How Sports Helped Heal New York City In The Wake of 9/11

by Jay Kaplan, OTSL Head Writer & Co-Host

“Are you okay?” “Where were you?” “Is anyone you know hurt…missing…dead?” Questions those of us who were living in New York heard all day and for days after in the wake of the worst day in New York and America’s history.

It’s been 10 years, but on Sunday it will – at least emotionally for those of us who are still living here – seem like yesterday instead of yesteryear. Those questions will again be asked, except in the past tense. “Were you okay?” “Where were you?” “Did you know anyone who was hurt…missing…died?”

And while The Big Apple will have its “official” memorial ceremony at Ground Zero (yes we still call it that and I doubt that will truly change even with a memorial and eventually a new building there), a more personal, more, dare I say more New York ceremony will take place at Citi Field before the Mets play the Cubs and at The Meadowlands before the Jets play the Cowboys. I say that because sports played such a huge part in the healing process for this city in the wake of the tragedy.

I said on this past week’s show that to outsiders, New York City can sometimes come across as a souless metropolis. Glass and steel buildings reaching towards the sky; millions of people constantly in a rush to get wherever they’re going, plugged into their ipods, blue-tooth devices and crackberries seemingly oblivious to the rest of the city around them.

But with all heartfelt respect to such places as New Orleans, Tuscaloosa, Oklahoma City and even Washington DC, which shares this day with us, no city galvanizes and comes together in the wake of disaster quite like this one; and while September 11th may be the worst day in American history, in many ways, it was New York’s finest hour.

And while first responders and construction crews spent those initial hours and subsequent days doing work that no one with their skill sets should ever have to do, decisions were made first to shut sports down and then 10 days later start them up again. Both decisions being the right one at each moment they were made.

While the Jets and Giants did their part when the NFL re-started games, it was our baseball teams that residents of The Big Apple really latched on to, probably because they played every day.

Like every New Yorker, I remember that first game at Shea Stadium against the hated Atlanta Braves. The game was tight and the crowd, the first one at a sporting event in this city since the tragedy, wasn’t sure how to react. With everything that had happened, was STILL happening, was it okay to cheer? Then Mets catcher Mike Piazza, who lived shouting distance from Ground Zero, stepped to the plate in the bottom of the 8th and blasted one into the Queens night to give the Mets a 3-2 lead and the crowd just erupted. At that moment, every New Yorker from Ground Zero to the far edge of Long Island and every where in between started to think that maybe, just maybe we’d be okay. It would take a while, but it was a start.

And then four days later, on September 25th, the Yankees played their first game in the House That Ruth Built. Wearing caps that said “NYPD” and “FDNY” instead of “NY” just as the Mets had, the Yankees brought members of New York’s Finest and Bravest along with other rescue workers onto the field for a pre-game ceremony. The Yankees lost that game, but clinched the AL East because the Red Sox lost to the Orioles.

Call it fate, destiny, whatever, but the Yankees seemed to realize that the City needed them to keep playing. The Yankees run to the World Series gave New York something to talk about other than the dead, the injured, the missing. Something to help them, if only for a few hours, escape what was still going on just a few miles away.

That the Series against Arizona was one of the most dramatic in baseball history, with the Yankees coming back to win multiple games highlighted by Derek Jeter’s home run that gave him the name Mr. November only heightened the focus on the City, it’s people and it’s most famous sports team. Even though the Diamondbacks would win the series in seven games, the Yankees did something for this City that it desperately needed: a reminder of who we were before 9/11 and who we would be again. We got knocked down, but we got up again, you’re never gonna keep us down.

With the entire country watching, New York showed that while it might be battered, bruised and grieving, nothing, not even the worst day EVER would keep New York City from being New York City.

Sporting events in New York are different than sporting events anywhere else. In other places when the stadium fills up it becomes the second or third biggest city in the state. Here it’s the reverse. Here, sporting events are where a city of 8 million becomes a small town. And in the wake of 9/11, being in that small town, whether it was Yankee Stadium, Shea Stadium or the Meadowlands, surrounded by fellow New Yorkers all feeling the exact same emotions, all looking for anything that even remotely resembled life as we knew it, sports is what brought us together, what helped a City to begin to heal.

