Funai Classic
Mike Tirico does such a great job handling golf coverage for ABC to start the season. He’s a pro play-by-play guy, covering the events on the course, a steady presence who offers the kinds of questions that can lead to interesting observations and analysis from whomever’s in the booth with him. For the last two years, Nick Faldo and Paul Azinger have picked up on Tirico’s queries and provided a two-headed color commentary team not before seen (heard, mostly) in golf. Faldo and Azinger bring a zest to the coverage, and particular insight because they’re former major winners. Johnny Miller, also a former major champion, brings sharp critical analysis on NBC, but lacks the color of the aforementioned odd couple. Now, Tirico is doing Monday Night Football. Maybe it’s because I’ve been muting Fox’s coverage of baseball’s playoffs due to their color tandem of Lou Piniella and Steve Lyons (who was fired last week “for making comments on air that the company found inappropriate,” though he should have been canned a long time ago because his ‘Psycho’ shtick was old after 15 minutes back in 1990 and his analysis isn’t exactly what you would call insightful or interesting) that I’m especially sensitive to color commentary. Tirico’s color guys---Joe Theismann and Tony Kornheiser---have me pining for a button on the remote called Everyone But Tirico: Mute. Kornheiser is good on PTI. He and Mike Wilbon make for an entertaining pair as they go through their stories in quick order. Kornheiser in the MNF booth is painful to listen to. In the debacle that was Monday night’s game (debacle, that is, if you’re a Cardinals fan), Charles Barkley tried to make the point that Phoenix was wasting opportunities to put the game away in the first half. At one point Barkley called a Phoenix possession pivotal, that they had to score a touchdown. He mentioned “the jugular.” Kornheiser said “I love you” to Barkley, and proceeded to debunk Sir Charles’s suggestion, with all due respect. Kornheiser was wrong, Barkley was right. The Cardinals could have been up by three, maybe four scores at the half, which would have been much closer to Kornheiser’s pronouncements that it was Phoenix’s game to lose, that nobody in America would have predicted this score at half time! (Kornheiser said that over and over again.) True, the latter, but Barkley, a basketball Hall of Famer, can speak to a sense of a game outside his sport perhaps more than Kornheiser can. This is not to say that someone who hasn’t played professionally can’t weigh in, but one would think that someone who has spent his career covering sports might at least understand Barkley’s concern, rather than stridently oppose it. Kornheiser didn’t stop at half time. When Theismann suggested that repeatedly handing off to Edgerrin James in the second half (the Edge had 36 carries for 5 yards, er 55 yards), instead of taking an aggressive approach, especially considering Matt Leinart was moving the ball effectively with the passing game, especially considering that it was abundantly clear that Urlacher et al patched into the game plan with incredible run-stopping success, Kornheiser saw fit to try to debunk again, this time Theismann. And again, he was wrong. Faldo and Azinger managed to weigh in on matters in their own colorful ways, often silly, often with wit, often animatedly, often insightful and often right on the money. Pretty much the best you can get in color commentary. Why not follow this paradigm for Monday Night Football? Here we had two professional athletes providing their insight, their gut sense of the way things were playing out on the field, both of whom turned out to be right, and a bozo who was more interested in winning a point, and when he lost his point(s), he re-doubled his efforts, yapping more insistently than before. It made me miss the Tirico-Faldo-Azinger team. I bet Tirico does, too. Last week: So close. Daniel Chopra made a clutch eagle putt on No. 16 at the Frys.com Open last Sunday, followed it with another clutch birdie on 17 and missed a birdie try at 18 that would have put him in a playoff. He’s the best putter on Tour this year, and my bet was looking good after the eagle, birdie and an earlier birdie on 13 to rebound from a sloppy bogey on 11. The lesson learned is that he appeared to be much more in control (emotionally, especially) than he has been to this point in a solid season in which he’s spent plenty of time on leader boards. Keep a close eye on Chopra. Jim Furyk winning the head-to-head over Chris DiMarco saved my week, but I needed the outright to have a chance to make up serious ground. I’ve been winning steady for most of the last three months but despite Tiger and Davis Love III ’s outright wins of recent vintage, I haven’t been able to carry over the hole I dug over the many months prior to the last few. Three more official tournaments left in 2006. With Tiger not playing in the next two, there’s still a chance to make some long money. The 1-2 odds on Furyk at one unit made for half a unit, which offset the half unit bet on the head-to-head, which means I was flat for the week, which means my season total remains at -12.5 units. At this week’s Funai Classic at the Walt Disney World Resort, where one hole (no. 6) features a Mickey Mouse-shaped bunker, which reminds me of whale-shaped blueberry pancakes I once ate when I visited Nantucket as a kid, take Vijay Singh in the outright (10-1), 1/6 unit: His putting