Tiger
Woods won his fourth consecutive Major title by winning The Masters with a two stroke advantage on Sunday,
edging out David Duvall. In doing so, he is now the only person ever to hold every Major title (U.S. Open,
British Open, PGA Championship, and The Masters) at the same time. Oh, he also became the youngest man
ever to win his second Masters championship.
BOTTOM OF THE WEEK
PLAY IT AGAIN, MICHAEL
Michael Jordan is about to eclipse even Charles Barkley for false retirements. And that's impressive. All reports are pointing to MJ's return to the NBA as a player, this time, for the Washington Wizards - including a statement by Wizards majority owner Abe Pollin saying, "the odds are that he's going to come back." Call us crazy but, to us, a retirement should mean a retirement, not "until I feel like playing again."
HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WEEK
HOW DO PRO ATHLETES TREAT THEIR STRAIGHT FANS?
There's not a whole lot of information as to what pro athletes think of their fans that might be gay. We've loved New Orleans Saints running back Ricky Williams ever since he said he appreciated his fans ``straight or gay.'' The LA Dodgers and San Francisco Giants, among other, have had nights were gay groups were welcomed and announced to the crowd. At the other extreme have been Allen Iverson and Jason Williams in the NBA, using the ``faggot'' word to taunt fans.
We've come across two examples from the baseball world, courtesy of Outsports readers. One shows we've made some progress, the other shows we also have a ways to go.
Adam relayed the following anecdote: ``Years ago, the Padres offered cap night and had players at various gates to hand out the caps as fans entered. My partner and I followed a family with young girls through the gate where Bard Ausmus was handing out caps. He hugged the little girls as he handed them the caps and so we asked if we could also have hugs. Laughing, he did it. The guy in back of us told him we were gay; Ausmus replied "yeah, they're fans too." It's only too bad we didn't bring the camera that day, but obviously he didn't have a problem with gay fans.''
Readers debated whether Ausmus was sincere or felt pressured into giving the hug. We think Joe's reply answered that: ``Brad Ausmus is, if you're not familiar, a friend of openly gay Billy Bean. Here's a quote by Brad from the ABC News 20/20 segment on Bean: `If Billy Bean is happy being gay then I’m happy for him. I don’t pretend to understand homosexuality. I don’t pretend to understand why a man loves a man. It doesn’t make sense to me, but I don’t understand quantum physics either.' So Adam, I think it's safe to say you'd have still gotten that hug.''
So, while Brad Ausmus is on the top of our favorite's list, some Seattle Mariners are not, as evidenced by this story from the San Francisco Chronicle:
"Kenneth Hooper and his boyfriend, Robert Mains, had a romantic dinner at Bix on Monday night because Hooper was going off on a business trip the next morning. They held hands; every once in awhile they kissed.
"Nearby, a table of nine or so Seattle Mariners was apparently watching. When Mains went to the men's room, he was met by two of the ballplayers, who told him his behavior was 'sick.'
"'Why don't you get a room?' they asked.
"Ironically, Hooper and Mains had noticed the ballplayers, not recognized them and thought they were gay. 'They all had buzz cuts,' said Hooper. 'They looked very Castro.'
"Bix owner Doug Biederbeck says there was a party of Mariners at the restaurant, but he knew nothing of the incident. 'Obviously we wouldn't tolerate something like this if we knew it was going on. We would have kicked them out.'"
We guess the moral of the story is if you're in Seattle and you see guys who would look at home in a leather bar they're likely to be Mariners.
BASKETBALL
Maybe it's just our short-term memory. But we can't remember so many unqualified underclassmen coming out
of college early for the NBA Draft.
This week, Arizona and Michigan State lost five underclassmen combined: Arizona's Jason Gardner,
Richard Jefferson and Michael Wright; Michigan State's Zach Randolph and Jason Richardson. Villanova's
Michael Bradley, Temple's Kevin Lyde, Pepperdine's Brandon Armstrong, and North Carolina State's Damien
Wilkins have all joined the Final Four stars in the NBA Draft. Notre Dame's Troy Murphy has also started
to make rumblings as to the same thing. Plus, high school star Eddie Curry decided to forgo DePaul University and head straight for the NBA Draft.
So much for the NBA's "Stay In School" message.
NFL Troy Aikman announced his retirement from pro football on Monday and we applaud the decision. Aikman, who has suffered numerous concussions the past few years, got out while he still had his health. He quarterbacked the Dallas Cowboys to three Super Bowl titles and it would have been weird to see him don a different uniform.