Most Useless Player

Who do you think is the Most Useless Player in baseball?

Andruw Jones?

Change for the Worse

What a week: The LPGA threatens to kick non-English speakers off the tour. Baseball gets ready for instant replay. Barak Obama is the Dem's pick for President.

Is there a connection? Try this: we don't trust ourselves. Or at least the powers-that-be think that we can't tolerate ambiguity or personal frailty. So their answer is to add controls in the form of technology, rules, or governmental oversight. The latter is the most odious. And frankly the most easily dismissed.

But the fact that the LPGA thinks that Americans can't relate to foreigners is ridiculous. What the LPGA is missing is an interesting game. Why copy men's golf? Aren't there variations on the game that might make it more interesting or encourage personalities to emerge? The way women's golf is structured now just begs it to be compared with men's golf - and in any comparison it's always going to come up short. So change the game. Make it a team event. Or just match play. Play all par 3's. Or widen the cup. Or put a clock on it. Believe me, the language of the players is not the problem. Americans understand excellence.

Baseball's instant replay is just wrong. Baseball is a sport that has plenty of rules that encourage arguments, which are inherent to the game. At the same time, it's always amazed me how often umpires are right on faster-than-the-eye can process calls. And when they're wrong, let's talk about it. That's baseball.

I have to believe that instant replay will make umpires second-guess themselves and in that moment, lose their certainty and their accuracy. Paralleling football, in five years fans will say, "See, look how many times the umps are reversed which shows we needed instant replay all along." We don't need it.

Let's re-build trust, not add oversight.

NBC...King of the "Tape Delay" announces Apollo 11 has landed on the Moon. Coverage in prime time starts at 8:00PM EST.

I live on the West Coast for TV purposes and NBC seems to think they can delay us broadcasts of "LIVE" events shown for the East Coast. Gathered around the TV Sunday night to watch Michael Phelps chase his pursuit for 8 Gold metals my sons made their case to me not to miss the race. More than once might I add. But all I saw in our west coast time slot were 10-year old Chinese gymnasts. I could see it if they were showing American gymnasts, but who the hell really cares about the rest of the putrid world. I wanted to see the race. So instead I did what any modern well informed American would do given today's technology...I checked the Internet and sure enough ESPN had what I wanted. It was called one on the great races of all-time and because I live on the left coast, I missed seeing it live. Had to wait to see replays Monday
Do you think NBC forgot Al Gore invented something called the Internet? It's full of great info... Like Olympic Results in Real Time.
I do have one thing suggestion for NBC to tape delay...McCain vs Obama. Let me know say in ten or twenty years.

West Africa Wins Again

This is what the Olympics is all about. Benjamin Boukpeti won Togo's first ever Olympic medal when he finished third in the men's white water kayak race. Boukpeti will be hailed as a national hero as soon as the West African nation he represents figures out who he is.

I visited Togo twenty -five years ago as part of a trip to visit International Schools there and in Kenya. It was a poor nation then, and presumably a poor nation now. Simply flying into the Lome, Togo airport was a risky proposition. Looking out the window as we landed a quarter century ago, I was astonished to see a jet nose-down into the ground next to the runway. I soon found out that it had crashed just a week or so earlier. It was still sitting (standing?) in its crash-position because there were no funds for removing it. When I asked a person at the airport what happened, he said, "WAWA" or "West Africa Wins Again". The expression meant that there are seemingly inexplicable things that occur that can only be attributed to the curse / charm of living in West Africa. The nose-down plane didn't seem that charming to me at the time. I actually thought of Maxwell Smart ("I was this close").

But the airport experience aside, the trip to Togo was intensely enjoyable and to this day I sit up when I hear news from that country. So it was with great interest when I heard that Togo had won its first-ever Olympic medal. Every country deserves one.

Like a number of Olympians through the years, Benjamin Boukpeti decided he could not make the national team of his home country, France. And like so many French, when the going gets tough, he got going. After finishing 18th at the Athens Olympics in 2004, Boukpeti assessed his chances of making the French team. Apparently not feeling confident, he made effective use of his heritage and chose to represent Togo.

This year, he won the African Championships in Kenya which qualified him for the Olympics. Subsequently, he won the first medal in white water kayaking by a non-European. Togo has now joined the countries of the world with an Olympic medal. Next time, I hope the athlete is home grown or at least better known in the country he's representing. Regardless, when they win again, I'll be the first to say WAWA.

1. I never ever thought in a gazillion years I would utter this. "Hurry back Tiger...Please".

I'm no Tiger lover, Phil's my guy but after sitting at home resting my weary bones watching yesterday's final round of the Bridgestone Invitational I can now draw a pretty easy conclusion. Phil you, STINK.

The next time you have a swing lesson, how about having the guy start with how to hit it straight. Those trees you see on each side of the fairway are in fact hazardous to your game, not some hiking path to pack a lunch and wonder aimlessly. I know you're from San Diego and love the beach, but sand on a golf course is not a place to take your pail and build sand castles. Stay out at all costs

Who dresses you? Those shirts you wore on Saturday and Sunday! No man alive and maybe that's your problem would be caught in. It's also time to get rid of that "YES MAN" on the bag. You need someone to hammer you over the head with a 1 Iron whenever you want to pull a "Phil" and hit one of those only Phil can hit shots. It's all about winning pal. Tiger had to be home laughing his ass off waiting for you to hand another tournament away. This time to Vijay. Did you notice this guy had a little difficulty with the watermelon caught in his throat making 3-4 foot putts.

It's PGA week and a major. Remember "Tin Cup" Fairways and Greens.