Hooray for Rocco
You know how some people, after a sporting event, say something about there being no losers. It’s mostly nonsense.
But this U.S. Open was an exception. Tiger Woods won his 14th major title. Rocco Mediate won the heart of every golf fan in America. This was golf at its best, from the wild Saturday to the dramatic Sunday to the two-man showdown Monday. Rocco vs. Tiger, which sounds like a welterweight championship bout from 1957 but instead was the best U.S. Open playoff in memory.
The 18-hole playoff is resoundingly ripped every time the U.S. Open goes past 72 holes, but what a blessing it was Monday. More drama, more heroics, excellent golf and one more chance for Rocco Mediate to stroll in the spotlight that has eluded him for an entire career.
I can’t remember Rocco contending for a major. Before this week, I couldn’t have picked him out of a Girls Scout troop even if he was the only one not selling cookies. But for the last three days, while Johnny Miller kept telling us no way Rocco could win, Rocco played superb golf and did it with an attitude and a personality rarely found on the elite links. Rocco knew he was walking in tall cotton and decided to have fun with it.
When Rocco approached the 18th green on Saturday, he asked NBC’s Roger Maltbie if he had a shot at a final-pairing spot with Tiger. No, he was told. Lee Westwood and Tiger played in the final pairing Sunday, and Westwood played well, he just finished a stroke back of Tiger and Rocco. But the final final pairing did go to Rocco, on Monday, and boy, did he revel in it.
Rocco shot even-par 70, matching Tiger shot for shot, and even had a lead going into the 18th hole. And Rocco didn’t blow it. Tiger birdied the 18th to forge a 91st hole. This was Rocco’s finest hour, but not his last. Be it on the PGA Tour for the next five years or the senior tour when Rocco turns 50, his popularity will soar. He could be the next Chi Chi Rodriguez, a fan favorite who connects with the common man. I expect to see Rocco on Leno or Letterman this week, and he will be a charmer.
Here’s how big Rocco was this week. He has replaced Tiger’s knee as the sidekick to Tiger’s 14th major title. Rocco Mediate was a big winner at Torrey Pines. Not the biggest, perhaps, but big. If Rocco had won the U.S. Open, his life would have been changed. It is changed anyway.
Spanning the world of emails
Emails last week spanned the specter of sport. From home runs to the NBA to Big Brown, here we go.
Michael wrote about my home run column, in which I said we have lost the ability to have a Ruthian moment. We just don’t care enough anymore about milestone homers. “You failed to mention what started all of this. In 1968 Bob Gibson set the ERA record of 1.12 and Denny McLain won 31 games and they met in the World Series. I was working at Busch Stadium at the time and saw every game Gibson pitched at home. After that season, baseball lowered the pitching mound and the home run derby started. I asked Sparky Anderson if they should raise the mound again and he is in complete agreement. You should start a campaign to raise the mound back to its original height. The downside to a vendor; when Gibson pitched, you only had two hours to peddle your wares because he worked fast and the games were all 1-or 2-zip games. He rarely needed a relief pitcher.”
Great memories from St. Louis. But the lowered mound did not launch the home run derby. The lowering of the mound brought in more offense, but I don’t think it brought more home runs. 1969 was an expansion year, and home runs and offense always go up in expansion years (1961 was an expansion year), but home runs did not really take off until 1987. The home run leaders in the NL and AL the five years before the mound was lowered hit 47, 52, 44, 39 and 36 (NL) and 49, 32, 49, 44 and 44. The five years starting in 1969 were 49, 44, 33, 37, 32 (AL) and 45, 45, 48, 40 and 44. And then both hovered in the 30s the years after that. I don’t see a big difference.
