Red Right 88

Cleveland sports fan and sports writer

Name:
Location: Cleveland, Ohio, United States

quit my job decided to drive west

Tuesday, August 29, 2006

There are sports superstars and then there are mythic figures

The last thing I ever want to do is write the same column as everyone else. If you are a sports fan, there are lots of places where you can find words of praise for Tiger Woods.

Not only is Tiger the best athlete in his sport, he has fine-tuned his incredible talent with an over-powering will to succeed. He has rebuilt his swing more than once, sacrificing short-term goals for long-term dominance.

We have never seen an athlete like this before. He is rewriting expectations of greatness while he is rewriting the records books.

However, I chuckle at the plethora of writers and talking heads that beride Tiger's opponents. Why doesn't anyone challenge him? Why doesn't someone step up? The players of old would have never allowed Tiger to scare them?

BULL!

God bless Jack Nicklaus and his 18 major championships. Recently the Golden Bear hinted that if he had known some kid would one day be gunning for his records, maybe he would have won more of his 19 second-place finishes in majors. Really? Winning at the time wasn't reward enough?

Tiger Woods would have dominated at any time and in any era. In my opinion, if he had played at the same time as Jack Nicklaus, that would have fueled his desire even more.

He is the greatest golfer of all time. Does he have better equipment? Sure, but tell me if you gave Tiger a two-by-four, he would not find a way to get the ball in the hole better than anyone else.

Critics have said Tiger has advantages because of his length off the tee. So at the British Open, he left his driver in the bag and dominated the field. At the PGA with the longest yardage in the history of major golf, he dominated again.

Even his mistakes are of legend. On Friday, he over swung just a little. He hit his nine iron an estimated 212 yards (read that again), the ball hit a cart path and landed onto the roof of Firestone's clubhouse. It was such an unimaginable feat that there wasn't even a rule against it. It never occurred to anyone to make the roof out of play.

This country loves Supermen and Tiger is just that. If he is in contention in the final round, ratings always skyrocket. We are enthralled by his greatness.

Critics said changing coaches would change him. That marriage would change him. Losing his father would change him.

Michael Jordan, either through grief or potential scandal, took a break at the height of his greatness. Then again he left too soon. As a result, he will never have as many rings as Bill Russell and you won't convince me that he is indeed the greatest ever in his sport. Best player maybe, but Bill Russell dominated for a decade and changed the game of basketball.

Boredom or lack of interest doesn't appear to be a problem with Tiger. He is just 30 years old and Nicklaus won his last major at the age of 46. Woods has not even entered his prime yet. This weekend he was quoted as saying, "My body took me out of the tournament, and my mind will bring me back in it."

It is that faith that will that make him the greatest ever.

It is rare to be alive at the same time as a man who is aware of his legacy. In the past, men of legend conquered nations. Now our heroes belong to the world of sports. Woods is on the path to being the greatest ever in any sport.

And it is honor that we get to watch.

There are sports superstars and then there are mythic figures

The last thing I ever want to do is write the same column as everyone else. If you are a sports fan, there are lots of places where you can find words of praise for Tiger Woods.

Not only is Tiger the best athlete in his sport, he has fine-tuned his incredible talent with an over-powering will to succeed. He has rebuilt his swing more than once, sacrificing short-term goals for long-term dominance.

We have never seen an athlete like this before. He is rewriting expectations of greatness while he is rewriting the records books.

However, I chuckle at the plethora of writers and talking heads that beride Tiger's opponents. Why doesn't anyone challenge him? Why doesn't someone step up? The players of old would have never allowed Tiger to scare them?

BULL!

God bless Jack Nicklaus and his 18 major championships. Recently the Golden Bear hinted that if he had known some kid would one day be gunning for his records, maybe he would have won more of his 19 second-place finishes in majors. Really? Winning at the time wasn't reward enough?

Tiger Woods would have dominated at any time and in any era. In my opinion, if he had played at the same time as Jack Nicklaus, that would have fueled his desire even more.

He is the greatest golfer of all time. Does he have better equipment? Sure, but tell me if you gave Tiger a two-by-four, he would not find a way to get the ball in the hole better than anyone else.

Critics have said Tiger has advantages because of his length off the tee. So at the British Open, he left his driver in the bag and dominated the field. At the PGA with the longest yardage in the history of major golf, he dominated again.

Even his mistakes are of legend. On Friday, he over swung just a little. He hit his nine iron an estimated 212 yards (read that again), the ball hit a cart path and landed onto the roof of Firestone's clubhouse. It was such an unimaginable feat that there wasn't even a rule against it. It never occurred to anyone to make the roof out of play.

This country loves Supermen and Tiger is just that. If he is in contention in the final round, ratings always skyrocket. We are enthralled by his greatness.

