A Good Sunday

Yesterday was just a great sports day. The baseball season is still all shiny and new. The NHL wrapped up it's regular season, with my Bruins warning a sixth seed. The Lakers took another loss as the stumble towards the playoffs. The best event from yesterday though had to be the Masters. The Masters is easily my favorite golf tournament and when one of my favorite golfers won the title it made it that much better. Now I will let it be known that I was rooting for Fred Couples first and foremost. Couples has been my favorite golfer for a long time and it was nice to see him near the top of the leaderboard all weekend long. But if Fred couldn't win, I was perfectly content seeing my second favorite win, Phil Mickelson. Phil is just the kind of guy I want my athletes to be, approachable, somewhat humble, and of course talented. Phil seems like a guy that you could sit down and have a beer with. This is a reason many give for liking John Daly, but of course you would have to sit down and have a case of beer with Daly. We all know that Tiger Woods was the focus coming into the Masters and he played well for someone who was away from the game for so long. I won't bash Tiger here, I will leave that to the holier than though crowd, but I heard stories of Tiger reaching out to fans this weekend and I really hope he keeps that up. Tiger will never be able to get back to where he was before "the scandal," but he can climb out of the hole a bit by letting the fans in just a bit. So congratulations to Mickelson and his family a well deserved victory and maybe the perfect ending to the weekend after all.

Song of the Blog: Hungry Heart by Bruce Springsteen. I have liked this song since I first heard when I was just 11 years old (man that is a long time ago). Another simple song, with a simple message, that everyone just wants to find a place in this world where they fit in.

A Legend Slowly Passes

The opening day of the baseball season is Monday. It is the time of year when almost every fan thinks that their team may just win it all this year. It is personally one of my favorite days of the year. There is a man out in Michigan that was part of 55 opening days. He was never a player, a manager, or even a coach, yet to many he meant the beginning of spring. He was just one of the best baseball announcers the game has ever known. His name is Ernie Harwell. He spent 42 years broadcasting Detroit Tigers games in his low key style. Harwell told us about the game, he didn't try to become part of it. This is a lesson that many modern announcers should learn. Harwell was diagnosed with incurable cancer back in September 2009. Seven months later he is losing the battle, according to his daughter, he consumes mostly liquids and sleeps most of the time. The 92 year old Hall of Famer will be gone soon, though he isn't looking for sympathy saying "Whatever happens, I'm ready to face it." If you don't know about Ernie Harwell do yourself a favor and look him up and see what he meant to Detroit and how much of a gentleman he is. The days of the great baseball announcers are quickly passing and, although I never lived in Detroit, I just wanted to give a tip of the cap to Ernie Harwell, a hall of fame announcer and, by all accounts, person.