Edgar is worried about the name of the OKC NBA franchise. “Oklahoma City Barons? Say it ain’t so. A buddy says it’s a fait accompli, with the graphic artist, the front page photo shop of the jersey on Durant, the story how fans just love the black and gold? Black and gold, Texas tea, cute. Folks hold oilmen in high esteem these days. Takes a jumbo set of heuavos to buy a team and name it after yourselves. No one even gets it, and when they do finally, it’s elicits a tragic groan. Robber Barons – first words out of a blogger’s mouth. It’s a stupid name. OKC T-Birds!”
Who cares what bloggers say. Oh, wait. This is a blog. Never mind. But Barons is no fait accompli. It’s not even a done deal.
Chazzy saluted my column on how Tulsa has certainly helped Oklahoma City in this NBA process but wrote, “the bottomline to a NBA franchise longevity here in Oklahoma is the name. If the owners select the name OKLAHOMA instead of OKC, then the Tulsa market and northeast Oklahoma will be on board 100 percent. If they decide to use the name OKC only, Tulsa will show little interest, let alone corporate sponsorships and the TV market etc. Tulsa did little as far as money for the Hornets and OKC. I feel qualified in predicting this as I am a business owner in Tulsa and opened an OKC office eight years ago and market the two key areas very successfully under one name. I moved to Oklahoma many years ago from Boston and was a season tickets holder for all the Boston teams. When the Boston Patriots moved to Foxboro and became the New England Pats, the six New England states embraced and supported the Pats and eventually they became a premier team as the Red Sox, Celtics and Bruins. I know egos in OKC want the name OKC Whatevers, but the key to long term success is to become a state franchise and market to three million plus people and have five or six games in BOK center. That is the winning combination for such a small market as OKC. I would like to see your thought on this.”
I think New England is ga-ga over a ballteam, and it’s not the Patriots. The Red Sox are a religion in Vermont and Rhode Island and Maine. As for six games in Tulsa, that’s a sign of weakness, not of strength. The NBA does that when things aren’t working. The Celtics and the Sixers and all kinds of teams used to do that – play games somewhere else in the region; Wilt’s 100-point game was played in Hershey, Pa. – and cut it out just as soon as they could.
Joe wrote, “The NBA is the biggest joke of pro sports. High-priced crybabies, and thugs thrown in too. The crooked refs and the showtime; let’s-not-guard-anybody-until-the-Finals mentality. I quit watching it about time the glory days some have written about were over (Boston and LA in the 80’s). All it is good for anymore is to ruin the college game by taking top players away from that sport.”
I would say baseball has the corner on high-priced crybabies and the NFL leads the world in thugs produced. But I’ll give you crooked refs.
Manny also addressed the NBA. “When there is cheating and corruption going on in practically everything on this earth, I wouldn’t bet a penny that there isn’t something going on in the NBA. People going to prison everyday for all kinds of corruption, and they have plenty to lose. I have said for years that as much money is moving on any given Sunday in pro football (or basketball or baseball), you name it, there is no way it is lily white. The world doesn’t work that way and people are naive to think otherwise. In years past, maybe, but too much greed this day and time.”
Actually, greed goes back thousands of years. The Roman Empire and the Black Sox prove that.
Jim wrote, “Got to complain to someone, first you, then ESPN next. All week we hear about the Tiger/Phil match, and then ESPN shows us duffers hitting out of the sand, announcers getting their time in and their faces on national TV. Terrible, terrible, terrible coverage. We never see the leader at this time. We hardly see Phil and Tiger! ESPN stinks in its coverage.”
Actually, my only complaint with ESPN is its terrible leaderboard. Horizontal, across the top. The simple, five- or six-man leaderboard, in vertical form, does not need improvement.
David wrote about my idea to redshirt one of the Paris twins. “You’re right; it makes perfect sense redshirt one of them. That’s why it won’t ever happen. Coaches don’t think like us common folk.”
Maybe there’s hope. Sherri Coale is nothing if not common folk.
