A tale of two champions
07/24/2000
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Two great sports stories ran their respective courses this weekend, each winding down to fulfilling conclusions on Sunday afternoon. Two phenomenal athletes turned in two simply dominating performances to capture two of the sports world's most cherished titles.
Tiger Woods, the name you read in nearly every magazine, the face you see in seemingly every commercial. There aren't many words that can describe the way Tiger has overpowered the rest of the Tour this season. His game has been remarkable this year, nearly flawless, and it seems his name sits atop a tournament leaderboard every weekend. On Sunday, Woods sank a par putt on the 18th green at St. Andrews to win the British Open and complete his career Grand Slam, the youngest to do so at the age of 24.
Now, I'm not one who normally sings Tiger's praises. ESPN, Fox Sports, ABC and GQ handle that quite nicely. That doesn't mean I don't admire his skills or marvel at his talent, but ever since this kid started winning all those amateur titles at Stanford in the mid-1990s, it's been a case of Tiger overload. But he's been able to do something that very few people in his situation were ever able to do: live up to the unbelievable hype that has surrounded his career since day one. That's a remarkable accomplishment considering the overwhelming media exposure he's received.
But watching Woods take control of St. Andrews and the other golfers this weekend was amazing. We're talking about a course that has hosted the best golfers in the sport for hundreds of years, a place where any normal 24-year-old would be slightly intimidated if only because of that rich history. Combine the auras of Wrigley Field, Yankee Stadium, the Boston Garden and Lambeau Field into one sports venue, and it still wouldn't carry the weight St. Andrews does. But Tiger, fresh from his rampage through the Pebble Beach competition, didn't flinch once on his way to a record -19, eight strokes ahead of his nearest competitor.
Perhaps the most notable aspect of Tiger's last round was the way he handled David Duval's final charge. Woods entered Sunday's round six strokes ahead of Duval, but saw it whittled down to a three-stroke lead after Duval turned in a -4 on the front nine. Some golfers would have panicked if their lead was cut in half on the last day of one of the Opens (Greg Norman comes to mind), but Tiger kept his cool. And when Duval began to fall apart on the back nine, Woods put the title away. While Duval was playing in the sand on 17 for an 8, Tiger managed to hit a grand total of zero bunkers in the four days of play.
So, just this once, I'll tip my cap to Tiger. In an interview after the last round, Woods was asked if we've seen his best golf yet. Tiger, without hesitation, confidently said no, that he was going to continue to work hard and improve his game. That's a scary thought. Some people compare the way he dominates his sport to the way Michael Jordan dominated basketball for so many years, saying his performance was "Jordanesque." Personally, I think the term "Tigeresque" fits better.
As for Duval, he played such great golf for 63 holes that you had to feel bad for him as he collapsed on the last nine. But, David, come on - can you lose the sunglasses? Those tan lines are ridiculous.
As impressive as Tiger was this weekend, the better story belongs to Lance Armstrong, now the back-to-back Tour de France champion after completing the three-week, 2250-mile race with a 6 minute and two second lead. I don't claim to be a bike-racing fan. I'm not going to throw out stats that I don't understand or try to analyze a rider's race tactics, but I did happen to see a little bit of this year's Tour. I flipped it on for one reason and one reason only: to catch a glimpse of Armstrong.
I'm sure most sports fans remember Armstrong, the man who came back from an extreme case of cancer to compete, and succeed, at his sport's highest level. His doctors nearly guaranteed the cancer would kill him after it spread to his lungs and brain, but Armstrong proved them wrong and, almost two years after his recovery, won last year's Tour de France, a very emotional victory for him and for cancer patients around the world.
And he did it again this year. After starting out well behind the leaders in the opening stages, Armstrong came back strong and led for many of the 21 stages of the race. Armstrong credits his success to the weight he lost, and has since kept off, while battling cancer, but this story is not as much about Armstrong's physical abilities or characteristics as it is about his heart and determination to make a successful and inspiring comeback.
Trader George
As an Indians fan, it's against my baseball religion to respect or admire anything having to do with the New York Yankees, especially George
Steinbrenner. But as much as I dislike King George as a person, I have to respect his desire to succeed and his ability to get his team into the best position to win. This season, it was trading for David Justice to eliminate his team's need for another power bat. Then, he filled a huge hole in the rotation by landing Cincinnati starting pitcher Denny
Neagle. This weekend, he traded for Glenallen Hill to bolster the Yankees bench woes in the wake of Shane Spencer's season-ending knee injury. Steinbrenner is one of those rare owners who always seems to pull the trigger on the right deals while other owners or general managers, like the Tribe's John Hart, often shy away from any roster movement. Imagine this: When the Expos were shopping Pedro Martinez a couple of years ago, Hart could have had the righthander for Brian Giles, Enrique Wilson and Jaret Wright. The deal was on the table, but Hart was afraid to unload the potential that Giles and Wright offered. Wright currently resides on the disabled list and hasn't been productive since 1997 while Giles, an All-Star for the Pirates, was traded two offseasons ago for lefty reliever Ricardo Rincon, who also is on the DL with arm problems. I wonder how that Pedro guy has done since then...
In the Bullz-eye:
Oakland Raiders rookie place kicker Sebastian Janikowski. After coming away unscathed from charges that he tried to bribe a police officer, Janikowski and some friends were later found with
GHB, a designer drug often associated with date rape. But despite his problems and the weak possibility that he could be deported, the Raiders signed the talented kicker to a five-year, $6 million contract, complete with a handful of "moral clauses" that, if broken, could nullify the contract's terms. Can he turn his life around, or will Janikowski's NFL career be short-lived?