One more thing I meant to mention in my Tuesday newspaper column about NBC and Johnny Miller:
Another of Miller's first guesses came when Tiger Woods was on the 13th hole Saturday and in huge trouble after an awful drive. He said an eagle could turn around the tournament.
An eagle? From where an insurance salesman from Encinitas had just been standing?
Sure enough, he made the eagle and turned around the tournament.
On the negative side, my counterpart Richard Sandomir of The New York Times made a good point about the coverage, writing that Miller and his colleagues are heavy on the golf jargon for an event that attracts many casual fans of the sport.
OK, end of golf. Back to baseball.
Comments (2)
Sandomir was right on in the Tiger-centric coverage of the US Open. The rest of the field was treated as merely extras. It was nauseating to the point where I had to mute my TV. Dan Hicks was particularly embarassing in his degree of man crush over Tiger.
BTW, would yesterday's playoff be as lauded, given everything was the same, shots, putts, drama, if Rocco's opponent was name Lee Westwood instead of Tiger Woods?
The matchup was part of the drama - the World's best player, and possibly best ever player, against a guy who had to qualify just to play this weekend. So, no, I don't think it would have been quite as lauded if it was Westwood and not Tiger. In my opinion, that's rightfully the case.
I do agree, though, that the coverage on Sunday was very Tiger-centric. I am pretty much fine with that considering how special he is. However, it was pretty strange that Westwood was just bumming about the place and then suddently had a putt to draw level just like Tiger did. You never would have thought that he was in that position if you weren't paying pretty close attention.