Ten years have passed, but that day of days, it will never be far away from our thoughts. We live with it every day, not just on its 10th anniversary. It’s why EVERY year on this day our teams wear FDNY and NYPD hats instead of their own and take a moment to remember a day we can’t and won’t ever forget. We all went through this together. Cops, Firefighters, Paramedics, EMT’s, rescue workers, construction workers, volunteers, baseball players, football players, basketball players, hockey players, men, women, children, white collar, blue collar, those of us who lived through September 11th, 2001 all have something in common. We are New Yorkers, we live in the concrete jungle where dreams are made of.

And after living through our City’s worst nightmare, sports helped us start to dream again. First of our city getting its “New York-ness” back and then once again of championship parades down the “Canyon of Heroes” of which New York has plenty, both on and especially off the field.

THE NBA LOCKOUT: MAKING SENSE OF THIS MESS

By Dave Shepard, OTSL Analyst

When truly examining this lockout situation, where does the blame lie? As fans, who should we side with? The players or owners? When Jermaine O’Neal is making more money than Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, James Harden, Serge Ibaka, Eric Maynor, Thabo Sefolosha and the former Thunder forward Jeff Green combined, you are going to have problems. Great teams are also being hurt with luxury tax costs when they are paying guys like Rasheed Wallace over $7 million dollars to run to each three point line every single game.

The NBA is not having a lockout because of the lack of fan interest. Since the Jordan era, based on the finals ratings, they are the highest they have been. It is about the hyperbole when considering borderline good NBA players and paying them like they are franchise saviors. Tracy McGrady, once a high riser, is more of a high fiver, making more then $20 million dollars per year.

Rip Hamilton, Charlie Villaneueva and Ben Gordon are getting a combined $143 million. Has anyone heard anything about these three in the past two years? I am not asking that to be sarcastic. The most you have heard about these former UConn greats is a player-coach dispute involving Hamilton.

Here is how owners and franchises can make it work. Yes the Thunder flamed out against the Mavericks. Lack of experience coupled with an immature point guard in Westbrook hindered their chances of playing the Heat in the finals. However, they are well under the salary cap and there is not any player on that team who is over valued when it comes to their salary. They are a blue print for how teams can flourish and sell out, but do it where the owner can make profit, the fans are confident and excited consumers and the players can make a very good living to say the least.

I’m as big an NBA fan as it gets, but we can’t fool ourselves into feeling bad for the owners. They are the ones shelling out this money like it’s grilled chicken samples at the mall. The owners complain about over 2/3rds of the teams not reporting a profit, yet they have no one to blame but themselves. I’ve always been in favor of a “You Earn What You Get System”. I have never been a proponent of a system where the Greg Oden’s of the world (nice guy that he is) get hurt in layup lines, but in the process take over $30 million dollars from their team despite being, at best, nothing more than a solid bench player.

The players, like any other employee, need incentives and clearly there is no incentive when owners over pay, over value and truly under deliver. This lockout is a result of the the incompetency of the owners and if there is no basketball this season the blame falls squarely on their shoulders.

The Fine Line Between Genius And Madness

Bobby Fischer Against The World

by Sean Roman, OTSL Analyst

Madness is all too often the brother of Genius. These siblings are profiled in HBO’s documentary, “Bobby Fisher Against the World.” Near the beginning of another HBO gem, a nameless, faceless journalist in the early 1970’s says:

“Bobby, you’ve given virtually your entire life to the world of chess. What about Bobby Fisher the Man, what is he like?”

Bobby, very uneasy as he sits on a park bench, stammers and responds: “Chess and me, its like hard to take them apart. Chess is like my alter ego.”

Bobby Fischer was born to an activist mother, Regina, a single parent who raised Bobby and his sister in Crown Heights. Regina was a diligent individual; she was a telegraph operator, nurse, welder, and noted leftist with the distinction of building up an extensive F.B.I. file. Bobby took up chess at the age of 6, and was quickly discovered as a prodigy. At 13, he played a game known as "The Game of the Century." By 14, he was the youngest ever United States Champion.