Don wrote about the death of Sooner great Tom Catlin. “Your article about Tom Catlin was a walk down memory lane. Just a few weeks ago, we lost George Cornelius, the starting tackle off the 1952 squad. The 1952 team was one of Wilkinson’s best, with four legitimate All-Americans, Billy Vessels, Eddie Crowder, Buck McPhail and Catlin. Interestingly, all were Oklahoma boys; from Cleveland, Muskogee, Oklahoma City Central and Ponca City. The team’s dominant status is ruined by the controversial loss to Notre Dame on a maneuver that would be illegal today. By the way, you mentioned the starting centers off the one-platoon days of 1950s. Actually, we had free substitution during the 1950s until the 1953 season, after Catlin had completed his eligibility. It is true that Catlin did occasionally play both ways – he was that good – as did Steve Zabel in 1969. Elements of free substitution began to return in 1960 (the wild card and double wild card), and by 1963 we had returned entirely to two platoon football.”
This is going to make people think I’m crazy, but I would vote to go back to single platoon football today. The idea that college football teams need 85 scholarships is silly. There’s way too much specialization. College football could get by with 50-60 scholarships, easy.
Donald offered a theory about Big Brown’s Belmont demise. “I know all your readers are really interested in horse racing (not), but as a former track coach, I and my colleagues would readily be able to determine what happened to the big fella – it was too hot! Temperatures on the track that day were a date record for the area (93 degrees and high humidity). Big Brown was evidently the largest animal in the field, and any track coach knows that the big bruisers have a lot of body surface that need to displace heat. Heat displacement efficiency is a foremost problem for big runners in any sport, especially in the distance races. That’s the reason you find the best decathletes struggling in the 1,500 meters. The Belmont was the longest of the three triple crown races, and the big guy just didn’t have it in the stretch. Make the day ten degrees cooler, and he would have kicked it in.”
Big Brown never could have made it on the Pony Express circuit. The mail waits for no horse.
Bob wrote that he believes Big Brown’s owners “knew he couldn’t run, but it would be a financial disaster if they scratched him. There was no way that they scratch that horse. The betting would be way off and the attendance would be down. The advertisers would pull their ads because no one would watch. The reasons are all true, but them knowing ahead of time is my opinion.”
Sounds like Big Brown is no Tiger Woods.
Ode to Father’s Day
Our annual Father’s Day project is complete, and it’s one of my favorite things we do all year. A two-page spread with local athletes and coaches and personalities talking about their dads.
My favorite element is the photos. They all are home photos; we took none of them. The photo of Gerald McCoy, smiling wide with his dad. U.S. Grant soccer player Lori O’Neil making a silly face while her dad grins in the background. Chickasha baseball player Kennedy Winn at what must be the age of four, sitting with his dad. Al Eschbach lounging by the pool with his dad.
This is our 10th year for the Father’s Day project, and what what I like is how athletes will call us, wanting to be included. Tulsa U. basketball player Kara Vaughan and Tulsa U. softball player Lauren Lindsay contacted us this year; it makes for a great Father’s Day surprise.
This will be a different Father’s Day for me and my brothers. It’s our first without our dad, who died last August. Father’s Day always has meant going to church in Purcell with Mom and Dad, eating well and then watching the U.S. Open on Sunday afternoon.
But this will be a good Father’s Day. I had a wonderful dad for 46-plus years; I’ve got some great memories. Read the sports page today, and you’ll know I’m not the only one.
Great weekend
I start a week’s vacation today. I’ll check in with blogs every day but won’t be writing for the paper. And it’s a great weekend to be off.
Father’s Day. U.S. Open with Tiger Woods hot on the trail. Can’t think of any better viewing for sports.
I love golf’s majors as much as any sporting event. They rank right with a college football Saturday (which I get to experience via couch potato only once or twice a year), an NFL playoff weekend and the first two days of the NCAA Tournament.
I love the majors because they are absolute and they are historic. NASCAR is an individual sport (sort of) that embraces some convoluted scoring system that renders victory not all that important. Tennis has a similar majors setup but is always dominanted by the same three or four players. Boxing is a mess. But golf has four tournaments a year that define greatness, and no one quibbles. Those four tournaments determine the greatest players of the year and forever.
