Mid-Summer Musings

It's been awhile since I posted thoughts here, but the All Star game brought out some feelings that spurred me to write.  The Major League All Star week is still the best showcase of all the major sports' celebratory contests.  This year's was memorable, not for the game itself, nor for the home run derby.  Two words:  Mariano Rivera.  Given that the situation was contrived so as to get Rivera into the game, not in his customary ninth inning closer's role, but into the eighth inning, did not detract from the goosebump-inducing spotlight as he jogged to the mound accompanied by the signature sounds of Metallica's "Enter Sandman".  Too see and feel the adoration and respect for one of baseball's greatest players, ever, was heart-warming, and a reminder that there really are good guys in sports.  The statistics of Mariano Rivera's remarkable career will forever etched into the record books, but it's his singularly consistent humility and demeanor that will define his place in history.  In baseball, there are precious few who are held in such high esteem as both a player of excellence and also as a person of the highest character.  Lou Gehrig, Sandy Koufax, Hank Aaron, Jackie Robinson, Yogi Berra, Carl Yastrzemski (yes, a Red Sock).  Those are men whose reputations and statistics define them as true role models, not just as players, but also as humans of high integrity.  Yo, Mo, we will miss ya!

I predicted this last spring that the Rockies would be out of contention by Memorial Day.  Wrong!  But, after a great start in April (16 wins, 10 losses), our loveable purple pinstripers are in third place in the mediocre NL West Division, 4-1/2 games behind the Arizona Diamondbacks.  The Rox are 30-40 since the beginning of May, yet have survived to this point with injuries to Troy Tulowitzki, Carlos Gonzalez, Dexter Fowler and Michael Cuddyer and pitching that can be best described as, well, very Colorado-Rockie-like.  In other words, full of promise and hope, devoid of much consistency.  To begin the post-All Star portion of the regular season, the Rockies begin with a crucial 10-game homestand against the Cubs, Marlins and Brewers, who are collectively 50 games under .500.  The Rox must find a way to win at least 7, preferably 8 or 9, games against those bottom-feeders to maintain pace with the Dodgers and D-Backs.


The Yankees?  Well, beyond the continued brilliance of Mariano Rivera, the season has been like an episode of MASH, with all the medical issues.  Derek Jeter returned to the lineup on the Friday before the All Star break, only to leave with a leg issue, again.  Attention is again being focused upon Alex Rodriguez, as he prepares to complete his rehabilitation from hip surgery amid the cloud of suspicion concerning his association with Biogenesis.  One word to describe the situation created by A-Rod:
boon·dog·gle [ boon dàwg'l] 1. A wasteful pursuit: an activity or project that is unnecessary and wasteful of time or money, especially one undertaken for personal or political gain.  Pretty much sums it up. 

My beloved Yankees start the "second half" 6 games behind the hated Red Sox and 7 games over .500, while the Rox sit only 4-1/2 games back of the D-Backs while muddling to a record that is 6 games short of 50/50.  Our loveable (sic) Rockies have the 7th worst record in the National League (oh wait, the 9th best record in the NL, for you glass-half-fullers), and remarkably remain in contention.  I dare say that Colorado has a better chance of winning the NL West than the Yankees have of winning the AL East.  I wouldn't bet a nickel that either will.

The Longmont Men's City Golf Championship just ended this past weekend, and there was a lot of excitement this year due to the sponsorship attachment of Oskar Blues.  Yes, Tim Rudden saved the tourney.  Tim has been a longtime golfing buddy and he has developed a unique ability to run fund raising for a variety of endeavors.  The old Bit of Billiards Golf Tournament and Auction used to raise funds for Meals On Wheels in Longmont.  The annual event lost steam after Tim left the Bit, where he was the bar manager for a number of years.  Tim got married and he and D'Anne had a son and Patrick became attached to a swim club.  Enter Tim to organize a few golf scrambles, raising tons of money for the swim club.  Patrick now plays baseball, and Oskar Blues was part of the Niwot Baseball fund raising, where Tim and the owner, Dale Katechis became acquainted.  The Longmont Men's Golf Tourney did not have a sponsor.  We played golf together at Twin Peaks on a Wednesday about three weeks before the tournament.  A brief conversation with the Twin Peaks Men's Club president, Ryan Richards about getting a sponsor, and the next day, a major sponsor emerged, breathing new life into an event that I look forward to every year.  http://www.timescall.com/sports/localsports/ci_23645776/oskar-blues-breathes-new-life-into-city-championship

The big news from the golf tournament, aside from the Oskar Blues sponsorship, was Dr. Guy Mertz's second consecutive victory in the Championship Flight.  But more important to me, I won the Third Flight with a come-from-behind victory in the final round on Sunday at Ute Creek.  I was two strokes behind the leader, Rich Wooley, after Friday's round at Sunset (81 with two balls out of bounds) and Saturday at Twin Peaks (79 with one OB).  We were grouped together in the final foursome of our flight on Sunday at Ute Creek.  I birdied two par 5s (#7 and #13), while Wooley took double bogies on those holes giving me a 6-stroke lead going to the par-5 #17.  Even a triple bogie 8 on that hole wasn't enough for me to choke up the tourney title.  I won by 4 and had to endure 'friendly' accusations of being a sandbagger. 

Here's the best definition I could find: "Sandbagger" is a derogatory term in golf that applies to golfers who cheat by pretending to be worse golfers than they really are. The term can be thought of two ways:
1. Generally, any golfer who misleads others about his ability level, claiming to be worse than he actually is at golf, might be a sandbagger. If the person is not trying to gain from that deception, no problem (he might even be aware he is misleading others about his ability - he might just have low self-esteem). But a golfer who deliberately misleads others about his ability in order to gain in some way - to win a bet, for example - is a sandbagger.2. More specifically, a sandbagger is a golfer who artificially inflates his handicap index in order to better his chances of winning tournaments or bets. A sandbagger is considered by many to be the lowest form of life on a golf course. A sandbagger can inflate his handicap index by selectively leaving out his best rounds of golf when he posts scores for handicap purposes. Then, when the sandbagger enters a tournament, he claims, for example, a handicap index of 18 when, in fact, his true handicap might be closer to, as an example, 12. Voila, the sandbagger has just bought himself six extra strokes off his net score, and improved his odds of winning his flight or the tournament.Sandbaggers are, at base, cheaters and hustlers. Golfers who are found out to be sandbaggers are often ostracized and always looked down upon. Winning a tournament or bet in this fashion is called "sandbagging." A golfer who has won by sandbagging is said to have "sandbagged" his opponents.  Picture below:

Whatever, I post all my scores, count all my strokes, and play to the best of my ability on any given day.  And on that weekend, I played less badly than my opponents, I even only needed one golf ball to play the final 36 holes.  Then, I lost it out of bounds the next day at Sunset on the first hole, somewhere in the Dickens' back yard.

Golf is great.  Fresh air, good friends and continual challenge.  Today, as I turn 63 years old, I am grateful for this wonderful game, and hope against all hope, that I may someday be alive enough and skilled enough to shoot my age.  Cheers!