Sunday, July 17, 2005

Hats off the the Golden Bear and a little schadenfreude


For those of us that like golf and more importantly those of us that are suckers for sentamentality, it was a wonderful British Tournament at St. Andrews. A perfect match of the past and current. Jack Nicklaus, who has won 18 majors , 2 amateur titles and an Oscar for his role as the Joker in "Batman" walked across the bridge into retirement (or at least until the Memorial rolls around). For someone who is 65 he sure played pretty good. I mean on Friday he played even. I can't play even on a putt putt course let alone hit even on one of the most trying and difficult courses in the world. But Jack, the greatest golfer and greatest OSU alumn ever, can still play with the best of them. Of course while the spirit is willing the flesh isn't what it used to be (I think I said something similiarly when I tried to eat an entire large pizza). The new generation of golfers, stronger, often married to super models powered through the course. It was apropos that Tiger would win his 10th major at St. Andrews. Tiger has 9 more majors to win to surpass the Golden Bear. I'm willing to bet it will happen but at least for now a little tribute to Jack is in order.

And now my few moments of schadenfreude of the week. For those that aren't up on the multisyllabic german words, schadenfreude it means: A malicious satisfaction in the misfortunes of others. For example if the Chicago White Sox caught leprosy, I would have schadenfreude. If Karl Rove was frog marched out of the White House, I would have schadenfreude. So here's a few moments from the week that brought me a little satisfaction

1) Curt Schilling - No bloody sock this week. No manifesto on ways to cure all of social ills. Just an ass kicking. The experiment of Schilling out of the bullpen got off to a rocky start when A-Rod bodyslammed Schilling with a homer and then rubbed it in by putting a flaming bag of poop in Schillings front yard. Oh A-Rod when will you learn.

2) Kwame Brown - I tend to associate why I dislike high school players being drafted with Kwame. Its not fair I realize but Kwame seems to be on of those perpetual "potential" people. Sure he's got the athletic build for it but the desire hasn't been there. (your getting paid millions of dollars to play basketball the least you can do is wake up for practice). By the end Kwame was traded for basically scrap metal (i.e. Caron Butler and a 6 pack of Rolling Rock) Maybe Kwame will turn it around but somehow I think Kobe and Phil aren't going to be any more accomodating then Washington was which means Kwame will probably be shipped off again to a new team (ah Darius Miles syndrome).

3) Florida State Football - For the record I hate all Florida college football teams. I think they make OSU recruiting violations look like a meeting of the prissy doilee convention. Tops of my list of hateable Florida Football coaches is Bobby Bowden. Bobby always reminded me of a good old boy (ah Boss Hog type figure if you will) that wouldn't lift a finger to help one of his players unless it helped him personally. Well the team is heading down the drain. Starting CB out with an injury. Starting LB out with a DUI. Another LB out with assault charges. Defensivelineman out with academic ineligibility. Starting QB out with Lyme disease and the fact that he claimed to be Jesus. Could FSU's record plunge off the cliff? Its possible and if it does I will be reveling in my schadenfreude.

1 comment:

MJ said...

Hats off to the Golden Bear. As somone that's been bitten by the golf bug, I gotta show respect to the man.

Also, hats off to Mike for his schadenfreude picks of the week. FSU can go lick a fat nut, as can the rest of the state of Florida in all sports, pro and college. Ditto to Curt Schilling, although I must say that I don't think we've heard the end of it -- Curt will come back and prevail, he always does.