It's my first week back and already I'm stressed. Well, you might be too if you had a paper due before classes started, or in this case, a sports column. It does bring back the great memories of staying up until ungodly hours trying to figure out what you're going to write about.
But then I realized this is my column and I can write about whatever I want. So give a brother a break and enjoy catching up on the tidbits of news going on in the sports world. What else are you going to do? It is the first day of classes, after all, and you need something to read besides a bunch of lame syllabi.
Tiger ends "slump"
Thank heavens Tiger Woods finally won again. I was scared he would be stuck in a slump forever with a measly five wins. All sarcasm aside, Wood's thrilling win over Jim Furyk after seven playoff holes was some of the best and most exciting golf I've seen all year. I kind of wanted Furyk to win after sinking his bunker shot on the first playoff hole, but I think the $500,000 for runner-up will do well to console him.
Dirty south golf
Bubba wins! Bubba wins! Bubba Dickerson, a 20-year-oldjunior at the University of Florida, came back after being down five holes to win the 2001 U.S. Amateur Championship. Dickerson sank a 15-foot birdie putt on the last hole to realize his golf dreams. And John Deere advertisers realized they might have found a gold mine.
Racing back on track
Apparently, everything is back to normal in the world of racing. Jeff Gordon is firmly atop the NASCAR standings, and three drivers died racing this past weekend. Tim Boswell died after crashing at Barberton Speedway in Ohio; Michael Josselyn passed away after losing control of his car due to lost visibility on a dirt track; and motorcycle racer Will Davis was pronounced dead at a hospital in Missouri after an accident at the American Motorcyclists Association's Grand National Championship. And racing is the world's fastest growing spectator sport. The morbid nature of racing will never lose its appeal, will it? Somehow the words bread and circus come to mind ...
Japan wins Little League World Series
The Little Leaguers from Tokyo, Japan, put on a bottom-of-the-sixth showcase to steal the world championship from the kids from Apopka, Fla. It wasn't the winners' celebration sliding in center field that upset me so much as the American kids bawling on the field. There's no crying in baseball. I don't care if they are 12 years old. I mean, dude, you're on camera. What are your friends back home going to say?
D.A.R.E. to use drugs
And speaking of kids, a study came out this past week saying that 390,000 children between the ages of 10 and 14 have used performance-enhancing supplements. Officials were concerned because a study done two years earlier showed no use of supplements by children under 14. Whatever happened to the good old days when kids trying drugs meant having a beer or puffing on their first joint?
No benefits for you
The National Football League's referees are threatening to strike this year if they are not offered benefits and a pay hike. The NFL is retaliating by planning on hiring replacement officials, and for once I'm with Commissioner Tagliabue on this one. Like the NFL refs, I have been a seasonal employee for most of my life and never once have I been offered a benefits plan or a pay hike. Get over it guys and take the deal that's on the table. We have instant replay; we don't need you.
Birdwood prices up again
Once again our "friends" down the road at Birdwood Golf Course have chosen to raise the price of a student's round of golf. At the beginning of the summer, I thought that $17 was a bit much for a college student's budget. I mean, after all, not everyone has parents that can afford to bankroll their every extracurricular activity. Then a month or so ago the price went up to $19 and I became irritated.
Apparently the student special has gone up to $20 now, just in time for the fall semester. For those of you keeping score, that's 10 rounds of golf at Charlottesville's McIntire Park Municipal Course. I don't even pay $20 to play on the municipal courses back home. Granted, Birdwood is a beautiful, challenging course and the twilight special is still $12, but the sunsets are coming earlier and earlier these days and the beer isn't going to pay for itself.
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