Sometimes, as the summer stretches on, it’s hard to remember that cooler heads prevail. You’ve been feeling the heat, haven’t you? You might be a little more quick-tempered than usual. Well, athletes are the same way. And this week in sports shows us that it’s been hot here, it’s been hot in China, in Spain, and definitely in California.
But you’ve been finding your own ways to keep your cool, literally and figuratively. While you’ve been at a restorative yoga class, or finding your meditative calm, you might have missed a thing or two that’s been happening in the world of sports. So stay calm, and take in this week’s highlights.
1. Heat stroke. Shouldn’t Tiger Woods have to redeem himself by golfing in Hell? Or at least in Death Valley. But actually, the Presidents Cup is on the horizon. It’s a golf tournament of match play, so it’s one of the rare opportunities to see golfers go head to head against each other, and it’s America versus the rest of the world. In 2009 Tiger Woods had a perfect outing, winning all five of his matches. However, some people have noticed that Tiger is golfing quite badly right now. He might want to be at the Presidents Cup, but he hasn’t qualified for a spot. So it’s up to team captain, and Tiger’s old friend, Fred Couples whether or not he gets named to the team. Couples seems to be trying to talk tough, saying that he needs Tiger to golf more tournaments to better make his case for inclusion, but when pressed on the matter he’s kind of indicated that no one leaves out Tiger Woods. But strangely I feel like Michael Jordan is really calling all the shots. You know, making Tiger golf in Death Valley would prove a lot about his commitment.
2. Fight! The Georgetown University Hoyas and the Bayi Rockets mix it up. The men’s basketball team from Georgetown is on a basketball tour through China, but their game against Bayi was ended prematurely because a full-on brawl between the teams. The fight is serious, although eventually broken up. But we don’t want more isolation between American basketball and basketball from the rest of the world. What we really need is more cross-over between basketball in America and everywhere else, as evidenced by the fact that Arvydas Sabonis was never seen by North American audiences when he was playing in his prime. And he should have been.
3. Will the real Madrid… In an otherwise great game, tensions were high as Barcelona claimed victory its Spanish Supercup showdown with Real Madrid. Now, this Supercup is mostly an exhibition match, but after Lionel Messi scored his second goal of the game to give Barcelona the win the spirit of the game gave over to the heat of competition. Another brawl! And at the centre of it all is none other than Madrid’s talented but nefarious manager, Jose Mourinho. (I think he pokes an assistant manager for Barcelona in the eye.) Ronaldo, Benzema, Pepe, control your coach!
4. Money talks. A player for the Boston Celtics, Delonte West, has some money troubles, because of course the players are currently being locked out by the NBA team owners. But Donte solves his problems the old fashioned way. Now, West can’t go and play basketball overseas like many other NBA players will be doing, because of pending weapons-related charges. So he has applied for a job at Home Depot. This reminds me of when Ron Artest (soon to be named Metta World Peace) applied for a job at Best Buy, even though he was in the NBA. He wanted the employee discount, and as an employment reference he listed Jerry Krause, president of the Chicago Bulls. To further follow in Ron’s footsteps, West should change his name World Vision’s 30 Hour Famine.
5. They want to hate us, they really do. After last weekend I was all set to run with the headline: Argos get a sack. Win to follow? The Toronto Argonauts lost last Saturday, for the sixth straight time. Sacking the opposing QB once was the only thing the newly revamped defense had to show for itself. But these things require patience. The score was a fast-paced 37-32 in favour of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. But Thursday night? Things all came together for an Argos win against Saskatchewan. And CFL reporter Matthew Cauz made a compelling case for why it was a truly important football game (even though both teams were 1-6 going into it). You see, maybe because there aren’t a whole lot of other professional sports being played in Regina, the Saskatchewan Rough Riders are the CFL’s most popular team in terms of fan exuberance. And Toronto is the CFL’s most hated team in terms of us being Toronto. Loving a bad team is something we’re all used to. But hating a bad team gets boring fast. So the league actually needs the Argos to get good again so that we’re more fun for the rest of the cities to hate us. You see?
