What Happened Today? 6/15/08 Or: Too Much For One Headline

This post is a few hours late. Oh, well.

With two great headline-worthy stories, I've elected to spotlight both of them.

We start with Tiger, of course. Down one shot going into the 18th hole, with Rocco Mediate, looking to become the oldest U.S. Open champ ever, waiting in the clubhouse, was there any doubt Tiger was going to birdie? Even though The Man beached his tee shot, he managed to get up to the green in 3 shots and sank his birdie putt, setting off the loudest celebration I've ever seen in golf from the gallery. Mediate was shown on NBC saying, "I knew he'd make it", immediately after the shot. As I write this, they're in an 18-hole playoff and tied at +1 through 5 holes.

Also in the headlines: The Lakers fought off another late Celtics rally to salvage Game 5 and force the NBA Finals back to Boston. Not to be overlooked, however, is a brilliant performance by Paul Pierce, who put up a mind-boggling stat line of 38 points, 6 rebounds, and 8 assists to try and lead his team to the title on L.A.'s floor. Also not to be overlooked is the sheer mediocrity of Kobe Bryant's second half. Apart from his steal-should-have-been-a-foul late in the 4th quarter, the guy who's supposedly compared to MJ was decidedly un-star-like. No way that the greatest player ever would be allowing this nonsense to happen in the Finals.

Also in the news:

At least he didn't get the 'vote of confidence'. Mets manager Willie Randolph got no reassurances from his G.M. Omar Minaya that he will be leading the team much longer going into the Mets' West Coast trip. Two games under .500, the Mets are in 4th place in the N.L. East with the daunting Phillies starting to pull away. For a team that was among the N.L. favorites, that just doesn't work. It might be time to fire Randolph if for no other reason than to get rid of the everlasting distraction involving his job security.

Oh yeah, racing's still going on. My attention to NASCAR normally begins - and ends - with the Daytona 500 each year. But it is noteworthy that Dale Earnhardt Jr. finally won his first race in his new Hendrick Motorsports car by smartly saving some gas for the final few laps. 76 races was the winless streak that Little E had had before finally taking the checkered flag at Michigan International Speedway.

Save our Sonics. The trial to determine if the gasbag Clay Bennett can move his team immediately to Oklahoma City begins today. This is one of the saddest stories in sports this year - a team being ripped from its home and its fans for no real reason. Supposedly they need a new arena, which is a joke because their current one is about 15 years old and was roundly praised at the time as one of the best in the league. The lawyer for Seattle says that a deal was made that would keep Seattle there until the year 2010 at least, and Bennett must uphold that bargain. We'll see how it plays out. Good luck, Seattle.

The Last Word: Who will come up and immediately start raking for St. Louis after Yadier Molina likely hits the DL? The unfortunate reality is that Cubs fans are forced to be bitter towards the Cardinals due to their incredible ability to get good years out of players that are not good (Skip Schumaker, Ryan Ludwick, Todd Wellemeyer, Kyle Lohse, Braden Looper, etc.) Hopefully Molina is ok after his neck injury yesterday.