When it was reported that Tiger Woods was in an accident at 2:25 AM, you just knew that life as he knew it was over. However, no one could have predicted the magnitude of what was to follow. His indiscretions were not simple lapses in good judgment. His dalliances appear to be a long-standing way of life for a man most thought to be the most idealistic athlete in history.

Make no mistake: Tiger is not the first or last wealthy, powerful man to be unfaithful. His cheating ways put him on a long list of famous adulterers. However, today’s media-madness feeds on these types of stories. And while many say they’re already tired of the Tiger-watch, I know of no one who isn’t abreast of each and every update. People love scandalous stories – especially about sex.

At first, when it was thought Tiger strayed from his beautiful wife once or twice, I said, “oh well, nothing new – just another athlete who shouldn’t have taken marriage vows. He’ll get through it, as have most great athletes and powerful people in the past.”

Originally, I believed this to be a personal matter between Tiger and Ilin Woods. However, as the “notches in his belt” continue to rise, plus new alleged ties to a doctor under investigation by the FBI regarding illegal drugs, this is beyond personal – and has become the biggest story since O.J. Tiger now has to answer to more than just Ilin. He has a responsibility to the sponsors that have paid him hundreds of millions of dollars to represent their companies. He needs to explain his life of lies.

None of us is perfect. There are many adulterers among us. But Tiger is more than a cheater. He’s a corporate fraud. He has let down his fans and the industry that helped make him a billionaire.

Unfortunately, the Golf Industry will support him….because it needs him.

In Major League Baseball there are the haves and the have-nots. No, wait. In MLB there’s the Yankees, the haves, and the have-nots. The Yankees are Bill Gates and Warren Buffett rolled into one.

With a $201M payroll, the Yankees spend more than $50M more than the Mets, the leader of the “haves” with a payroll more than $149M. After the Mets come the other “haves” – the Cubs, Red Sox, Tigers, Angels, Phillies, Astros, and Dodgers – all spending more than $100M per year in salaries. There are a few other “haves” in the $90M-range… then the “have-nots” fall into line.

As a Red Sox fan, I’m not complaining. The team for whom I root is one of the “haves” with a shot at winning a championship each year. However, since the mid-1990s, only the Marlins and Diamondbacks have interrupted one of the major-market teams from winning it all. And, I wouldn’t exactly call south Florida or Phoenix small markets – maybe just bad baseball fans.

With the Sox winning two World Series since 2004, the Yankees winning didn’t bother me as in years past. With all that spending, it was inevitable. It will just make the hot-stove season more fun in Boston this year. But for those baseball fans of “have-nots,” how long can they keep enjoying and supporting the long baseball season knowing there isn’t a chance-in-hell that their team can win a championship? How does that make Bud and the suits at MLB feel? Major League Baseball has become a league of elitists, which is just one of the many problems facing baseball.

With championship #27 under its belt, it’s happy-days again in New York. Congratulations to them and their fans. For the “have-nots,” MLB apparently doesn’t care.

Ah, the Fall Classic. Baseball in October. As a boy, it was a special time of the year. My first memories of the World Series began in the mid 1950s when names like Ford, Larsen, Berra, Mantle, Stengel, Alston, Hodges, Snider, Campenella, Maglie and Newcombe donned the sports pages. Hell, back in those days, the World Series sometimes began in late September. You know, a time when baseball was played in weather befitting the game.

Not today. Between extending the regular season to 162-games in 1961 (1962 in the NL), and expanding into a playoff system in 1995, the MLB Fall Classic appears more like a Winter Classic. Well, at least on the east coast. Watching recent Angels-Yankees games at Yankee Stadium in 30-degree weather and rain is a travesty. To make matters worse, MLB recently scheduled an afternoon game in LA and a night game in NY on the same day. Go figure. I understand time zones, but I also know it gets much colder on the east coast at night. DUH!

