I have written for SportsColumn.com since 2004 and was named a featured writer in 2006. I have been Co-Editor of the site since January 1, 2009. I also write for BleacherReport.com where I am a founding member of the Tennis Roundtable and one of the chief contributors to both the Tennis and Horse Racing sections.
I am "Stat Boy" for Sportscolumn.com's weekly podcast, Poor Man's PTI.
I am currently a Junior at Rice University majoring in History and Medieval Studies. My senior thesis will focus on the desegregation of football in Texas and its affect of racial relations.
Please direct all inquiries to [email protected].
Thanks,
Burton DeWitt
Co-Editor of Sportscolumn.com
There is Elizabeth Poblete of Chile, smiling jubilantly Friday afternoon after she snatched 86 kg on her first attempt in the 75-kg weightlifting woman’s final.
Sure, it was 45 kg less than the existing world record set by Natalia Zabolotnaia of Russia in 2007, but it set her up to try a personal best 93 kg on her final attempt. That 93 kg attempt, her maximum, was still seven kg less than the minimum attempt of any of the other 12 competitors in the event.
Something here is not right.
Like the kids game, which of these is not like the other: Cordero, Vasquez, Hawley, Day McCarron, Bailey, Stevens, Krone.
Krone? Julie Krone? Amidst a list like that?
I missed this story. Completely. Had no idea about it. And in some way, I’m glad I did. It’s just so inconceivable, so inhuman that I would rather not even know about it.
And until now, I did not know about it, living in permanent ignorance. Not on this planet, never on this planet.
This might as well be the end. This might as well be a funeral.
For the past two decades, every horse racing news out of Maryland was one of contraction. Whether it was the end of the Pimlico Special, the fabled stakes race that once pitted Seabiscuit versus War Admiral in a march race, or purse cuts or requests not to have race dates at Pimlico, it has been a near-constant struggle.
I want to write this article; I really do. I want you to click on it, to read it, to laugh, maybe cry, maybe cringe, maybe email me about how much you hate it. I really do.
But I have nothing, nothing at all.
Eleven. Currently, that’s the most important number in American horse racing. There have been eleven Triple Crown winners spread out over 59 years.
However, since the dawn of television, which for arguments sake was 1952, there have only been three horses that could claim all three legs.
For any American who could not get to Louisville, Ky., Baltimore, or Elmont, N.Y., the first time he or she saw a champion horse was in 1952 when CBS affiliate WHAS covered the Kentucky Derby and the signal was broadcast across the country. Hill Gail won the race as the favorite, but an injury kept him out of the Preakness Stakes and Belmont Stakes. He never won another major stakes in his career.
Maybe I am alone; maybe I am out of touch; maybe I am just missing something. No matter what, I do not think it’s a bad thing.
When I woke up this morning, I made my normal voyage over to ESPN.com. I don’t like ESPN, never have and never will, but I need to make the trip in order to keep the proverbial enemy closer.
And there I see it.
Sometimes I keep my mouth shut even when I want to say something. In journalism, you have to. In this case, however, I should have spoken.
Watching the Wimbledon Gentlemen’s singles final, which I wrote was the greatest sporting event I ever had the pleasure to see, I refrained from mentioning my observation that Roger Federer did not want to win the match before the middle of the third set. Yes, I saw it, as painful as it was. Federer clearly did not care for half the match if he won or lost.
I am going with the same criteria as I did for the 25 worst golfers to win a major championship, with one change: I am making it a top-26.
Why 26? It’s simple. Steve Elkington is not in the same class as these other golfers, but his accomplishments make him appear to be. While everyone else arguably underachieved winning only one major, Elkington overachieved. But unlike every other overachiever in golf, Elkington time and time again stepped his game up in prestigious events. That deserves a mention, and thus he makes this list.
Okay. I’ve looked at every golfer to win one of golf’s four male major professional tournaments and picked out the 25 worst to win a title. There have been some very obscure champions, three of which even won multiple titles. But these were the worst.
Now, there were some that were less accomplished. Ian Baker-Finch didn’t achieve that much in his career, but before his mental collapse he was a top-ten golfer and many thought he would win multiple titles. He was not one of the 25 worst.