Random Thoughts-May 9, 2010

Random Thoughts

Tim Clark wins The Players Championship



First and foremost, congrats to Tim Clark for winning The Players Championship today. While most golf fans spend time arguing who the best player never to win a major is, Tim Clark was clearly the best player never to win a PGA tour event (he has won three on the European tour). That all changed today when Tim Clark shot the round of his life and held on to a one stroke victory over Robert Allenby. Now, for all you people out there that call The Players Championship “the Fifth Major”, I ask you please stop. Don’t get me wrong, it is one of the more important non-major events on tour, but it is not a major. I look no further back than 2008 to prove my point. Tiger Woods was injured and was on the verge of major surgery. With the U.S. Open forthcoming, which was Woods last tournament of the year, Woods skipped The Players Championship. In my opinion, if The Players Championship was a “Major”, then Tiger would not have skipped it.

When the Golf Channel was given the access to Tiger Woods for a five minute interview last month, Kelli Tilghman was summonsed to do the interview. Now, if you watch the Golf Channel, you certainly know that Lauren Thompson and Win McMurray are employed by that channel, and certainly are much more attractive than Kelli Tilghman. Perhaps the Golf Channel made the right move in not dispatching Thompson or McMurray to do the interview. Check out what happened today as Win McMurray reported on the “bulging” injury that forced Woods to withdraw from The Players Championship.

http://www.sportsbybrooks.com/video-blonde-hottie-on-why-tiger-had-to-pull-out-28330

As many co-workers certainly know, my favorite person in the entire world is former Miss Teen South Carolina Caitlin Upton. The answer was so priceless to me, that I called myself “Joe in Bugaha, U.S. American” during my days of emailing The Jim Rome Show, before it started to suck (another column for another day)

The answer she gave to why 1 in 5 children could not identify the United States on a map for priceless. This past spring, Catie (as she now likes to be called) showed everyone (in her view) that she was an intelligent person and finished in 3rd place with her boyfriend in The Amazing Race. She didn’t win a $1 million, but she won over my respect. Congrats Catie on finishing the race, and being the only woman to do so. As a tribute to you, I will never post another link or make another reference to you being Miss Teen South Carolina and having a bad night back in August 2007.

An incredible Mother’s Day story unfolded today in Major League Baseball, and roughly 12,000 people in Oakland, California were able to witness it in person. Dallas Braden, who had a 17-23 career record with a lifetime 4.64 ERA threw a PERFECT GAME on Mother’s Day, with his Grandmother in attendance. What nobody probably knew before today, Braden’s Mom died of cancer during his Senior Year of High School and his Grandmother raised him after that. Not only that, but Braden’s grandmother told Alex Rodriguez to “stick it” during a post-game interview.

Two weeks ago, the Yankees were in Oakland playing New York. Alex Rodriguez was the runner on first and had reached an area between 2nd and 3rd on a foul ball. Instead of running back to first base by touching second base first, A-Rod walked right over the mound, which led Braden to accuse A-Rod of breaking an unwritten rule and calling A-Rod and “individualistic baseball player.” After the game, A-Rod said "He just told me to get off his mound. I was a little surprised. I'd never quite heard that. Especially from a guy that has a handful of wins in his career ... I thought it was pretty funny actually." After Braden once again sounded off on the situation this past week, A-Rod responded this past Friday by saying "I think Major League Baseball reads the same articles as we do," Rodriguez said. "Now, look, I really don't want to extend his extra 15 minutes of fame." Well A-Rod, Braden joined a list of 18 other people who have thrown a perfect game in Major League History, and he didn’t need your help in getting his “lifetime” fame today. In A-Rod’s defense, time will tell if Dallas Braden will top Len Barker and Mike Witt, as “pitchers who had no business throwing a perfect game.”

Some quick thoughts on UFC 113, the best card put on by the UFC since UFC 100 last July.

• After the fights, Dana White indicated that Kimbo Slice would no longer fight in the UFC. My question is why Kimbo ever got a chance after he was beat during The Ultimate Fighter by Roy Nelson. Kimbo was gassed within 30 seconds of fighting Matt Mittrione last night and I am not sure why it took the referee so long to stop the fight.
• Considering how stacked the light heavyweight division is, I wish Dana White all the luck in the world in determining who the first person will be to get a shot at Maurico “Shogun” Rua’s light heavyweight title. Hopefully we don’t have to wait 6 months for another Rua fight, like we did for Machida-Shogun 2. Personally, I think it is only fair to give Rashad Evans the fight (if he beats Rampage Jackson); however, it is not unreasonable to believe that Machida deserves a shot at getting his belt back and having a third fight between these two great fighters.
• Josh Koscheck did his best attempt to win an Oscar last night by faking like he took an illegal knee to the face from Paul Daley. Replays clearly showed that the knee missed his face and fortunately for Paul Daley, he was not deducted a point. Unfortunately for Daley, that did not stop him from trying to fight Koscheck, AFTER THE FIGHT WAS OVER. White indicated that Daley would no longer be in the UFC after his post-fight actions. Considering White is threatening to cut Anderson Silva from the promotion, who may be the #1 pound for pound fighter in all of MMA, I would not be surprised to see White hold up his word in banning Daley from the organization.
• As if Daley’s post fight actions were not enough, Koscheck did his best to piss off the Montreal crowd by telling them that Pittsburgh would beat Montreal during the NHL Playoffs and that he will be Georges Saint-Pierre for his title. Koscheck may be right about the NHL, but good luck even getting through one round of GSP before being submitted.


What? You thought I was serious? Hell, no. Caitlin Upton can run for U.S. Senate and win in SouthCarolina for all I care, but I will always remember her for this.