Today is, of course, Canada Day. If they did it like us, they'd call it the First of July, but they actually notice that other countries have July 1 on their calendars, too. We could take note of that on our Independence Day...
Something else, too. Canada's citizens are born with health care, and keep it until they die. They have come to regard it as a fundamental right - as have most other highly-developed countries...
Whatever else goes on in the summer of 2009 when it comes to sports in Central New York, we already know when - and where - the biggest show will take place. Try Aug. 24, out at Turning Stone's Atunyote course in Verona.
At that spot last year, golfer Notah Begay held the inaugural Skins Game for his foundation that helps support Native American youth activities across the country...
They were saying it at the end of the epic 2008 Wimbledon final, then repeating the chorus when the same thing happened at the Australian Open early this year.
The era of Roger Federer dominance of men's tennis was over. Rafael Nadal had taken over. He had surpassed Federer, figured him out, was ready to dominate.
Those words seem so hollow now. True, Nadal had to lose at his place of complete domination, the French Open, then never make it to the All-England Club due to injury, but Federer rules again.
Finally winning in Paris tied Federer with Pete Sampras, 14 Grand Slam titles each. And by surviving another all-time Wimbledon final, this time outlasting Andy Roddick, Federer climbed past Sampras.
What a scene, too...
Three months have passed in the 2009 baseball season, and three months remain. So it’s a good time to peruse the scene, see where we are – and whether it lined up with what was expected back in April.
AL East – Well, the sock is on the other foot now. It’s Boston dominating the Yankees, winning every meeting so far, which is the difference between the two megapowers atop the standings. That, plus a Red Sox bullpen that trumps the Yanks’ taking full advantage of its Little League dimensions at its rather expensive new stadium. What’s more, after its slow start Tampa Bay has caught fire, the Rays zooming past a Toronto squad that started with so much promise but regressed after Roy Halladay served a stint on the DL...
We have gone through a relentless stream of noted passings, timely or otherwise.
It's the "otherwise" part that grabs the headlines and attention. The more lurid, the bigger the circus - see Steve McNair on a small level, Michael Jackson on an absurdly large level. Drugs, guns and/or sex tends to bring in the gawkers.
Yet Monday's passing of Robert McNamara, the 20th century's longest-serving secretary of defense, carries far more weight because his singular legacy, Vietnam, tore this country apart as nothing had since the Civil War itself.
More than any other person, McNamara came to define the morass of Vietnam...
All it took to drain some blood out of the announcement of Tiger Woods appearing in the Aug. 24 Notah Begay III Foundation Challenge at Atunyote was to hear how much people would have to ante up to be part of the festivities.
For those inclined to spend a night or two at Turning Stone, the packages are $670 and $920, close to four digits. For just the Monday golf (plus some extras), it's $330. Oh yeah, and just 3,000 of these tickets are available.
To say the least, both the ticket costs and the limited supply of them has been the topic of intense discussion ever since Tiger's presence was made official at last Monday's news conference. Both need to be addressed.
First, the cost...
Hard by the Irish Sea and the Firth of Clyde on Scotland’s west coast, the property known as Turnberry’s Ailsa Course has seen activity far more important than a golf tournament – even the Open Championship, played for the fourth time there this week.
In both of the world wars (10 years in all), the flat and treeless land of Turnberry served as a strip for the Royal Air Force’s planes to take off and land on their dangerous missions. Many never came back.
Many golf courses take pains to honor famous occurrences with plaques- great players, or great shots. But Turnberry takes it further. On a hill above the 12th green, a monument sits, tall and proud, in honor of those lost airmen...
Of all the statistics put up in the wake of the American League's latest All-Star conquest in St. Louis, one stuck out, and it was only slightly related to baseball.
The last National League victory came in 1996, in Philadelphia, at a stadium (the Vet) now demolished, on a surface (Astroturf) never used anymore in baseball, and before Barack Obama was even a state senator in Illinois.
Oh, sure, the folks in St. Louis thought this time would be different. Albert Pujols playing in front of the home folks. Deep pitching. A roster full of power...
So it was left to Tom Coburn, the Republican senator from Oklahoma, to provide the low point of the Sonia Sotomayor confirmation hearings on Capitol Hill.
As the Supreme Court nominee explained a strange hypothetical scenario involving guns and self-defense, and what would be legal and what wouldn’t be, Coburn suddenly blurted out “You’ll have lots of ‘splainin’ to do”, Ricky Ricardo-style.
It was surely in jest, but can you possibly imagine Coburn, or any of the senators on the Judiciary Committee panel, giving out that kind of flippant remark to, say, John Roberts?
Yes, it’s a rhetorical question, but also a relevant one...
Our generation is spoiled in many ways on the information front. Anything we need to know about, just type up a web page or, if we see something, Tweet for all the world to hear - even if what you say doesn't make any earthly sense.
