Next week begins the year’s second tennis major, the French Open (and, to me, it has been so long since the Australian, it feels like it is the first Major of the year), and it appears that the field is wide open for both the men and women.
With last week’s retirement of Justine Henin, the women’s field, always more competitive than the men, is really open for the taking. The Williams sisters will contend if injury doesn’t sideline Serena. Maria Sharapova will lead a strong Russian contingent and with her injuries behind her, the world’s new number 1 player should be considered the favorite.
On the men’s side, clay has always been the worst surface for Roger Federer, but even more mysterious is the losing streak the Swiss native has been in. He lost to Rafael Nadal at the ATP Masters Series Hamburg last week, bringing his record for the year to 26-7. Is he injured? Is there some mental problem on of off the court that is hurting Federer’s concentration?
On top of that, Nadal is going for his fourth straight men’s title at Rolland Garros and it will be interesting to see if anyone can break through the top 2 players in the world. Already, US television networks are disappointed because Andy Roddick is injured and has already withdrawn, and I guess they have demographic data to show that American ratings are down when there is no serious American contender. (To my mind, anyone who is that shallow shouldn’t be watching anyway – you watch the best players in the world in the major tournaments no matter where they come from.)

Two quick points: Osama Bin Laden released another videotape message for Muslims to continue to fight against Israel. When is someone going to find this SOB and shove a tactical missile up his ass? Obviously, Bush isn’t planning on doing anything.

Speaking of President Shrub: he really went over the line this week, saying in a speech in Israel to celebrate that country’s 60th anniversary that Hamas is rooting for the Democrats to win the White House in November and that the Dems are all appeasers like Nevile Chamberlain. Senator Joe Biden put it best calling Bush’s remarks “bullshit.” All I know is, there is a tradition for the outgoing president and his wife to meet with the incoming president on inauguration day in private before the public ceremony. If Obama wins, I hope he takes the country cocksucker out on the White House lawn and kicks his faux Texas ass.

This was a bad week for women in sport. First, best female golfer in the world, Annika Sorenstam announced that this would be her last year on the tour. And it is understandable: she is engaged, and at 37 would like to start a family. She has over 70 tour wins, including last week. She is the Tiger Woods of women’s golf.
The next day, the number 1 women’s tennis player in the world, Justine Henin announced her retirement effective immediately at the ripe old age of 25. Ms. Henin has overcome injury, a nasty fight with her father and estrangement with her brothers and sisters that only ended last year, and a marriage that failed. But her superb forehand and tenacious determination on the court made her a worth champion. I wonder what it is about tennis that burns out players so quickly? Is it the schedule? Is it that they start playing so young? Ms. Henin’s retirement reminded me of Bjorn Borg’s back in the 1980s; at 27, he was at the top of his game; he had won five straight Wimbledon men’s singles titles; and it appeared that he had enough money for the rest of his life. Ms. Henin curiously said the same thing at her news conference on Wednesday, which should certainly be the case, but, as we know now, Mr. Borg has made poor financial decisions and even contemplated selling off his Wimbledon trophies (which John MacEnroe and others say they would have purchased to either return to Borg or to donate to the Tennis Hall of Fame).
Much lower on the radar was an article in the New York Times Sunday Magazine last Sunday. It was an article that talked about injuries that young women were suffering as a result of participating in sports. I started reading the article which claimed that young women were having MCL and ACL injuries at a rate five times the average of the boys. This is an important result if true, but I stopped reading because, perhaps it was me, it seemed to put the blame on the girls, who were participating in sports due to Title IX. It implied that the girls’ parents may think about pulling their daughters out of sports due to the injuries. What, should they go back to looking forward to lives as housewives? If this had been Fox News or something, I would have understood, but this is supposed to be the bastion of progressive thinking, The New York Times. I know that they keep hiring right wing columnists for some odd reason, but this was ridiculous. Studies have shows that women play sports are more independent, have fewer early pregnancies, and do better in school. Why does that threaten some men so?
Ever since I started writing for The Sportswriters, I have been writing that men upset with Title IX should get over it. If men’s sports are being eliminated, find new ways of paying for them and provide the same opportunities for the women. And this was some 15 years before I had a daughter of my own. I hope that The Indignant Daughter takes pride in the accomplishments of Annika Sorenstam, Justine Henin, and women playing sports at all levels. If she decides she wants to play, I hope to provide for her every opportunity.