has improved. He’s had a few weeks off. Last year he played Disney with the same schedule and missed the cut, which still has to be considered an aberration. Year before last he finished T2 at Disney, but that was following three wins in a row (and he won the week after in ’04, too). What can we expect this week? Who can say, but I still wouldn’t bet against him and at 10-1 it’s a bet worth taking. I don’t think we’ve heard the last of Vijay, as evidenced by his win in June. I don’t think he’s content to hang it up, to play for a nice paycheck until he moves into the velvet coffin that is the Champions Tour, after compiling a Hall of Fame career in which he may be the only golfer to wrest world No. 1 from Tiger in his prime. Take Greg Owen (50-1), 1/6 unit: I had him last week in the outright. He was in the mix all week, ended up T16, all four rounds in the 60s. His last round in Vegas started with two bogeys, but he rallied with six birdies from there for a 68. That’s three straight weeks in the top-20. And he’s returning to Florida, where he would have won Bay Hill, also in Orlando, if it weren’t for three putts from less than four feet on No. 17. Take Robert Allenby (40-1), 1/6 unit:This is a long course at more than 7,500 yards but I don’t put too much stock in that when weighing picks, and Allenby’s no slouch in the distance department anyway. It’s overall game that makes him appealing. One of those guys who always hangs around. He doesn’t miss many cuts, and he can score (he’s under 70 on average for the year, ranked 11th in the category). He’s 49th on the money list, not too far from 30 and a spot at East Lake. In the head-to-head, take Owen to finish ahead of Justin Rose (10-11), 1 unit : I’m losing confidence in Rose’s ability to close out a tournament. He’s been playing very well for months, but I think we might be witnessing DiMarco west with this Englishman.
Other Sport Betting Articles
The World Cup And The Forecast Ritual Brazil seems to be the World Cup favorite, but will they meet the expectations?The ritual of speculating about the possible winner belongs to the introduction of every World Cup. Such a ritual fulfills more than one function. It is a way of warming up for the supporters. They enter the game, even before the first match is played. Speculat ...Soccer Definitely has it's Kicks Soccer is one of the most interesting and popular sport played by people all over the world. There are hundred millions of soccer fans all around the world. Soccer is the most popular game in Soviet Union. It is also called soccer. The term soccer first appeared in the 1880s as a slang abbreviation of Association soccer, often credited to Charle ...World Cup Goalkeepers - Dida This World Cup, "Dida", 33-years-old, will be out to prove that Brazil can also produce great goalkeepers, besides fantastic attacking players. Having earned a regular spot in the national team following great performances with Italian giants, AC Milan, Dida has since established himself as one of the best goalkeepers in the world.A subst ...You Can Find an Online Poker Card Game Anytime You Want There are few things as challenging as poker. It used to be that people would gather on a weekend evening and sit around and play poker until the early hours of the morning. This was when they had their poker time and they took full advantage of it. However, times have changed and with the rise of the Internet so has poker. Now, porker can b ...Baseball Gloves A baseball glove is a glove made of leather that baseball players wear to help them catch the ball while out on the field. During the late 1800s, players began using the gloves while playing baseball. At first glove usage was not accepted by some players. They slowly gained popularity as more and more players began using gloves.By mid ...Soccer in Scotland Scotland has throughout its history been playing Soccer. Historically Scottish soccer players weren’t limited to 11 players per team, whole villages of Scottish soccer devotees used to challenge other villages to a game. The rules of soccer at that point weren’t very uniform and there was little if any provisions against violence, beca ...Soccer - Hair Matters Hair style is such an important part of life for a lot of people around the world that even World Soccer Cup stars are rated these days according to the way their cut, curl, color and part their hair.Beckham’s hair styling for example is apparently very popular with the soccer fans in India. There is much talk about Beckham's hairdo in th ...Online Sports Casinos Online Sports Casinos, popularly known as online sportsbooks, are increasingly becoming popular with gamblers who want to place their bets on different sports. The bets can be placed on Soccer, Baseball, Basketball, Boxing, Motor sports, Golf, Ice hockey, Horse Racing, Rugby, Skiing, Tennis, Snooker, Cricket and other sports. The minimum and the ...League One Betting Review - 2 April 2006 Huddersfield Town stayed firmly in the hunt of a League One automatic-promotion place with a winner against local-rivals Barnsley. Gary Taylor-Fletcher scored the decisive goal 10 minutes into the second-half to keep the 10/11 Terriers on course.Top-of-the-table Southend United were held to a 1-1 draw at struggling Bournemouth who moved f ...A Fan's Checklist Of What To Bring To A NASCAR Race If you’re planning to attend a NASCAR race, then you can probably expect to spend a day at the track. There’s nothing worse