It was a good weekend to be an American athlete in Europe. Tiger Woods won his 11th career major, winning the British Open by two strokes, and American cyclist Floyd Landis followed in the footsteps of Lance Armstrong and won the Tour de France. Its nice when Americans can go over to Europe and show those silly Europeans that America still has the best of the best of the sporting world. Except for soccer; we suck at soccer.
It was an emotional victory for Tiger; this being the first major he’s won since the passing of his father. After not making the cut at the U.S. Open mere days after Earl Woods’ death, Tiger was back in top form and there was little doubt from the start who was going to win this thing. Sergio Garcia made a run at it on Saturday but come on, he’s Sergio Garcia, so of course he fell apart on Sunday. Tiger is now tied for second on the all-time major victories list with 11, 7 behind Jack Nicklaus. Anyone want to bet that Tiger doesn’t catch Jack?
Everyone thought Floyd Landis was done, that he’d blown his chance at winning the Tour. And then the guy rode like a lunatic on Thursday and put himself in position to recapture the yellow jersey. Landis at one point was down 8:08 minutes to the leader but he made up 7 1/2 minutes in that crazy Thursday run and then retook the lead during the time trial Saturday. Landis is no Armstrong, though he is a former teammate, but Landis’ victory deserves to stand on its own. He’s been riding with an injured hip that’s going to require surgery in the very near future. He came back even when left for dead and, even better, the guy’s a beer drinker. Whats not to like people?
The moral of the story? Americans win on European soil. Except for World Cup soccer. In the World Cup we suck.
I hate this kid
Remember last week when we wrote about the 21 year old kid, Jeff Madison, who won a World Series of Poker bracelet to become the youngest ever to do so? Well he just won another one, this time in the $5,000 Short-handed No-Limit Hold’em tournament. Not only does he get a second bracelet, he also collects $643,381. Nice work if you can get it. The two wins, plus a third place finish in another event, means Madison has won $1.4 million in two weeks. Yeah, thats $1.4 million and yeah, thats why I hate the guy. Madison is a film student at UC Santa Barbara and he claim’s he’s still going to go back and finish college:
"I’m going to finish school,” Madsen said shortly after ending a stunning week that few players of any age have accomplished on poker’s greatest stage. "I’ve got one more year. I could drop out, but I like my school. Santa Barbara is a nice place. There’s no reason not to go back. But I’ll be playing poker the whole time, as many big events as I can.”
If he does go back to school, you think anyone’s going to let him in their home games? Its not every college kid who has two WSOP bracelets to their credit after all. The big event, the $10,000 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em tournament starts Friday and despite the huge number of people who are going to be in it, no one’s hotter then Madison right? He’s got as good a shot as anyone.
Poll Question of the Day
Alright boys and girls time for a new poll. First the results of our last poll: Eating a ton of mayonnaise and eating salted butter tied with 3 votes each as thing people wouldn’t want to eat. Thank you to a kind reader for submitting "a douche" as something they wouldn’t want to eat; I agree, that would be gross.
So here’s the new poll: If you won $1.4 million in two weeks playing poker would you go back to school?
What’s up with the Bengals?
Anyone know why Bengals players can’t stay out of trouble with the law? WR Chris Henry got arrested four times this off season; rookie A.J. Nicholson got busted, DE Frostee Rucker has been charged with beating a woman and has past rape allegations against him. The Bengals are the University of Miami of the NFL. Now another guy’s gotten himself in trouble, DT Matthias Askew. Askew managed to get himself tasered over a parking violation. Now thats impressive. Apparently he was parked illegally and the cops asked him to move and he ignored them and one thing lead to another. Just move the car buddy. A nice spot, especially when its illegal, isn’t worth getting tasered for.
New homes for everyone
The Pacers and Mavericks seem to like switching players; earlier in the offseason they hooked up on a Marquis Daniels trade, now they are, essentially, swapping PG Anthony Johnson (to Dallas) for PG Darrell Armstrong. Armstrong will provide some good veteran leadership in the locker room for a young Pacers team and Johnson is a solid backup for Jason Terry in Dallas.
The Pacers, by the way, are apparently about to lose SG Fred Jones, former Dunk Contest Champion, to the Raptors. The Raptors thought they had a sign and trade in place for John Salmons but oddly enough Salmons got cold feet. Salmons might have screwed himself though. The Raptors and the Suns were the two teams showing the most interest but the Suns signed Marcus Banks after they thought Salmons was off the market and the Raptors have bounced back from being slighted to land Jones. Where that leaves Salmons I don’t even think he knows.
Ty Law finds a home
Pro Bowl cornerback Ty Law is following Herm Edwards to Kansas City, signing a five year deal Sunday for an undisclosed amount of money. Law and Patrick Surtain give the Chiefs a pretty solid, if not better, cornerback tandem. Defense is always the downfall for the Chiefs and Law should help on that end but there’s a culture of crappiness on that team with regards to defense that Herm Edwards is going to have to change. Signing Law is a start but it’ll take more then that.
Yesterday’s Baseball
The Cardinals swept the Dodgers and Jason Marquis is now the NL’s leader in wins with 12. The guy’s got 12 wins and an ERA well over 5. Thank you run support.
Francisco Liriano continues to roll. He struck out 10 in five innings in the Twins 3-1 victory over the Indians. Liriano’s now 12-2; let the Cy Young watch begin. Or I guess continue since we said last week he’s making a run at it.
There’s a ton of rookie pitchers doing well this year. Jered Weaver of the Angels is now 7-0 after yesterday’s win over the Royals. Maybe Jered can give Jeff some pitching advice or something.
Odds and Ends
Oops, Ricky Williams breaks his arm in the CFL. Maybe he can score some medicinal cheeba to help him with the pain.
[tags]Golf, MLB, Sports, NBA, Ricky Williams, Poker, World Series of Poker, Tiger Woods, Tour de France[/tags]
Poker shouldnt even be a sport, anyone can win it, hell teach a 6 year old to play and theyll wins all kind of money, how are you to know if their just laughing for the hell of it or if they have a good hand?
If I had a million dollars I’d do two chicks at once.
Good choice Gabe, good choice, but it really wouldn’t be that good, no wait it would.
how could u say the bengals are the university of miami, maybe u could get away with saying the U of late 80’s and early 90’s but certainly not anymore….FSU is by far the worst in the state, bar none…something about them or former players in the local papers every day…unbelievable
mario, didn’t a Miami player just get shot in the ass the other day? I believe he did. And lets not forget willie williams, despite his recent transfer.
What football player hasnt been shot/attacked really, there have been like 3 just recently.
This is exactly what I expected to find out after reading the title cans take over Europe at The Sports Note. Thanks for informative article