Tiger Woods goes wimpy with hockey diss backtrack at U.S. Open
LA JOLLA, Calif. (June 10, 2008) - So Tiger Woods makes his first appearance at a microphone at Torrey Pines with the start of the U.S. Open less than 48 hours away and what’s he talk about?
Hockey of course.
Yes, forget that balky knee that has Tiger admitting he still hasn’t walked 18 holes since the final round of the Masters - despite playing four practice rounds in the last six days at Torrey Pines. It’s hockey gate that is truly dogging Tiger Woods.
When Woods was asked today about the comical furor that’s built over his hockey dismissal, he weakly backtracked. You would have thought the greatest golfer in the world was channeling Bill Clinton in his prime.
“Oh yeah, I’ve gotten a lot of grief over that,” Woods said. “I love the sport. I love watching it, but I don’t like watching it on TV. In person, it’s absolutely incredible, what they’re able to do. TV doesn’t do justice to that. But then a lot of sports are the same way.
“… It is what it is. I said what I said and I was trying to be funny about it, but people didn’t perceive it that way.”
Sad Tiger, sad. You’d think arguably the most important athlete in the last 20 years would have the guts to stick up to the backlash from a bunch of puck-loving dunces. As I wrote when I heard Tiger’s initial hockey comments live, it seemed like others made a whole lot of out little. But still … to show all the conviction of a used-car salesman when challenged is disappointing.
Tiger went to the I like hockey, but TV doesn’t show it right card? How lame. Did one of his PR reps get that straight from the NHL front office? The suits running that league into the ground preached that for years, declaring that HDTV would change everything and pump hockey’s ratings into the stratosphere. Then, high-def pretty much went everywhere and hockey’s ratings still largely sucked (a 4.3 in one Finals doesn’t change anything, sorry) and … well, it’s back to thinking up new excuses.
And does Tiger really expect anyone to believe that he cannot get hockey in great high-def on one of his hundreds of TVs? Plus, where is he at all these hockey games. Somehow, everyone’s missed him sitting in the front row, banging againt the glass. You see Tiger all the time at NBA games - another real sport far superior to hockey. What, he wants us to believe he cannot afford hockey tickets too?
You know who isn’t cowing to the hockey lobby though (i.e. a bunch of guys living in their parents’ basement who somehow figured out how to turn on computers)? Yours truly.
I’ll say it again. To enjoy hockey, you have to be dumber than a box of rocks or been raised dumb in this aspect (i.e. the unfortunate cursed Canadians among us).
Now, back to the U.S. Open. Where hopefully everyone can stop talking about hockey.
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27 comments
Nice sentence...you haven't a clue. Just another writer bashing a sport they know nothing about.
I went to one game this year.. Chicago against the L.A. Kings. I left before the end of the second period. Now I spend my money seeing the L.A. Lakers, and until moving here I never even liked basketball.
It facinates me how the NHL has so successfully sucked the life out of hockey. In 1972 the entire country of Canada was riveted to the Team Canada vs. USSR series. Contrast that with the average Anaheim versus Nashville game and you'll soon understand why Bettman is a misanthrope.
...Or maybe you're just afraid of the frozen solid rubber puck speeding towards you at 100MPH.
Fore!
It will be interesting to see how golf does after the Tiger era, there could be a few lean years then, too.
Hey Chris, you wanna work on that Iraq FAM or should I??
1) Swing your club.
2) Drink a beer.
3) Swing your club.
4) Curse
6) Throw that Club.
7) Drink a beer.
8) Sink your final putt.
9) Buy the guys a round of beer at the clubhouse.
Gee...THIS "sport" indeed is too sophisticated for those "dumb" hockey players, who actually need an iota of skill to play. Being an overweight alcoholic (*ahem* Daly *ahem*) in the sport of hockey just wouldn't work.
Oh - and if you asked what most NHL'ers do in the offseason, they would tell you that they golf. So, I guess that means any "moron" can golf.
But people in glass houses shouldn't throw stones. I grew up in a small Canadian city and even after all these years I associate golf with outright racism. At the local clubs, the rule was no Jews allowed. I played lots of hockey and was captain of my team at some levels, but as a Jew I was not allowed to set foot on a golf course there. It seems to me even with Tiger having broken the color barrier your sport is still a refuge for racists -- the "cursed Canadian" comment proves that.
Or write more blogs about things you don't know anything about... that always makes for great writing.
What Would Gary Roberts Do?
Every time you say something retarded about hockey you give me a reason to write something retarded about you!
Really you make it truly easy. I think if you look at it in perspective Tiger's "apology" is clearing due to the fact that Hockey does have an impact on his sport.
As you can tell by the slew of comments you get.. as I read, not one of the above comments agrees with you... Hockey fans play golf.. Hockey players play golf... In the off season..
See Hockey is so physically demanding that once the 82 game season is over some players go and play golf. Because it's easy, and no physically demanding.
It's a fun hobby to do when you're on vacation!
Every game the ATHLETES that play HOCKEY put their careers and sometimes lives on the line to play the sport they love. They risk injury 82 games a year from the bone crushing hits they take over and over and over.
Not to mention the chance of getting your throat cut. See Richard Zednik more recently, or Clint Malarchuk.
Poor Tiger has a bum knee from walking too much... boo hoo.
Worst thing that can happen to a golfer is a Sun Burn... and even then I'm sure Tiger wears SPF 50!
You idiot.
It's a pleasure for our network to drive traffic to your blog's emo meathead fest.
You don't have a single comment on one blog post, and you're calling someone who probably gets 1000x the reader interest an innefective writer, then you come up with witty, multi-level lines like "golf writer flexes his small penis".
If you didn't make your wife click on your blog 20 times a day against her will you'd get zero traffic completely.
I could care less honestly about whether or not people comment to my posts. However all comments require approval, and I honestly don't have the time to sift through them at this point in time.
I don't need anonymous internet love to increase the size of my e-peen to feel special.
I'm happy with just the recognition from you dopes though!
Still the only reader interest I'm seeing on Baldwin's blog are people making sure he knows that he is an idiot.
Go flex your mighty-minuscule e-muscles for Tiger guys.
You're all a bunch of babies. STFU
And, pray tell, how does one objectively justify saying that basketball is "superior" sport to hockey? That's a subjective opinion and it could just as easily be argued that hockey is superior to basketball. At the end of the day, sport is a matter of personal taste.
I don't really care if Tiger doesn't like hockey or isn't interested in it. I took issue with his attempt to speak on behalf of everyone by saying nobody watches hockey. That would be the equivalent of me saying "Nobody likes golf" which is untrue (ask any hockey player...a lot of them LOVE golf.) He probably was just speaking without thinking, and that happens. Even when it's Tiger. I let it go.
But to deliberately generalize and insult a whole class of sports fans from the safety of your own blog? Please.
Dumber than a box of rocks? Pot, meet kettle.
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