Today, let’s think inside the boxes. Here goes:
There’s nothing more important to know, remember, and then always know and always remember: No one is bigger than the game, any game. As big and bizarre as the Tiger Woods tale had turned, nothing was more incredible or sensational than the golf, Thursday through yesterday evening, played at the Masters.
Nevertheless, TV folks continue to gift Tiger Woods with an endless supply of the last thing he needs: bad excuses.
When he bounced one over a green late in Saturday’s round, CBS’s Nick Faldo, normally prized for his candor, applied the thin alibi that this was the result of Woods having “not played competitive golf in nearly five months.”
Hold on, Sir Nick. This was late, Round 3, and Woods not only seemed sharp for nearly 54 holes, at the start of each season he never played many events before the Masters — and he won four of ’em. He took off 4½ months, not 4½ years.
Yesterday, with Woods starting poorly, Faldo spoke of him suffering “from all he has been through.” Oh, please.
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Birds, bees, flora, fauna: Super CBS get, yesterday, of something — a stamen from a tree or flower? — that, as Faldo said, “fell from the sky!” directly in Phil Mickelson‘s lie as he putted. Whatever it was, it threw off line Mickelson’s short birdie putt on No. 2.
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How does CBS train those Augusta National birds to chirp right into the microphones?
Did you notice? The woods alongside the fairways (at the corner of Special and Silly) had to be called the “forest.”
Interesting, how ESPN’s “Bottom Line” all-the-time promo/info crawls can be withheld when business calls. During its Masters telecasts, ESPN showed full-screen golf.
“If it were up to ESPN,” a TV exec said by phone, “we’d watch the Masters and Mel Kiper, Jr.’s NFL draft picks at the same time.”
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On “Jim Nantz Remembers” before yesterday’s Masters, Tom Watson, interviewed before this Masters, said Augusta is too long for him; at 60, he can’t even make the cut. Minutes later, with the telecast of the final round begun, Watson was seen making birdie to go to two-under.
Yesterday, after Adam Scott‘s approach at seven seemed to stop far from the hole, then slowly, slowly roll down the hill and in, Faldo said it all took so long Scott should’ve been penalized “for slow play.”
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As the NCAA prepares to bloat its basketball tournament to 96 teams (and end or alter its CBS deal), remember that this wouldn’t be possible unless the NCAA were another big-time, money-first venture that regards the public as dimwits and yahoos who will buy/watch/settle for anything.Colleges rarely have to share the shame of departed student-athletes who eventually — often sooner than later — prove that their time in college had no lasting good purpose. That’s mostly the media’s fault. So, let’s examine some recent happenstances:
Browns’ DT Shaun Rogers was arrested for trying to bring a loaded gun on an airplane. This bright light was recruited to and then attended the University of Texas. Take a bow, U of Texas!
Derrick Coleman, first NBA draft pick in 1990, now $4.7 million in debt, last week filed for bankruptcy. His remaining listed assets include a Bentley and five fur coats. His life skills were learned at Syracuse University, ladies and gentlemen!
Ex-NBA star Isaiah (J. R.) Rider, the fifth pick in 1993, kept his adult arrest streak going when he was booked for assaulting his girlfriend. Rider, though, was exactly what UNLV had in mind when it thought student-athlete. Say it with me, UNLV!
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HBO’s Real Sports, tomorrow at 10 p.m., is a theme show examining the recent deaths (accident? murder? suicide?) of boxing champs Arturo Gatti, Alexis Arguello and Vernon Forrest.
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The good, giving folks known as the Sports Angels, Thursday, 6-9 p.m. at the Pig ‘n Whistle (202 West 36th St.) salute the good deeds of Bobby Hoffman of CYO/Manhattan Youth Baseball. For details: 212-966-9000.
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I hope you can appreciate the planning, hard work and money applied to the Knicks and the Rangers missing the playoffs, again.