Van Jones wants athletes to go political. Has Van lost his mind? Doesn’t he know the Colin Kaepernick story and how that turned out for Colin, the NFL, and lots of that league’s fans? And now he wants more politicizing from sports stars?

When people watch sports, they are seeking a fantasy, an escape, a break from life’s woes and worries. To have their hometown or favorite a-list athletes expound on Republicans, Democrats, Independents, or Tree Huggers isn’t as becoming as watching their faves ply their sporting trade to their utmost.

Van, for those who sensibly avoid TV America’s political shows with their non-titillating talking heads, and who properly don’t have a clue as to who he is - is a hardcore lefty. He’s a regular on CNN, the fake or factual news station – you decide...and he went off the channel of rational thought and went straight to backlash, when he blamed The Donald’s big victory, Trump’s presidential win, on something he called “Whitelash.”

Yet almost unbelievably, in his recommendation that the revered sports genre mix more with the rancid world of politics, he comes across as a balanced guy. He’s NOT hoping athletes spew a Democratic Party screed to the exclusion of all other dogmas: he’s wishing sports stars, if they lean to the middle or the moderate-to-hard right, share their beliefs and desires too. He, however, then teeters off balance declaring that athletes should risk their paycheck for political punditry.  

So the fan of sports will be besieged by political stances from A to Z. Gee. Won’t that be the be all and end all? 

Thing is, this having celebrated folks and figures in a particular industry moonlight as political pundits has bored and bothered the daylights out of the average Joe and Jane. Hollywood is reviled - and lampooned - and ridiculed (except for when Jon Voight and Angelina Jolie appear to be on the dark side of the moon vis-a-vis the other, when it comes to American politics) because so many of its inhabitants spew off on politics instead of sticking to the script.  Just because someone can sing, dance, act, or read from a teleprompter shouldn’t give them a platform to raise political issues. They should be like the everyday normal person who, when trying to convince family or friends of their stances on political subjects, is at least behaving acceptably. Friends and family are fair game for persuasion because they know the person explaining their views, they know the strengths and weaknesses, and they aren’t blinded by a biased fawning mass-media publicity campaign.

The well-known should go no further than that of John Q public. They shouldn’t rely on mainstream media exposure. Access to the latter, for any famous person, should not be used to put out fatuous or farsighted political viewpoints...

Hollywood has been in the political recipe for some time now, and Mr. Jones wants sports superstars to add to this political pot stew? Eew. Van opined on the Rich Eisen show that stars of sport should use their platforms of popularity to propound in matters of politics. But Van has gotta know that major sports in America are already waist deep in problems with, for example, MLB featuring games far too long, the NHL with only the Nashville Predators and the Toronto Maple Leafs blowing people’s minds a bit, with the aforementioned NFL and Kaepernick mired in grievance, with the NBA coming off from a boring post-season playoff run  - and now he wants to further sink these sports with politics?

Mr. Jones pointedly (and sadly) believes that speaking out on political matters would “make the world better.” He made mention of Muhammad Ali. But Ali was a special case. He was at the top of boxing, with a 29-0 record when he decided to risk his career because he didn’t want to fight the Viet Cong. Ali was articulate and admirable, and wise - and a wonder - in the ring. Contrast Ali with Kaepernick. Colin, though he threw for 300 + yards in Super Bowl XLVII, in a losing role, is, no Ali.

And no one in the present, or on the horizon, in Van's home of the United States, can be Jesse Owens either. Owens was, despite facing a systemic national racial color barrier at home, great in the high jump, broad jump, 100 yard, and 220. Then he went abroad and beat the pants off the best that Hitler’s Nazi Germany Aryan Race competitors had to offer. He won gold in the (meter) 100, 200, 4 x 100 and in the long jump. No sports star in the USA has such a perfect storm of all odds being against him or her to prove political points of race, ethnicity, religion, or gender.

Hey, Van, look at the new maelstrom of gender politics affecting sport. Look at sports, women’s sports, where women used to compete against women, before men declared they were women and mopped up against real women. We now have the ridiculous rigmarole of women competing against men in events for women. The results for transgendered man-to-woman individuals, where the man hasn’t undergone a sex change surgery or a hormonal transplant (step off that podium, Andraya Yearwood)  - - - has been catastrophic for the gals, and threatens to make a mockery of the idea that sports should be fair at the outset recognizing and accounting for differences between men and women when it comes to testosterone, stamina, muscle mass, and power.
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Van converses well and is a popular go-to guy for CNN, and perhaps he means well with his postulation on sports stars engaging followers to their political positions – but you and I, please, let's not go down his road and pave the way through embracing athletes who articulate via mass media, sensible or stupid political viewpoints.  Let's instead embrace athletes for being what they've been for the most part: athletes.

​Do 60 to 70% of pro athletes go broke? Charles Barkley says so. He also thinks family and friends are the biggest financial drains on sports stars going.

And that money can vanish faster than a politician’s iron-clad pledge, whether it is through athletes giving gifts, cash outlays, or through athletes going into the seemingly, apparently, "less risky" ventures of co-signing or guaranteeing a loan without fully recognizing the liabilities and risks involved.
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There are other reasons for sports stars sinking to nothing while swinging at everything when it comes to dollars: bad money managers; awful agents; terrible luck; rancid macro-economic conditions; pitiful timing; plentiful floozies; gambling on a John Daly or even a Charles Barkley level; lousy decision making...leading some into businesses like bars or restaurants - where the Adonis thinks their name and shape alone will make the venture profitable; bad ideas conjured at 4 in the morning fueled by intoxicants; intoxicants, and their abuse, leading to legal and financial penalties; rehab costs - thanks to those intoxicants; divorce; child support – with the latter ably demonstrated by Big Poppas like Evander Holyfield who, it is believed, helps try to fund 11 kids via 8 women; spending the same kind of bucks after the career is over to the same tune when the career was on; having supposedly hellish parents of the Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario variety...

Or bath tubs. Mike Tyson reportedly spent 2 million on a pure gold tub for wife number 1 and reported his state of bankruptcy in 2003.

