Random thoughts from a cluttered mind...
This weekend, of course, the emphasis in sports in THIS town centers upon TPC. This event is thought of as the ‘Fifth Major’ by many, and it carries a certain amount of prestige and importance. The PGA Tour has spent exhaustive amounts of time and effort to make sure that is the deal. The purse alone, at $9 Million, is huge.
Still, there are plenty who feel it is being force-fed to us all in oh-so-many ways, and that is not a good thing. To put TPC on the same level as The Masters, the U.S. Open, the British Open, and the PGA, is still a little tough. It is certainly reason for plenty of discussion among many factions.
For this weekend, the tournament is fun to observe. Everyone wants a shot at winning the thing, with the exception perhaps of David Duval, who seems to have stepped off to the side of playing golf these days, which is a shame. For a guy who had plenty of talent and potential, Duval has ridden off into the sunset to hang out with his wife and her kids.
There are plenty of others that will play this event, though, and give fans some great experiences in what good golf playing is all about. Let’s see if anyone can give Eldrick Woods a run.
The Mavericks were the NBA favorites to win the whole shootin’ match. But they were unceremoniously dispensed by the Golden State Warriors, and so it seems the winner of the series between the Spurs and Suns will almost automatically become the sexy pick to get in the NBA Finals, if not win the whole thing. That series will go seven games, and it will be interesting to see how it evolves in the next week. Golden State becomes the underdog pick.
Meanwhile, the Pistons are playing some damn good basketball. Detroit seems to be firing on all cylinders (no pun intended) with a solid lineup that goes eight deep. They are showing the young Bulls that you don’t mess around with Detroit.
LeBron is single-handedly leading his Cavalier mates into the Eastern Finals, as they do business with the Nets. Cleveland should be able to handle New Jersey.
There’s no question the addition of Roger Clemens to the Yankees will help them in many ways; not just from a pitching standpoint. His leadership will be a welcome experience, and the rest of the team will definitely feed off his enthusiasm, which they need at this point, with the pitching staff being in such disarray.
In a way, though, you could say its amazing that a team full of All-Stars can’t keep things rolling and win more games than they are losing. Obviously, we are seeing that a) good pitching is an absolute necessity in MLB, and b) you can’t buy a championship.
So, we’ll see how Clemens will revitalize the Yankees heading into the middle portion of the regular season.
This weekend the Jaguars congregate downtown at the stadium for the first of what will be a series of mini-camps. Jack Del Rio will bring in his group of veterans, along with his coaching staff and the ‘new guys,’ known as the rookies. The Saturday camps will open to the public and are scheduled at 10:30 am and 4:15 in the afternoon.
Without question, there are all kinds of issues and new scenes to behold for these camps. There are a number of veterans who were injured at some point last year trying to get back on the field to prepare for the ’07 season. Those vets included LB Mike Peterson, DE Reggie Heyward, S Donovin Darius, RB Greg Jones, and LB Pat Thomas.
The Jaguars also have new faces, including veterans WR Dennis Northcutt and OT Tony Pashos. Northcutt is certainly a welcome addition to the WR corps, while Pashos will settle into an O-line that has been quite serviceable, and will now create some unrest.
There are new coaches as well, including Offensive Coordinator Dirk Koetter and QB’s coach Mike Shula. Both come from the college ranks, although they have both also had professional experience.
We also see QB Byron Leftwich come back into the mix, after an ankle injury and workout regimen that took him to South Florida and away from the Jaguars training facilities.
It’s been no secret that Jack Del Rio and Byron Leftwich aren’t friends. They don’t care for one another, for all intents and purposes. It can be said their personalities are opposite or different. They certainly don’t share small talk, and I think in a way that’s not a good thing. I blame Del Rio for that, being that he is the older, supposedly the more mature of the two humans, and as head coach, it is his job to get along with his players.
It seems overall that Del Rio enjoys hanging much more with his Defensive side than the boys on the scoring side of the ball. Being that Jack played Linebacker during his NFL career, it makes sense. That doesn’t mean he can’t warm up to what’s going on with the Offense, though. We’ll see if he’s able to adjust his personality and attitude heading into the upcoming season.
Tom Weppel talks trash with Greg Larson, Ron Duguay, and Lonnie Marts on SportsAvengers.com 24/7.
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