This past April weekend brought notonly rainy showers and last minute tax filings but also some unfamiliar and unpredictable sports developments. First and foremost among them was Phil Mickelson's thrilling victory at the Masters on Sunday. Known as the "greatest golfer to never win a major," Mickelson shrugged off what has become an expected Sunday collapse to finish with four birdies on the last five holes and captured the most famous green jacket in America in captivating fashion.
On a course known for its fairway beauty and slippery greens, Mickelson disposed of critics and monkeys (especially one that was riding firmly on his back) with a triumphant 18-foot birdie putt on the final hole to win by a single stroke over three-time major champion Ernie Els.
Although Mickelson had finished in the top three the past three years at Augusta National, his game did not resemble his old self. Rather, he was content taking three-wood off the tee to control his accuracy, lay up on par fives when necessary, and as mentioned before, shined brightest on the weekend rather than, as he typically had, on Thursday and Friday.
While the no-longer-so-hefty-"Lefty" riveted crowds in Georgia, another oddity blipped on the sports radar screen across the country in Sacramento, Calif. In perhaps the biggest NBA game of the regular season, the Lakers were blown out by their archrival, the Kings, as Kobe Bryant only took one shot the entire first half. Bryant, who had scored at least 30 points in his last five games against Sacramento, was held scoreless for the game's opening two quarters and only finished with eight points. To put his shockingly low number of shots on Sunday in perspective, Bryant had averaged just fewer than 25 shots per game in his previous three contests.
A little closer to home, this Sunday marked Cavalier history as the men's tennis team won a share of its first ACC regular season title after beating Duke, a team to which Virginia had lost 25 consecutive matches.
In addition to this remarkable achievement, the Cavalier baseball squad made its own kind of history on Sunday by completing its first sweep of Clemson since 1972.
Despite all these sports oddities from the weekend, the most surprising may reside in Major League Baseball. Seeing the Tampa Bay Devil Rays atop the standings is weird enough, but acknowledging that the Detroit Tigers have the best record in the league is almost incomprehensible. After losing what must have seemed like 150 games in a row last year, the Tigers started the season 5-1, including a win over the defending AL Central champion Minnesota Twins on, you guessed it, Sunday.
With all of these peculiarities, I can only assume that the Easter Bunny was performing some extra duties this weekend.
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