Critics said changing coaches would change him. That marriage would change him. Losing his father would change him.

Michael Jordan, either through grief or potential scandal, took a break at the height of his greatness. Then again he left too soon. As a result, he will never have as many rings as Bill Russell and you won't convince me that he is indeed the greatest ever in his sport. Best player maybe, but Bill Russell dominated for a decade and changed the game of basketball.

Boredom or lack of interest doesn't appear to be a problem with Tiger. He is just 30 years old and Nicklaus won his last major at the age of 46. Woods has not even entered his prime yet. This weekend he was quoted as saying, "My body took me out of the tournament, and my mind will bring me back in it."

It is that faith that will that make him the greatest ever.

It is rare to be alive at the same time as a man who is aware of his legacy. In the past, men of legend conquered nations. Now our heroes belong to the world of sports. Woods is on the path to being the greatest ever in any sport.

And it is honor that we get to watch.

I love high school sports as much as you do

Maybe more.

I don’t toot my horn very much, but if pressed, I would say the thing that makes me proudest about the West Life sports pages is the excitement of the Westlake girls cross country team.

Weird, maybe, but only when taken out of context. I learned a long time ago that it doesn't matter how much I do. Putting together this 12-page tab has not been an easy task, but I know the first call will be about that one name that is misspelled on page eight or from the parent upset that their kid's name was left off. The good thing is that in the past, a phone call of each nature turned into two of our most loyal readers. But back to the point. Sometimes it is easy to cover the Bay boys soccer team. The Rockets thrilled us all last fall as they took the season down to the final possible second. That team graced our pages so much, it had to drive their rivals a little nuts. Some might think it is harder to cover the Westlake girls cross country team. Last season, they did not finish near the front very often, and their times did not compare very well to some of the other local teams. Yet it was the parent of a Bay soccer player who ripped me a new one for a lack of a coverage (compared to the Bay girls team.) Out of Westlake, it was all gushing praise for the weekly review of their team.

I can't take any credit for my coverage of most teams. I admit that I never saw the Lady Demons run last year, just like I never watched a single Bulldog wrestle for Olmsted Falls. Yet Falls' living legend of a coach, Bill McGrain, gave me an award for covering his team (and fed me, too.) What I am proud of is that West Life gives every team the same opportunity to be covered. Each week, every varsity coach is given space to share what happened that week. Some coaches love this. Westlake's girls cross coach Travis Haselswerdt, no matter what finish his team would have, found something postive to share about his kids each week. And so I just copied, pasted and occasionally edited whatever he wrote into something to share with you. My goal this year is to convince every varsity coach to do the same thing.

The View from Row Z high school sports column is designed to keep us in touch with each other. This fall, West Life sports pages will be the home base for nine high schools and 72 varsity teams. We hope you will check with us each and every week. I am extremely grateful for the number of coaches who have bought into the concept. It has allowed me to create close relationships and often allows me access to feature stories I could never have known about otherwise.

And that doesn't mean that I will rely on the local coaches to do my work for me. Our photographer, Larry Bennet, and I attend more high school games than anyone else in the Westshore. We are your hometown newspaper. No one captures high school sports better than Larry. To confirm this, just check out his Web site, www.fotops.com/autofoto, every week. It has a lot more photos than I could ever print, and you can buy your favorites.

Last year in this space, I mentioned all the great seniors that graduated, and I was hopeful that many more would fill their shoes and provide more exciting memories. It certainly happened, and I am sure even more will step up over the next 10 months.

Time certainly flies. I started as a stringer for this newspaper in the first days of January 2003. My freshmen from that first season are now freshmen in college. So here is to Stacie Dorian, Rinnie Mayer, Eileen Bringman, Dan Schaefer, Marcia Borgman, Matt Kurz, Bruce Sundberg, Christina Thomas, Krista Hanson, Kurt Thomas, Zach Haudenschild, David Armstrong, Matt Fahrenkopf, Mary Gannon, Evan Helgesen, Kurt Gee, B.J. Baran, Kayleigh Zajaros, Amy O'Hara, Caity O'Hara, Austin Chelko, Tom Ludwig, Claire Tramba, Nate Toennies, Paris Pugliese, Jeff Doyle, Sarah Kazanas, Derek Voytovich, Ken Sanger, Lauren Evans, Richard Semrau, Scott Blackburn, Sam Morrison, Chelsea Cahill, Molly Corrigan, Bethany Moore, Hannah Smith, Elaina Sub, Kirsten Gambrell, Katelynn Riley, Josh Kassil, Molly Bartkiewicz, Lindsay Fattlar, David Solarz, Jacqui DiLillo, Dan Schade, Jessie McGrath, Charles Pelini, Katie Gallagher, Zach McGrain, Don Belford, Alex Brown, Amanda Paydock, George Bartulica, T.J. Murphy, Katie Berry, Laura Derov, Mandi Bäck, Maggie Lusina, Zach Feador, Steve Price, Cody Thomas, Jennifer Sherman and Shannon Eccleston.

