To This Guy, Tiger Is Just a Bit Ahead of Bowlers

Bob Smizik in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: “Now that he has won the Masters again, and a historic grand slam is within his reach, there are people out there, well-respected people, claiming that Tiger Woods is the best athlete on the planet.

“Excuse me, while I convulse with laughter ... This is not to suggest golfers are not athletes. They are ... But to submit that this puts him in the same class as Barry Bonds or Alex Rodriguez or Allen Iverson or Kobe Bryant or Marshall Faulk or dozens of other competitors in major sports is preposterous ...

“Some sports demand a high level of athletic ability. Others, not much at all. Golf is one of those sports.”

We assume Smizik plays golf and has been under pressure to hit a ball from a bad lie, into the wind, over water to a fast green with considerable money riding on the shot.

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Trivia time: Who holds the 100 and 200 meter records in the UCLA-USC men’s track and field meet series?

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Speed trap: Scott Ostler in the San Francisco Chronicle: “Randy Johnson closes out a game by whiffing Todd Helton on pitches clocked at 100, 100 and 99 mph. Amazing. The cunning lefty sets up Helton with fastballs and then gets him on a changeup.”

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More Ostler: “Random nugget from the Baseball Encyclopedia: He played one game at third base for the Indians in 1917--Ferd Eunick.”

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Coaching lifer: Peter May of the Boston Globe writes that Gregg Popovich of the San Antonio Spurs is a coaching disciple of Philadelphia 76er Coach Larry Brown. Said Popovich: “A lot of people get retired in the job they have. But not Larry. He’s always looking for something new. He’s always teaching. If he found some guy on a street corner who had a good idea, he’d pull out a napkin and have him diagram it.”

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Selig’s nightmare: Norman Chad on America Online: “Who wouldn’t want a Montreal-Minnesota World Series? Maybe Bud Selig. There would be nothing better than an Expos-Twins fall classic--it would be like two inmates on death row winning the Powerball lottery.

“Heck, Selig might even encourage the players to strike in September to avoid the embarrassment of his contraction victims playing in October.”

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Easy, man, easy: Indiana Pacer Jermaine O’Neal, after receiving the NBA’s most-improved-player award: “I want to get to the point where I can destroy the entire league. I plan on being here next year with a different speech. Hopefully, I’m 10 to 20 times better.”

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Looking back: On this day in 1917, Cincinnati’s Fred Toney and the Chicago Cubs’ Hippo Vaughn matched no-hitters for nine innings before Vaughn wilted in the 10th and the Reds won, 1-0.

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Trivia answer: UCLA’s Ato Boldon has the 100 record at 10.04 seconds set in 1996; USC’s Clancy Edwards holds the 200 record at 20.03 seconds set in 1978.

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And finally: Jerry West is a perfectionist, which may hinder him as the new president of the Memphis Grizzlies. In a playoff game against the New York Knicks, West had outplayed Walt Frazier, but later told a reporter: “Remember the two-on-one early in the second quarter? I had a guy open and I threw it behind him.”