Sam Zell is many things, but stupid is not among them. The owner of the Tribune Company and the Chicago Cubs rejected an offer for the Illinois Sports Stadium Authority to use public funds to purchase Wrigley Field. This was a dumb idea on all points.
First, should taxpayers from all over the State of Illinois spend money that could be used on roads, schools and other much needed projects have their tax dollars used to fund purchase of a property for a private enterprise? Yes, the state owns U.S. Cellular Field, but this was civic blackmail on a colossal scale, in a different time. The economy was stronger; the tax base was stronger too; and the White Sox threatened to leave town for Tampa Bay if a new stadium was not built. The old Comiskey Park was a dump due to neglect and owners without sufficient money to keep the place nice. Say what you want about the Wrigley Family and the Tribune Company; they have kept the ballpark nice (although they may have neglected the infrastructure for too long).
I thought Zell was nuts when he said just after taking over the Tribune that he would consider selling the team separately from the park. Any fool knows that if the Cubs are worth $1 billion, it is in great part due to ownership and fan attendance to that ballpark. Zell may have considered selling the Cubs separately, but I’m sure the six purchase offers that were reportedly submitted last week included the park and team, and I’m sure that Zell understands that. In fact, it may have been negotiating via the media in threatening to break up the package.
Wrigley Field is already an official monument, meaning that the club has to get the City Counsel’s approval to make any significant changes to the park, and if the Cubs ever considered moving, they couldn’t just raise the old park, which means that the venerable park is safe for several years, at least. Public ownership won’t improve the ballpark’s chances for longevity.
Sam Zell has done the people of Illinois a greater service than wresting the Cubs away from a mismanaged corporation; by turning down Governor Rod Blagojevich and former Governor James Thompson, it ended a silly pipedream that looked good only to really dumb voters and the most way out Cub fans.

My sister-in-law and I have had a disagreement for sometime over doctors. I think that they should take into account the patient’s time and come down off their high horses when dealing with us. She is an eye doctor and believes that we should just accept the treatment we get, both in medical care and simple consideration.
The latest case sent me into hysterical rage yesterday. My doctor is a young woman who seems to believe that she is God, or at least that I should bow down to her in return for her “care.” The story: she wants me to have some tests for blood sugar, but they take 4 hours. I don’t have time to do this, and have been too busy to take time from work to do this, and, forgive me, but I’d rather spend time with my family on Saturdays. It should be noted that, for the record, I am overweight, but I have no history of diabetes in my family, and physically, I feel fine. But I have been diagnosed with asthma and depression and I have taken medication for these maladies for years.
So, my medications ran out, and the pharmacy had to call the doctor for updates. Instead of telling me the last time the medications were refilled (one month ago) that the doctor wouldn’t refill the prescription until she had seen me; she refused to fill the prescriptions at all until I saw her. Now, I’m very busy right now, and the next time I have to see this wench is May 31st. So, I made an appointment and her nurse called to tell me that she “would refill the prescriptions for 2 weeks.” This still leaves me 5 days short on medication before my appointment.
I am still angry over the sheer hubris that this woman is showing. I obviously don’t have the same concerns that she has for my health. I have been told to lose weight for 40 years; I’ve been on diets, drugs, and nothing has had any lasting effect. I told the doctor last time that why waste time and money sending me to a nutritionist when my diet is good: fruits and vegetables; little fast food (thanks to the Indignant Wife), and besides, I’m not going to do what a nutritionist is going to tell me anyway. I’m not going to kiss this doctor’s ass either and thank her for deigning to grant my request or do a lot of tests that are going to do little but fill her wallet because I happen to have insurance.
Once, I had an eye doctor that I hated to see. Decent doctor, very nice, but I would go over for a simple check-up and it would take 2½ hours because the doctor was overbooked and had so many patients that they would back up while they were waiting for him. One time, I was going to meet the wife at a restaurant in the building, but he was so backed up that she had to leave without lunch. Another time, I had a business meeting and I just left when I could wait no longer for him. I have fortunately changed doctors and don’t have to wait as long. More and more emergency rooms are advertising faster service so that an ER visit isn’t an all-day affair.
And this is the problem with doctors: YOU’RE MEDICAL DEGREE DOESN’T MAKE YOU, OR YOUR TIME, MORE VALUABLE THAN ME OR MY TIME. I have been to Bulgaria, where doctors were devalued so much that many of them needed second jobs to make ends meet because intellectuals had been devalued so much during Communism. Now, I decry the movement in this country that want people to distrust intellectuals. Stupidity is not something that people should aspire to; but it is this arrogance by people with intellect, particularly medical degrees, that makes people dislike them. And considering the number of false and inaccurate diagnoses these doctors make, one wonders if they are as smart as they think they are anyway.
There is a term doctors have for bad patients; they’re called GOMER for “Get Out Of My Emergency Room.” These are the uncooperative patients that make doctors lives difficult. Now, if this doctor had the guts (I would say “balls” but she is a woman after all) to confront me over the phone yesterday instead of subjecting the poor nurse to my anger, I might have more respect for her; but she hid behind the curtain, like the Wizard of Oz. She has to face me on May 31st, and it will be my last appointment before I change primary physicians, but I want to see her in person and let her know that I have no respect for her, her policies, and her diagnosis. I strongly suggest that if she reads this that she change office hours with one of her colleagues that day. I’m going to be GOMER in spades.