And of the four, I love the U.S. Open. the most. It’s egalitarian; anyone can enter. It’s tough; it’s not a birdie contest. It’s on a variety of courses, from Pinehurst to Torrey Pines, from Shinnecock Hills to Southern Hills. It’s got great drama; golfers can win from behind, unlike the Masters, where frontrunners usually win.
And now we’ve got a weekend with Tiger hot and in contention. Golf is at its best with the U.S. Open, and at its best when Tiger is in the hunt. This is one weekend I’m looking forward to.
NBA Finals indict Kobe
These NBA Finals were supposed to be Kobe Bryant’s finest hour. Instead, they have indicted him. He’s not the superstar we thought he was.
That’s harsh, but true. Kobe was a bust in Game 1, the Lakers’ a 98-88 loss, and an even bigger bust in Game 4 Thursday night, a 97-91 defeat in which LA blew a 21-point first-quarter lead, a 24-point second-quarter lead, an 18-point halftime lead and a 20-point lead midway through the third quarter.
At halftime, Kobe had three points and Boston trailed 58-40. But when the other Lakers finally cooled off, Kobe did not rise to fill the gap. He finished with 17 points on 6-of-19 shooting as the Celtics completed perhaps the greatest single-game comeback in NBA history.
Now the Lakers have to win three straight to secure the NBA title; no team ever has recovered from a 3-games-to-1 deficit in the Finals. And Kobe still searches for confirmation as a transcendent superstar. He’s won three NBA titles, but all with Shaq by his side, and when they split acrimonously, it was Shaq who departed and won another NBA crown.
Down the stretch Thursday night, Kobe took bad shots. Some of that was his fault, some was his teammates, who didn’t exactly create great shots of their own. At some point, somebody has to shoot. But this series is not complicated. The Celtics are getting better shots than the Lakers. Part of that is superior defense — so much for the coaching mismatch between Phil Jackson and Doc Rivers — and part of that is superior offensive players. But part of it is the Kobe culture, which is stand around and let Kobe do it.
That’s part the responsibility of the Lakers’ supporting cast. Jackson’s, too. But Kobe wanted this stage and this scene. The NBA Finals, with everything on his shoulders, and he hasn’t delivered.
Headed to the Memorial
I’m about to leave for the bombing Memorial in downtown Oklahoma City. The memorial museum is hosting a seminar on the media and tragedy; I’m on the panel.
Hard to believe it’s been 13 years since the bombing. In some ways, it doesn’t seem so long ago. But the memorial has become an indelible part of OKC’s fabric. It’s a must-stop for anyone traveling to or through Oklahoma City. The folks who put together the memorial and the museum have done a wonderful job.
The memorial is both inspiring and haunting; I’ve been to very few places like it. Ground Zero doesn’t have the same inspiring feel. New York obviously isn’t finished with whatever its plans are for the 9/11 memorial, but in my two visits since the attacks, I’ve only experienced the haunting sensation, not the inspiration. The King museum in Atlanta has the inspiration but not the haunting; probably because MLK was killed in Memphis.
Anyway, I’m looking forward to the morning. I haven’t spent a lot of time in the museum; certainly haven’t interacted with people to any reasonable degree there. I think it’s going to be enlightening to talk about the bombing and its effects on us, and doing that talking on the memorial grounds will be even more interesting.
I didn’t go to the bombing site the first day. I was sent down there, I think, on Day 2, and then later, and sent up to Guthrie to work on a story about a family affected by the bombing. I worked much more on the 1999 tornadoes that ravaged Moore and Midwest City and Bridge Creek and Mulhall. Truth is, the tornadoes hit me more emotionally than did the bombing.
But the bombing can keep striking you. The morning Tim McVeigh was executed, I strolled around the memorial. My assignment was to chat with people, but I didn’t find myself or visitors very chatty. It was very strange. I struck up a conversation with one guy, a very halting and uneven conversation. I’ve never really felt like that before or since while on the job.