Back to Barkley. Besides being pretty much a tub himself, Charles is great copy. He will say anything on almost anything. He’s blunt. He offends not only those with thick skins like us normal souls, he offends airy-fairy-snow-flake groups - most recently exhibited by folks who were pissed that the Pope said communion wafers aren’t, or may not be, gluten-free - - - so when Barkley blathered that some blacks were unintelligent because they favored lingo of the street over language of the educated, some folks went bat crazy. Point being: for barbs such as that...people either like him or loathe him.

But he does have a point when he avers that sports stars don’t owe family or friends anything - porous and/or poor profit-plans notwithstanding? (Ok, maybe these A-One participants owe parents a tithe for the efforts, time, and monies they put forth in getting the kid to practices, games, and tournaments - and buying equipment - and purchasing extra off-season training for the discipline(s) of their choice – and sacrificing their own wants and wishes in the doings - - - and perhaps the friends and family who supported the star - - - before the star became a star - - - deserve financial rewards - but that’s about it.)

Obviously an athlete, with a few million or more, would be cold hearted and emotionally dead to ignore seriously serious and sincerely sincere plights of poverty and problems – but clearly helping those less fortunate can make everyone, even star athletes - eventually, into beggars. Charles, in his inimitable manner and means, says he had to spend a lot of money getting rid of hanger-ons - and that the dough was well spent in the doing.

Perhaps Antoine Walker, who earned over 100 million in his career, and lost it all, now shares Charles’s sentiments. And Walker can partially blame himself and the approximately 30 family-friends for his bankrupt state. And perhaps now, and in the future, we can analyze why boxing, which wielded warriors like Tyson and Holyfield, is particularly prone to its A-listers going bereft, bust, and broke.

Of course, as one wise old owl told me, and probably as smart an old fogey told you...

just because those in your life, who count themselves as friends or family, doesn’t mean they can’t be total jerks.

So, if you want to clean up your life and muck out your stall from the clutter and crap which is your half-assed friends and full-bore family boobs...by all means lend them a few hun or a couple of thou. For sure, weasels that they are, they’ll amscray out of your life PDQ, and though you’ll be down some dollars, you’ll be up in harmony and happiness.

As for whether Charles is correct asserting that 60 to 70% of pro athletes go broke, who knows? Whether Barkley is bang on, or a bit off, it is astounding that so many high profile professional athletes have gone belly up, given the huge amounts of monies they squired up to squander later. Charles Barkley has certainly put the spotlight on the fact that sports stars ARE HUMAN - and can mess up just like the rest of us. They are not infallible. They do stupid things. They should not be role models. They should be treated and analyzed, as the individual they are, with their whole gamut of pluses and minuses factored in.
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And as for you and me? Let’s not go ostentatiously overboard like so many a sport hero has done.

Ok? That way Charles Barley, and his bark, won’t have a handy reason to bite his bankroll opinions of

US.

​Rahsaan Yearwood needs his head read. He’s the father of a once-son who expresses himself as a daughter. The son’s name is now Andraya. He’s got a bit of a mustache, is well built, admits he often wins in track while identifying as a male, and now thinks he’s a female. So he/she is now the best girl track star at Cromwell High School. It’s in Connecticut and its second place finisher in the 100, Kate Hall, who won this event last year, has learned 2 things in her short tenure on earth. 1) Boys can race as girls without undergoing hormonal transplants and/or surgeries and 2) Speak softly to mask your true feelings at such a crazy thing being allowed to happen: “It’s frustrating, but that’s just the way it is now.”

Back to dad. He says (paraphrasing) we are born into a body, we are born into a situation...but we grow into a person we’re going to be (hardly profound thoughts for a math teacher) and when people ask me why is your daughter running with the girls – I answer - because she’s my daughter. As for fairness? He says he doesn’t think of it. How dandy for dad.

Brian Calhoun, the track coach at Cromwell, plays small ball, gushing: “I have a spectacular female athlete, there’s nothing more to say.” Really? Don’t you have a guy who identifies as a girl – but is a guy in physique, running with the girls? He then contradicts himself and goes on to say more. Basically he doesn’t want anyone to take issue with his stance that this situation is perfectly just. He doesn’t want this situation approached in any other way – for that could create an issue or a conversation...and he avers there really is no issue, nor conversation to be had – other than getting Andraya to improve her running times and finishes.

So he wants to preclude large-picture eyes-wide-open contrary views as he myopically and proudly proclaims “we have a great athlete...”

Where does mom, Ngozi Nnaji, fit into all of this? Well, she wants to lash out at comments she doesn’t like...and she says the love she has for her child is unconditional. The latter seems noble but overlooks the travesty of having a girl in a boy’s biological body winning races against girls with girl bodies. It’s not fair. Anybody with half a brain can see that. Ngozi adds: there’s no judgment. Too bad for mom, for what Andraya is foisting is a farce.

Yes, mom casting no judgment is crazy. Tolerance for the intolerable is not tolerance, it is submission, surrender. Instead of parenting she’s a passenger, a passerby, a patron, a potted palm, not willing to instill values of what is right or wrong but is, instead, willing to let the chips fall where they may and is willing to let the train crash without doing anything to stop it. “She can be whoever she wants to be...” (One wonders if mom would accept Andraya if he/she goes all genderfluidy and decides she’s a guy again?)

For Kate Hall, who may have aspired to a college or university scholarship – if she is now overlooked – would this not be a travesty? And how does she feel Cromwell’s motto:
“Placing Students First”
corresponds with her situation? She’s not first. She was beaten by Andraya, a transgender athlete – where transgender means in his/her case...what? If one feels like a square peg trying to fit in a round hole, in matters of sexual orientation and gender identity – but hasn’t yet taken concrete steps to change one’s sex to the gender they identify with, isn’t that just so much posing?

Andraya says she’s used to winning. So victories started when she was a he. So why not really go for the gusto? Announce you’re a girl – and race against boys? Show the world that girls (albeit still in boys’ bodies) can beat boys in the sprints. Wouldn’t that be something? Wouldn’t that be a lot more impressive and courageous than running against girls with a boy’s physical attributes?

In fairness, Andraya, like many young women, is soft spoken, wear her hair long, and is inclusive – hoping her story inspires others. But boy oh boy, her shoulders are ripped – and will remain that way until she begins hormonal treatments.

