Woody Paige writes that Tiger’s return to the Masters will be dramatic theater. Oh, really? I think it’s just going to be like the last four Masters Tiger won.

MITCH BLATT

Woody Paige’s column begins:

Tiger At The Masters is the Act IV continuation of the medieval morality play with a modern-day twist.

Well, no, there are lots of other examples of celebrities, politicians, and athletes in the modern day cheating on their spouse, so simply because it’s a tragedy doesn’t make it medieval. And I’m sure people have been cheating on each other since the dawn of time, so there’s no “modern-day twist” either.

Nobody knows how the play will play out…

I’m sure it won’t be hard to find someone who thinks Tiger will win.

…but regardless of what anybody believes, everybody must agree: This is great theater.

It will be great theater to the extent that every performance by Tiger Woods is great theater. Tiger makes amazing shots and comes back from improbable deficits. Yeah, that’s exciting, but the fact that he cheated on someone doesn’t make it any more exciting.

Personally, I don’t find golf exciting, and I’m not going to start watching now just because Tiger cheated on someone. If they want to make this event more exciting–if they want to turn it into “great theater”–they should get Elin Woods to chase him with a golf club. Otherwise, there’s nothing new about this event, so nothing will make it any more or less exciting than previous Masters that Woods played in.
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I was watching the Rockets-Nuggets game tonight (which the Rockets won) that was played in Houston, and I noticed something weird about the sideboard ads.

Some of them were in Chinese.

Well, it’s not that weird, considering Yao Ming plays for the Rockets, and there will be millions of Chinese watching many of his games.

Chinese companies have been advertising at the Rockets arena ever since they drafted Yao.

From the Wall Street Journal in 2003:

Last summer, the U.S. distributor for Yanjing Beer Group Corp., of Beijing, leased billboards lining the Houston Rockets’ arena, home court of the 7-foot-5-inch Mr. Yao. The advertising deal, valued at just over $6 million for five years, marks the first time a Chinese company has sponsored a National Basketball Association team. It probably won’t be the last.

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Apparently Tom Brady thinks that we can save the world by turning lights off for one hour of one day of the 365 days of the year. He made a video about it here saying that global warming is going to kill us if we don’t turn the lights off for one hour:

I’m sure that hour will make up for the many hours of energy used by Gillette Stadium before, after, and during games.

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It’s only fitting that Sidney Crosby, the next “great one” would score the goal to get Canada the gold medal on home soil, as Canada beat the USA 3-2 in OT.

His goal 7:40 minutes into overtime etched his name forever in Canadian hockey lore and sent the Canadian crowd into raptures, as they finally got the gold medal they had desired for eight years.

And with a gold medal on the line, the two teams produced one of the greatest hockey games ever played.

Canada seemed on their way to the gold after a first period goal from forward Jonathan Toews and a second period goal from forward Corey Perry gave them a 2-0 advantage.

For Toews, it was just his first goal of the Olympic tournament, but he had recorded seven assists, which was the top in the tournament. It was also the first goal given up by USA goalie Ryan Miller, who kept a shutout streak of 124 minutes and 28 seconds over four games. (more…)

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What might be the effects long term for the sport of hockey in the U.S. going forward?

SCOTT JACOBS

If you found yourself rooting for a goalie you had never heard of, before these 2010 Vancouver games began, you weren’t alone.  Aside from your hard core hockey enthusiasts, America wasn’t exactly making U.S.A goaltender Ryan Miller their Olympic poster child.  Many didn’t even expect the country just south of Canada to even medal at all.

And then Miller played the tournament of his life, and team U.S.A. put on a spectacular performance themslves, falling just short of Olympic gold in a take-your-breath away classic that won’t soon be forgetten, by sports fans, and Americans alike.

Whether you knew who you were rooting for, whether you knew a blue line from a red one, didn’t matter in these Olympic games.  All that mattered is hockey took center stage, in a country that had seemingly abandoned it.  No, not Canada.  The country that invented the games, got what they wanted: gold in the sport that they live, breathe, and sleep. (more…)

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Watch this interview with a man pretending to be Team USA goalie Ryan Miller, and think whether you can tell that the person interviewed isn’t Ryan Miller or even if it matters whether he’s Ryan Miller:

He made all the traditional space-filling comments that you would expect from an athlete: “We felt that we had a competitive advantage due to our international experience.” “The Canadian game, we were a little more worried about, because they had home ice.”

He did go a little bit past the traditional athlete’s cliches when he called Canada and Russia “overrated” then when he guaranteed a gold medal for the US, but hell, that just made the interview more interesting and informative than a real interview.

My point is that in sports (or many other news topics), there is really no reason to interview people, because they don’t say anything. All the cliches and everything can be just as easily and accurately said by someone who isn’t even on the team.

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Its Dec. 27, 2009.

The Hoosiers are working towards their final out-of-conference game the next day versus Bryant University, who hold an 0-12 record on the season.

Five days earlier, the team lost a stunner at home to Loyola Maryland, 72-67, despite a  furious comeback in the waning minutes of the game. Their record is now 5-6.

However, despite that loss and the losses in Puerto Rico, the team has played exceptionally well, and even beat Pittsburgh in New York at Madison Square Garden, and stuck with fourth-ranked Kentucky for a good 25-30 minutes before inexperience and lack of poise at the free throw line let Kentucky take over.

Freshman guard Maurice Creek was the star of that game, scoring 31 points on some of the nations top players, shooting 9-14 from the field, including five three-pointers, and went 8-8 from the free throw line. (more…)

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MITCH BLATT

More buzz on Super Bowl ads:

Hyundai’s full shoot with Favre:
The commercial that I thought was funniest

“Humanitarian News”: “Denny’s acknowledges suffering of egg-laying chickens.”
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