On his way up to the Championship of World, he won 20 straight matches against the World’s Elite, a streak which permanently reserved his place in the pantheon of chess greats. Bobby played the game with a brilliance that is difficult to conceptualize if you lack a passion for chess. The year when Bobby beat Borris Spassky for the World Championship was 1972. Impoverished inner city kids were dying in Vietnam. A historic presidency was unraveling. The ideological war of political and economic systems was in full force. Somehow, Bobby was the most popular sportsman on the planet. Naturally, the focus on him was intense. This was a recipe for a great Fall.

What I found most interesting about “Bobby Fisher Against the World,” is the unintended look at Bobby's adversary -- “The World.” On the surface of the documentary, you will see the World's rightful indictment of the obviously mentally ill Bobby Fisher, whose various ravings are offensive and absurd. Look deep into this documentary and it becomes clear that the media and the public would tolerate and even worship Bobby, as long as he was at the pinnacle of success. At the time Bobby was winning, and he was our horse. His rebellious had both sexiness and appeal.

However, after Bobby had left the limelight for long enough and his skills diminished in his 1992 comeback, people lost patience for his nonsense. He was covered by the media, but was criticized as a pariah. The great question the piece raised is: why we are more apt to tolerate and forgive when someone’s excellence is in our presence. The answer has something to do with our fascination with the most powerful of four letter words – Fame.

In the piece, Dick Cavett most aptly explained the road Bobby traveled:

Fame is definitely a mixing blessing and almost everybody would admit that at some point in there life that they wish they had it. Once it starts, its fun. Then the fun quickly wears off when you want to be alone. Also, it is horrendous on the psyche of the young. It totally distorts their world.

THEY JUST HAD TO GO AND SETTLE THINGS!

Why we'd all have been better off if the NFL had stayed locked out

by Sean Roman, OTSL Analyst

The news hit me hard. There will be no NFL lockout after all. The gluttonous pigs on both sides of the NFL labor discussions wised up. If you were wondering about the list of winners, it primarily consists of the tiny percentage of citizens who are NFL owners, NFL players, or bookmakers. Fans may think they won; and the overwhelming majority of football followers are happy that the games will go on.

However, all of us who are regular folk and do not get paid by the league actually lost. We lost the only way to exact a small portion of revenge. How do the fans lose? When we captive customers visit a stadium, we lose each time we pay $30 for the right to park our cars. I dare say that this is the price that should be close to what it costs to get in the venue! It is simply a deductive truth that the working man in America losses when he pays the sky high ticket prices and concession fees when he wants to see his team live.

New York fans will lose as we continue to support the greatest sports fiction of our era, that we actually have a New York team Downstate.

Superbowl fans lose when they are charged hundreds of dollars for the privilege of watching a game outside that monstrosity in Texas.

If the NFL continued to bicker, maybe even for one season, that would have been a terrific result. The biggest message we could have sent this Fall is: "We don’t need you. In fact, my life will be richer without you." Our lives would have been enriched by having extra time for our families and loved ones. We would have spent that special day of the week dedicated to much more important things than watching grown men chase the oblong ball for sickening salaries. We would have been a lot better off with a break from the madness.

"And He'd Rather Be Known As The Angry Young Man"

by Jay Kaplan, OTSL Co-Host/Head Writer

When Billy Joel wrote this song back in 1976 I doubt he had Pittsburgh Steelers All-Pro LB James Harrison in mind. After all, Harrison wasn't born until two years later, but as I read, watched and listened to the stories surrounding the EPIC, disrespectful, insult-laced rant that the 2008 NFL Defensive Player of the Year went on in for an interview in the August issue of Men's Journal (http://www.mensjournal.com/jamesharrison) I can't help but think of certain verses in Billy's song.

Verses like "He refuses to bend, he refuses to crawl/He's always at home with his back to the wall." and "Give a moment or two to the angry young man/With his foot in his mouth and his heart in his hand. He's been stabbed in the back, he's been misunderstood/It's a comfort to know his intentions are good." Though I'm not at all sure that what came out Harrison's mouth and onto the pages of Men's Journal could even remotely be classified under the heading of "good intentions".