Apparently a revelation occurred back in grade 1 or grade 2 (she’s not sure which) when the then tyke wore a Cinderella dress on Halloween – to Andraya that was the start of her realizing that she might be entombed in the wrong gender. But could it not have been just another example of a boy being a boy and doing a silly thing to attract attention, shock friends and freak out the folks? Another sign that something was amiss for Andraya was when, in grade 5, she wore pink and purple colored furry boots to school.

Dad, mom, and the track coach are all conveniently overlooking the elephant in the room. Andraya has a huge advantage in track events like the 100 and 200 because she’s got a boy’s musculature and power with a testosterone kick. As a freshman, (“freshman” will definitely have to be carted out to the woodshed and horsewhipped into a more pc word), Andraya may be a good girl, but she isn’t, or wasn’t, the best girl. In the Connecticut outdoor All-State Championship she came 3rd in a time of 12.41 seconds in the 100 meter dash. (Shanea Calhoun has the best State time of 11.82 set back in 2004.)

So dad and mom exude insouciance about the guy who thinks he’s a gal while the track coach exudes ebullience. Many of us exude penitence, realizing our vexations about this story have us, seemingly, sadly, and astoundingly, hopelessly wrong - based on the new "rules" and "mores" of what’s allowed in gender definitions this day and age.
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Definitely we who disagree, need our heads read.

​Will Chris Froome three-peat this 2017 Tour de France? And is Le Tour still one of the most essential sporting events worldwide, or has it slipped - because of sleazy drugs and slimy cheating - to a b-list happening?

Anyway, down the road, the future of supreme bike road racing may belong to another Britisher, Adam Yates. The guy won the white jersey – defined as the best placed finisher under the age of 26 - in the 2016 TDF. He placed 4th when all was said and done.

But the future is now, and if the 2016 Tour de France was any indication - with Froome front and centre in debate and in anticipation of success - or failure – in this 2017 edition, at least 100 channels will air it to at least 190 countries to be watched by 3 BILLION.

(By the way, in stage 1 of this 2017 Tour, Chris came 6th, and he has happily announced he's signed on for 3 more years with Team Sky.) 

Despite Chris's latest results and news, undoubtedly these TDF numbers would be higher but the stench of Lance Armstrong’s chicanery looms over every facet of the bicycling endurance race and Froome’s Team Sky and British Cycling being investigated by UK Anti-Doping sure hasn’t helped...

Nevertheless, between 10 to 12 million spectators, if not scaring the daylights out of the riders by jumping onto the route waving their arms wildly, will, for sure, loom over the route and press against the edges.

But is La Grande Boucle as edgy, unpredictable, and pressure packed as riders and fans tout? Sure crashes erupt helter skelter, but a glance at previous winners shows, often, repeat, consecutive wins. If it was as iffy and chancy as proponents aver and was truly competitive, would not more individuals have won - with individual cycling dynasties a rarity rather than commonplace?
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Of course many will retort that cream always rises to the top and that past greats like Indurain, Hinault, Merckx, LeMond, and Froome rose to their natural, expected, excellent level, predictability be damned.

For sure, there’s pressure to piss. Sitting and straining for hours per day, with only 2 days rest over the 21 stages, means riders have to “go” and like “now.” Some pull over en masse to do the deed; others fiddle with their shorts to do it whilst upon the bike! Amazing, that.

Even as amazing is that it is illegal to urinate in a stream or river. Stick to the tree and try to let the riders behind you know that, so they don’t shamelessly pass you by.

Most amazing still, Mark Cavendish admits to pissing himself if the weather is chilly.

For sure, while youngsters adulate these cycling cyborgs, they should know life as a professional bicycle road racer isn’t all peaches and cream. For starters, the starting pay of £35,000 or $45,150 USD - isn’t that great. And life on the road, racing and travelling to races, sounds somewhat monotonous and definitely irksome. You’re not with loving family and best friends, you’re with teammates - some likeable, some loathsome.

But The Tour de France isn’t all agony. Sure this year’s edition promises a climb as steep as sin to La Planche des Belles Filles, but when not huffing and puffing upwards, the peloton will find its members either daydreaming or casually chatting to fellow rivals, talking about Paris, or talking about future events on their racing calendars.

Alas, however, for 3 weeks the casual fan tuning in will, if the TV is mute, be hard pressed to recognize a particular rider, any rider, save for their faves in winning jerseys. Basically, helmets have removed any chance of easy facial recognition. Indeed, apart from stage-winning jersey wearers, the only standout from the crowd might be Alex Howes – because he wears funky sunglasses.

Howes et al will begin the Great Loop in Düsseldorf, Germany, with a did-you-see-that-blur–whizz-by 14 kilometer individual time trial.

But let’s put the brakes, right now, on one trend, shall we? We know the cyclists in the 2017 Tour de France, to a man, will be in awesome shape. But to the casual ballsy beau mansplaying at home, don’t imitate the professionals and don Lycra when you get off the couch to pedal and peddle your wears and wares about town. You’re chubby in all the wrong places and you’re contributing to blight and visual pollution. The Lycra look, for you, is not good. Scrap the spandex and stop MAMIL’s (Middle-Aged Men in Lycra.)

Where were we?

Yes, Froome, the favorite, going for his 4th win in 5 years. This Nairobi born road racer certainly thrives in the suffering of training and racing. He might even admit, to himself at least, that he enjoys it. After all, roads in Kenya, whilst adequate for marathoners, were hardly conducive to a kid dreaming of elite cycling. Conditions there were, to be generous, Spartan – But Chris had no complaints...

To copy the feel of alpine climbing where such terrain didn’t exist Chris would pull his breaks to create the necessary struggle and resistance...He admits in his early days (around 2006 by this point) his technique was terrible “crash Froome” - but he had “an engine” - an engine later stricken with Bilharzia, a parasitic disease harmful to red blood cells – the means to transport oxygen.

He also admits his first TDF back in 2008 was a huge learning experience with the speed seemingly 10 kilometers per hour faster than any race he had been in previously. He was 1 of 4 riders for his 9-man team, to finish. In the 2012 Tour de France he had to take a back seat to teammate Bradley Wiggins, causing some discomfort for himself, Wiggins, and the team. In the 2014 race he pranged up his left knee, left wrist...right thigh, leaving the contest prematurely. He had to fight suspicions of doping...

