LIV'in it up
So the LIV starts this week. The much-ballyhooed, highly controversial golf tour is guaranteeing payouts, doing away with cuts, sharing profits and offering a slew of player-based bonuses and benefits in an effort to lure top names from the traditional PGA Tour.
Yes, they are doing it with the backing of Saudi billionaires, including one crown prince who has been implicated in the murder of an American journalist who wrote unflattering opinions of the prince in the Washington Post.
But the first LIV tournament starts this week, and if you can separate the money source from the sport - and if you can't that's fine too - the details are more intriguing than I would have expected four months ago when Phil Mickelson's famous quote was floated and all of the PGA Tour appeared galvanized against Mickelson, commissioner Greg Norman and the LIV Tour in general.
Let's start with Mickelson, who broke his silence Monday afternoon and has committed to making his return from self-exile following his comments this week at the LIV event. He is the final entry in the field, and as a six-time major champion and the oldest player to ever win a major, he is clearly the biggest name in that tour.
His comments showed a humbleness and even a sadness as he discussed the reasons why - money sure, and you have to believe Phil is going to cash a nine-figure check just for committing to the LIV - but the sacrifices and self-evaluation come through too. There's more here.
Norman also spoke this week, flashing his Shark teeth at a slew of adversaries, calling out the PGA Tour, saying Rory McIlroy is brainwashed, calling Jack Nicklaus a hypocrite and even sharing some details that it appears the LIV folks offered Tiger Woods folks "high nine figures" to join Mickelson in the move to the new Tour.
Still, if we are being honest, the LIV Field - Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, Sergio Garcia, several famous (and older) European players, with rumors floating that Rickie Fowler may be added today - is a lot more recognizable than I expected.
Yes, the streaming TV options are less than ideal. Yes, The Telegraph is reporting that tickets are far from flying off the shelf and even some of the top names in the field had a hard time giving away tickets. And yes, keeping an eye on how much ESPN and The Golf Channel and the rest of the traditional PGA broadcast partners keep an eye on the LIV will be interesting, too.
But through Mickelson's infamous quotes - remember Norman's claims that several bigger names backed out at the 11th hour after Mickelson rallied on the Saudis - and the controversy and the threats of banishment from the PGA and all of it, you have to believe Norman and Co. are pleased with the potential of the field and the product heading into the debut event.
A bogey for 'Top Gun'
So maybe it's not all great news and rosy reunions for Maverick and the "Top Gun" folks.
Apparently, the family of the writer who wrote the original article in 1983 on which the 1986 "Top Gun" was crafted is suing Paramount about the current installment of the film.
Oh, buckets of Slider's volleyball sweat. Can't we have anything nice? Can't we have anything fun? Here are the details of the lawsuit, and Paramount is promising to fight it vigorously, which means they will lawyer up until the offer from the plaintiffs gets low enough that it becomes cost-effective to settle with a non-disclosure agreement.
America. Gotta love it, right?
As for "Top Gun: Maverick," wow. Loved it. From the very beginning of the movie, Tom Cruise and Co. did a wonderful job of staying true to the franchise and to our collective memories and connections to the characters.
It was edited exceptionally well, because we are not bogged down with lovey-dovey details and backstories and flashbacks of Maverick's previous relationship with Jennifer Connelly's character. The producers and directors are smart enough to believe the audience is smart enough to figure it out.
They also did a wonderful job of a) making it very kid-friendly for middle-schoolers and up, and b) making it appealing to the young people who may not have seen the first one.
Multiple thumbs up from this amateur movie critic and longtime fan of "Top Gun."
Side question: How much has Tom Cruise pulled a Kenny Chesney-like career arc? Both hit the scene with thunderbolts and looked like each was headed to all-time status. Dipped into some commercial dreck for some coin and answered that with some forced attempts to be critically acclaimed and lost their direction, self and entertainment sense of self. Then settled in later in life, and being done with proving anything to anyone but themselves, are finding a series of hits that make you remember why they were superstars out of the gate.
College baseball's new ways
So the first weekend of the NCAA baseball tournament was wild.
Runs everywhere. One-gun salutes. Cigarettes in the dugout for "good luck." Umps pushing players. Dogs, cats living together in harmony.
Let's review.
First, offense was the story, especially in Knoxville, where every game save the final was won by a team with a double-digit run total, and top-ranked Tennessee's regional final win over Georgia Tech ended 9-6 with Tech threatening with the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth. All told, how about these numbers: If my Auburn math is right, 1,499 runs were scored across 105 games in the regionals.
Five SEC teams advanced, including the Vols, who have embraced being the baddest of bad boys since the Pistons and maybe even the 1970s Oakland Raiders.
One of the teams the Vols beat was the Campbell Camels, who had a pack of Marlboro Reds in the dugout that was framed during an interview and, because of the world in which we live, demanded explanations because, think of the children being exposed to a pack of lung darts on the bench in a college baseball game.
(Side note: How the Campbell Camels are not picking, you know, Camels, is anyone's guess.)
It also leads to the growing debate raging through college baseball about the division between the old-school ways and the kids-being-kids fun of the modern game.