Still, we missed out.
We missed a time where our news sources were outlets a majority of people believed in. We mostly missed a world where journalists, even the TV brethren, cared as much about the quality of what they put out as they did ad sales or Nielsen points.
Put simply, we missed Walter Cronkite. And that was true, in spirit, decades before his physical life on this planet ended Friday at 92.
Cronkite had a corner on integrity early...
As the Open Championship moved to its moving conclusion, a four-hole playoff settled and no chance that Stewart Cink, the gentleman Georgian, would be caught, the engraver already putting his name on the Claret Jug, all eyes turned to the vanquished, not the victor.
For really, that's what this edition of the world's oldest golf tournament was about - an old man evoking his brilliant youth and nearly providing golf with one of its seminal moments.
Tom Watson had already done this at Turnberry - 32 years ago, with Jack Nicklaus, their "Duel in the Sun" a fixed part of the golfing annals. Watson's return for this particular Open was supposed to be little more than nostalgia. The British bookies had him at 500-1.
By contrast, Tiger Woods went off at 2-1...
Ah, a week of vacation in Orlando. Sun, fun, lots of good food, heat, humidity, the occasional afternoon gully-washer that can be both freaky and beautiful (two full rainbows witnessed on Saturday, early evening), then back to Syracuse...to drive right into a Sunday-night gullywasher. I brought the weather home.
Oh, but we were quite aware to events going on in the world. The ongoing health-care debate, war casualties in Afghanistan, the loss of Walter Cronkite (see earlier post, shameless plug), lots to ponder...
Wait, that didn't get talked about? Right, I get it, if race is involved, clear all the other decks.
If only it had ended with Henry Louis Gates, the distinguished Harvard academic, against James Crowley of the Cambridge police...
The attention given to college football in some parts of our great land is quite irrational, and the lack of a definitive ending to the season adds to the irrationality.
What does this have to do with Steve Spurrier leaving Tim Tebow off the All-SEC preseason team? Well, it's complicated...
To start with, Tebow is great. Really great. As in Only Sophomore to Win the Heisman great, and the other two years, his Gators won the BCS title. Note that I didn't say national championship, because it really it isn't. Another dose of irrationality.
All the praise given to Tebow, a committed football quarterback on the field and a committed Christian missionary off it, is rather excessive, too. Gator Nation thinks he is close to a deity. Non-Gator Nation wants to kill him...
Syracuse-area golf fans bummed out that they can't spend a week's pay to see Tiger Woods at Atunyote on Aug. 24 should be glad to know that seeing the Futures Tour's Alliance Bank Classic at Drumlins East this weekend costs just $10 a day, $25 for all three days. Shameless plug, but hey, it's a great event, and the players are truly appreciative of the support..
Meanwhile, a small item out of Michigan might have big consequences around here.
There's a good chance the Buick Open in Grand Blanc this weekend might be the last one...
Well, guess it was time for our regularly scheduled steroid revelation, courtesy of the New York Times, in their self-assigned role as Guardians of the Game And All That It Stands For.
Sorry, but the name-dropping of David Ortiz (Manny Ramirez was already in trouble) doesn't provoke any gasps. We passed the gasp period a long time ago.
In the inevitable debate that followed, one thought came up - namely, what do you do with the World Series titles the Red Sox won in 2004 and '07, with Papi and Manny at the heart of it all?
Uh, you do nothing. Never mind that trying to strip those crowns would cause untold angst on a Red Sox Nation accustomed to projecting their angst on all the nonbelievers...
As day one of the Futures Tour Alliance Bank Golf Classic wound down at Drumlins East, the sun was setting, giving all the players still out on the course as much time as possible to finish up before darkness.
That was because, all morning long, the sun failed to make an appearance.
Instead, you had rain, six hours of it. Though never dangerous, it poured hard enough to put puddles on many greens and, at 9:10, just an hour and 20 minutes after they started, everyone came back to the clubhouse to wait it out.
Not until 1:30 did it dry up enough for play to resume. A saturated course, no wind, an ideal chance for the 72 players in the morning shift to go deep into the red...
Two autumns ago, they were at such extreme ends of the spectrum, having only the common bond of being NFL quarterbacks. One was a disgrace. The other was a deity.
Michael Vick had the disgrace part nailed down, sent to federal prison for his role in a dogfighting ring, condemned in a way few athletes ever had been. He was no longer a person, but rather a symbol of an athlete, given too much, who threw it all away.
At that exact same time, Brett Favre was beginning his 16th season in Green Bay, about to lead the Packers to the brink of the Super Bowl, one more inspired run by an old man holding the NFL records for completions, yards and touchdowns. He had never missed a start since taking over in September 1992...
