1st Period
Tiger Woods was aptly named because he has at least nine lives. Less than two years ago he told his fellow green jacket winners that he thought his career might be over. His back was a mess and he couldn't walk a course let alone swing a club.
Last Sunday he won his first tournament for 2020, which gave him 82 for his career, and tied him with the great Sam Snead for most wins all time. The greatest golfer ever, Jack Nicklaus, has only 73 wins to put it in perspective. Oh, by the way, with his Masters win last April he is now only three majors behind Jack for most wins there too.
His career has been remarkable from the beginning. There has never been a golfer who turned pro that had more pressure on him than Tiger Woods. He had beaten everyone, and won everything he could in college. As an amatuer he won back to back to back US amatuer titles. Nobody has ever done that.
He was a man/child of color with all the expectations and burden that carried with it. He was touted as the future greatest golfer of all time before he teed it up for his first tournament. Talk about pressure. And to his credit he delivered. Nobody has the winning streaks like he did since Jack. If he entered a tournament he was expected to win and he usually did, most times by a wide margin.
Like Jack in his prime, the other golfers just stepped aside and let him mow them down and then fell over each other to congratulate him for doing so, just like Jack. His percentage of winning events he entered was ridiculous for stretches, in the upper double digits sometimes.
Off the course he has had his share of issues, and he did not always handle things smoothly or graciously, but on the course, well he has been magnificent. Whether or not you like him as a person you cannot deny his talents on the course. For those of us of a certain age, we have been lucky to see some generational golfers in our lifetime. Palmer, Nicklaus, Woods, Sorenstam, and Lopez to name just a few.
Enjoy the next few years as Tiger Woods becomes the greatest golfer of all time.
2nd Period
So here it is, November 1st, and as I read the sports section this morning I could not be more proud to be Chicago sports fan. In the NBA our Bulls are in last place, in the NHL our Blackhawks are tied for last place, and in the NFL the Monsters are in last place. The trifecta of shitty sports teams is residing in the big city. For fun let's toss in the Northwestern Wildcats and we have bad teams littered all over the sporting world.
I told someone the other day that I feel like I entered a way back machine and it stopped in 1975. Or 1983. Or any number of years. Honestly, I thought those days were finally gone for us, but apparently there is no end to how bad our teams can become if they put their minds to it. I feel like I should be walking around wearing a paper bag on my head.
3rd Period
If you were one of the 275 million people not watching the World Series this year, shame on you. It was one of the most interesting and crazy series ever seen. The big story right now is of course the way AJ Hinch, the manager of the Houston Astros, handled his bullpen in game seven. Not using the best pitcher on the planet seems nuts but I kinda of get his thoughts as to why he didn't bring in Gerrit Cole.
But the real story that people will be talking about for fifty years, is the fact that no home team won a game. Let me repeat that. NO HOME TEAM WON A GAME! That is beyond crazy and as a viewer, with no interest in either team, you kept wondering when that streak would end, and it never did.
The Washington Nationals were money in the playoffs, winning all five elimination games they faced in each series. I was happy for Dave Martinez, and the great Hank White (Henry Blanco), the bullpen coach, but mainly happy that the series was interesting in spite of Joe Buck and John Smoltz.
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