In the wide ranging interview Harrison quite literally goes off like an IED, spraying shrapnel on the NFL, former players now working as commentators, as well as teammates Ben Roethlisberger and Rashard Mendenhall; but he saves his angriest comments for Commissioner Roger Goodell, the worst of them being "If that man was on fire and I had to piss to put him out, I wouldn't do it. I hate him and will never respect him".

REALLY James? Are you KIDDING ME? What in the name of Art Rooney were you thinking? Sorry, retract that. You OBVIOUSLY were NOT thinking otherwise you wouldn't have shot yourself in one foot and put the other one SQUARELY in your mouth.

Let me be clear here. Everyone knows that the Steelers are my team. During football season I bleed Black & Gold (or Yellow as per Wiz Khalifa's rap). James Harrison is one of the best Linebackers in the NFL and the Steelers defense is one of the league's best in no small part because of the havoc he wreaks on Sundays.

That said, I cannot in ANY way, condone, defend or rationalize his comments. I know he believes that the NFL in general and Goodell in particular are targeting him for the way he plays. I know that he was not happy with the mistakes that Big Ben (2 INT's) and Mendenhall (1 fumble) made in the Super Bowl loss to Green Bay.

However, first of all, you DO NOT publicly throw teammates under the bus. EVER. You may not like everyone on your team, but discord in a locker room can ruin a team's championship hopes as quickly as an interception or a fumble in the Super Bowl. Harrison is now backtracking on the harsh comments about Roethlisberger, telling ESPN's Merrill Hoge (a former Steeler) that the writer twisted his comments about the QB and it was not Harrison's intention to slam Big Ben, who apparently has spoken with Harrison and says all is well between them. Even Mendenhall had no issue with Harrison's comments, though via his Twitter feed, he did direct folks to a stat page showing that he only fumbled twice in 324 carries last season.

Harrison has not - as of yet - backtracked on any of his comments about Goodell. Which leads me to my second of all. There's an old adage that goes "Show me someone not griping about their boss and I'll show you someone who is unemployed". Sorry James, but no matter how much you don't like Goodell, his policies, the way he metes out fines and suspensions or the ways he's trying to make changes to improve safety, you just CANNOT publicly disrespect the Commissioner of the NFL like that. Calling him stupid, a puppet and a dictator would be bad enough, but using Anti-Gay slurs and saying that if he was on fire you wouldn't piss on him to put the flames out is going so far beyond the line it's RIDICULOUS.

In one fell swoop the perception of James Harrison has gone from a respected player with a beef to an angry idiot without a clue. Before all this, you may not have agreed with Harrison on his points of view about the changes being pushed by Goodell that were affecting the way he'd played the game his whole life, but you at least could respect him. Now? I don't even know that I as a Steelers fan can respect him. Has he tarnished his image? Without a doubt. Has he done irreparable damage to his career? That remains to be seen.

I don't know what disciplinary action will be taken by either the NFL or the Steelers once the lockout ends and camps reconvene, but some form of punishment must be handed down, whether it's a fine, a suspension or both. I know that speech is not held in the same regard as actions as far as the NFL's code of conduct goes, but Harrison's comments - in my mind anyway - fall under the heading of "Conduct unbecoming an NFL player" and must not be allowed to stand. Actions have consequences and in this instance, words should as well.

When There's That Much Smoke

There Has to Be A Fire Somewhere Right?

Is America's Most Famous Cyclist a Fraud?

by Jay Kaplan, OTSL Co-Host & Head Writer

This past Sunday Tyler Hamilton, a former Gold-Medal winning cyclist and former US Postal Cycling teammate of Lance Armstrong, was interviewed on "60 Minutes" where he confessed to using illegal performance enhancers like EPO and other doping techniques while helping Armstrong win three of his record seven Tours de France.