And just this year, in May, he was deliberately knocked off his bike in a hit and run: the bike was mashed, but Chris was unhurt. (The road rage driver remains at large.)

But, and this is a big but, until finishing 4th in June’s Critérium du Dauphiné, he hadn’t raced competitively since April, and his running of his own schedule has undoubtedly caused  Team Sky some consternation.
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Thus, come this July, the world will watch and wonder again if Chris will be the best bet overall in climbing, descending, time-trialing, and cross wind cycling – blessed with a, oh my, peak oxygen uptake twice that of normal humans - enabling him to hit the breathtaking heights of yet another Tour de France win.
 

Could Justin Smoak be in MLB’s All-Star game? It would be shocking, but not as shocking as his sudden outburst to home run-hitting greatness. He’s got a good glove too, wielding a fielding percentage at .998.

So how did this South Carolinian, who had never hit more than 20 homers in any season in his 10-year minors-and-major league career, bash 20 with this season not at the halfway point? And how long should the Toronto Blue Jays, who spent the first two months absolutely floundering, thank their lucky stars that Smoak has consistently smoked ‘em out of the park since the season opened? Currently he sits tied for second in the long ball behind the Yankees’ Aaron Judge.

Smoak may be a late bloomer, but he was an early, first pick of the Texas Rangers in the 2008 draft (11th overall) and got himself a 3.5 million signing bonus after a stellar college career with the South Carolina Gamecocks.

Looking at his stats, this June 22nd, as compared to other first basemen, he shouldn’t make the team as popularity invariably determines those selected. And his 20 homers, good for 3rd place among 1st basemen, have been equaled by 2 others. But a manager could add him to the All-Star roster. However, while he’s batting the heck out of the ball, he’s 9th in RBI’s at 47 – though he has had fewer at bats than 13 others...

But as regards all positions on the Blue Jays the 30 year-old heads and tails above every teammate in homers and RBI’s. Second best Kendry Morales is 5 homers behind and 5 ribbies back. As important, Smoak is a genuine switch hitter with near equal abilities from both sides of the plate. (He’s even hit homers from either side in the same game for the Jays appropriately back on Canada Day July 1, 2015 - against Boston.)

Get this, after Toronto Blue Jay fans invade Seattle to watch their beloved team – to the disgust and disappointment of Mariners’ management – who’ve responded by despicably hiking up ticket prices exorbitantly when the Jays come to play – the latter took Smoak on waivers from the Mariners. Way to go Seattle: you did save a measly $150,000 in not buying out his contract. In taking a chance on Smoak, the Blue Jays look prescient, almost as much as they did when they got Bautista from the Pirates for now forgotten and long gone, catcher Robinzon Diaz, in one of the most lopsided trades in recent history.

Justin’s average has soared from 2016. That year he hit .217; this year, try .303 after 70 games.
Smoak’s hot. If he keeps his heroics up, he could hit 100 runs batted with 42 homers at the end of the day. Moreover he’s cut down on the wasted-at-bat strikeouts. Instead of whiffing every 3rd time at bat, he’s hitting air every 5th time. It’s a something.

And for us folks that love the esoteric statistics baseball is infamous and famous for, get a gander at how Smoak’s 2017 numbers have improved markedly from his 2016 and 2015 ones in eye-glazing mind numbing categories such as, sitting down for this – here goes: WAR; BABIP; xBA; BB%; BB/K; wOBA on BIP; HR/FB%; xwOBA on BIP; wOBA; xwOBA – with anything containing an x needing us pointy heads to know the ball’s velocity after being smacked with its launch angle... And get this - his wRC + is tops among first basemen! How is this computed?  Simply take (wRAA/PA + LgR/PA) + (LgR/PA – (Park Factor x LgR/PA)) over (AL or NL wRC/PA EXCLUDING PITCHERS and times the whole mathematical mélange by 100.

Got that? Me neither. Anyway, enough of this nerd wrestling with numbers.

Let’s get into the nitty-gritty. Put simply, is Justin a jerk or a gentleman? Is he “good in the clubhouse” or a complete pain in the ass? This is certain: he’s been troubled because, until this breakout season, he carried the burden of awesome potential with ho-hum results. Last season he slumped. If he didn’t aggravate his fellow Blue Jays with bitching, he must have puzzled them, trying to change his swing fundamentals with every downturn. That’s a recipe for a lousy product. So coming into this year, there were hopes, but no guarantees he’d be “the guy” at first. This year, given his consistent and continued successes teammates have been spared any steaming and fuming he’d have after lousy at bats. That’s good for the clubhouse atmosphere...And an unnamed Blue Jays source says the team values his great work ethic and his being a great teammate.

Undoubtedly Smoak’s successes this season are due to ample ability and lotsa attitude, a little bit of luck, with heavy dollops of perseverance and patience thrown in – with the latter especially coming into, no pun intended, play - when he’s down 2 strikes. Last year he’s strike out 60% in that count – this year, just 35%. Credit, too, must be given to hitting coach, Brook Jacoby, who has worked with Justin to cut out the “loose” parts of his swing.  Brook can swagger a bit: under his tutelage in 2015 he saw the heavenly heavy hitting Jays score 891 runs tops in Major League Baseball. The Yankees came second with 127 fewer runs.

Finally Smoak’s gotta be feeling some good old-fashioned trepidation as - if he doesn’t produce and show he’s deserving of the 2016 contract, a 2 year deal valued at 8.25 million – well, Rowdy Tellez a dandy first baseman prospect for the Jays, currently in the minors with the Buffalo Bisons, is itching to take his place...
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So the heat’s on for Smoak to continue to smoke. And that smoke's being noticed. He's currently 4th  among American League 1st basemen on the all-star ballot

​Can Jason Dufner, The Duf, win the 2017 U.S Open at the Erin Hills GC in Wisconsin? This laid back man, who looks kinda like the Tasmanian devil with Teddy bear thrown in, is hot, having won the Memorial a couple of weeks back. Now ranked 27th worldwide, Dufner won't feel as much pressure, having won a Major, the PGA Championship in 2013, as will the United States Golf Association, with that body's reputation on the line to tweak Erin Hills as playable, not lamentable, for the pros. The USGA wants the winner to be around par. Golf Digest ranks this venue as the 2nd best of the more than 500 golf courses in that state, behind Whistling Straits.
 