I'm 100% team fun. Have celebration moves. A slew of different high fives to celebrate home runs. I'm for the face paint (eye black stock has to be going through the roof) and have loved watching UT become the epitome of playing the game with a less-Crash-like "fear and arrogance" and more of a modern "fun and indifference."
(Side note: All of that said, if my child is ever good enough to be in the position that Jordan Beck was Sunday and they flipped off the opposing outfielder - or even the ESPN camera after the UT-ESPN brouhaha last weekend - I would not give two rips what was done or not done by his coaches. But his/her first call after the game would be from me chewing them up one side and down the other and to remember to act like you have some raising. Because the one-gun salute in that scenario - no matter what lengths the UT fan base is going to excuse it/rationalize it - should be addressed. And then moved on from. But know if it had been my offspring, we'd be having a long hard conversation about it.)
Those antics reached a new and different level Monday in East Carolina's Super Regional-clinching win. ECU slugger Bryan Worrell drilled his 18th homer of the season deep into the right-field sky and admired it for a second. Not an overly long time, mind you, but certainly a dramatic pause, an artist admiring another dazzling piece of work.
(Side note: Pitchers who don't want hitters gazing at moon shots should NOT give up moon shots. There you go.)
Well, the home plate ump comes from behind the plate and puts his hand on Worrell and nudges him toward first.
Lots of opportunity for error here, and if I had to guess, the ump realized that it was late in a win-or-go-home game in which Worrell's seventh-inning shot made the ECU lead 13-2. So if the ump was trying to defuse a tense situation - and he has the best perch to hear the banter and gauge that tension - then his intentions were noble.
His execution is questionable at best.
First, what if Worrell thought it was the opposing catcher putting hands on him? That would not have ended well.
Second, the universal rule across sports is you can't put hands on the ump or referee. Simply can't. But that has to be a two-way street, even with noble intentions, right?
Still, college baseball's mad dash for joy and fun sure is coming with some consternation these days, no?
This and that
- Here's today's A2 column from some round-faced fella that expands on a conversation we started around these parts Monday about the shootings in Chattanooga. Thanks for reading and for the support my friends.
- So, speaking of golf, GolfWeek magazine ranked the best private courses in the country by classic standards and modern standards. They then divided the list by state. In Tennessee, not a shock that The Honors in Ooltewah was No. 1 in the state. Black Creek was ranked No. 5. In Georgia, Augusta National was No. 1 in that state - duh! - The Farm in Rocky Face and Lookout Mountain ranking 11th and 14th in Georgia respectively. Here's more.
- An interesting look at the business side of one of the greatest turnarounds in sports. According to this Sports Business Journal story (pay site), the Golden State Warriors have embraced innovation and become one of the most successful sports and entertainment franchises anywhere. Golden State is projected to do $800 million in revenue - which would be an NBA record - for the 2021-22 season.
- Wow, the Red River Rivalry will truly decide a national title this year. In softball. So there's that.
- Update from Monday when we noted that Kyle Rittenhouse said over the weekend he was going to Texas A&M and A&M unloaded the Lee Corso, "Not so fast my friend." Well, now Rittenhouse is saying he's headed to Blinn College - Blinn officials say he's not enrolled yet - and plans to transfer to College Station because, as he said, Blinn is "a feeder school for A&M." If he does go to Blinn, does Kyle Rittenhouse pass Cam Newton as the most famous Blinn attendee? Discuss.
- Super five-star recruit with the 10-star name Arch Manning reportedly had another great visit to Georgia. (Side question: Aren't all the big-time visits for the big-time recruits great? I mean it's multimillion-dollar coaches who run eight- and nine-figure programs making sure teenagers have the times of their lives on college campuses. There's no way it's not great.) Anywell, if I'm Kirby don't you know I am peppering Arch with subtle, "So how much longer do you think Nick will be in T-town" vibes, and if forced to pick, I'd make Georgia the favorite all things considered.
- In honor of D-Day, Paramount showed "Saving Private Ryan." Dang right I watched it.
Today's questions
True or false it's Tuesday. Morning Ernie; stay dry.
True or false, you are interested in the LIV.
True or false, the LIV will be around in 2024.
True or false, they should have offered Tiger Woods 10-figures, and then true or false, Tiger plays some LIV events for $1 billion.
True or false, you've seen "Top Gun: Maverick." (If so, feel free to offer your thoughts.)
True or false, "Shakespeare in Love" over "Saving Private Ryan" for the 1999 best picture Oscar is the worst travesty in the travesty-filled history of the Academy Awards. (And if you say false, cite your work with example please.)
True or false, the SEC is more dominant nationally in baseball than it is in football.
You know the drill. Answer some T or Fs, leave some T or Fs.
As for today, June 7, let's review.
Wow, Prince would have been 64 today. R.I.P. I'm not sure we could ever do a Rushmore of musicians - too broad, too vague - but I would have a hard time leaving Prince Rogers Nelson off and you can believe that.
Anna Kournikova is 41 today. Rushmore of athletes who were more famous than successful, because she could be far left.