He also stated that Armstrong himself was a major user of the blood-booster EPO, as well as human growth hormone and testosterone while regularly using techniques designed to beat the testing done by the agencies like the World Anti-Doping Agency. When pressed to back up his claims, Hamilton gave replies that were along these two lines: "I heard the conversation" or "I was there when he was doing it and I was doing it with him".

He even went so far as to say that part of the reason that Lance never got caught or never tested positive was that he and his people could make things like that go away. Hamilton hinted that the International Cycling Union was at best turning a blind eye and at worst complicit in covering up Armstrong's transgressions. If true, that's a very damaging statement leveled at the governing body of a sport that has long fought rumors of rampant corruption.

Hamilton is the third former US Postal teammate of Armstrong's to come out and say that despite Lance's "I've never tested positive" affirmations to the contrary, America's greatest cyclist reached his legendary place in his sport's history by hook and by crook.

When Armstrong's bitter rival Greg LeMond made accusations that Armstrong might be cheating en route to winning the Tour de France after his fight with cancer, he was dismissed as a rival chucking sour grapes at a legend, because he was bitter over rumors that Armstrong was behind bike maufacturer Trek threatening to end their relationship with LeMond.

And when another former Armstrong teammate, Floyd Landis, threw similar stones with regards to Armstrong claiming that he was the biggest drug user of everyone on the US Postal team, his accusations were dismissed under the headline of "People in Glass Houses" as Landis himself had just recently been stripped of his 2006 Tour de France win due to his own doping.

All the while Armstrong sang the familiar "I have NEVER tested positive" refrain and Landis was dismissed as just another bitter, jealous ex-teammate just like Steven Swart and Frankie Andreu who along with his wife Betsy and former Armstrong personal assistant Mike Anderson are among those who have leveled accusations at Armstrong regarding doping and other cheating while he was racking up his record seven Tour de France wins.

In the past Lance Armstrong would make the case that personal hatred, want of financial gain, revenge, jealousy, any and/or all of the above drove his accusers to level these unfounded charges at him. He could make the case that accusations by Landis and LeMond had no credibility since both men admitted to their own drug use after years of steadfast denials.

All of this would eventually cut the legs out any potential story and Lance would continue on. Winning the Tour de France, adding to his legend as America's most famous cyclist and seemingly, its most famous cancer survivor. After all, who wants to believe that a guy who conquered cancer and continues to push for research, programs and any other initiative that will assist in curing as many of the myriad types of cancer that are out there could possibly be a hero with feet of clay.

And yet, Hamilton's "60 Minutes" interview is compelling. A man who got away with cheating the system for most of his cycling career. A man who claims that although the Olympics was one of the few times he raced "clean", he was so disgusted with himself that he hid his 2004 gold medal away for years before recently returning it to the United States Anti-Doping Agency last week.

Armstrong's people claim that Hamilton is fueled by greed and a desire for publicity since he is writing a book about his career in cycling. This time, the typical response from Armstrong's camp seems to ring hollow. Hamilton was a widely respected and well-liked member of the professional cycling community and Armstrong's camp aside, very few people have anything bad to say about him.

Hamilton's confessions may be good for his own soul, but they may ultimately wind up being good for the soul of the sport he still claims to love. Even if those confessions lead to the sport's biggest name being taken down. Sometimes the only way to make something better is to blow it up and start all over.

The Lake (no)Show
Why the Lakers got swept by the Mavericks
by Jay Kaplan, OTSL Head Writer/Analyst

As I watched Game 4 of the NBA second round series between the Dallas Mavericks and the two-time defending champion Los Angeles Lakers go to halftime with the Lakers down 63-39, I was reminded of a scene fr0m the movie "The Replacements". Head Coach Jimmy McGinty is asked by a sideline reporter what the Washington Sentinels will need to overcome the big halftime deficit in a game they must win to make the playoffs. His reply? "Heart." When pressed by the reporter, he taps his chest with his game plan and says "Miles and miles of heart."

The reason this scene popped into my head was because heart was exactly what I did not see from the Lakers. Not just in Game 4 which ended in a 122-86 series-sweeping rout by the Mavs; but throughout the entire series.