Anyway, if the putting surfaces are as atrocious as the "fine fescue" grasses were at Chambers Bay, back in 2015, all the competitors will ape Justin’s Dufnering (more on that momentarily) - while the USGA crawls into a hole - no matter how great these Erin Hills bentgrass greens are purported to be.
 
Gotta love Duf Daddy because he doesn't put on airs. He gives us ordinary blokes hope. He proves that dedication to his craft (despite his common-man physique) can make a beginner who struggled on the tour, taking nine long years to break into the top 100 golfers in the world - a winner. He's a poor man's John Daly - and like John he's been rumored with life problems of the wife. Specifically, according to the National Enquirer – who scooped the slimy pol, John Edwards and extra-marital squeeze Rielle Hunter, “love child” tawdriness - the Dufner was said to have been part of a not-at-the-same-time sexual tryst between him, ex-wife Amanda, and some guy named Tiger Woods - with Lindsey Vonn an unplayable lie at the time.
 
Sex games and machinations aside, will Erin Hills, just 45 minutes north-west of Milwaukee, suit Jason’s game and deliberations for this 117th edition of the U.S Open? Mike Davis, USGA Executive Director, given the botched job at Chambers Bay, swings for the fences, declaring that this golf course is “...worthy of identifying the game’s very best.”
 
So there.
 
And given that Dufner is at his best right now...he might be able to survive the 608 yard, par 5, 1st hole and the 613 yarder, 14th. Dufner, however, off the tee is ranked around 99th at 290.0 yards. Dustin Johnson, whom Bodog has odds on as winning (compared to its ranking of Jason as 22nd best chance) leads driving length at 319 big ones. Dufner’s putting is even more average. He candidly confesses "I've been putting bad for 17 years...” This week he ranks 112th. So how could he possibly win this U.S Open? His play from the fairways is better, ranking 46th, but his compact, torso-based swing is consistent. Indeed for a man with a soft round belly - when he isn't a Thinny Minnie - and with a physique and musculature, no matter his overall weight, resembling a Sunday duffer, it's amazing the guy plays as well as he does - and it's astounding his torso is running the swing. Heck, he set a 36-hole record in winning Jack Nicklaus's tournament.
 
To continue, there are lots of sand traps, pot bunkerish - which will test Dufner and his 157th sand save ranking - and others who will find themselves sometimes hitting out sideways or backwards – there is lots of fescue grass between tee to greens, fringing the latter, and alongside - and surrounding - fairways to boot.  The course may be relatively new but its foundations of rolling hills were formed by glaciers 10 thousand years ago. And, for the past 7 years, 1,815 tons of sand have been used as top dressing on the 40 acres of fairways...

This links public course features lots of wind. Great ball striking is a must. Dufner, with his cute pre-shot waggles, has that attribute, epitomized by wondrous wedge play. Undoubtedly assistant superintendents Alex Beson-Crone and Adam Ayers and 1 of 3 course architects, Dana Fry, are engagingly concerned – and have been since 2010 when they were awarded the 2017 date, with getting the place “just so.”

For what it’s worth Eric Steimer, Championship Manager, for the 2017 U.S. Open calls it a tremendous property. The USGA believes in the site – lionizing it as a field of dreams...For many players it will be their first time playing this course. For the 35,000 fans following the pros over the 8-mile long course, it will be their first time seeing their stars live. For the 135 million pumped into the local region, it will be their economy on the gravy train. For us watching on TV, it will be panoramic vistas coupled with minimalist design - combining to have the best handle, or mishandle the rough...

Back to Jason. During an interview on the Kelly & Michael show he brought out the Wanamaker PGA Trophy. (The top comes off – and it can hold, 47 beers.) He, of course was amiable, and forthright. When asked to comment on his putt, that if sunk, would have set an ALL-TIME golf record Majors’s score of 62, he called it the worst effort he made all week.

Which brings us to the ALL-TIME coolest move called Dufnering. Asked to explain how Dufnering came about Duf explained he had sat Indian style for 30 minutes, at J. Erik Jonsson Community School in Dallas in a charity appearance, mused that he had already been in the second grade, wondered to himself when this event was going to be over, wanted it to get done – for his body’s sake, and, before the session ended, while the teacher talked about relaxation, breathing, and how to get ready for tests, he sorta “checked out” and relaxed his sore frame via Dufnering, sitting legs straight out, arms draped at the sides, leaning against a wall. He smiled shyly, saying the Dufnering international craze “turned out good.” Dufnering, he added, wasn’t premeditated, wasn’t meant to be disrespectful, was a natural moment, but didn’t impress his then wife one bit – “...because she sees it all the time. Apparently I do it all the time.”
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And Mr. Dufner, The War Eagle from Auburn University, with the Tasmanian devil face and teddy bear countenance, wins big tournaments some of the time. And if he doesn’t “check out” and does keep up with his new military-style breathing regimen to prevent batting and battling the ball around the green, who is to say he can’t become the next U.S. Open winner?

​Ingenuity meets insanity at the Summer X Games with every competitor an artist, acrobat, gymnast, and stuntman. As the X denotes – the very nature of their disciplines dictates they push boundaries to extremes. Or, as the X Games Twitter site proclaims: Spreading the shred in action sports since 1995.
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For Baby Boomers who don’t understand what Generation X or Generation Y see in the Summer X Games stuff, don’t worry: your offspring – all 106 million of them, in 121 countries will, via TV, watch the 2017 Summer X Games coming from Minneapolis and explain same to you.

X Games competitors and wannabees, however, sandwich some wonderful traits between the crusty edges of inventiveness and craziness. For example, in skateboarding kids looked to Tony Hawk’s and Mark Gonzales’s tricks, styles, and mannerisms. They’d try to emulate Tony Hawk’s 900. (But they’d better be prepared for a lot of persistence before meeting excellence. It took Tony Hawk “The Birdman” his 12th time to final successfully land the 900.) They’d try to copy the Gonz’s shoes. They’d assimilate and incorporate the masters’ moves into their routines. They’d extrapolate, synthesize, re-evaluate and - through these processes - come up with new stunts.