This year the World Series is scheduled to begin October 28^th. If the Series goes seven games (and weather permitting) it will end on November 5^th. For MLB and warm-weather residents, here’s a bit of meteorology; the East gets markedly colder in late October than in early October.

Maybe MLB was planning on a Freeway Series between the Angles and Dodgers, but that scenario doesn’t appear likely. With the Yankees up 2-0 at the time of this writing, I see no chance for the Los Angeles California Angels of Anaheim beating the Yankees 4-times in 5 games. For the record, I also don’t see anyone in the NL beating the Yankees more than once, never mind four times.

So thanks to MLB greed, we could be watching the most important baseball games of the year in 20-degree weather and snow. It’s time for all those “brilliant minds” in MLB to figure something out. Leave the games played in cold and snow to the NFL.

It’s just another example of capitalism gone amuck.

Blasphemy. That’s what fellow Red Sox fans will utter after reading this Blog. At least that’s what they’ll spout. However, in their heart, they all know Derek Jeter is one class act. The days of chanting, “Nomah’s bettah,” are long, long gone.

Recently, Jeter passed Louis Aparicio to become Major League Baseball’s most prolific hitting shortstop. And, in recent days, Derek passed the immortal Lou Gehrig as the Yankees’ all-time hit leader. But stats are not the story. In a time of narcissistic professional athletes, Jeter has always remained true to his professional and personal character – showing great respect for the game and avoiding off-field missteps.

Before claims of heresy are heard from Red Sox Nation, not all Sox fans hated the Yankees from birth. In the 50s and 60s it was more respect than hatred. Hell, some of my best friends were Yankees’ fans. That’s when I learned the phrase, “front-runner.”

The real hatred for the Yankees began for me on January 3, 1973. That was the day George Steinbrenner saved the Yankees and bought them from CBS for a measly $8.7-million.

Between Steinbrenner and names like Munson, Nettles, Jackson – and the ultimate hated Yankee, Mickey Rivers (yes, even more than Bucky F. Dent); real hatred for the Yankees grew in the mid-1970s. The classy Yankee-way took a back seat to arrogance and self-righteousness. Gone were the days of Mantle, Maris, Berra, Ford, Howard, Kubek, Richardson, et al. While constantly loosing to them was demoralizing, they were hard to dislike. Not the case for the 1970s Yankees. Hatred came easily.

Don Mattingly brought some of that class back to New York, but it wasn’t until 1995 when the skinny shortstop from Kalamazoo, Michigan was called up – and that Yankee tradition would again take hold. As they say, the rest is history.

Don’t get me wrong, hating the Yankees is a birthright of today’s Red Sox fans. It’s the foundation of the greatest rivalry in sports. And while Jeter has brought that “Yankee Way” back to the Bronx, Yankee aura, as in the days of my youth, are forever gone.

Yes, Sox fans, there was indeed a time when we admired the men in pinstripes. They were worn by the great Mickey Mantle and his band of drinking buddies.

It is hard to believe eight years have past since that dreadful day – September 11, 2001. Have you forgotten?

For one day, let’s disregard our political affiliations and take a quiet moment to remember that bleak day and those who paid the ultimate price – and say a prayer for those who have since lost their lives and continue to fight for our freedom.

From time to time, the tree of liberty must be watered with the blood of tyrants and patriots.
Thomas Jefferson

Be convinced that to be happy means to be free and that to be free means to be brave. Therefore do not take lightly the perils of war.
Thucydides

War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.
John Stewart Mill
_______

Never forget and teach our children well.

It was August of 1969, the summer after my freshman year of college. As I prepared for my return to school, I learned of an outdoor concert that I wanted to attend before hitting the books again. It was to take place on a 600-acre farm in Bethel, New York. Of course, I speak of Woodstock.

