My, what a week in golf. And that was just the near-ace on my 35th birthday..

Okay, so maybe some other important stuff happened. Lorena Ochoa played her final tournament (for now), deciding, like Annika Sorenstam before her, that there was more to life than chasing a little white ball around. Things like family, charity, the things we all should emphasize.

Meanwhile, the game proved yet again that its fate is not completely tied to one beleaguered tabloid target. In Japan, Ryo Ishikawa, all of 18, won again - by shooting a 58 in the final round.

That's right, folks, a 58. A five and an eight...

CATEGORY: Golf

TAGS: Ryo Ishikawa, Rory McIlroy, wins, young golfers

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Nostalgia, combined with unmeasurable sadness, greeted the news Tuesday night that Ernie Harwell, long-time voice of the Detroit Tigers, had passed away.

He had lived 92 years and four months, a good and full life. But even that knowledge, plus the fact that he had inoperable cancer and everyone knew the end was coming, could not prepare for the grief, the tears, the outpouring of condolences, from Michigan and beyond.

What kept coming up, in the remembrances of Ernie, were the good human traits of kindness, faith, generosity and spirit he brought to everyone he ever met...

CATEGORY: Baseball

TAGS: Ernie Harwell, death, past and present

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Wednesday night, Game 2 of yet another NBA playoff series between the Suns and Spurs in Phoenix. Only it wasn't a typical playoff game.

The score will simply state that Phoenix won, 110-102, perhaps moving closer to some redemption for many different playoff failings at San Antonio's expense - and perhaps leading to a Suns-Lakers West final. Think you'd hear a few "Beat L.A.!" chants in the desert?

Ah, but this game was about much, much more than just the score...

CATEGORY: Basketball

TAGS: Phoenix Suns, jerseys, Arizona, immigration controversy

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Say you've been to a Syracuse Chiefs (or SkyChiefs, before the name change) game at Alliance Bank Stadium in the 14 years of its existence.

If the crowd ever went past a couple of thousand, it usually meant a fireworks show, or a cameo appearance by a big-league star (Darryl Strawberry or Curt Schilling) swinging through town on a rehab assignemnt. Whatever the reason, it wasn't for the Chiefs, or their mediocre product on the field.

Which made Friday night's spectacle so shocking, and cool to witness in person. Never before had so many people - 13,766 - witnessed a baseball game in this city.

And all for a 21-year-old pitcher who may be a legend in the making - or a phenom that flames out...

CATEGORY: Baseball

TAGS: Stephen Strasburg, Syracuse Chiefs, debut

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Tim Clark grabbed the Players Championship on Sunday, going bogey-free with a 67 to end a long wait for a victory on American soil.

Like Rory McIlroy the week before, the South African used a glorious weekend to prevail, passing the star-crossed Lee Westwood and holding off Robert Allenby. One more roll of the ball on the island green at 17 for the Aussie, and who knows..

Clark's win was sweet, and overdue. Yet once again at day's end the focus turned to Tiger Woods.

Had it been simply giving about Tiger all the attention while he was stuck in the middle of the pack, then that would have been annoying...

CATEGORY: Golf

TAGS: Tiger Woods, withdrawal, injury, future

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Just wanted to put up that blog title once. Now life is complete...

A cold Wednesday night served as the backdrop for the second edition of the Second Coming - or, in English, Stephen Strasburg's second start for the Syracuse Chiefs, this time against the Norfolk Tides.

Start I brought a Syracuse baseball-record crowd, concession shortages, standing room only, six innings, 65 pitches and just one meager hit...

CATEGORY: Baseball

TAGS: Stephen Strasburg, Syracuse Chiefs, second start

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Never mind all the other details. The real story in seeing the Cleveland Cavaliers' season implode in the last 48 hours is seeing how, once again, a team from that star-crossed (some would say cursed) Northeast Ohio city broke hearts.

My, how Cleveland sports fans have suffered. To take the Biblical analogy, all those separate events (Drive, Fumble, Red Right 88, Jim Brown's early retirement, Jordan Over Ehlo, Game 7 in 1997) represents stations of the cross, painful reminders played in a continual loop any time something bad happened again.

And this qualifies as something bad. From the NBA's best record to a second-round exit? And this on the heels of losing the East final last year? How much more can Cleveland take?

Maybe a lot more...

CATEGORY: Basketball

TAGS: LeBron James, Cleveland, free agent, decision

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Just a few weeks ago...well, everything we are about to encounter in the NHL and NBA conference finals was difficult to fathom. To wit:

- Montreal's Canadiens were down three games to one, about to meekly bow out of the first round as Washington steamrolled them on the way to a long-awaited Stanley Cup.

- Philadelphia's Flyers had made it through round one, but were still just happy to be in the playoffs, having made it in at the last possible moment in the last game of the season in a shootout.

- San Jose's Sharks were down 2-1 to Colorado, having lost that third game on Dan Boyle unintentionally putting a clearing pass into his own net in overtime. They were about to underachieve...

CATEGORY: General Sports

TAGS: NHL, NBA, conference finals, preview

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Pain and joy, responsibility and carelessness, strong family ties and broken homes - August Wilson packed a lot into Fences, the most well-known of his 10-play cycle about the African-American experience through the 20th century.

All through May, "Fences" has been featured at Syracuse Stage, and only a few performances are left. If you have any chance, go see it, for it tugs at every human emotion, evoking smiles and laughs, deep thoughts and tears. And that's just the work outside the theater.

In a brilliant stroke, the folks at Syracuse Stage went well beyond staging a play. On the walls across the bar, you'll see tender, black-and-white photos of local fathers and sons, pride etched in every face, young and old...