Alas, nowadays, given today’s stiff-as-a-board political correctness, they’d be accused of cultural appropriation to be sure, and possibly ageist appropriation too. Thus the X Games must be stopped! And all skateboarders younger than Hawk and Gonzales, who can be shown to have used elements of the former's in their skating – must undergo sensitivity training.

Ok, let’s forget such puerile politics for now (and hopefully for ever) and return to the virile characteristics of the X Games, generally.

Specifically, skateboarders are said to have been “shredding the vert ramp” Basically, they shred here, they shred there, indeed, the word shred has an even more altruistic purpose too, with the Shred Hate campaign to reduce bullying in American schools. Don’t know if bullying equals hate, and don’t know if 10 million kids are bullied each year in schools there, as the website page says, but their heart is in the right place even if their correlation and statistics are both a bit off...
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It should be said: the X Games doesn't test athletes for drugs. This is probably just as well, despite it pissing off the likes of the World Anti-Doping Agency. 90% of these competitors gotta be high on something, or a cocktail of somethings, to even contemplate the stunts they do, let alone put them into practice. Or they could be high on life. It happens.

But let’s taunt WADA with a certifiable, undeniable fact. Didn’t Pierre-Luc Gagnon “PLG” admit after a heavy night partying, that lots of water and a few Excedrin can get him back on the skateboard? So let us have WADA scrutinize PLG’s NOLLIE HEELFLIP VARIAL INDY 540, why don’t we? Or have that body inspect Kevin Robinson’s pulling a Double Flair back in 2006 or study his world record ramp-to-ramp 84-foot backflip at the age of 44.
 
Actually the X Games and its athletes should be examined, not for foreign substances, but for unworldly creativity. For instance, who thought that some competitors would run their bikes brakeless? Moreover, have hockey, baseball, football, or basketball come up with any radical new wrinkles in the past few years?

Extreme sports has, at its core, the seed of imagination wherein whatever happened before can be grown upon, spreading a canopy of daredevilish deeds, more bold and brassy and outlandishly outrageous than ever before. Its trunk has rings, not of ages, but of new ways of doing things on skateboards, bikes, and motorcycles. (And gotta love the names for tricks, though we conventional old fogie types would scoff and sneer at the seemingly endless plethora of over-the-top monikers such as the Topside No-footed CanCan; One-handed 540; Switch-blade flip; Flare Double Whip; Downside Tail Whip...)

Speaking of whip or whippersnappers, what should we say about 50-year old + BMX rider Dennis McCoy? Simply that he is his sport’s equivalent to hockey’s ageless Jaromir Jagr. Didn’t he, smooth and dialed in, pull a 900 at the ripe old age of 49?

And what about Bob? Remember skateboarder Bob Burnquist’s 98 score in ‘99? When he did at least 4 moves the commentators either had not seen, or did not think were possible? And for us largely unfamiliar to X Games and skateboarding, but totally familiar with Olympic greatness and gymnastics, say – let’s equate Bob’s stunning run that X Games, to a stunning routine of the best male gymnast in the world, Kohei Uchimura.

One must quickly look at the downside of this sporting genre. Injuries can be numerous and mind numbingly severe. Let's admit it, some watch X games events for the wipeout factor, as do Indy 500 fans watching car races for crashes. Travis Pastrana once suffered a dislocated spine...18 broken bones...and had 8 surgeries – at a minimum! Can’t forget Jake Brown’s fall from 45 feet up, can we, resulting in a broken wrist, broken vertebrae, a bruised lung and liver, a concussion - and a ruptured spleen?

“Best Trick” has been a great spectacle but at the cost of serious injuries. Heck, even watching promo videos of skateboarders – with no helmet or other padding - gives one the willies. Because they are so amazing they’ll take the risk of crumbling onto pavement, tumbling down stairs, and going ass-over-teakettle over railings. But mistakes do happen: ever seen the video of Chris Joslin flying over 20 steps or so, only to tumble and roll over his tail-bone hard?
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But pains and aches aside, it seems even these setbacks never stop each new X Games from getting better year after year, because every entrant knows the other will be bringing new and freaky-fabulous moves to the table. All will make this Summer X Games, coming up in Minneapolis this July, an extremely excellent exhibition of courage and character to view, where attitude meets amplitude, or put more simply – to be THE BEST SUMMER X GAMES YET.

​Laurel Hubbard had an unfair advantage because she used to be known as Gavin. It may seem crazy to talk of fairness and sports when the latter takes on a win at nearly all costs mantra, but when boys become girls and compete in sports with girls, who were born girls, is it fair? We’re obviously talking transgendered athletes.

A recent case is of the New Zealand weightlifter, Laurel Hubbard, who bested the second place finisher, in the clean and jerk, by 19 kg (41 pounds.) Zounds. How’d she do that at the Australian International weightlifting event? Could it be due to natural ability, better technical skills, superior coaching, and great dedication? Probably all these were factors but could the biggest factor be that Laurel used to be a man, Gavin – who competed in weightlifting prior to becoming Laurel in his/her/their mid-thirties? Men, generally, have more muscle mass and lung capacity, to name but two athletic advantages.

Look, it’s not the first time observers have been accused of being cold-hearted or hard headed. Remember Tom Dempsey, field goal kicker for the Saints? When he kicked a 63-yarder many felt his right-foot boot gave him an unfair advantage; it had a flat, larger surface. True, he only wore this one-of-a-kind boot because he had no toes on that foot, but still, even a handicap turning out to be a perceived advantage, is fodder for analysis and angst. So boys transitioning to girls, who then participate in a sport they played as the prior gender, are going to be rightfully submitted to Monday morning arm chair quarterbacking as well.

Gotta deadname for a minute. Don’t know what deadnaming is? Well, it’s almost a crime according to politically correct types. And I’m about to commit it by referring to the long gone, Bruce Jenner, 1976 Olympics gold medal winner in the decathlete. Now, Bruce (oops I did it again) is now Caitlyn – because she’s a she who used to be a he. NEVER say Bruce when referring to Caitlyn.

Anyway, – ok, if Caitlyn was as good as she was when she was a he, the best in the world back in ’76 – what’s she going to do competing against girls in any of these ten disciplines? She’d murdelized them, especially so because ladies only compete in the 7-event Heptathlon...but you get the point...