And I expect to be hit again by the bombing this morning.
Chatting with old Sooners
The deaths of Jack Mildren and Tom Catlin the last couple of weeks has given me the opportunity to do something I really ought to do more of, and not just when an OU football legend dies.
I love chatting with old Sooners about their youthful days. Yesterday, in about 20 minutes of time, I talked with Buddy Leake, Chuck Bowman and J.D. Roberts. They aren’t the three most prominent Bud Wilkinson-era players of all time — I suppose that would be Jerry Tubbs, Tommy McDonald, Darrell Royal, uh, I better stop, this could turn into a debate — but all were good in their own way, and all were splendid to talk with.
We’re slowly losing the 1950s Sooners. There remains a bunch of them, but think about it. A guy who was a 1949 freshman, as Tom Catlin was, is 78 or so now. Some people live to 78, but some don’t. A guy who was a 1953 freshman, and played on those unbeaten teams, is 74 or so now.
In the next 10 years, we’re going to lose most of our living history when it comes to the Wilkinson era. I’m going to make it a point to talk with those guys as much as possible. And not just when someone dies.
Quit ripping NBA format
NBA fans and players and media continue to rip the NBA Finals format in which the team with homecourt advantage gets the first two and last two games, while its opponent hosts the middle three games.
Critics say the format hurts the team with homecourt advantage, unless, of course, it hurts the team without homecourt advantage. Mostly, people just like to gripe.
The truth is, the format is fine. The team with homecourt advantage gets four home games. That’s all that really matters. The only thing that could possibly be unfair is if a team got the first four games at home; then the other city’s fans might not even see any basketball. But otherwise, this format is completely fair.
From the third game on, there is never a time in any series in which one team has played two more home games than the other. What could be more equitable than that?
The 2-3-2 format makes much more sense than 2-2-1-1-1, which in a seven-game series requires four cross-country trips, unless the Finals are Minnesota-Milwaukee.
There’s way too much angst over details like the playoff format. Just play. Just show up and play. Boston had the NBA’s best record, earned homecourt advantage and has homecourt advantage. What exactly is the problem?
Readers reminded of Stoops’ bowl slump
The email brigade this week centers on my column about Bob Stoops’ bowl malaise. Let’s start with a great email.
David wrote, “I hated basic training in the Army back in 1972. Only a few years later and to this day, I can’t remember why. All I remember is the guys and the fun parts. In 1972, I didn’t think there were any fun parts. Odd how your mind works. Until I read your article, I had forgotten that we lost to WV. I didn’t even remember we played them. It is coming back to me though and I am feeling a little sick. Enough of that though. It looked to me that Bob was a little defensive in the video. Not a little….a lot. Was that your take? On the whole, I’ll bet most fans think Bob has done a GREAT job. It might not be a bad idea to tell him that once in a while. I don’t know about you, but I have worked for bosses that would never give you a compliment no matter what you did. For those bosses, I found my reward through my own knowledge of when I had done a good job. But, I guarantee, those jobs were a lot less enjoyable and when a more rewarding one came along, I jumped on them.”
Wonderful, wonderful dispatch. All kinds of nuggets in there. Loved the reference to basic training and how the mind works. The mind does do some wild things. Anyway, let me answer a few of those questions. Of course Stoops is a little defensive. He always is, and it’s one of his less-endearing traits. But most people get defensive. And yes, most fans do think Stoops does a great job, but I think he probably hears that plenty.
JC wrote, “I don’t believe for a second Bob isn’t constantly evaluating what he does as a coach. However he says he chooses to focus on the Big 12 and the wins. He probably should remember the wins and focus on the losses and figure out what needs to improve in order to win those games. They will not improve if they only think of the success stories.”
I think what Stoops says and what he does are two different things.
