Other Toronto teams should try the Blue Jay way

Under promise, over deliver. It seems like such a simple way to operate a professional sports franchise.

You would always be in control; your expectations could never exceed your abilities.

But in an era when anything but pre-season playoff bravado makes hawking season seats a tough sell, it's not very realistic.

Which is exactly why it was so refreshing when that was the approach taken by new Blue Jays general manager Alex Anthopoulos prior to his first year at the helm.

Being honest with your fans, what a novelty!

And after a 162 game season, his team rewarded him with their play -- winning ten more games than they did a year ago.

Perhaps this is a lesson other Toronto sports franchises should heed.

Item 1: Maple Leafs GM Brian Burke was so confident that his re-tooled club -- and particularly its blueline -- could make the playoffs last year that he dealt three high draft choices (first and second rounders in 2010 and an additional first rounder in 2011) for the young American sniper.

The point here is not to debate the merits of that trade -- certainly there's been enough ink spilled and enough banter on TV and radio airwaves over that one in the past 13 months -- but rather to point out the discrepancy between the public expectations and the end result.

For the Leafs that was ten straight losses to open the season; the second worst record in the league; a fifth straight season on the outside looking in when the playoffs began; and, of course, highly touted prospect Tyler Seguin will now wear black and yellow instead of blue and white.

Item 2: Fresh off a year in which he averaged 16.8 points, 5.3 rebounds and 4.9 assists a night, while playing a key role for the Orlando Magic in a trip to the NBA Finals, Hedo Turkoglu was supposed to be a key cog in the Raptor playoff machine.

And though they were in a position at one point to be the fourth seed in the Eastern Conference, they failed to make the post-season.

This isn't necessarily to say their inflated expectations were the exact cause of the second half slide -- Turkoglu's failure to ever give anything even resembling an B+ effort and the health and absent-mindedness of Chris Bosh certainly didn't help -- but regardless the club finds itself back in a familiar position, rebuilding the team after the departure of their best player.

Item 3: Following the hiring or Preki as their head coach and on the heels of a season where they were in playoff contention up until the last day of the year, Toronto FC was expected to compete for a playoff spot. Of that there is no question.

But the team failed to live up to expectations and Preki -- without making it through even one year -- and the Mo Johnston, the man who hired him, have been turfed.

And with the playoffs officially out of the question, they now become just the second team in the history of Major League Soccer to fail to reach the playoffs for four consecutive seasons and it just happens to be in a year when they are hosting the championship game.

Making matter worse is that the club has somehow turned what was perhaps the most loyal and passionate fan base into the league against them, with many of the key supporters groups wearing green -- the colour of money -- instead of red to the final home game of the season.

Item 4: In contrast to the teams with high expectations the Toronto Argonauts had won a total of just seven of 36 contests over the past two seasons. They entered this year with a new coach and a new quarterback, but still kept the expectations low. With their games left on the schedule, they have already matched those seven wins of the past two years and are poised to make a trip to the playoffs for the first time since 2007.

Maybe there is something to this downplaying of expectations after all.

What we learned at the Ryder Cup

One hole can make a difference. In this case the 15th hole. On the scorecard it was a 370-yard par-four, but in reality it was just a 260-yard par four that some of the longer hitting American players could have been reached with a three-wood. But even with the their bevy of big hitters -- think Bubba Watson, Dustin Johnson, Jeff Overton etc. -- the Europeans dominated the Americans at the 15th, winning the hole outright 10 times and halving it 13 times. Three times a match was concluded prior to the 15th and only two Americans -- Steve Stricker who drained a 25-foot eagle putt and Hunter Mahan who was the beneficiary of a chunked chip-shot by Graeme McDowell -- managed to notch a victory there.

Jeff Overton will win on the PGA Tour, and soon. At one point this season he was the hottest player on Tour. From late April until early August he carded two solo seconds -- one of which would have been a sure victory had Stuart Appleby not shot a 59 -- a tie for second, two third-place ties, a tie for sixth and a tie for eleventh. But he really stumbled after that with his best finish being a solo 29th at The Tour Championship -- a field with only 30 players. So he was certainly a question mark for the American team entering Ryder Cup week, but he played some inspired golf and ended up with a 2-2 record. Even more impressive was his turn around in his singles match against Ross Fisher -- coming at a key juncture in the American comeback -- rallying for a three and two victory after trailing for the first 11 holes of the match. It will be interesting to see whether his play this week will give them the confidence to go out and win on Tour.