I kept waiting for the Lakers to flip that switch and become "that team". You know the one with the cast of characters like "Kobe The Ruthless" - able to score on anyone, anytime and win a series by nothing more than the sheer force of his will.

That team also had a talented AND tough Power Forward named Pau who played the game with equal parts skill and power and was good for a double-double every game. There was D-Fish the respected team elder who invariably made HUGE, clutch shots every game. Andrew the Younger gave them yet another low-post scorer, rebounder and tough, physical, shot-blocking defender of that sacred area called "The Paint". And finally there was Lamar and Ron, homeboys from NYC who could play multiple positions, provide ball-handling, clutch scoring, physical D, match-up problems, celebrity significant others and shout outs to therapists. All led by the Zen Master, whose ability to blend egos and talents together to make champions was legen - wait for it - dary as the rings for every finger would attest.

I kept waiting for that team to show up. But it never did. Not in Game 1 when the Lakers blew a 16 point lead yet still had two excellent chances to win the game but Pau Gasol butter-fingered his chance and Kobe flat out bricked his.

Not in Game 2 which saw the Lakers fall 93-81. They missed their first 15 triples (they finished 2-20 from beyond the arc); couldn't guard Dirk Nowitzki (24 points) for the second straight game; got a 3-12 performance from Odom, the NBA's Sixth Man of the Year and saw Artest - their reputed defensive stopper - clothesline reserve Dallas Guard JJ Barrea (whose 12 points led a Mav's bench that outscored LA's 30-12)) with 24 seconds left in a game in which they only managed 32 points for the entire second half.

Completely losing home court would have been bad enough - LA was 2-16 (now 2-17) all time when losing the first two of a seven game series (most recently the 2008 Finals against Boston) - but to hear Andrew Bynum of all people to say after the game that the Lakers flat out have trust issues only added insult to injury. It raised the possibility that the Lakers were not only being undone by their erratic play on the court, but by a locker room in disarray.

That team I mentioned earlier would surely show up in Game 3 right? After all none of Phil Jackson's teams had EVER been swept in a post-season series in the 20 years he'd been manning an NBA bench. So surely they'd show up for Game 3 right? Nope.

Game 3 pretty much resembled Game 1. The Lakers were up by 7 with 5:05 to go when their defense betrayed them. The Mavs went on a 20-7 run led by Nowitzki (32 points) en route to a 32 point quarter that was highlighted by what Kobe referred to as "some of the dumbest defensive mistakes I've seen us make all year." It all added up to a 98-92 Dallas win putting them up 3-0 and in position for the unimaginable scenario: sweeping the Lakers out of the playoffs. After all, none of the previous 98 NBA teams that were down 0-3 ever came back.

Which brings us back to where I started this piece - Game 4. With their season, the defense of their back-to-back titles and Phil's retirement send-off on the line you'd expect that this game of all games would be the one where "That" team would FINALLY show up. That they'd fight tooth, nail, and every other body part on every possession for all 48 minutes. They'd make sure that if they went down, they'd go down fighting, leaving it all out on the floor. Yeah, not so much.

LA came out flat and stayed that way. Dallas didn't just make it rain from beyond the arc, they let loose a torrential downpour of three point field goals. Jason Terry's 9 led the way as Dallas tied an NBA post-season record with 20 3's (on 21 attempts). The Mavs didn't even need an All-Star performance from Dirk (17 points) to sweep LA, getting 32 from Terry, 22 from JJ Barea and 21 from Peja Stojakovic (6-6 from 3) -all of whom come off the Mavs bench - to make the Lakers the 99th team not to come back after losing the first three games of a seven game series.

As for that bush-league stuff that Odom and to a greater extent Bynum pulled at the end of the game? Don't even get me started. Odom's was more frsutration than anything and didn't seem to have any malicious intent. Bynum on the other hand, well I've seen muggings on 125th Street that were more polite. That garbage has no business in the game and does nothing but disgrace the Lakers, the NBA and the game of basketball. Okay, so you got me started, but this is where I stop.