Craig wrote, “If I were Stoops I would also keep pointing out my success while trying to underplay my failures, i.e. BCS bowls. For whatever it’s worth, we are no longer going to travel to OU bowl games UNLESS it is for the national title. OU took the Mizzou game in San Antonio much more seriously than WV. That was obvious with stealing and everything else going on. I have a prediction for Big Game Bob. He better find something else to hang his hat on because I doubt OU will even make the Big 12 game this year. If they do, Mizzou will kick their butts. It is time Bob was held accountable.”
You know, that’s an interesting observation that I think is probably correct. OU DID take the Big 12 title game more seriously than it did the Fiesta Bowl. Now, I think West Virginia is better than Missouri, and maybe a LOT better. But still, the Sooners seemed on a mission in San Antonio and on a vacation in Phoenix.
Ken, an OU fan from Boise, wrote, “Good job with Bob in Stoops Uncut 2. It seems everyone was trying to avoid the 400-pound gorilla in the room until you spoke up. I noticed he started rocking back and forth and tightening his jaws when you brought up the losses in the Fiesta Bowls. It stings him alright. Hopefully his team can overcome some of the stupidity that has wrecked three of the four BCS bowl losses and get a win.”
I don’t see anything stupid. I think OU lost to better teams three times (LSU, USC and West Virginia). And as for Boise State, sometimes you catch lightning upside the head.
Jo, perhaps Stoops’ harshest critic among the crowd that writes me, surprisingly declined to pile on. Much. “Do you think that if OU would start winning its bowl games, the Big 12 would gain more stroke at the end of the year compared to the SEC? Stoops, when talking about his bowl problems, reminds me of guys I was in the service with. Went out with hookers all the time and always came back with the clap, get some penicillin and go right back, instead of curing the problem by staying away from the hookers. Bob doesn’t want to cure the problem, he just wants to protect his friends, same correlation. After some of those bowl performances, he and his coaching staff need something in the rear, alright, and not a needle, but a boot.”
Well, anytime anyone wants to write about the clap, they’ve got my interest. But the correlation doesn’t hold. Those soldiers knew what the problem was. Stoops has no idea. Stoops could easily solve his bowl problem by stop going to big bowls. But that’s no solution.
Not all the emails centered on OU football. Some were on the Women’s College World Series, and not all were complimentary. Of me. Luther wrote, “Your descriptive term in referring to the super athlete, Katie Burkhart, as a male horse was very offensive and inappropriate in describing her abilities. These are fine young lady athletes who deserve to be classified as outstanding participants in the great women’s sport of softball and not to be described in terms you are prone to use in praising the abilities of male football players. We who watched the World Series finalists admired Katie Burkhart’s magnificent talents.”
Maybe so. But mare just doesn’t have the same ring to it.
Big Brown big disappointment
I watched the Belmont Stakes with racehorse owners Saturday. Not on purpose, really, but at a family reunion outside Ada, which is fairly significant horse country. My wife’s uncle raises quarterhorses, and a friend of his, who later in the day had a horse running at Ruidoso Downs in New Mexico, watched with us. Their wives were in the room, and two of my wife’s cousins.
These were serious horse people, and it was a fascinating exercise for me. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have known the level of passion for Big Brown to pull off the Triple Crown. They watched intently and pleaded with Big Brown to turn it on around the backstretch and sat somewhat stunned after the epic defeat. Big Brown had nothing left in the tank and fell all the way to last place. Da’ Tara led wire to wire in a huge upset.
I didn’t really care whether Big Brown won or not. I thought it would be cool to see the Triple Crown jinx end, but at the same time I didn’t want the 30-year jinx to end. I think the drought keeps some racing intrigue alive.
I knew horse people want a Triple Crown winner, for a variety of reasons. But I never knew until Saturday the depth of that desire. The industry had hope for Funny Cide and complete confidence in Smarty Jones, then along comes Big Brown, who seemed like a sure thing. The odds were 1-to-4 that he would win.
But Big Brown didn’t win. And horse people were sorely disappointed.