Despite not being a playing participant will the Ryder Cup reignite Sergio Garcia's competitive fires? When he made his announcement in August that he was going to take a two month break following the PGA Championship, you had to think that would certainly eliminate him from any Ryder Cup participation. And given his apparent lack of passion on the course this year, it was at least mildly surprising that he was the one that approached European captain Colin Montgomerie about the possibility of joining his staff as an assistant. Considering his 14-6-4 career Cup record, it probably wasn't a tough sell for Monty. And even though his penchant for finding his way onto camera during pivotal matches provided much fodder for golf pundits on both sides of the Atlantic, it proved that a fiery passion still burned inside of him. He'll make his return to competitive play later this month at the Castello Masters in Spain and it will be interesting to see which Garcia we see. Will it be the one that won 15 PGA Tour and European Tour events between 1999 and 2008, or will it be the one that tried to change his grip and posted just one top-10 finish this year on either the PGA or European Tours?

Jim Furyk, Player of the Year?

With a winless drought that sat at 29 months entering this year the odds were certainly against Jim Furyk earning his first player of the year nod in 2010.

But after winning the Tour Championship -- becoming the only player on the PGA Tour with three wins this season -- and the FedEx Cup, that's almost exactly what he will do despite being a non-factor in all four of the year's major championships.

A further analysis of his statistics would show, however, that he may be a worthy winner indeed.

In addition to the three victories and winning the season-long points title, he also made the cut in all but three tournaments -- two of which were majors, unfortunately -- he had seven top 10s and finished inside the top-25 72 per cent of the time he made the cut.

And according to his playing stats, there's no single reason other than overall consistency that stands out as a key factor -- his 276-yard driving distance average ranks him 174th, for example.

Aside from his driving accuracy -- where he ranks 10th on Tour -- the only other categories in which Furyk is inside even the top 50 are the ones that seem to matter most.

Wins (3) Rank: First
Money list ($4,809,622) Rank: Second
Scoring Average (69.78) Rank: Fifth

Matt Kuchar went into the PGA Tour Playoffs as the front runner to be named player of the year based on his consistency and despite his lack of a victory.

When he won at The Barclay's he strengthened his case and if the scoring system for the FedEx Cup had not been changed -- ostensibly to make the finish of the Tour Championship more exciting -- he would have been the recipient of the $10-million instead of Furyk.

But if much of Kuchar's case was based on his consistent play, then certainly that same argument applies to Furyk.

Steroid speculation: a home run phenomenon?

When Jose Bautista hit his 50th home run on Thursday -- and then followed it up with two more on Friday night -- he accomplished something very few individuals in Major League history before him have. In fact, he became just the 26th player to belt 50 home runs in a single season.

(For context, you can count Hank Aaron, Ted Williams and Frank Robinson among the group that has never had 50 round-trippers in a year.)

Ever since it became apparent that Bautista might have a chance to a) break the Blue Jays club record and b) hit 50, we've been subject to rampant speculation about what substances aided his power surge.

It comes with the post-steroid-era-territory they argued.

It's just the nature of the game -- thanks to McGwire and Sosa and Bonds and A-Rod and Canseco -- they said.

And while I can understand the concept -- fool me once, shame on me; fool me twice, shame on baseball -- I'm not sure that I entirely agree.

Sure, the question must be asked -- it would be the chemically-enhanced elephant in the room if it wasn't -- but where is the line that determines what requires ongoing steroid investigation and what does not?

If a player was to have a spike in other statistical categories would we pay attention the same way?

My assertion is no, we wouldn't.

Take Brian Roberts of the Baltimore Orioles for example. In 2007 he stole 50 bases, and while he has always been a threat on the base paths -- his season totals in years where he has played a full schedule are 23, 29, 27, 36, 50, 40, 30 -- that 50 steal season was far and away his best year, having been caught only seven times.

Roberts, of course, admitted to steroid use later that year -- though he claims it was a one-time deal in 2003.

Not convinced? Okay, how about 2009 AL Cy Young winner Zack Grienke? Last year he struck out 242 batters; his highest previous total was 183. His ERA of 2.16 last year was also more than a run and a half less than his career average of 3.78.

It's not to say that this offers concrete evidence of Grienke's guilt -- certainly I'm not even trying to speculate about his possible use of PEDs -- but rather to point the example of the strikeout -- a pitcher's equivalent to the home run -- and ask why it doesn't receive the same scrutiny?

And maybe it all goes back to McGwire, Sosa and the home run chase of 1998. After the player strike wiped out the 1994 World Series it was a key event in re-igniting the passion of many fans.

Some, however, have never come back and the trust level among those that did has been significantly crippled.

It's not that I feel bad for Bautista -- his performance this season will certainly produce a nice financial windfall at some point -- but rather that I feel bad for fans of the game.

When the days of fans being awed and inspired by the performance of a spectacular athlete without feeling the need to question the origin, it's them that loses out.

A new number one?

If you went back in time one year, you would have been hard-pressed to find anyone bold enough to predict that Tiger Woods would be replaced as the top-ranked player in the world anytime soon.

Of course, we’ve learned a lot about Woods—perhaps more than we really would have wanted to—in that time and, on the heels of a sub-par season, the discussion has moved from “will we” to “when will we” see a new number one golfer.

By now Phil Mickelson, Lee Westwood and even Steve Stricker have had an opportunity—mathematically speaking—to seize Woods’ crown, yet none have been able to seal the deal.

