MASTER-FUL!

Tiger on 16…I am still speechless. What a chip, what a roll, what a match.

I saw the Sunday paper when I got up and checked the masters.org site to see where Tiger was in the standings. Imagine my surprise when after getting home from the wedding shower for Jen and Tim that Tiger had stormed back into the match and was up three strokes.

Hal was watching the Masters with me in the living room and when Tiger chipped it and it sat on the lip of the cup before dropping in and the crowd roared, He shouted out: That is the way we like it! And when he saw Tiger high-five his caddy he ran to the TV and smacked the screen to give him a high-five.

Credit Chris Dimarco for taking that body shot from Tiger on sixteen and still hanging in there to force a playoff. I think Tiger was obviously a little too pumped and jacked (as Pete Carroll would say) after sixteen and that accounted for his wildness on seventeen and eighteen. Great drama for what had started out as soggy mess on Thursday and Friday and looked like it was going to be a dismal showing.

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WILD SOX:

Opening day and I get stuck in the office. It is nice to get home to watch the replay on NESN and flipping to the Marlins-Phillies game on the MLB Extra Innings package (an early Fathers Day gift). Of course, the first year I do not have Brett Myers on my fantasy team, and there he is pitching great.

Lost in all the ring ceremony hoopla was the fact that it was a nice win for the Sox in their home opener. It was nice to see the Sox bats finally wake-up; Wakefield looked very comfortable out on the mound reprising his recent Yankee-killer role; and Hamburger Helper A-Rod making another key error for the Yankees. I thought the tears were going to flow there for a minute or two as H.H.A-Rod stood at third dejected after the error and the jeers rained down upon him.

It would be remiss not to mention the class shown by the Yankees, especially Regular Joe for getting the troops out to watch the ceremony. Kudos to closer extraordinaire Mariano Rivera, who showed class and good humor by accepting his standing ovation from the Fenway faithful with a smile and good grace. In honor of his classy showing, I will shelve my classless comment about not wanting to be the pool boy at his estate.

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JORGE DE LA ROSA:

Now, you cannot argue against the move, because the kid was traded from the Red Sox as part of the Curt Schilling package, and Arizona cannot complain, because they turned him around in the deal for Richie Sexson, but I saw De La Rosa this weekend pitching for the Brewers, and WOW! They lost the game to the Cubs, but De La Rosa, a fire-balling young Mexican lefty, struck out five in two innings. This was on the heels of his first win two days before when he went two hitless innings. Future closer or future starter, either way, the kid looked alright.

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ERRATA:

A quick correction: Rick pointed out to me this weekend that in my Johnny Damon Must Go rant last week, I misidentified the skinny little utility second baseman that leveled Damon in the 2003 ALCS. It was not Rey Sanchez, it was Damien Jackson. With my memory, I guess it was good that I was close. I could have said Manny Alexander.

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