Posted in Golf on June 12, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
My thoughts, of Day 1 of the U.S. Open, in brief:
1) Tiger is clearly hurting but is going to be OK. Played decently today — if you take away the 2 doubles he’s the leader.
2) Phil is wild.
3) Streelman and Hicks aren’t going to last the weekend — you have to look at Appleby at -2 as possibly the “real” leader.
4) We’ll see how tomorrow goes, but I would except Streelman and Hicks to go backwards, and Tiger, Phil and Ernie to push forwards.
Posted in Golf on June 11, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
It all starts tomorrow, the U.S. Open Championship at Torrey Pines. Time’s short, so lets lay it all out.
Live TV Coverage (the first 2 days simulcasted on espn360.com):
Thursday & Friday: 11am-3pm ET on ESPNHD, 3-5pm ET NBCHD, 5-10pm ET ESPNHD
Saturday: 4pm-10pm ET on NBCHD
Sunday: 3pm-9pm ET on NBCHD.
The cast is thousands but here are all the announcers (I think lol) will appear on these broadcasts: Dan Hicks, Johnny Miller, Bob Murphy, Gary Koch, Roger Maltbie, Mark Rolfing, Dottie Pepper, Chris Berman, Peter Jacobsen, Mike Tirico, Curtis Strange (those 2 reunite), Terry Gannon, Andy North, Judy Rankin, Karl Raveech, Bob Costas and Scott Van Pelt. Whew.
My pick: Tiger. The media has absolutely gotten him incensed saying that he can’t win having not played in 2 months — so he’ll do it.
Posted in Golf on June 9, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
It is finally here. Tiger Woods, on a course (Torrey Pines South) in San Diego that he’s won 4 straight Buick Invitational’s on, will return from his knee injury and attempt to win his 3rd U.S. Open and 14th major championship.
Phil Mickelson is from San Diego, and he’s won here before as well. This is the first time since 2000 that a major championship will be played on the same golf course that hosted a PGA Tour event earlier in the season. However, as well documented by many in the media, it won’t be that way come Thursday. The weather is astronomically different from January-June, and hopefully I’ll post some article about that later in the week.
I hope to post a lot of preview stuff during the week, I’ll get to as much as I can.
Tons of coverage on ESPN and NBC once Thursday starts — including primetime Live on the weekend. Enjoy everyone!
Posted in NFL on June 7, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
I said to a friend during the Super Bowl, a Pats fan mind you, that it will probably come out 20-30 years down the road that Tom Brady did indeed seriously hurt his ankle in the AFC Championship game versus San Diego last January.
Well, apparently, it may be true. According to an Associated Press article published on ESPN.com, “New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady says he is slow and can’t jump because of lingering effects of an ankle injury late last season.
“Brady, speaking on the second day of the team’s three-day minicamp, said Saturday that his offseason training program has been limited by the fact that he still cannot lift a lot of weight.”
In classic Brady fashion, his only quote didn’t touch on the injury at all, saying, “”In life, you don’t reflect too much on what happened in the past. You try to learn from it and build on it,” Brady said. “We can only control what we did today, which in this case was a really good practice.”"
As any NFL junkie can tell you a good NFL team is built around a strong quarterback, and even guys like me that hate the Patriots will openly admit that Brady is the heart and soul of that team. Knowing he may not be 100% is truly the sweet music I’ve been waiting to hear.
Posted in NFL, NY Jets on June 6, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Another summer, another New York Jets player unhappy.
This time it’s Tight End Chris Baker.
The Jets need to figure this one out and get his contract reworked as soon as possible, in my opinion. I’ve said for years that Baker is the most underrated Tight End in all of football, and he is as important to this revamped Jets team as any of the free agents.
He is an excellent run blocker that can also catch — and by catch I mean make the catches that open your eyes on SportsCenter.
Hopefully that deal gets done sooner rather than later.
Posted in Golf on June 6, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
#1, #2, and #3 will be together for the first 2 rounds of next week’s United States Open. The decision was made by the United States Golf Association to group Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, and Adam Scott together because basically, it’s never been done before.
However, problems come from that, and since ESPN.com‘s Bob Harig described it better than I ever will, I’ll just link to his article here.
And if you would like to see all the 1st and 2nd round tee times, they are here.
Posted in Golf on June 6, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Tiger Woods surprised everyone by showing up and playing 17 1/2 holes Wednesday at Torrey Pines, site of next week’s United States Open. Playing with Coach Hank Haney and his caddie Steve Williams, my favorite golfer apparently played well, according to Haney:
“It went well,” Haney said in a telephone interview. “He hit the ball really well. It was definitely a positive day…We were the only ones out there. The course is in phenomenal condition…Everything held up good. Obviously, he didn’t walk. But he hit the ball really good.”
Leading into Wednesday Tiger had played sporadic holes at home and had been practicing, but had not played a full round. They left the 18th hole after Tiger spotted a bunch of photographers by the 18th green. Tiger enjoys practicing in solitude and without people watching, so that decision wasn’t surprising.
Earlier in the week, at a press conference promoting the PGA Championship Tiger said quite possibly the most important thing any Tiger fan wants to hear before next week (and I’m paraphrasing): I may not be 100%, but that’s not a big deal because I’ve won not being 100% before.
As I’ve said so many times and every true golf fan out there knows, Tiger, better than anyone, can find a way to win. And I’m sure he’ll find a way to win next week, hurting, or not.
Posted in Golf on June 5, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
This week on the PGA Tour is the Stanford St. Jude Championship in Memphis, a tournament won last year by Woody Austin. It is the final tune-up before next week’s U.S. Open, and many international players are in the field. Enjoy this week, because next week all you’ll hear about is pars, bogeys, and others, and not much about birdies.
TV Coverage is Tomorrow Live at 3:30pm ET on Golf Channel with Kelly and Nick, with coverage Saturday and Sunday Live at 3pm ET on CBS.
Posted in NFL, NY Jets on June 1, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
So the New York Jets, my New York Jets, had their offseason mini-camp last week, and who was the #1 QB? Well, you see, that’s the issue.
During the first offseason workouts of the season they had to flip a coin to see if Kellen Clemens or Chad Pennington would be running the first-team offense. And as these workouts have gone on, it has remained the same: much like the 2008 Presidential Election, undecided.
The Jets spent somewhere in the neighborhood of $140 million on offseason acquisitions, focusing to make this team better for NOW. This team needs to win and win now — its window of opportunity is extremely small due to the age of some of these veterans that they’ve acquired.
So what should the Jets do? Well after much thought I’ve realized that Pennington should lead the Jets. He has the most experience of anyone, and is probably the better NOW QB. Clemens showed some signs in the games he played last season but Chad is the proven leader. He has brought us to the playoffs — and we sure hope he can do it again.
This decision, by Head Coach Eric Mangini needs to come soon, in my opinion, ideally before training camp. By doing that it would allow the Jets to focus on FOOTBALL in training camp, not the off field distraction of who will be at QB.
Because in the end the QB is the face of the franchise, and the Jets need to decide on that fast and then focus on winning the ultimate prize.
And to listen to past episodes of Teeing It Up from my college days, visit my 