As I made arrangements with a few friends to make an end-of-the-summer 5-hour journey to this “happening” event in upstate New York, my plans were shattered by my father. He suggested I not go. As a police officer, he heard of the possible unrest. He never told me that I couldn’t go, but when Dad strongly suggested something to me, I seldom ignored his advice. Initially, I was glad not to have made the trip. A mostly rainy weekend with more than 500,000 concert-goes didn’t sound like it would have been a pleasant time. However, as the stories developed and the legend of Woodstock grew, I will be forever disappointed that I heeded my father’s advisement, as I missed being at one of the most significant moments in Rock ‘n Roll history.

As I reminisced about Woodstock, I thought back to 1969. It was certainly a year for the ages. It’s hard to believe all these events occurred in the same year…40-years ago.
•    Jets upset Colts in AFL-NFL Super Bowl
•    Elvis makes his comeback
•    Nixon becomes president
•    Beatles make last public performance
•    The Godfather novel is published
•    Midnight Cowboy released
•    John Lennon – Yoko Ono “Bed-In”
•    Neil Armstrong walks on the moon
•    Tate / LaBianca Manson murders
•    Ted Kennedy Chappaquiddick incident
•    Hurricane Camille responsible for 248 deaths
•    Vietnam My Lai Massacre
•    Butch Cassidy & Sundance Kid released
•    Beatles Abby Road released
•    The Brady Bunch premiered
•    Miracle Mets win World Series
•    First ARPANET link (progenitor of the Internet)
•    Dave Thomas opens first Wendy’s
•    First Draft Lottery since WW II

1969. A year for the ages.
(Thanks to Wikipedia for helping to refresh my memory.)

I am a dog lover. My life has consisted of four Great Danes, a Rough Collie, and a Shih Tzu. Each dog remains logged in my memory bank from different times of my life. One of my most heartbreaking memories is when a Dane died in my arms. Another dog memory is loosing my Shih Tzu when a woman broke my heart and left me. She got the dog. I miss that little dog.

So, like many, when I learned of Michael Vick’s heinous crimes, I was appalled. Send him to jail and throw away the key! However, now that he’s paid his debt to society, isn’t it time to let the man return to work and start making a living again? Hell, there are players in the NFL who have committed violent crimes against humans that are active in the league. And, while I’m probably a bigger fan of dogs than humans, Vick-haters need to relax – and PETA needs to focus on its mission of protecting animals. Unfortunately, I think most NFL owners fear PETA more than they relish utilizing the talents of Vick.

Michael Vick may not be a great quarterback, but he’s a great athlete. He’s a talent that could play almost any skill position and would help most NFL teams. He’s also probably one of the top 15 quarterbacks in the league.

I love dogs, but come-on…let the man make a living. Isn’t a second-chance the American way?

If you’re a baseball fan who has never been to Cooperstown, it is a must atop your “bucket list.” This quaint, cozy little town in upstate New York will be abuzz this weekend, as tens-of-thousands of fans make the pilgrimage to baseball’s shrine – The National Baseball Hall of Fame.

And make no mistake, the sound of cash registers ringing along Main Street and in the Hall of Fame shop will be music to the ears of baseball’s sacred community. Induction Weekend is critical to the town and its baseball monument. And, whenever a Red Sox or Yankee great is inducted, the dollars usually flow in record numbers. So with Sox legend Jim Rice and 5-year Yankee Rickey Henderson being honored, everyone will be running to the bank this year.

The question is, what about the future of this American landmark?  What effect will the steroid-era have on the Hall of Fame and Induction Weekend?

The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Major League Baseball needs to keep honoring its greatest assets. Like no other professional sport, baseball’s tradition is part of the game itself. So, with the likes of Bonds, Clemens, McGuire, Sosa, Palmeiro – and now Alex Rodriquez and Manny Ramirez all questionable future Hall of Famers – where does that leave the business of the Baseball Hall of Fame?

Could the steroid-era be the demise of this great baseball and American tradition and the beautiful town of Cooperstown?

