Just a few musings on recent developments in the sports world:
Goodbye Justine. Farewell Annika: The sports world will dearly miss Justine Henin and Annika Sorenstam, two of the greatest women athletes in history. Both, still at the top of their games, announced their premature retirements this week. Henin is currently the No. 1 ranked women’s tennis player, while Sorenstam is simply the greatest woman golfer in history.
Henin was as tenacious a competitor as I ever had the privilege to watch. A mere 5-5, the 25-year-old Henin made up for her lack of size with a relentless spirit and as pure and devastating a backhand as the women’s game has ever known. Henin won an astounding 10 tournaments in 2007, but has been hampered by injuries in 2008.
Sorenstam may be 37, but she remains one of the top golfers in the world. To date, including a runaway victory last week, Sorenstam has collected 72 tour victories and once shot an incomprehensible 59. An intense competitor, she was also as classy an athlete ever to dominate a sport.
Call the Bail BONDSman: Barry Bonds, whose athletic gifts are matched only by his vile personality, may well be serving some serious time in prison. Yesterday, Bonds was nailed with a 15 count indictment, one that included 14 counts of lying to a Grand Jury and one count of obstruction of justice. Baseball’s home-run king will never make it to the Hall of Fame. The great irony is that he was so incredibly gifted that he would have broken the home run record without the help of steroids.
The Conclusion of Spy-Gate: The hearings are officially over in the NFL’s Spy-gate investigation. New England Patriots’ coach, you will recall, was caught red-handed videotaping opposing coachs’ signals between 2001-2007. Belichick and the Patriots received a proverbial slap on the wrist and life will go on. Like the situation with Bonds, it was all so unnecessary. Belichick is a football genius. As a strategist, he ranks with the all-time greats. He would have won all of his championships without those videotapes, but now the championships are tarnished. He was looking for a competitive edge… when that edge already existed between his ears.
Hold the Mayo: USC’s basketball superstar has left the school after one year and has declared himself eligible for the NBA draft. Mayo has a huge, dark cloud over his head following revelations that he accepted $30,000 in gifts that came indirectly from a sports management group. The cash and gifts would be a small investment if Mayo were to eventually hire the group to represent him.
These payments began while Mayo was still in high school. If true, the sports agency deserves severe punishment. But Mayo should be held accountable, as well.
Mayo may have been a teenager, but he knew damned well that this wasn’t exactly kosher. He cannot be viewed as a victim here. If the allegations are true, then Mayo should be banned from the NBA for a year- a penalty that will cost him substantially more than any monies he may have received. It will send a hell of a message to other high school superstars who choose to be complicit in this type of activity.