The Indignant Wife, Indignant Child and I watched Transformers over the weekend. I know that it make $24 zillion at the box office, but I held off watching it until it came on cable for two reasons: first, I was too old to be into the “car/plane turns into robot” toys back in the 1980s; second, I try to avoid any film directed by Michael Bay, and as I watched Transformers, I realized one major reason why.
Yes, Bay’s films have little if any characterization; plots threadbare; acting wooden at best. But in Michael Bay films, shit blows up; it blows up REAL GOOD. Ordinarily, this would be okay with me, since I do enjoy popcorn movies from time to time. Like another Bay travesty that made lots of money, Armageddon, Michael Bay films make my head hurt.
In Armageddon, there was a scene in which the intrepid team of oil rig workers was trying to get to the asteroid heading for Earth through tons of mini-asteroids. There was so much going on in the scene that I couldn’t follow the action; it was painful to look at because there was so much going on.
In the climatic battle scene in Transformers, the transformer that could turn into a fighter jet changed back and forth into a robot/fighter jet all the while fighting real fighter jets so often amid so many explosions that I felt my mind was going to explode.
Mr. Bay and his “fans” would probably say that my mind is too slow or addled to comprehend the action in the films, and they may be right. Maybe I like films that I can understand what’s happening in the action sequences. I contrast that with the action in Spider-Man 2; a fight that was fast and furious, but I could see what was happening and understand; it wasn’t just too many images on the screen at one time. I’ve seen Bay defend himself in the media while still thinking that due to his box office, he should be considered a major filmmaker like Spielberg or Scorsese. All I know is, he is much closer to Ed Wood.

Considering the history of futility of Chicago sports teams, often, once the playoffs start, fans choose to do one of three things if there is no Chicago representative: choose a team to root for; pick out the teams that you don’t want to win and root against them; or ignore the playoffs completely.
I usually choose number 2; no caring who wins as long as (fill in the blank) doesn’t win. This is especially true in the NHL playoffs. When they began, I was rooting against the New Jersey Devils: good team; history of success; boring, defensive hockey. As great as goaltender Martin Brodeur is; the Devils have been and always will be offensively challenged. So they play a trapping, “defend the blue line” style that has been effective, but doesn’t make for very stirring hockey.
You can guess from the top of this site who else I wanted to lose: the Detroit Red Wings. There are a number of reasons that I feel this way; one is the historic “Original Six” rivalry with the Blackhawks; the “penis envy” type animosity that Detroit people have for Chicago. Moreover, the Red Wings have become like the Soviet era Russians: older than the rest of the league; very good; and conceited in their superiority. They have call their city “Hockey Town” despite not having the most titles (if anywhere deserves to be called hockey town, Montreal with 29 championships has a valid argument). The Red Wings even wear red like the Soviet teams did.
The Red Wings have become the hockey version of the Yankees: perennial contenders. Even when they don’t win the championship, which has been 6 years and counting (including the lock out year), they are always in the upper echelon of the league. They last won Lord Stanley’s Cup in 2001-2002, after having won it in 1996-97 and 1997-1998 seasons. But, for the past few postseasons, the Red Wings were knocked off in the first round of the playoffs, leaving the team, the front office, and the faithful scratching their heads. This season, they earned the President’s Cup as the team with the most points in the regular season with 115, easily out-pointing the next best team, San Jose who had 108.
Unlike previous years, however, the Red Wings survived the first round, defeating Nashville in six games; then easily skated past the injured Colorado Avalanche in four games, winning the last one 8-2 in Colorado, embarrassing the former rival. Meanwhile, it took the Dallas Stars six grueling games including a 4 OT final game to eliminate the Sharks. The Red Wings had six days without a game, and ordinarily, one would think that rust would have set in. Instead, the Wings took Game 1 by the score of 4-1: building a 3-0 lead early and holding on. The Stars, who looked so good against the sharks and defending champion Anaheim Ducks did not look like their old selves. Unless they get themselves together quickly; it could be short and sweet.
In the East, the Penguins and Flyers begin their interstate showdown tonight, and these two teams are going to beat each other up; which could mean easy pickings for the Dead Things, I mean, Red Wings. If the Penguins prevail, I am sure that the old men like Chris Chelios will have a plan to deal with the youth and talent of Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin; and if the fifth seeded Flyers make the Finals, unless goalie Martin Biron turns into Bernie Parent, I fear that they don’t have the all around game to stay with Detroit.
Now, I’m sure that some people from Michigan will say that I am jealous of the Red Wings’ success, and I would say that in the past, I was only jealous of the Red Wings’ owner; Mike “Little Caesar’s Pizza” Ilitch, who was willing, even in the “bad old days” before the salary cap, to buy the best players available and put them on the ice. This was a stark comparison with the late “Dollar” Bill Wirtz who threw around nickels like manhole covers. But they don’t even get that jealousy anymore with Rocky Wirtz making all the right moves on and off-the-ice (with the exception of the 80% price increases announced earlier this week, but prices hadn’t increased in 10 years, so I guess they were due).
So, go Stars (even thought they were once the dreaded, hated Minnesota North Stars). I’m rooting for Sid The Kid. Go Flyers. Anyone but the Red Wings.