Without great players being inducted on a yearly basis and those registers making music on Induction Weekend, where will the revenue be generated? How long would MLB and philanthropists keep the doors open at 25 Main Street?  And even if indefinitely – or, at least until we move away from this cheating era – what about the small, independent stores and vendors in this little community?  Who will save them?

The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Major League Baseball need to make some tough decisions in the near future regarding the fraudulent numbers these great players allegedly perpetrated on baseball and its fans. The business of Cooperstown was looking forward to the induction of these great players. Without them, they could be doomed.

The National Baseball Hall of Fame and MLB cannot leave these critical decisions in the hands of baseball writers who vote for players eligible for the Hall of Fame. That burden is not their responsibility – nor should it be.

It’s time for the leaders of the game to step up and set new guidelines to ensure the business of baseball and pilgrimage to Cooperstown continues for years to come.

It’s hard to believe the MLB All-Star break is upon us. With summer yet to arrive in the northeast, the weather here still feels like NBA playoff time. When do the Lakers arrive in Boston for yet another NBA Finals? Is Garnett’s balky knee good enough to play? What…you mean we have to wait another year to see that? The addition of Ron Artest and Rasheed Wallace to the Lakers and Celtics, respectively, has all but assured that rematch in 2010. But that’s for another Blog.

So, I guess it really is MLB All-Star week. For some reason the lure of the game no longer exists for me. Is it my age, or has the steroid era dampened my enthusiasm for the game and its stars? Probably a little of both.

However, for me, the game of baseball, once filled with statistics that mattered and star players who gathered yearly to put on a “show” for baseball purists, no longer exists. Oh, sure, the All-Star game now “counts,” as the winner provides its league with home field advantage for the World Series. But that, too, is a joke. Why they allow an exhibition game to carry so much weight for its historic Fall Classic is mind-boggling.

I also wonder; do the names Pujols, Utley, Beltran, Teixeira, Longoria, and Bay bring as much excitement to today’s young fans as did Mantle, Mays, Aaron, Williams, Musial and Clemente did for my generation? I hate to sound like an old fart, but I think not.

Don’t get me wrong. Players of my youth were no angels. They drank and chased women with the best (or worst) of men. We just seldom heard about it. But there was a “star power” in those days that simply doesn’t exist today. I’m sure being a kid and only getting to see baseball games on TV on weekends helped make players larger than life during those innocent years, but I think it goes beyond just that. Times have changed – and so has the game of baseball. Sadly, for the worse.

How does that song go? “Where have you gone Joe DiMaggio – a nation turns its lonely eyes to you.”

Do you think Albert Pujols and his fans know Simon and Garfunkel?

Death is inevitable. Nonetheless, we are always saddened by it - especially when it touches our mortality. Such was the case the week of 23 June 2009 in Hollywood.

Three icons have died: TV’s greatest sidekick, one of Hollywood’s favorite blondes, and the King of Pop.  For those old enough to have watched each rise to stardom, it can be difficult to accept. The line keeps moving – and we all get one step closer to the end.

Ed McMahon was 86; Farrah Fawcett 62; and Michael Jackson 50.

Most remember Ed McMahon as the sidekick of Johnny Carson on the Tonight Show. I first remember Ed has Johnny’s sidekick on the TV game show Who Do You Trust.

To many, Farrah Fawcett’s fame began as a member of Charlie’s Angels. However, she became a heartthrob to many young men as the “hot” commercial girl for toothpaste and shampoo. That big smile. That big hair. That big poster.

And, while many will remember Michael Jackson’s great performances as the King of Pop – and his incredibly successful albums, including the greatest of all, Thriller; I will most remember his appearances on the Ed Sullivan Show on December 4, 1969, American Bandstand in 1970, and his first national tour stop in Boston on October 9, 1970.  His was just a young child….and an amazing talent.

I thank them for entertaining me. May they each rest in peace.