekend, those 63 wins would have put the Red Sox in first place in every other division in baseball. Even now, they’d be within two games of first everywhere but the AL East. Yet their season is a disaster. They could easily win 90 games and still finish third in their division. Baseball is a crazy game.
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