With Woods officially getting Tour Championship two weeks from now off, you would think both Mickelson and Stricker have a realistic shot to finally do so.

Unless, of course, there is another player on that perch before then and with the way Martin Kaymer has played this season that could be a distinct possibility.

Average fans will know Kaymer thanks to his victory at the PGA Championship last month, but there has certainly been more to his season that that triumph alone.

Aside from one minor blip—being cut at The Masters—Kaymer’s form has been exceptional in the tournaments with the best fields.

In addition to his PGA win, he finished inside the top-10 in both the U.S. Open and Open Championship and has been inside the top 20—with a third place showing at the WGC-CA Championship—in all three of the season’s World Golf Championship events thus far.

And it’s not like his European Tour play has been lacking any shine either. With his win at the KLM Open in the Netherlands today he has two victories on the year and leads the Race to Dubai standings.

He entered the final round with a one-shot lead and said that since he had the lead going into the final round, he expected himself to win.

Sound like anyone else we know?

He entered the week tied for fifth in the World Golf Rankings with Jim Furyk and should see himself rise when the numbers are tabulated tomorrow.

After his win was official today Kaymer said that he wanted to win the Order of Merit and with two tournaments still to play on the European Tour before a break for the Ryder Cup, it’s entirely possible that the European side will be boasting the number one player in the world when they meet the U.S. in Wales.

DJ making a Fed Ex Cup run

You had to feel good for Dustin Johnson as he closed out the BMW Championship with a one-shot victory.

He played well down the stretch—he was the only guy on the leaderboard to play bogey-free on the back-nine—and it will certainly go a long way to knocking off the “can’t play on Sunday” stigma that seems to hovering over him this year.

He now sits second in the Fed Ex Cup standings (behind Matt Kuchar) and is right in the hunt to win the Fed Ex Cup title and be named player of the year.

The win (his fourth career PGA Tour title) also makes him the winingest PGA Tour player in his 20’s.

Break could be good for Woods

As disappointing as it may be for Tiger Woods to be missing out on the Tour Championship in two weeks, it may actually be a good thing for him.

He now has three weeks to fine-tune his game in order to be ready for the Ryder Cup. It also gives him some more time to get down with coach Sean Foley and adjust even more to the changes in his swing, which seems to be coming around and is miles better than it was a month ago when his play seemed to bottom out at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational.

U.S. Ryder Cup picks

With U.S. Ryder Cup captain Corey Pavin set to make his wildcard picks tomorrow there will be much speculation about who will be chosen and who should be chosen. If given the choice, here’s who I would pick.

Tiger Woods. If European captain Colin Montgomerie can leave a top-10 player in Paul Casey off of his team, can Pavin leave the world’s number one—albeit in a severely down year—off of his squad? No, no he cannot. Woods is a lock.

Zach Johnson. The 2007 Masters champ has been steady—with made cuts in 20 of 22 events—but not spectacular—a win at Colonial and a T3 at the PGA Championship and no other top-10s—this season. His record at the Ryder Cup is a pedestrian 1-2-1 and he’s not much better in the President’s Cup at 4-4, having lost his Sunday singles match in each of those three events. Still his accuracy off the tee combined with his solid short game and putting would make him a good compliment to some of the longer hitters on the American team. The fact that he’s won a major and competed in others makes him a good candidate to deal with the pressure of the Ryder Cup. His poor record in the Open Championship—one T20 and nothing else inside the top 45—could play against him.

Stewart Cink. With the lack of veteran leadership on the team (four of the eight automatic spots are rookies) the U.S. needs a strong older presence and Cink will help to fill that void. He has an okay record in team competitions—4-4-1, 1-3 singles in Ryder Cup and 9-7-2, 3-1 singles in President’s Cup—a strong match play record—21-11 in the WGC Accenture Match Play with one runner up and one third place finish—and, of course, he seems to play well in Britain, having won the Open Championship last year. He has not won this year and he has only three top-10s, but of all the veteran players out there that can combine experience with quality play this season, he’s the best choice.

Anthony Kim. Yes, he had major surgery that kept him out of action for most of the summer. And yes, he hasn’t made a cut since returning to action at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational last month. But simply put, Anthony Kim is made for the risk/reward nature of match play golf. He went 2-1-1 with a Sunday singles victory in the Ryder Cup at Valhalla two years ago and was 3-1 with a singles victory at the President’s Cup last year. He lost to Ross Fisher in the final of the Volvo World Match Play last fall and he is a certifiable birdie machine—as evidenced by his back nine charge on Sunday at Augusta earlier this year. With just under a month until play kicks off in Wales, he has more than enough time to find his game.

Others in the mix: Rickie Fowler. JB Holmes. Lucas Glover.

FedEx Cup starting to become more interesting

Say what you will about the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup playoffs, but for the first time in its four-year existence it looks to have some real intrigue this year.