Gender identity is all the rage right now. It’s a target from all sides of the political spectrum. Sports aren’t immune – but there are 2 possible solutions to the controversy of having boys now girls, matching up and beating the pants off girls, who were originally girls. The first answer, speaking of target – is to follow the retailer Target’s approach to gender: let any gender identity use any facility, and participate in any forum, at any time. Thus boys, girls, and transgender athletes would compete against each other at any time. That way, the possible advantages that transgender boys to girls would be negated, because the boys-remaining-boys would, in many sports, have it over the transgendered. True, the girls would still be getting screwed over, but one can’t have everything – at least with this approach.

The second approach would ensure that no gender has an advantage over another. Let’s call it the Facebook approach. That social media platform, in the UK, lists 71 genders. Instead of lumping all genders together like Target does, it separates them. So! Let’s have sports competitions carefully separated and segregated by gender! True, it will be a logistical, bureaucratic, and financial nightmare, but it is the only way to make sure no gender is cheated out of their just desserts.

Actually the second approach, in its complexities, may not be that tough a row to hoe. Consider how far science and understanding have come in determining who is a man, or a woman, or a somewhat in betweener. And this relates to Laurel Hubbard and others who have transitioned. She can compete in the Olympics.

Furthermore, and this relates to some who are transitioning - but have not yet had body parts changed “sex reassignment surgery” - The International Olympic Committee has weighed in on matters-trans and has decided that the best way to determine whether he is a he, or a she, or she is a she, or a he – is NOT to sneak a peek under their underwear-unmentionables at body parts, but is, rather, to conduct hormonal tests to determine if requisite minimums or maximums of this or that hormone make one a guy, gal, or trans. (Best to stick with 3 gender types rather than delve into another 68 or so, huh?)

Because the IOC is a busy-body bureaucratic organization run by cads in the worse sense of the word, and because gender matters are as complicated as all of this world, the language they use is inscrutable to the layman, epitomized by this summarial declaration of the: "Consensus Meeting on Sex Reassignment and Hyperandrogenism" - so we will have to trust this group with the hugest leap of faith ever known to sport or mankind, in figuring that they know what they are doing.

.6% or 1.4 million. These are the estimated percentage and count of trans adult people in America. For simplicity’ sake, assume the percentage holds for the world at large. Given that the 1.4 million, according to the New York Times, is quite a bit bigger than previously thought, it’s safe to say that more MTF athletes will be faced with accusations of new medically manufactured athletic advantages. For FTM athletes: less so.

Si Woo Kim at work is calm, cool, collected, and intermittently shockingly successful. Good for him. Perhaps the military of South Korea, who has rights to his life, will make best use of this soon-to-be trooper.

Then again, can’t they make an exception and grant the kid an exemption from military service? The guy stunned the world and himself, being a 400-1 bet going in, when he became the youngest player EVER to win the Players Championship. Or, listen, if he must serve, make sure he’s not on the front lines, the 160 MILE LONG DMZ, where kooky North Korea and its leader, even kookier Kim Jong-un, might serve up a brand spanking new Hwasong-12 intermediate-range ballistic missile, or some such thing. Maybe make golfer-Kim a killer-sniper; he can certainly place his shots.

Alas, there’s no way around it: Si Woo has to serve two years in the ROK Armed Forces, assuming he doesn’t renounce his citizenship and dodge the draft. Compatriot Sang-Moon Bae found out, through the court of law, there’s no way to avoid conscription in that country. (If Si Woo, was an Olympic medal winner, or a gold medal winner from the Asian Games, or a geezer older than 35, he’d get a pass – but as a young burgeoning star winner on the PGA, no dice.)

Amazing as his win was, being just 21 years of age, let’s remember that he and other South Korean men, while notable and noteworthy, must take a back seat to the front-driver domination of South Korean women on the LPGA. Recall that Lydia Ko won her first professional golf tournament, the New South Wales Open, at 14.

This is not a misprint. 14.  Nor is it an error to point out that the women of South Korean heritage have been at the top of the money list(s) and rankings for years, now. OK, so why do these gals ace the game of golf? And does Si Woo Kim have it in him to improve, and become an elite pro on the PGA to perhaps equal these women in stature back home?

The magic female formula, written by R.G., in the Economist, distills the awesome anomaly of top golfers worldwide being invariably Korean to: heavy parental discipline, dished out especially by the Dad’s; the competitiveness of Korean society as a whole; the prevalence of players’ hitting millions of balls in driving ranges, what with space at a minimum and golf course availability at a premium; repetition as the best means to become the best; and a seemingly inherent gene of Koreans to follow the lead - trends: once Se-Ri Pak led the pack, everybody and their sister picked up a stick. And Ko sticks with her sticks, putting in between 30 to 50 hours per week working on her game.

Back to the boys. Alex Myers of Golf Digest, take a bow. Back in January of 2016 you wrote of the potential of Si Woo. And American academic, and Director of the Asia Institute, Emanuel Pastreich, who specializes on Korean studies, please continue pontificating on why a forced stint in the military, rather than being a drag, is, in fact, a boon. There, as exemplified by the 3rd Engineer Brigade, the moral of the story is: no blame, no complaining, and be of an optimistic attitude. Also, live clean in manners and in habits. Paging John Daly...

Given that Si Woo appears to be in somewhat good health, chances are he’ll be put into Active Duty Service as opposed to Public Service. He’ll face five weeks of basic training, for starters. True, he has had back and wrist problems – at 21, that is SO NOT a good sign, and a physical will reveal the extent of those pains. (He just withdrew from the Byron Nelson on account of his wonky back.) Let’s hope he isn’t subjected to bullying or hazing, not from Byron Nelson fanatical fans, but from fellow soldiers culturally and historically imbued in the two year rite of passage in matters military. The military pay’s not great – it sucks, truly, under $200 USD, monthly – and way under the country’s minimum wage for civilians – you know, the folks not putting their lives in their hands each and every day. He’ll have to get his head shaved. He’d better carefully shuffle and hide his $1,890,000 won at the Players from his army mates in his duffle. Some of his more intimate, personal effects will be put in a box. The parents will get this keepsake in case the worse should occur with death while serving...

