The Wait Continues in Washington…

Tommy John surgery- ulnar collateral ligament reconstruction surgery on the elbow named after former Dodger pitcher, Tommy John who was the first to have the surgery in 1974.

The word ‘surgery’ is just a scary word and then on Friday we heard surgery and Strasburg in the same sentence. National fans had to take a deep breath and accept that maybe those three words are no longer a death sentence for pitchers or teams.

Stephen Strasburg was a gift to the Washington Nationals from the baseball gods with efforts to replace the mascot/president’s race -that’s announced as the ‘main event’ to highlight the baseball game as the main reason for dealing with DC traffic to attend a Nationals game.

On Thursday, the Nationals first pick in the 2010 draft, Bryce Harper- at 17 year-old who has the talent and hype of Strasburg, showed off his Nationals jersey for the first time at Nationals Park. The Nationals also beat the Cardinals after 13 innings 11-10. But most of the public didn’t hear about these highlights as the shock of Strasburg claimed the headlines.

The Nationals are in 5th place in their division for the 5th time in the past six years. At this point not even Strasburg’s nasty curve could give the Nationals a chance to contend for a 2010 wildcard.

So how did this happen? Strasburg was carefully monitored and we haven’t heard any stories about rookie hazing. The Nationals did everything by the book to protect their $15.1 million dollar investment. But we continue to learn that innings pitched and pitch counts are not highly related to this injury, just ask Nolan Ryan who pushes his pitchers to pitch more than most teams. There’s the argument that pitchers come back a better pitcher post-surgery which could only mean that pitching injuries come down to pitching mechanics. Have you ever watched a pitcher in slow motion or viewed pictures of a pitcher pitching? The range of motion isn’t what most of us consider a normal movement and the facial expressions give a whole new meaning to the “Scheyer face”.

But maybe there’s some good to come out of this situation… We all witnessed LeBron talk about how he couldn’t win a championship alone, maybe this is a sign from the baseball gods letting us know that even Strasburg can’t win alone. With Bryce Harper on track to make a 2012 appearance in the show, giving Strasburg time to recover and Harper a year in minors- get your popcorn ready; we could be in for some real fireworks in the Nations Capital in 2012.

Bunker Bummer!

Dustin Johnson; Penalized two strokes on the 18th hole of the PGA Championship for grounding in the bunker at Whistling Straits.

I’m rooting for my friend and former classmate from college who is battling for his first major and you can just see the determination on his face that he’s going to win! Then, I heard the ruling.

Why is the gallery in the bunker? Why is there trash in the bunker? And where’s the rake? Talk about a hazard… Maybe it was a bunker at the beginning of the week, but it wasn’t a bunker on Sunday evening. Yes, I understand that there were memos all around the club house, but how do you determine a bunker when the gallery is standing over it? Does the rules official have to tell Johnson that he’s in a bunker, no. But could he have told him, YES! Given the circumstances and the unidentifiable lines of the bunker, why didn’t he tell Johnson he was in a bunker? Why wouldn’t Price have asked the crowed to move back?

The rules official for the final group on Sunday was David Price, who is also the head golf professional at Bent Tree Country Club in Dallas. He had to break the news to Johnson. Price said "I'm going to let him play out the hole so that it doesn't change the way he plays a shot or anything like that in case there wasn't a violation. As he's putting I'm thinking, 'I could be going up to the PGA champion to tell him he's not really the champion.' He missed the putt, which didn't make it any better, but I immediately went up to talk to him." Price had to tell Johnson immediately so Johnson would not sign the score card. If Johnson would have signed the score card he would have been disqualified and that would have cost Johnson thousands of dollars in prize money.

Some argued that the other players didn’t break the rule all week, well… at least not that we know of. Each golfer didn’t have a personal camera man following them all week and still no one is able to tell how many bunkers are on the course. Mr. Dye, there’s a reason spectators are not standing in the bunkers at Augusta National and there’s a reason grown men break down in tears looking down Magnolia Lane, but there’s no reason for an over designed course where players can not break down the bunkers from the dirt.

Dustin was a class act in how he handled the situation. He remained calm and once he was told the area of sand was a bunker he admitted that he had grounded in the bunker. Even with a Major title on the line Dustin never blamed anyone for the mistake. You have to admire that the future of golf is going to remain as classy as those who have pioneered the game. He took the high road and made Coastal Carolina Alumni proud to be a Chanticleer and he won the hearts of popularity in the gallery. Dustin, we are all rooting for you!

Dustin Johnson just became the Armando Galarraga of golf and the player we will remember from the 2010 PGA Championship.

Favre From Over....

When I heard that Brett Favre was retiring for the third time, I laughed.

I honestly think Brett was practicing with the high school kids in Mississippi and one of the kids said something about the Bengal’s or all these ridiculous rookie contracts which lead to, no one is talking about Brett Favre… So anther kid says oh, watch this, we can get Brett back in the spot light. This can only mean that one of the high school kids must have sent the text message to someone in Brett’s contact list and just like that, the word was out. The news and sports reporters went crazy trying to break the real story. (Again, I have no idea how the word got out but it’s more comical to think of it this way.)

The Vikings have offered Brett Favre $16 million guaranteed plus $4 million in incentives to play the 2010 season. We all know Brett isn’t the athlete who has dreams of making it rain in a rap video but really… How many pairs of Wranglers can he have? It’s obvious that Brett hates camp and while he might be the NFL’s only grandfather, he still plays football on pure adrenalin with a passion for the game and with the innocence of a child that continues to prove that having fun will always be the heart of his the game.

I was in Milwaukee when Brett announced his first retirement in 2008. Talk about a somber state… The whole state of Wisconsin fell into a deep depression. Every where I went, Packer fans were begging their hero not to go. Just about every business that had an outside sign had a message for Favre. Everything from, Thanks for memories Brett, You will be missed, Favre for President, Favre: We Need You and Brett Favre is our religion. Once Brett announced he would be playing the 2008 season with the Jets, a church sign read, God will never leave you for the Jets.

Then in 2009 we heard it again… and Favre fans everywhere didn’t want to believe he was walking away. A few days later, Childress was picking Favre up from the airport and for the first time in 18 years, Favre wasn’t wearing a green jersey. Favre fans learned a new color that day and football fans everywhere realized how much football needed Brett Favre.

At the age of 40, he had one of his best seasons and proving to Ted Thomas why Brett Favre has earned the right to call the plays on and off the field.

I’m no medical doctor, but I used to have my ankle taped in cheerleading and it made it almost impossible to point my toes or even move my ankle at all. It might as well have been a cast made out of pre-wrap and athletic tape. Brett, you still have your arm and your heart. Tape your ankle, get a brace, take some Advil and just be on the field September 9th (and November 28th because I’ll there when you play in Washington)! Brett, your career is Favre from over!