As a matter of fact, the way this season has shaped up it must be a dream come true for commissioner Tim Finchem and the Tour brass in Ponte Vedra Beach.

It has been, after all, a year of parity in golf.

Consider:

• Four different players won the major championships.

• Nobody has won more than two tournaments, with Hunter Mahan, Ernie Els, Jim Furyk, Steve Stricker and Justin Rose each collecting two victories.

• Fourteen different players claimed their first career victories this season.

So when you add it all up, it means a couple of things.

1. For the first time in recent memory—and realistically in the Tiger Woods era—there is no clear-cut choice as the player of the year.

2. It is becoming increasingly likely that the player who wins the FedEx Cup will have that honour.

Having said that and with only three legs of the playoffs remaining, let’s take a look at who the most logical candidates to be the player of the year are taking into account their opportunity to win the FedEx Cup.

1. Matt Kuchar. It’s easy to look at Kuchar as a contender as he rides the momentum of his first victory of the season at the Barclays—the first playoff event—but he’s also been one of the most consistent performers all season. He’s made the cut in 19 of 22 starts—including all four majors, where he finished no worse than in a tie for twenty seventh at the Open Championship—and has 10 top-10 finishes. Add to that a Tour-leading stroke average of 69.44 and a FedEx Cup victory would all but clinch the POY award.

2. Dustin Johnson. If you can look past his meltdown in the final round of the US Open and his day at the beach on the 72nd hole of the PGA Championship, you’ll see what a fine year Johnson has had. He made the cut in all four majors and finished in the top 20 in three of them; Like Kuchar he has made a high percentage of cuts (17 of 20); He did win a tournament, making birdie on the 72 nd hole to win the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro Am in February; And he’s been a consistent factor on the leaderboard with top-10s in half the tournaments he’s played in.

3. Mahan, Els, Furyk, Stricker, Rose, Phil Mickelson. It may be a large group of players to lump together (and an especially talented group it is) but when you assume that in order for any of these players to win the FedEx Cup they must win at least once more, it would be hard to deny them. Of these six players, only Mickelson wouldn’t have three wins (assuming he doesn’t win more than one of the final three playoff events) but a season long title combined with a major championship would be a pretty good season by anyone’s standards.

Some links to share

In the past week or so, I've come across quite a few exceptional pieces of writing. Here are a few of them.

Yahoo writer Michael Silver with a column on the return of Brett Favre.

Bruce Arthur of the National Post on the world hockey summit in Toronto.

I was very happy to see Steve Rushin return to Sports Illustrated and this is just one example why.

Dan Wetzel is the second of three Yahoo writers to be on this list and his take about what could happen to the Michigan/Ohio State football rivalry game is bang on.

Our final Yahoo piece comes from Jeff Passan and looks at how the Florida Marlins ownership duped Dade County politicians into putting up money for a new monolithic baseball specific stadium and what it will end up costing tax payers.

There would be few lists that could be complete without an offering from Joe Posnanski, who seems destined to prove that long form journalism will still have a place in the online world. If everything is written like his work, it certainly does.

And finally we have the recent blogging spat between Toronto Star columnists Damien Cox and Richard Griffin.

Cox started it with this, Griffin responded with this and then Cox seemed to really want the last word with this. Hasn't been much chatter since then.

PGA Championship fallout continues

Nearly a week later, the fallout from the end of the PGA Championship and the unfortunate result for Dustin Johnson continues to linger.

(I refuse to do as so many others have and label it bunker-gate. Why does every controversy in sports have to have gate attached to the end of it?)

This is especially interesting to me because many people I know can’t understand why I enjoy watching golf on TV.

Nothing happens.

It’s boring.

Watching paint dry would be more exciting.

I, of course, disagree with that line of thinking.

I love the skill, I love the creativity and I love the shot-making.

But perhaps most of all, I’ve always loved the fact that the players determined the outcome—not the opinions of educated, informed, well, bystanders also known as referees.

That is, until last week.

I will never begrudge the fact that Johnson shouldn’t have grounded his club in that bunker. Even he didn’t.

But I can’t conscionably place the blame squarely on his shoulders.

He does need to burden some of the blame, especially in light of how far right he hit his tee shot.

But there are others complicit in this misdeed.

You can blame David Price—the rules official that walked the final round with Johnson and Nick Watney—for not clearing the gallery from the bunker and thus making it clear that it was, indeed, a bunker.

You can blame the PGA of America for not treating all bunkers—even if there are 1200 of them—the same.

And you can blame Pete Dye—the architect—for feeling the need to try and mentally over-power players with bunkers that won’t often, if ever, come in to play.

On the plus side there seems to be significant evidence that Johnson has already moved past the disappointment.

Now if only I could follow his lead.