One keepsake that puts Kim ahead of the pack is the fact that he earned his PGA Tour Card when he was just 17.  One keepsake we, watching highlights of the Players - “the Fifth Major” - was noting how smooth, controlled, and slow his swing was. While a slow swing contravenes the idea that only a fast swing can bring the utmost power to one’s game, his tempo works wonders for him.
But will a two-year hiatus from his profession cause irreparable damage to his game? He’s done himself one huge solid in winning the Players – as he now has a five year exemption on the tour – so that gives him three years to get the kinks out of a rusty golf game once he leaves the military.

Another advantage of military service is that this young fellow’s idle time will not be replete with drugs, thieving, lollygagging, or with other loser-like thuggerish acts. A youngster’s measure of possible success, remember, isn’t simply how he or she performs at work, but is how he or she performs during times of leisure. Si Woo Kim, in his win at TPC Sawgrass, had that look of discipline – and had way more than a veneer of self awareness and wherewithal to beat back, not only faltering veterans on Sunday, but to blow away, by any standard, no pun intended, par-for-the-course acts of self destruction that often arise in the mid twenties, or in the case of J.B. Holmes’s (84) and Kyle Stanley’s (75) in their mid thirties to late twenties.
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Mid twenties to be for Si Woo? This kid could be a super shooter forever.

​Way to go, John Daly. With your latest golf victory you’ve proven that a serious serial smoker, boozing passer-outer at Hooters, junk food jonser, zooming through multiple red lights in-a-row driver, and and a fanatic despiser of fitness - can reach the top.

You’re a role model to zillions.

In winning the Insperity Invitational on the Champions Tour you’ve inspired millions, ok, thousands, ok hundreds, ok tens of folks to consider watching your career progress, despite you wearing lewd, crude, and goodness gracious god-awful-retina-razing outlandish golf slacks.

Clearly a man-god surpassing mortal men was proven when, on Saturday in August of 2015, one of your lungs collapsed, you were sped to the hospital, but the next day, like a Phoenix, you returned to play out the tournament in Canton, Miss.  

And clearly a Zeus are you – who else has had as many scintillating sexual escapades, including having four wives – and is considering marrying yet again? And clearly, too, you are a criminal-cad for assaulting wife number 2, Bettye Fulford.

Basically John’s a portly huffing and puffing, 40 butts per day, 50-year old senior, who, with his first win, 14-under, on the seniors’ tour, has awoken legions to that tour’s existence and re-awoken a horde of fans to his legendary high-wire act of cavorting and careening through life. Fellow professional friends of his were so pleased for him they showered the big man in champagne after being the best on The Woodlands, in Texas.

He’s come a long way - and yet has come full circle. Back in 1978, as a 12-year old, he won the Lake of the Woods Golf Course Men’s championship prompting that course to ban kids from entering that adult contest ever again.
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Not sure if he needs the $322,500 cheque from his latest heroics but let’s assume he does. John admits he still gambles. He loves the slots. He’s even played a slot machine which was $5,000 for each pull. (John says he lost $600,000 in that session.) That’s his gambling vice of choice, though blackjack comes into play. While Vegas may be the destination for most, John says he’s not fussy: he’ll gamble anywhere...He might not be losing hundreds of thousands per year, but if he’s still rolling the dice as it were, he’s got to be losing a fairly pretty penny, though he says he won 1.8 million at Bally’s - in one day - a few years back.

So how did Daly fight the long odds against his winning again? Well, none other than Tiger Woods gives us the scoop. “Long John”, it turns out, was - is - awash in raw, natural talent proven by winning his first Major, the US PGA, in his first try.

Folks adore the “Wild Thing” because of his vulnerabilities and frank willingness to confess and somewhat confront his addictions. They also adore his counter-intuitive thoughts, like this beauty, expressed in an interview with Howard Stern a couple of years back: practicing causes imperfection when I do it...I suck when I practice.

He’s been fighting the practicing of golf thing since he was around 4-years old. He admits, like Bubba Watson, that he’s his own teacher – save for studying Jack Nicklaus golfing tip cartoons. The “Lion” says his toddler, a two and a half year old son back in 2015, has hit more practice golf balls in his life than Dad has in his. Gotta, sorta, love this guy, huh? John also jokes “Caffeine and nicotine, to me, equal protein.”

More insights in the Stern interview ensued. Talking about one of his wives, John came up with this gem: “We love each other just a little bit more than we hate each other...” His second wife lied about her age – understating it by 10 years. He says that cocaine and cigarettes are the two hardest things to quit. He asked Howard Stern if he could smoke during their interview. Howard also offered him a beer, John didn’t say no...He was given a Heineken Light, took a big slug, and announced “this isn’t bad.” He says 18 shots of scotch ended up being the impetus behind the invention of 18 holes of golf.

And who else can sink a 10 footer curving putt with a cigarette hanging from his mouth?

And who else may be as smart as Daly, if his dad is any indication? (Smartness isn’t the same thing as common sense, obviously.) One source writes his father, Jim, built and repaired nuclear power facilities.
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Yet as we marvel at John’s highs and lows - heck he’s had more ups and downs than an Xpogo stunt team, has been his own worst enemy, seems consumed by his bad lifestyle habits, and apparently appears to be a train wreck just waiting to happen - does demonstrate in spades - that these traits are SO NOT marvelous - if we, looking for guidance, are wishing to emulate star-shown characteristics. But now he has kids, and, as we age, we tend to moderate our lifestyles – so maybe these two factors, plus his latest win, can put John in a sturdier station of life leading to a somewhat normal, sane...semblance of...uh, something or other.

It’s kinda fun and a total eye-opener to read and see of John’s over-the-top idiosyncrasies, proclivities, and inanities. Even his mixed messages real, and imagined, are pretty amusing. He has been commercially associated with both TrimSpa and Dunkin’ Donuts and has ventured that such a contradiction isn’t nearly so profound as his proffered idea of publicizing AA on one hand, and Miller Lite on the other.

And we can howl in laughter at this pearl. Asked about where he finds his wives and women, he ripostes he didn’t find his wives in church. Gotta say again - gotta - sorta - love this guy. Sure hope he can keep it sort of together, maybe to write another book as a continuance to the 2007 tome titled:

My Life in and out of the Rough: The Truth Behind All That Bull**** You Think You Know About Me.
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We’d sure like to find out in new, pen-to-paper pages, what else this larger-than-life fellow could prove to the world.