CATEGORY: General Society

TAGS: "Fences", play, Syracuse Stage, August Wilson

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They've sweated in early-April heat and shivered through May snow, felt sharp winds at their backs and into their faces.....wait a minute, you didn't look to this blog for poetry.

Mostly, the girls of Section III lacrosse just played the game, with passion and spirit. And now 27 of them will answer the playoff call.

Yes, 27, and 18 are in Class C alone. The imbalance only seemed to grow this spring, though Class A and B evened out, in a weird way.

Gone from the A ranks are Oswego and Auburn, sent to B to give incumbents Watertown and East Syracuse-Minoa some company...

CATEGORY: Lacrosse

TAGS: Section III, girls lacrosse, playoffs. analysis

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When the post-season rolls around in Section III boys lacrosse, mere banners are not the only thing considered.

All the powers really want is to play on the second Saturday in June - to take that long and draining bus to Long Island, reach Stony Brook University, and play for a state title.

Unlike the fall or winter, the sectional playoffs in the spring is no drawn-out process. We go, in three weeks (or less, in baseball and softball), from drawing up brackets to handing out shiny state plaques. It's a blur, it's exhausting, it's maddening - and it's thrilling, all at once.

An incredible array of talent is on the field with the 26 teams that have earned their way into the sectional tournament. Dozens of them are headed for the college ranks...

CATEGORY: Lacrosse

TAGS: Section III, boys lacrosse, playoffs, analysis

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Through a full week of activity, a majority of Section III's track and field athletes began the post-season process that will eventually lead to Bragman Stadium and the state championships on June 11 and 12.

A whole host of league titles were on the line, starting at the eventual state venue with the CNY Counties League championships on Monday (boys) and Wednesday (girls).

Fayetteville-Manlius cruised to wins on both sides of the American divisions, earning all kinds of 1-2 or 1-2-3 sweeps in distance races...

CATEGORY: Running

TAGS: Track and field, league championship meets, recap

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With all the preliminaries cast aside, it's time for local softball teams to feel the rush of tension and excitement that only the Section III playoffs could bring.

In all, 69 teams did enough (reach .400 in league, the section or against class opponents) to get into the post-season...

CATEGORY: Softball

TAGS: Section III, softball, playoffs, analysis

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Warm sunshine, cool drinks, the shirts sticking to your back - yes, it's baseball season.

Wait, you say. Haven't they been playing ball for two months now? Perhaps so, but rarely in the sort of heat that's arrived in Central New York just as the Section III playoffs begin.

And the action will come fast - three rounds in five days, finals next week at Alliance Bank Stadium and DeLutis Field, then a breather before the regionals and the June 12 final four in five different Binghamton locales.

There's a lot to live up to, especially after a spate of recent state titles won by the likes of Fabius-Pompey, Utica Proctor and Westhill...

CATEGORY: Baseball

TAGS: Section III, baseball, playoffs, analysis

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Two score, nine years and nine presidents ago, Chicago ruled the small, tight clique that was professional hockey in North America. With names like Hull and Mikita, the Blackhawks claimed the Stanley Cup, believing it to be the harbinger of a dynasty.

In 1975, the NHL had grown a bit more, but was still a place where toughness counted more than style. So it was fitting that the Philadelphia Flyers, the toughest of them all, fought off the Buffalo Sabres for a second consecutive title.

Absolutely no one, Blackhawks partisan or Flyers partisan alike, believed it would take this long to return to the summit...

CATEGORY: Hockey

TAGS: Chicago Blackhawks, Philadelphia Flyers, Stanley Cup Final

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It is a day singular and magnificent in its chaos - eight Section III girls track and field championship meets, all in one afternoon and evening, spread out across Central New York.

Literally hundreds of athletes on display, trying to reach the top for themselves and for their schools as a season full of work begins to culminate...

CATEGORY: Running

TAGS: Section III, girls track and field championships, recap

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Unlike their female counterparts, the Section III boys track and field athletes have their championship meets spread out over four days, so each class gets a day to themselves.

This doesn't, in any way, deter from the intensity of the whole thing, as we saw some tight battles for team honors in many spots.

Class AA went first, on Wednesday at Cicero-North Syracuse, where Utica Proctor pulled off the first half of its boys/girls AA sweep by earning 110 points as Liverpool (99 points) was a close second.

No single Raider athlete dominated, though Will Hawkins earned four different runner-up finishes that amounted to 32 points that helped counteract the Warriors' effort...

CATEGORY: Running

TAGS: Section III, boys track and field championships, recap

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We've reached the point in the Section III softball playoffs where no one, Cicero-North Syracuse being the exception, will be at home anymore.

Just 24 teams remain, bound for a dozen pressure-packed games on Wednesday to see who makes it to the Gilette Road complex for Saturday's title games.

Both the Class AA and A games are at Hopkins Road Park, as in AA it may be yet another Liverpool-CNS final - or it may not.

Liverpool did not have the easiest of time getting past Fayetteville-Manlius, and you can bet West Genesee was paying attention. Either they get the vulnerable or awesome Warriors.

Also remember that CNS is only the no. 3 seed and lost to Oswego a couple of weeks ago...

CATEGORY: Softball

TAGS: Section III, softball, playoffs, semifinals

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Eight days ago, the Section III baseball playoffs began with 73 teams hoping to make it to Alliance Bank Stadium for this week's championship festival.

Only 10 could get there, though, and starting tomorrow, the banners get handed out in five games that have all the plot lines you could want.

First there's Class A, where the biggest surprise in any bracket, Whitesboro, tries to complete its unlikely run to the top by beating Tri-Valley league rival Vernon Verona Sherrill.

The entire tournament changed when Brendan Heitz, already with three RBIs, hit a dramatic two-run home run in the top of the seventh to stun top seed CBA 5-4...

CATEGORY: Baseball

TAGS: Section III, baseball playoffs, finals, preview

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