What we learned at the PGA Championship

1. Dustin Johnson is either cursed or is the owner of a major karmic credit. It will be the ruling that people will be talking about for years and there may be no more polarizing event in all of sports, let alone golf. After a two-stroke penalty for grounding his club in a bunker that looked like anything but cost Dustin Johnson a spot in a playoff to determine a winner of the PGA Championship, there will be those that believe Johnson was flat-out robbed. Others will say that it was the right ruling and the PGA rules officials upheld the integrity of the game, even if it was at the most inopportune time.

While that specific issue may be a matter of personal opinion and preference, one thing is without debate: Johnson handled himself with grace and class in defeat. It was certainly unfortunate to see it happen to a guy whose wounds over a previous major championship meltdown were barely healed. Johnson slept on a three-stroke 54-hole lead at the U.S. Open in June, only to shoot an 11-over par 82 and finish in a tie for eighth.

The good news is he bounced back from that to finish in a tie for fourteenth at The Open Championship in July and then, of course, found himself poised to claim victory this weekend. With his game—prodigious length of the tee, good, soft touch around the greens and a solid putter—it may not be long before he finds himself in the same position again.

2. Rory McIlroy may one day become the game’s top player, but right now he isn’t even the top player from Europe. Given his performance in the last two major championships (both third place ties), combined with his thrilling come-from-behind victory earlier this year at the Quail Hollow Championship, there’s been much chatter recently that Rory McIlroy—still just 21 years of age—is the heir apparent to Tiger Woods’ throne as golf’s top player. Even EA Sports put him on the cover of Tiger's game—the first time the cover has ever been shared.

But at this point, as sharp as his game may be, he probably isn’t even the best European player under 30 years of age. That mantle should belong to Martin Kaymer. In addition to claiming his first major title at the PGA Championship—and take nothing away from the German because of Johnson’s lack of playoff participation—Kaymer had top-10 finishes at the U.S. Open and Open Championships this season. He has five European Tour titles and has won at least two tournaments in each of the past three seasons. And of all the putts that were attempted in the pressure cooker that is a major championship on a Sunday, his par saving putt on he 72nd hole that ultimately put him in the playoff may have been the best.

3. Tiger Woods can still be a factor in 2010 and should be a member of the U.S. Ryder Cup team. It’s been a rough year for Tiger Woods. He said that in about as many words at his press conference after he shot a final round 77 on his way to a second-last place finish at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational last week. There’s a lot of negativity about his game right. For example: he sits in 108th place in the FedEx Cup Standings, while U.S. Ryder Cup Captain Corey Pavin is in front of Woods, despite playing in only eight tournaments to Woods’ nine. He has just two top-tens and has finished outside the top-25 five times this year—in the previous four seasons he finished outside the top-25 just four times. His scoring average of 71.48 is nearly three strokes higher than his average of 68.84 last year. And if you’ve watched him at all in recent weeks, you have a better idea of where his ball is going than he does when he hits driver off the tee.

Having said all that, he needs to be a part of the U.S. contingent that travels to Wales in the fall looking to defend their Ryder Cup. Consider: the idea that someone (Phil Mickelson or Lee Westwood) could overtake Woods as the number one player in the world has been a major storyline for nearly two months now. The problem is, it hasn’t happened yet. And as awful as his performance has been overall, he has managed to scrape out a pretty good record in the major championships. That is, if his name wasn’t Tiger Woods. Of his five best results this season, four have been in the majors and of all the players that made the cut in all four majors (there were only 12 of them) only Phil Mickelson has a better cumulative score.

It’s just 45 days until the Ryder Cup kicks off. That gives Woods more than six weeks to work on his game (whether it’s with Sean Foley as his new swing coach or not). Assuming Pavin will pick him for the team, it could be an important turning point for Woods in his career. America loves a redemption story and for Tiger Woods the chance to be a key part of a winning U.S. Ryder Cup team would be a Redeem Dream.

Woods and Federer bound together

Although they play vastly different sports, the careers of Tiger Woods and Roger Federer seem destined to be forever intertwined.

Outside of their arenas they’re good friends and have, of course, been the kings of their respective sports, being downright dominant for much of the decade.

But if you wind the calendar back one year to August 2009, you’ll start to see some evidence of their empire’s beginning to crumble.

At that time…

…Roger Federer was a month removed from winning Wimbledon for the sixth time—his fifteenth career Grand Slam title.

…Tiger Woods was in the midst of a season where he had already won four tournaments—including two in the month of August alone—after starting the year late while recovering from knee surgery.

And that’s when things began to unravel, even if the true extent wouldn’t be known for months.

First, Federer was knocked out of the Rogers Cup in Montreal in the quarter-finals.

Then Woods saw his record of 14-0 when leading going into the final round of a major championship blemished for the first time, as Y.E. Yang—and not Woods—won the PGA Championship.

In September, Federer rolled into the final of the U.S. Open only to be thwarted by Juan Martin Del Potro in five sets.

And, of course, in late November Woods crashed his escalade and effectively opened Pandora’s box, tarnishing his once unassailable image.

And while 2010 hasn’t been a total waste, it has been a struggle for both.