Yes, the Dallas Mavericks get plenty of credit for the sweep. They executed their game plan on both sides of the ball almost flawlessly. They owned games 2 and 4 and came up with HUGE 4th quarters (the quarter that typically belonged to "That" team) in games 1 and 3 to win both. They played the vaunted Los Angeles Front Court to a standstill - which goes in the "W" column for Dallas as no one was supposed to be able to handle the LA Big Men. Their bench thoroughly outplayed LA's, exposing it for the weakness it's been for some time now once you get past Odom (a match-up advantage LA never managed to take advantage of in this series). And Rick Carlisle, RICK CARLISLE, out-coached the Zen Master.

That said, this is a series that LA woulda, coulda, shoulda won but didn't for one simple reason: heart. Miles and miles of heart. Dallas had it, LA didn't and because of that, not even Shane Falco could have saved the Lakers from their fate.

STILL #1

by Sean Roman, OTSL Analyst

Time is our most valuable commodity. For once we give it up, there is never anything we can do to get it back. This is the precise reason why I try to be judicious in choosing what sporting events I honor through viewing.

I tend to prefer events with grand traditions. The World Series, the World Cup, and Olympic Hockey are my favorites.

In my humble opinion, The Masters Golf Tournament was the event most worthy of our recent attention. However, I have come to acknowledge that I am interested in the event for the wrong reason. I am fascinated with the fame of that one athlete.

I then reflect for a moment. It was just one year ago that we experienced His return to Augusta.
This was one of the strangest returns in the history of sports given He did not miss a major golf event by reason of His overwhelming love of vagina.

He brought the bizarre to the “tradition unlike any other.” Organizers feared fans would try to bring blow up dolls to the course and heckle the golf great. Additionally, one of his liaisons decided to cash in and book “appearances” at a local gentlemen’s club.

How quickly another year has passed me by. As I continue to pray for a retreat from a harsh Northeastern Winter, Augusta has awarded another Green Jacket to a young man from South Africa whose name I have nearly forgotten.

Still, as I discussed the exciting climax with my friends and colleagues, it dawned on me, at this point in time, The Masters - and the Game at large - has not been able to transcend the Monster that has hovered over the sport since 1997.

It is a fact – the population at large, including myself, was more interested in how He was doing than any other topic, including the lead changes and how so many different players were within striking distance of a historic win.

Whether I think He is deserving of our focus, I have just confronted the reality that He gets it.
Tiger is an idol, and most of us, idolaters. No matter how much of a failure this guy can be painted as, He still sits atop of the throne of popularity.

This fact is a great reason for immediate self-examination.

The Sport of Baseball vs. Barry Bonds

By Sean Roman, OTSL Analyst

Barry Bonds is being put on trial now for his liberty in San Francisco. He is officially charged with multiple counts of perjury. But that does not begin to reveal the significance of what has already happened.

After all the scientific testimony becomes a mere memory few will be able to recollect, the Man who sits atop the most revered record in American sports WILL pay the piper for benefiting the greatest from using performance enhancing substances.

If this were any other sport where a prominent American athlete were tried, the facts of the case and legal ins-and-outs would be more important to focus on.

But baseball is THE special sport.

Baseball rose with the growth of our nation as an industrialized power after the Civil War. As a game, is revered for its perfect balance of offensive and defense. The flow of the game from Spring to Autumn, as well as the trip around the base paths (where one strives to spring from home, travel the world only to make it back) is symbolic of our lives in a way no other activity can mimic.

And the way time can not strangle the game, unlike other contests which have the most vulgar of devices…a clock...is simply...ineffable. Baseball represents American Society, and Mr. Bonds has disgraced us all in a way which can not escape divine retribution.

Historically, Baseball’s Eras are just as important as national conflicts, political movements and technology revolutions. We are tracking and preserving the proceedings that are happening right now in the federal court in San Francisco for generations that will walk the earth when we are no more.

Consequently, it is fitting that the one who benefited the most from selling his very soul should have to be put through this humiliating national ordeal. The ultimate result of this case is irrelevant. This public prosecution has already fulfilled its goal as each day of testimony plays out.

Even if Mr. Bonds is found not guilty, he still can not recover his good name any more than the eight “Black Sox” Players could almost a century ago.