The Unexpected Weekend

I am not a big fan of introductions to begin with, plus I just finished watching the best weekend any sport will have this year (unless yankees-sox go 7), the sudden death playoff at the U.S. Open Championship so I’ll keep it brief.
So here it, my name is Uncle Dave, they call me Dave but I insist on Uncle, I guess because I have more nephews and nieces than anyone my age (don’t even try to guess my age, I won’t give that away in blog #1)- hence the name. I love sports for the days like today and yesterday, when were sitting on the edge of our couches anticipating the unexpected and hoping for the improbable.
Sports to me is not about Donehey, Clemens or Spygate. I couldn’t care less about that. That’s good for talk radio. I endure it for the great moments that we get a couple of times a year- (sometimes when were ready for them (game 7’s, Super bowls), sometimes when they are wonderfully unexpected). I endure it for the red sox of 04’, the giants playoff run, and to watch guys like Kobe, Manny, Brady, and Tiger play their game. And we must begin with Tiger (I can’t believe my first blog is about golf, who woulda thunk it, Hey! I barely know the sport.- oh and game 6 of the finals happens to be tomorrow night. Crazy.)

After Tiger’s legendary back 9 on Saturday - with 2 eagles (one was skill, the other luck) that I can only dream about hitting (in my pitch and putt game), we thought this weekend would be another notch on Tiger 58 inch belt, but NO- out of nowhere came this lovable character named Rocco. It was like straight out of a movie (I can’t wait for the premiere of Rocco 4). Could a 45 year old guy who nobody ever heard of take down the greatest golfer of all time? It was improbable. It was better than “Rudy”-except I didn’t cry when jimmy Roberts was whispering at 18.
And as Sunday afternoon went along I kept believing that somehow, someway the great Tiger would fall. Maybe the leg would totally give out, maybe it was like Orlando beating Jordan after his layoff (Tiger didn’t play in a couple of…um months), or maybe he would just pull off a Phil. And I think most of the Country was rooting for Rocco (Mediate) to dethrone the Tiger that never lost a final round lead in a major. Not because we were anti- Tiger all of a sudden (although I am), it was because this guy- Rocco is what we love about sports, the funny, relaxed, old underdog going toe to toe with “the greatest” (Ali, if your reading then pardon me).

And back and forth it went, Tiger leading, and then Rocco leading, and back and forth with a little mix of Lee Westwood sprinkled in. It was fascinating. I was transfixed, I couldn’t even get up from the couch to go to the bathroom- and I have DVR!!!. And right when I finally counted Tiger out on 18, he delivered again, with the crowd going bonkers again. I guess I was more hoping then predicting that he would miss that 15-23 foot shot (I have no idea how far these shots are from watching on tv, its impossible to read, its harder than those greens).
As we (da boys) finally got up after being glued for 5 straight hours (my ass was flat like a pancake, and sore as hell), there was a unanimous prediction- “Tiger will crush him tomorrow”. I mean if it was a sudden death 3 hole playoff, we can still pray for Rocco, but 18 HOLES!!! There was just no hope. Most of da boys said they weren’t even going to watch it, either because of work or because it would be so anticlimactic that they would lose that great taste for the sport that they still had in their mouth. It would be like bringing home a gorgeous chick only to find one or more body parts were fake (depends how picky you are). Good analogy? Just try not to cringe, I’ll get better.
But since I’m currently unemployed, and I stress (and put in quotation marks) “currently”, I decided I’ll watch even though I knew it wouldn’t be better than Sunday’s round.
It was better. A lot better. I didn’t move from the couch until about 45 minutes after Costas(probably the greatest sports broadcaster of our generation) poignantly interviewed Tiger (probably the gr… -you get the point). By then I was drained, it was as if I played 91 holes in 5 days. But it was somewhat disappointing that Rocco couldn’t pull it off. HE HAD IT WON. He was up a stroke on Tiger going into the 18th. It was like Rudy getting injured on that last play and getting carried off on a stretcher (getting better with the analogies, huh?). This was all after Rocco was down 3 strokes after the 10th hole. No one could believe that 3 strokes to Tiger in a major would be like a 20 point lead to the lakers at home. Nobody thought Rocco would even have a sniff the rest of way. I was even thinking about getting up to stretch. Thankfully I didn’t because the next 9 holes were amazing with Rocco storming back, especially on the 15th, where Tiger hit a ridiculous shot on to the green, followed by Rocco’s 25-40 foot birdie, followed by Tiger missing his 24-27 (I got a good read on it) foot putt on the 16th by about an inch. I kept on bending and waving the balls to the destinations that I wished they would go to, I felt like Carlton Fisk. And then a heart stopping 18 followed by another heart stopping sudden death playoff hole. Wow.
All I have to say is that I’m officially hooked on to Golf now ( I mean it is still behind- in order, Football, Baseball, basketball, old boxing?). It is definitely making its move up the leaderboard as a sport. I mean besides Tiger munching on that green apple between holes (I never saw Brady or Kobe do that), that was strange.
So, at the end of the day Tiger will get all the headlines, and rightfully so - he was a great competitor, he kept on coming back from behind, he was extremely focused- as usual, but with the leg really causing him noticeable pain, he still gutted out an EXTRA 19 holes, it was probably his finest performance of his career, maybe besides the 97’ Masters. I still think Rocco really was the story, and I am nominating him right now for a finalist for SI’s Sportsman of the year. Seriously. What a weekend. At least I have a day to air my ass out before game 6.

Uncle Dave