Sure, Federer began the year on the right note, thrashing Andy Murray in straight sets to win the first Grand Slam even of the season, the Australian Open.

But that’s been his only win thus far and he was knocked out in the quarter-final round at the next two Grand Slam tournaments, making it the first times he hadn’t reached at least the semi finals since 2004.

And outside of his performance in the majors—where he’s finished no worse than in a tie for twenty-third—Woods has been anything but the best player in the game, while his play at the WGC-Bridgestone Championship last week led many to ponder if his days as a championship competitor were over.

But as we approach the dog days of summer once again, despite all the negativity and doubts about their stature, both seem poised to redeem themselves in 2011.

Federer will play Andy Murray in the final of the Rogers Cup today after gutting his way through tight three-set thrillers against Novak Djokovic and Tomas Berdych and will enter the U.S. Open later this month as one of the prohibitive favourites.

Even though Tiger will fall short in a major for the eighth straight time (Woods has not found the winner’s circle in the last 10 major championship including the two he missed while injured) he has shown enough at Whistling Straits this weekend to suggest that with some off-season work (perhaps with a new swing coach, paging Sean Foley) he can once again be a consistent threat on the PGA Tour.

And ultimately, if they can reclaim their places as the most dominant players in the game, well, they’ll continue to be tied together in the history books as the greatest golfer and greatest tennis player of all time.

Move on, Cleveland

I felt sorry for you, Cleveland.

I really did.

There was always that tease that LeBron James—your favourite son—would leave you, one day.

First, he started wearing Yankees hats in public.

Then he quit in the middle of an important playoff game.

And the final blow came when he decided to rip the heart out of your basketball team and your city, not behind the closed doors of a boardroom, but in the most public of forums on ESPN.

He teased you with the possibility that he wouldn’t dare break up with you in such a manner and then had the audacity to spin the situation as though he were a good guy by donating the proceeds of the broadcast to charity.

So, yes, I really did feel bad for you.

But my sympathy first started to wane when the Cavaliers owner, Dan Gilbert, unleashed his tirade, acting more like a spoiled child than a shrewd, successful corporate executive.

Granted, the whole situation could have been handled better, much better, in fact, by James and his handlers.

But you had seven years.

Seven.

With one of the most sublime basketball talents, possibly ever.

You had division titles, and playoff appearances, and conference championships and yes, even a Finals appearance.

I know, you’ve gotten the rough end of the stick in Cleveland with your sports.

But do you think the people in Buffalo feel bad for you?

How about Kansas City?

Or Seattle?

And now that I’ve seen a fan get ejected from a Cleveland Indians game for wearing a LeBron Miami jersey, my sympathy has completely evaporated.

Move on, Cleveland.

Boo him, when he returns.

Boo him, when he wins another MVP.

And boo him, when he inevitably wins a championship.

But in the meantime, get over it.

On the bright side, at least baseball fans in your city finally found something to be passionate about.

Karma strikes Owens

NFL training camps will officially open tomorrow when rookies from the Cleveland Browns report to the team’s facility in Berea, Ohio.

Over the following 10 days all players on all NFL rosters—minus those rookies who have yet to sign, anyway—will be in camp.

But one name will, in all likelihood, be conspicuously absent on any of the 32 NFL rosters—Terrell Owens.

The mercurial wideout has not been able to latch on with a club since the one-year deal he signed with Buffalo last March expired earlier this spring.

There have been nibbles—maybe Washington, Cincinnati or Oakland—if you believe the rumours, but no team has been willing to sign a player that is just one year removed from three consecutive 1,000-plus yards and double-digit touchdown seasons.

Sure, Owens’ numbers in Buffalo were pedestrian at best—55 receptions for 829 yards and five touchdowns—but it should come as no surprise that the real lack of suitors stems from his attitude.

His list of offences is so egregious that it even overshadows what is, on paper (1,006 receptions, 14,951 yards, 144 touchdowns), a pretty stellar career resume.

It suggests that eventually karma does catch up; eventually your talent, no matter how hard you work to maintain it, begins to dry up.

(Just ask Barry Bonds.)

And when it happens, people who were willing to overlook your shortcomings are no longer so forgiving.

So, no, I don’t feel bad for T.O.

Could he still be a factor for a good team?

Absolutely.

He may not be at the Pro Bowl level he once was, but certainly he has enough juice left to be a contributor—especially on a team where as something less than the first or second target he would have favourable match-ups.

Maybe this will all go out the window when a team loses a key receiver to injury and Owens is brought back into the fold.

Until then it’s a perfectly fair result for a man who couldn’t put his ego aside for the betterment of his immense talent.

Next question.

Do All-Star games still matter?

The news that the MLB All-Star game was not viewed by a large audience did not come as a surprise.

In fact, if the opposite was true—that is, if it drew significant numbers—I would have been astounded.

Clearly, the concept of the All-Star game—and not just in baseball, mind you—has passed its time.

