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02/18/2008: "Monday Sports Rant"

Spent the weekend working around the house, which means there was sports on the box all day long ...

- Happy for two things in yesterday's Daytona 500: Happy it didn't go as planned, and happy that Roger Penske finally got a win. This was supposed to be the day that either Dale Jr. or Toyota shook off their miserable 2007 season with a win, but in the end it was Ryan Newman who broke a losing streak. The Hendrick cars, so dominant during Speed Weeks, were not factors in the race. Both Jeff Gordon and Jimmy Johnson ended their races early, and Dale Earnhardt Jr, while competitive, didn't seem to have the advantage he'd enjoyed in his earlier Daytona race wins. The guy who really has to be talking to himself today is Tony Stewart, who gave away the race on the last lap. Leading the Penske teammates Newman and Kurt Busch, Stewart was in the high groove as he took the white flag. He was afraid, however, that the two would gang up and pass him on the final corner, so he swung down into the lower groove to try and pick up a push from his own teammate, Kurt's brother Kyle. But that plan backfired when Stewart was unable to establish a draft quickly enough and the Penske pair drove by to victory. On the bright side, there were no big wrecks or injuries. Now it's off to California Speedway next weekend!

- One big negative to the coverage of the Daytona 500 is that Fox tried to make it into the Super Bowl, with a multi-hour prerace show and lots of features and other crap that true fans don't want and casual ones don't care about. Most agregious was the Gopher Cam - a camera mounted at track level that was so close it damn near got run over. The camera wasn't the problem - it was the stupid cartoon graphic of a gopher ducking panic-stricken into its hole that they had to show every time they used the camera. Whatever happened to serious sports coverage?

- Of course, Fox isn't alone. TNT did the same with their NBA All-Star Game coverage - right down to the halftime concert. Thank God for the slam-dunk competition, which is the only thing that saves the event. In an electric final, Orlando's Dwight Howard outclassed defending dunk champion Gerald Green of the Celtics. Lots of creativity in the dunks this time - for a change. Maybe the dunk is back?

- Enjoyed watching Phil Mickelson win the LA Open ... er, Nissan Open ... er, Northern Trust Open. Hell - he won the event out at Riviera. Phil's dominated the Western Swing the last decade, but this one has eluded him. It damned near did again, and he tried repeatedly to give it away. Lucky for Phil, Jeff Quinney wanted to give it away even more. Quinney, both a runner up in the US Amateur to Tiger Woods many years back and a Amateur champ himself, led at the turn before the wheels fell off. Phil grabbed the lead, but shaky play down the stretch kept it closer than it should be. Chalk it up to the Tiger Effect - even when he's back home in Florida, the field hears his footsteps. Winning all those events not only won him those big checks, but it kept a whole generation of golfers from learning how to win tourneys themselves. They don't understand how to close out an opponent, because most of them never have. Next week, Tiger's back on the hunt at the Match Play Championships - want to bet against him? Not me ...

- Players are reporting to baseball's spring training camps, and normally I'd be thrilled. Few things as exciting as the thought of the start of baseball season being on the horizon. But with all of our best players now with other clubs, it's gonna be a looong season for we Marlins fans. One piece of good news - it appears they finally straightened out the funding for a 37,000 seat indoor stadium on the site of the Orange Bowl. Start digging the hole - quick!