than being unprepared for any outing, so consider a small checklist to make the day a fun-filled event. Be sure to wear comfortable shoes because you will be doing a lot of walking. On a normal day, fans ca ...English Rugby - Back on Track ? The 2004/5 season was a bad year for English international rugby. Those heady days of 2003 down under and Jonny Wilkinson’s last minute drop goal seemed a long way away as Wales completed a marvellous year by beating us 11-9 in the final match of the six nations.It started well enough, business as usual in a 70-0 walloping of the Canadian ...League One Betting Review - 9 April 2006 Southend came from a goal behind to stretch their lead at the top of League One to eight points with a 2-1 win over struggling Blackpool. Gareth Williams gave the Tangerines the lead after 32 minutes but Fredy Eastwood equalised on the hour. Luke Guttridge struck the winner for the 8/15 Shrimpers four minutes from the end.Brentford remain ...Soccer Betting Soccer (also called Futbol or European Football) betting is very popular in many parts of the world. In fact, the only place that it’s not is the United States. The game of soccer can be claimed as the world’s true sport, but the United States does not enjoy soccer anywhere near as much as other parts of the globe. As with any other game, it ...League One Season Preview 2006/07 - Crewe Alexandra Crewe AlexandraOdds: 20/1Last Five Seasons 2005/06 - 22 (Championship, Relegated), 2004/05 - 21 (Championship), 2003/04 - 18 (Championship), 2002/03 - 2 (League One, Promoted), 2001/02 - 22 (Championship, Relegated).2005/06 Cup Progress FA Cup Third Round vs Preston North End (a) - lost 2-1. Carling Cup First Rou ...The NHL - The Who Cares League The NHL is suffering from low ratings. While they pay untalented underachieving players millions of dollars, no one is watching.The only networks covering the sport are OLN and NBC (On Saturdays). The NHL is a fifth tier sport that trailed NBC’s poker series for the week ending 05/07/06 according to Zap2it (http://tv.zap2it.com/tveditor ...Boxing Combinations for Cardio Kickboxing One of the differences between a trained martial artist and a streetfighter is the time spent practicing sequences or combinations of moves. The idea being to not just hit, but to reflexively hit in sequences of three or four moves. It is far more effective to barrage an opponent with a rapid sequence of blows than to just punch them once. Th ...Soccer Betting Odds Soccer is definitely the most popular major sport in the world. Soccer is also known as football soccer in some countries. No matter how you call it, soccer betting attracts millions of fans every year to the stadiums, furthermore and is played and watched in almost every country.The FIFA world cup Germany 2006 is very cl ...Nascar - History of the Sport NASCAR is actually an acronym for the National Association of Stock Car Auto Racing. The organization was founded in 1948 by Ed Otto and William France. The two men recognized the fact that people enjoyed watching car races, and that there needed to be some standardization behind the racing industry in order to attract more racers and to make th ...Chasing Records: Is Bonds Baseball's Greatest Player Despite his problems with the doping controversy, Barry Bonds is undoubtedly one of baseball’s greatest players.As baseball’s only seven-time MVP, Bonds is more than assured of a place in baseball history. But will he someday be known as the sport’s greatest player, or will his memory be forever stained with doubts about his drug use? ...Just Play Beach Soccer One friend of mine asked me recently why all men are crazy about playing football or what is known in United States as soccer. I am sick of explaining things that you can only understand based on personal experience. But although I managed to provide her with a luminous answer, she came back stating yet another question. "Is it different to play ...Football Camp for Kids Since the devastation of Katrina, residents in New Orleans have been trying to put their lives back together. NFL stars Peyton Manning and his brighter Eli have given time, money, and support to their city. They will be donating more time at their family’s summer football camp started by their father eleven years ago to help kids improve their s ...League Two Season Preview 2006/07 - Mansfield Town Mansfield TownOdds: 33/1Last Five Seasons 2005/06 - 16 (League Two), 2004/05 - 13 (League Two), 2003/04 - 5 (League Two), 2002/03 - 23 (League One, Relegated), 2001/02 - 3 (League Two, Promoted).2005/06 Cup Progress FA Cup Third Round vs Newcastle United (a) - lost 1-0. Carling Cup Third Round vs Millwall (h) - l ...Watch Live Soccer Games With A Single Click! Nowadays, due to the improvements of technology and the development of the Internet everyone can watch live football from a comfortable seat at home, and all this without paying expensive cable or satellite fees.Now you can watch premiership games, champions league soccer, cup matches live, al broadcasted on the Internet, sometimes free a ...Championship Betting Review - 2 April 2006 Reading sealed the Championship title in emphatic fashion by crushing Derby County with five second-half goals. Royals backers on at 8/15 may have felt nervous until James Harper broke the deadlock after 59 minutes. Kevin Doyle on 65, John Oster on 70 and two from Shane Long after 74 and 83 minutes saw Steve Coppell’s side promoted to the Premie ...
|