It’s really hard to say which sport has gone so wrong, when just about every North American sports league seems to be inept when it comes to their supposed celebration of the game’s best.

Baseball’s game is a joke because of their over-reaction to a tie in 2002 that led to winner gaining home field advantage for their league in the World Series.

Football’s game can’t really be called a game. There’s no blitzing; defences can only run a stock 4-3 look and there’s not much of anything in the way of physical play; a strange omission in a violent, collision-based sport. Add that to the fact that a high percentage of players skip the game and you have the recipe for awful viewing.

Basketball’s game allows faded stars with greatly diminished abilities the chance to play and the next time you see some defence played will be the first time it’s happened.

And the NHL’s game is so important that every four years when a real competition comes along—the Olympics—they don’t have a game.

It’s rather ironic that Major League Soccer—which has by far the lowest profile of any of the leagues—does the All-Star game the best.

When they played their first All-Star game in 1996, they did it like everyone else—East vs. West—but in 2005 they switched things up.

Now they create one All-Star team and play against a major European club. This year it will be Manchester United.

Granted they have an advantage since the majority of talent in their sport is located on foreign soil, but the major selling point is the fact that it is a real game and it’s certainly unique.

Odds are that eventually this will become stale as well.

So the real point is, would anyone miss All-Star games if they were to go away?

If the numbers are a true indicator, then no.

After all, how can you miss something you aren’t watching?

Follow the Leader

Leaders are made, they are not born. They are made by hard effort, which is the price which all of us must pay to achieve any goal that is worthwhile.

– Vince Lombardi

Perhaps you can blame Nike or anyone else among his inner circle that has helped to precipitate the inflated ego that has rested upon the shoulders of LeBron James ever since he was in high school.

You see, there was once a time when the pursuit of a championship in professional sports was all about the journey.

But when the majority of your life has been spent listening to people tell you how good you are and how good you can become, how are you supposed to react?

Why earn your place? Why use your naturally cultivated talents—as sublime as they are—to earn your spot among the NBA’s all-time elite?

Why do all that when you can go to someone else’s team, in someone else’s city and set yourself up for a lengthy championship reign?

Let’s not mix words here—LeBron James took the easy way out. He did.

He could have gone to New York and taken on the challenge of turning around a taciturn Knicks franchise; although it wouldn’t take long for the pressure to win in the world’s media capital to reach its boiling point.

He could have gone to Chicago—quite frankly the best destination for him if winning was his real goal—and built a perennial contender with Derrick Rose, Carlos Boozer, Joakim Noah; although if he didn’t have the stomach to wear the number 23 anymore, how could he stand to live and play in Michael Jordan’s shadow in Chicago?

He could have stayed in Cleveland and done what he set out to do when he was drafted first overall by his hometown team in 2003 and lead the Cavs to a title; although it was pretty clear by LeBron’s performance against Boston in the playoffs that he couldn’t handle the load of carrying a team to a championship anymore.

He could have, but he didn’t do any of those things. He didn’t choose the challenge; he didn’t choose a path that—if he became a champion—would have secured his place as an all-time great.

And that’s where he went wrong.

Sure, the elements of his breakup with Cleveland could have been handled better (the city of Seattle sends its sympathy, Cleveland.) but it’s his lack of vision for his legacy that is most offensive.

He now becomes the latest in a long line of athletes for whom the concept of culpability and accountability seems to be lost, at least if they require a mirror to determine where it belongs.

Stars of a now long-gone generation of basketball wanted to make their teammates better; now players rely on their teammates to make them better.

LeBron, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh may ultimately win championships; they may ultimately become one of the most dominant dynasties in the history of a league defined by them.

But as pundits, experts and fans alike take the steps necessary to crown the Miami Heat as the 2011 NBA Champions, somewhere in southern California Kobe Bryant is smiling and getting ready for next year.

It’s a shame that LeBron didn’t want to take on his own challenge that way.

Where's Tiger?

I miss Tiger Woods.

I miss the days when we strictly talked about his golf game and not his divorce or his off the course, umm, activities.

I miss the days when discussions about what was wrong with Tiger centred around an injured knee or a fractured leg, not about his inability to enlighten foreign press on things in his personal life.

I’m not by any means condoning the actions that led to his precipitous decline, but regardless, my interest in Tiger the man, husband and father doesn’t measure up to my interest in Tiger the golfer.

And I don’t think I’m alone; people love dynasties, and ever since he made his PGA Tour debut at the Greater Milwaukee Open all those years ago, there’s been no better dynasty than that of Tiger Woods.

His recent play, however, is not befitting of the ruling emperor he once was, but is rather more pedestrian.

(It may be the ultimate poetic justice that he now looks like a regular human being on a golf course after the depth of his inability to act like one off it came to light.)

Granted he has finished in a tie for fourth in both of the major championships thus far, but Tiger is held to higher standard.

