The Starting Five

I’ll make this real short because it’s late and doesn’t deserve alot of mention as far as I am concerned.

I hate talking about a player I once cheered in Cleveland — at least presuming he was clean back then.

Maybe I just don’t understand the priority of baseball fans these days. Friday night Manny Ramirez made his return to baseball following his 50-game suspension for violating MLB’s drug policy.

How is it that fans can cheer an individual that is making oodles and oodles of money, has missed 50 games and is pretty much a black spot? Beats me. The LA Dodgers went 29-21 without him in the lineup, Juan Pierre hit over .300 as his replacement — but yet, the star of cornrows is back in business, much to the delight of those I can’t understand.

Dirk Schultz had a great start to the final round of the 42nd PGA Professional National Championship but in the end, it must have felt like the back nine on a sunday at the Masters.

Schultz had a pair of early birdies and only one bogey thru the front nine that left him at 2-under for the tournament. However, the wheels fell off on the back nine. schultz had bogeys on 11, 12, 13 and 15 and a double bogey on the 16th, followed with a birdie on the 17th. He finished the back nine with a 41 that knocked him out of the top 20.

He finished the day at 4-over-par 75 and 3-over-par 287 for the 72-hole tournament. Players were still on the course to determine the exact finish. He was 40th when he ended. He needed to finished in the top 20 for a berth in the PGA Championship in August.

Beaver Creek pro Dirk Schultz has teed off this morning in the third round of the PGA Pro National Championship in New Mexico.

Right now he is at level-par through the first 12 holes of his round today and remains at par for the tournament. He is playing the monster 7,500-yard Twin Warriors Club.

Today,  unlike the first two rounds, Schultz started with all pars. In the first two rounds he had been starting with two bogeys.  He has one bogey and one birdie so far thru 12 holes. Schultz really needs to get about 3 birdies along the way to move up the leaderboard.  He is 29th right now.

DIRK JUST BIRDIED THE 14TH AND 16TH HOLES TO GO TO 2-UNDER AND INTO 15TH PLACE.

TODAY’S FINAL — DIRK bogeyed the 17th hole and finished with a par to go 1-under 70 …. He stands at 1-under for the tournament and is currently in 20th place …. Half of the field is still out on the course so his official standing for the day is yet to be determined and his tee time for Wednesday.

He was also the only player from the PGA Mid-Atlantic region that made the cut on Monday.

After so many years of reporting sports you sort of think you’ve seen everything — until Monday night.

I was at the American-West End 9-10 All-Star game at West End … the closest in proximity to the Herald-Mail office whereby I could get back and write and then do desk duty. Boy oh boy, did that backfire. You figure a 6 p.m. game and by 8:30 you’re outta there.

What I, any most likely each of the veteran league officials and any of the fans — not to mention the coaches and players — experienced was  3 hours, 47 minutes of trudgery along the highway. Almost like a New York Yankees-Boston Red Sox game.

You had the feeling when the first four batters walked that it would be a long night. There were 40 base on balls and over 400 pitches thrown and in the end — even after the concession stand had been closed — American had a 27-16 win over West End in the losers bracket tilt.

UPDATE: Beaver Creek professional Dirk Schultz is playing in the PGA Professional National Championship in New Mexico beginning today.

Schultz started his round with two straight bogeys but came back with three birdies and was 1-under thru his first eight holes. He then bogeyed the first two holes on the back nine before finishing his first round with an even-par 71. He is playing the Santa Ana course, one of two courses being used for the 42nd annual tournament.

It’s the beginning of a grueling 72-hole tournament with the top 20 players gaining a spot in the PGA Championship which will be played at Hazeltine National Golf Club in Minnesota in August.

Schultz is one of 20 players from the Mid-Atlantic region in the tournament. All told, there are 312 players vying for honors. The second half of the field is playing Sunday afternoon.The cut will be made following Monday’s second round.

So it was announced today (read here) that Lance Armstrong will be a support rider — or domestique — for Astana teammate Alberto Contador at the upcoming Tour de France.

I don’t buy it for a second.

Alpha males like Armstrong — a SEVEN-time Tour de France champion — don’t come out of retirement to fetch water bottles or block wind.

I definitely predict some team turmoil in July. It certainly will be interesting to follow.

I also predict an eighth victory for Armstrong.

I really had hoped over the last two days that David Duval would have prevailed as champion in the 109th U.S. Open championship.
As a former No. 1-ranked player in the world having found his way into oblivion, he’s steadily worked on re-tooling his game in recent years and it is beginning to show.
And the other thing I like about him is he has seemingly become for media, and fan friendly.
He started the U.S. Open as the 882nd ranked player — now he is 142nd after his second-place tie with Phil Mickelson and Ricky Barnes on Monday. (continue reading…)

I’m with everyone else that certainly was not at all shocked that Sammy Sosa is one of the names on the steroids list. I just wish the entire list would be released. It’s totally unfair to those players that are actually playing, and that have played in the past, that they continue to wonder if they are on the hit list but not guilty.

So, here we are. Sammy Sosa had 609 career home runs and is 6th on the all-time list. Hmmm. Mark McGwire is 8th, Rafael Palmeiro is 10th, Alex Rodriguez is 12th and Manny Ramirez is 17th. Gee, where do their names stand in baseball infamy right now?

Made me think. Ken Griffey is 5th all-time. Do you think he is guilty?

And being from Cleveland and the Indians fan I have always been, now I am beginning to get a little suspect over the man that is currently in 13th place — Jim Thome. Gee, I really hope he is not guilty. I’d take that as a personal pain, having dealt with him when I was in the Cleveland-area media.

I can only think how Thome was when he hit the majors — 185 pounds. We knew he would be a home run threat, but wouldn’t have thought 553 of them. And how big has he gotten over the years? Anything far from 185 pounds. I hope and pray he’s not.

How many of you didn’t see this coming?

The New York Times is reporting today that Sammy Sosa was one of the 104 players who tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs in the 2003 survey conducted by Major League Baseball to determine whether or not the league needed to enact a testing policy.

Of course, Sosa has long claimed that he never used steroids, including in sworn testimony before Congress.

Oopsie.

Here is the schedule for the summer’s local road, cross country and track races:

June 20

Vince Tantillo/Jack E. Barr Memorial 5K, Hagerstown, 8:30 a.m., 301-739-3990

June 23

Wright Memorial All-Comers Track & Field Series meet, North Hagerstown High School, 6 p.m., 301-739-7004, mspinnler@cvac-md.us

June 25

Greencastle Flyers Summer Series meet, Greencastle High School, 5 p.m., 717-360-7557, richsecrest@hotmail.com

June 30

Ausherman Cross Country Series, 1-mile and 2-mile races, Waynesboro High School, 7 p.m., 717-263-0168

July 4

Run For Freedom 5K, Williamsport, 8:30 a.m., 240-313-2808, jdick@washco-md.net

Firecracker 5K, Waynesboro, 8:30 a.m., 301-514-2515, dneterer@comcast.net

(continue reading…)