Little Big Man Wins the Open!

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: LIFE SONGS

Little Big Man (Brian Harman)

 

Little Big Man steps to the fore

Knocks it straight down the middle

A heart as big as the grandest lore

It doesn’t matter if you’re big or little

 

It’s all in how you play the game

Strike it hard and strike it true

Play as if you have no shame

Let the old become the new

 

Can he make it through the day

Through all the trials and tribulations

He has the grit to make it pay

Another round in fine tradition

 

In the end only one will stand

Have a drink and shed a tear

As fate would crown the little man

Champion golfer of the year!

 

National Pride

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR

National Pride

 

(for Hideki Matsuyama)

 

The pride of his nation

He represented with honor and dignity

He faced down the beast of adversity

Not once or twice but thrice

He stared into the abyss

And hunted down the victory

Like a man driven by destiny

He felt enormous pressure

But he would not yield

 

Few of us will ever feel the kind

Of pressure brought to bear

On this one man’s shoulders

The massive weight of generations

The eyes and ears of millions

Their hopes prayers and devotion

All placed in one man’s hands

 

He is a champion for the ages

He will dwell in the house of heroes

All the days of his life

He will dwell in the hall

Of legends forever

KING JAMES AND THE NEW ECONOMY: THE RICH GET RICHER

RANDOM JACK: SPORTSLAND ESOTERICA.

With the rest of the world focused on the World Cup finals, America’s latest obsession was the decision of free agent NBA star LeBron James. Who would he choose to bless with his awesome talent and inspiring humility? After seven years of service, would he really turn his back on his hometown team? How much would he command?

In the most highly anticipated sporting event since the superb debut of Stephen Strasburg or the horrendous first post-trauma “press conference” of Tiger Woods, King James answered all questions with one word: Miami.

The Miami Heat had already signed superstar Chris Bosh and resigned superstar Dwyane Wade. With the addition of LeBron, Miami becomes the odds on favorite to win the NBA title and more importantly the team with the greatest star-driven marketability (unless you count Jack Nicholson with the Lakers). He reportedly will receive less than the Cleveland Cavaliers would have paid but if it translates into a string of championships the money will be astronomical.

Then there’s the glory. Let’s face it: You can’t be the King if your team is not a champion. The problem is: You can have three wise men but you can’t have three kings. No one knows how it will play out but if King James is reduced to Prince LeBron the dream may begin to unravel.

As a fan whose inclination is to root for the underdog (when my dog is not the hunt) this may be the first season since the days of Magic and Kareem when I root for the Lakers.

On a grander scale, if sport is a microcosm for the world at large, this is just the latest symptom of a disturbing economic trend: the rich get richer and richer and richer…

Fact: In 1970 the ratio of CEO (Chief Executive Officer) to average worker pay was 25:1. By 2000 it rose to 90:1. When stock options and other benefits are factored in the equation the latest estimate is 500:1.

Fact: The top one percent of the national population tripled its after tax income between 1980 and 2006 while the bottom 90% of the population declined by 20%. That elite one percent now owns 70% of the nation’s financial assets.

Fact: In 2009 while the nation’s workforce was suffering layoffs, reduced pay and benefits in the wake of the financial crisis, Wall Street doled out $150 billion in bonus checks: enough to pay five million people a salary of $30,000.

Fact: We now have the greatest inequality of wealth in the industrialized world.

[Memo to the Tea Party: Income inequality is antithesis to socialism. Our system is therefore so far removed from socialist you would be wiser and more credible to refer to the current administration as fascist though you would be hard pressed to distinguish it from prior administrations.]

What can we do? We are ostensibly a democracy. We could refuse to empower candidates who accept corporate contributions but we don’t. We could refuse to reward corporate crooks like Meg Whitman or Carly Fiorina. We could insist on candidates who pledge to close the gap, to restore the goal of full employment, who value wages and worker rights over corporate favoritism (deregulation and tax breaks) but we don’t.

In the Sportsland analogy we could boycott the Miami Heat. We could refuse to tune in for that championship season. We could refuse to buy the King James jersey. We could confine the fan base to Miami. But we won’t.

Like a train wreck we have to watch – even if we are watching our own demise.


See: “The Rise of the Economic Elite” by David DeGraw, Dissident Voice, February 17, 2010.

THOUGHTS ON SPORTLAND ESOTERICA: Golf, Baseball, Drugs and the Long Putter.

Now that South African Tim Clark has won the Players Championship, the unofficial fifth major in professional golf, it is time to revisit the legality of the long putter. For the uninitiated, the user of the long putter grounds the club to his body placing his top hand over the hub of the club so it does not directly touch his chest or stomach as the case may be. As any golfer knows the long putter is the last resort for a player who has lost his putting touch. In an age when performance-enhancing drugs are the ultimate stain on an athlete’s reputation this performance enhancing technique is merely frowned upon.

Golf should save itself the embarrassment of a player winning one of the real majors using the grounded putter before it happens. It is as much an affront to the game of golf as the aluminum bat is to the game of baseball. Like the square grooved wedge it should be banned. No exceptions.

Speaking of golf, the demise of Tiger Woods has been dramatic. A year ago Tiger’s march to overtake the record of the Golden Bear Jack Nicklaus seemed certain. Now it is anything but. Given back-to-back poor showings and his withdrawal during the final round of the Players Championship with what may be a spinal injury, a host of new questions suddenly come into play.

Tiger Woods is beginning to fit the profile of an athlete who has used performance-enhancing drugs (steroids or human growth hormones). Typically, the user of these substances has an explosion in performance followed by a sudden and dramatic decline. They tend to have egos the size of Kilimanjaro, confidence bordering on megalomania, extreme difficulty controlling their emotions and their private lives are often prone to train wrecks. Typically, after several years of exceptional performance, their bodies begin to break down. Witness Ken Caminiti, Barry Bonds, Alex Rodriguez, Mark McGuire, Roger Clemens, on and on.

It is fair to say that the enhancing portion of these drugs is short term and the long term is debilitating.

As a fan of the game I bear no ill will toward any of its players – certainly not the exceptional athletes that have fallen to the temptation of drug enhancement. The corporate sponsors of the game love and reward them as they rise and blame them as they fall. No one can doubt the exceptional talents of these athletes or the tremendous pressures they are under to boost their production.

The thing is: In the long run, the payback is far too severe.

Keep the game pure. If it seems unfair or offends the senses it should be banned. No penalties. No condemnations. No prosecutions or incriminations.

Just protect the game and keep it real.

One additional thought: For those still looking for role models in sports (a dubious practice) look no further than Steve Nash and Los Suns of Phoenix. Staging a protest of their state's unconscionably discriminatory anti-immigrant law was not only appropriate but socially responsible.

Random.