And besides, outside of those two tournaments he really has been a middle-of-the-pack player.

Consider his scoring average of 71.19—just .03 better than Tour average.

A year ago his scoring average of 68.05 led the Tour for the eighth time.

But the thing is, we know the ability is still there.

At least, it can be as it was on the back nine of the third round at the US Open when Tiger looked like, well, Tiger—the fist-pumping, pin-seeking, scoreboard-assaulting version we’ve come to expect.

His big problem at this point is consistency and if it continues that way, then perhaps he is just like the rest of us.

And maybe that only makes it worse.

Let Strasburg pitch

After the rosters for the MLB All-Star game next week were announced yesterday, a clear injustice had been committed.

(Okay, two if you count the neglect of Joey Votto—hitting .312 with 19 homeruns and 57 runs batted in—but he still has a chance to get in the game through the National League’s Final Vote.)

The travesty focuses on the exclusion of the much-lionized rookie pitcher Stephen Strasburg.

Yes, Strasburg has started precisely six games, owns a 2-2 record with a 2.45 ERA and 1.06 WHIP, but he absolutely must be an All-Star.

If you need evidence, just ask Cleveland.

When the Indians hosted Washington last month, 32,876 Clevelanders made their way through the turnstiles at Progressive Field—more than double their per game average of 16,230.

It’s important to remember that the All-Star game is a popularity contest.

If it was about who was having the best season or who the best players were, the voting for starters wouldn’t be left up to the fans and it wouldn’t be a requirement that every team be represented.

In Strasburg’s case, the fans have voted a resounding “Yes” in favour of his inclusion; they just haven’t done it the traditional way.

According to FanSnap, ticket demand when Strasburg pitches increases 123 per cent and the average ticket price checks in at $58.10, while tickets to the rest of the series sit at an average of $25.99.

So if baseball is to live by the fan vote, they must, in turn, die by the fan vote.

Even if that means they allow someone with less than 10 career MLB starts to be an All-Star.

How to Fix MLB

On the one hand, baseball is so rooted in traditon — MLB has by far the most longevity of any major North American sports leagues, dating back to 1869 — it’s hard to rationalize making wholesale changes to how they operate. On the other hand, recent attendance numbers — less than 56,000 people were in the stands for the three perfect games* thrown this year — would suggest baseball could use — to torture their own cliche — a shot in the arm.

*Okay, so officially it’s only two, but you can’t tell me Armando Galarraga didn’t throw a perfect game.

These problems become even worse when you get to playoff time — which doesn’t have enough teams and runs too far into a time of year, on the east coast especially, where inclimate weather is likely — but the symptoms can trickle throughout the regular season. To begin, the season is far too long, but I’m not going to pretend that the league will cut games. Besides, that can probably create more problems than it really solves — small market teams would have even less revenue to work with.

So the solution itself is very simple and can be broken down into five basic and easy steps.

Step 1: Send the Milwaukee Brewers back to the American League. Did it ever really make much sense to unbalance the two leagues in an era of Inter-league play? I didn’t think so either.

Step 2: Realign the divisions. With Milwaukee back in the American League, you can continue by scrapping the Central Division in both Leagues. Milwaukee along with Minnesota, Kansas City and Chicago are now in the West Division; Detroit and Cleveland are in the East. In the National League St. Louis, Chicago and Houston are in the west; Cincinnati and Pittsburgh are in the East.

Step 3: Give post-season access to six teams in each league. Instead of one wild card and three Division winner, there will now be four wildcard teams and two Division winners. To offset the problem of not having balance in the playoff schedule, the two Division winners in each league will receive a first round bye.

This is important for a couple of reasons. First it gets two more teams into the post-season than are in now and, perhaps more importantly, it ensures that the regular season and pennant races still mean something. In fact, it may actually make them more important.

The first round series’ will all be a best of five in the traditional 2-2-1 format, though there will be as few off days in between games as possible. Once it gets to the league championship series’ — in order to cut down on travel time and costs — it will be a 3-2-2 format. That’s right, the Division winner gets to host a maximum of five games in the series, while the visitor gets only two.

Step 4: Install a hard salary cap and salary floor. This isn’t that complicated and perhaps a bit overdue. Not only does it serve to balance things out for the teams — the total player payroll of the 10 highest spending teams is roughly $1.3-billion, while the total player payroll of the remaining 20 teams barely clips that total at $1.4-billion — but it will also bring player salaries to a more managable number — there are 22 players making at least $16-million per year.

Step 5: Install a pitch clock. Similar to the shot clock in basketball, the pitch clock is designed to keep the proceedings moving. Pitchers will have a pre-determined amount of time — somewhere between 10 and 20 seconds — from when they receive the ball (returned from the catcher after another pitch or a fielder after a ball has been put into play) until they must make a pitch or attempt a pick-off.

None of these ideas are guaranteed to make a difference. But they would at least be more than what MLB — the winning team in the All-Star game gets home field advantage in the World Series? — has done.