And here’s to the seniors of this year that will create memories that will last for a lifetime, regardless of the final score of their final game. The West Life sports section is meant to be your scrapbook. So go fill it.

I love high school sports as much as you do

Maybe more.

I don’t toot my horn very much, but if pressed, I would say the thing that makes me proudest about the West Life sports pages is the excitement of the Westlake girls cross country team.

Weird, maybe, but only when taken out of context. I learned a long time ago that it doesn't matter how much I do. Putting together this 12-page tab has not been an easy task, but I know the first call will be about that one name that is misspelled on page eight or from the parent upset that their kid's name was left off. The good thing is that in the past, a phone call of each nature turned into two of our most loyal readers. But back to the point. Sometimes it is easy to cover the Bay boys soccer team. The Rockets thrilled us all last fall as they took the season down to the final possible second. That team graced our pages so much, it had to drive their rivals a little nuts. Some might think it is harder to cover the Westlake girls cross country team. Last season, they did not finish near the front very often, and their times did not compare very well to some of the other local teams. Yet it was the parent of a Bay soccer player who ripped me a new one for a lack of a coverage (compared to the Bay girls team.) Out of Westlake, it was all gushing praise for the weekly review of their team.

I can't take any credit for my coverage of most teams. I admit that I never saw the Lady Demons run last year, just like I never watched a single Bulldog wrestle for Olmsted Falls. Yet Falls' living legend of a coach, Bill McGrain, gave me an award for covering his team (and fed me, too.) What I am proud of is that West Life gives every team the same opportunity to be covered. Each week, every varsity coach is given space to share what happened that week. Some coaches love this. Westlake's girls cross coach Travis Haselswerdt, no matter what finish his team would have, found something postive to share about his kids each week. And so I just copied, pasted and occasionally edited whatever he wrote into something to share with you. My goal this year is to convince every varsity coach to do the same thing.

The View from Row Z high school sports column is designed to keep us in touch with each other. This fall, West Life sports pages will be the home base for nine high schools and 72 varsity teams. We hope you will check with us each and every week. I am extremely grateful for the number of coaches who have bought into the concept. It has allowed me to create close relationships and often allows me access to feature stories I could never have known about otherwise.

And that doesn't mean that I will rely on the local coaches to do my work for me. Our photographer, Larry Bennet, and I attend more high school games than anyone else in the Westshore. We are your hometown newspaper. No one captures high school sports better than Larry. To confirm this, just check out his Web site, www.fotops.com/autofoto, every week. It has a lot more photos than I could ever print, and you can buy your favorites.

Last year in this space, I mentioned all the great seniors that graduated, and I was hopeful that many more would fill their shoes and provide more exciting memories. It certainly happened, and I am sure even more will step up over the next 10 months.

Time certainly flies. I started as a stringer for this newspaper in the first days of January 2003. My freshmen from that first season are now freshmen in college. So here is to Stacie Dorian, Rinnie Mayer, Eileen Bringman, Dan Schaefer, Marcia Borgman, Matt Kurz, Bruce Sundberg, Christina Thomas, Krista Hanson, Kurt Thomas, Zach Haudenschild, David Armstrong, Matt Fahrenkopf, Mary Gannon, Evan Helgesen, Kurt Gee, B.J. Baran, Kayleigh Zajaros, Amy O'Hara, Caity O'Hara, Austin Chelko, Tom Ludwig, Claire Tramba, Nate Toennies, Paris Pugliese, Jeff Doyle, Sarah Kazanas, Derek Voytovich, Ken Sanger, Lauren Evans, Richard Semrau, Scott Blackburn, Sam Morrison, Chelsea Cahill, Molly Corrigan, Bethany Moore, Hannah Smith, Elaina Sub, Kirsten Gambrell, Katelynn Riley, Josh Kassil, Molly Bartkiewicz, Lindsay Fattlar, David Solarz, Jacqui DiLillo, Dan Schade, Jessie McGrath, Charles Pelini, Katie Gallagher, Zach McGrain, Don Belford, Alex Brown, Amanda Paydock, George Bartulica, T.J. Murphy, Katie Berry, Laura Derov, Mandi Bäck, Maggie Lusina, Zach Feador, Steve Price, Cody Thomas, Jennifer Sherman and Shannon Eccleston.

And here’s to the seniors of this year that will create memories that will last for a lifetime, regardless of the final score of their final game. The West Life sports section is meant to be your scrapbook. So go fill it.