"Next they'll want to keep their courtesy cars. The story making the rounds last week was a PGA Tour rookie who, despite instructions to leave the car at the tournament's transportation office, dropped it off in a parking lot at Logan Airport and informed tournament officials that the keys were under the mat. Nice touch." (Quote from the NY Times) This is only one small bit from an extensive article about the groans and gripes at the BMW Championship.

Despite doing a lot of checking I can't find any of the St. Jude Classic field who withdrew who gave the reason as," too tired" Also there was no mention in Mr.Ballangee's post about how many players were added to the field.

So here are the 20 players added to the field of the St. Jude Classic:Spike McRoy, J. L. Lewis, Kent Jones, David Gossett, Dicky Pride, Dean Wilson, Frank Lickliter II, Jason Gore, Jim Carter, Mark Brooks, Chris Smith, Phil Tataurangi, Guy Boros, Craig Barlow, Jonathon Kaye, John Morse, Robin Freeman, Michael Clark II, Jay Delsing  and Grant Leaver.

18 players withdrew, 20 players were added. Those added were given an opportunity to build a bit more to their PGA Tour money list standing without the big dogs taking all the bones.

A better balance in the post was needed.

Ed, who posts each tournament's withdrawals and add-ons at www. rotorwire.com  about nine on Wednesday evening using the PGA Tour's Friday evening posting of the field of the upcoming event, and the PGA Tour's posting of the field on Wednesday evening prior to Thursday's start.

Prior to the "great transgressions" admission, Woods hardly would qualify for this. The congressman is anxious to find himself befriended by Woods. Pandering to celebrities is disgusting - even more disgusting is a congressman pandering to a celebrity who is known to be very wealthy hoping for a large contribution or an endorsement. These Washington types really do know no shame.

From more on this story, check out this link on the Wall St. Journal website.

Tif Joh, past frequent poster here at Waggle Room and a two-time U. S. Women's Public Links Champion, won the five-round Duramed Futures Qualifying Tournament on Friday, November sixth. Joh earned a full exemption for the 2010 Duramed Tour season. Joh, who graduated in May, had a spectacular four years on the UCLA Golf team where she was UCLA's first four-time All-American in women's golf. Also, she was voted the 2007 PAC-10 Golfer of the year and in 2008 she took the PAC-10 title..

Should golf get the green light for the Rio olympics in 2016, where are they going to play?

There are only two courses in the city: Gavea Golf & Country Club and Itanhanga Golf Club.  Reportedly, neither is long enough to handle a professional-level major event.  Further, Rio's original bid did not contain plans for the construction of new golf courses.

Brazil's highest ranked golfer, Alexandre Rocha, holds down the 550th spot in the Official World Golf Rankings (Wall Street Journal).

Tiger Woods niece, Cheyenne Woods, playing as an amateur, made her LPGA debut at the Wegmans LPGA Tour event on Thursday by shooting a three-over 75.  Miss Woods is a 19-year old rising sophomore at Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC.  To date she has maintained a low profile, tending to her books and her golf. 

Among Wake Forest golfer alums are Arnold Palmer, Lanny Wadkins, Bill Haas and a number more. 

Hopefully the media will give measured coverage rather than going into their self-serving mode.

It shouldn't be surprising that the PGA Tour would file suit for breach of contract on the part of Ginn Resorts, which was announced today

This could easily be characterized as hitting a guy when he's down - I expect that has already be discussed and resolved in Ponte Vedra and they are already girded for the upcoming skewering. Listen for, "we really hated to do this, but business-is-business".

In the stress that permeates the high-risk resort real estate business that is almost entirely dependent on discretionary disposable income, Ginn certainly already has both a balance sheet and an income statement that would demonstrate their inablity to honor the contract.

The road to the final resolution will be an interesting journey. The PGA Tour will rightfully stress the importance of contract law and fairness to others who are honoring their contracts with the PGA Tour. Ginn will demonstrate an honest inability to pay due to outside influences beyond their control.

The PGA Tour could possibly accept a Ginn property as compensation.

The Associated Press (see Yahoo golf news) is carrying the story of Ginn dropping the LPGA and Champions Tour effective immediately.

The loss of the LPGA event with its  third most attractive purse, is highly damaging.

Ginn is suffering badly in their real estate business - they expressed their wish to be accepted back in golf sponsorship in the future when their particular economic situation can support partcipation.

More dominos can be expected to drop as the season goes forward.

On Monday, General Motors discontinued their marketing accord with Tiger Woods effective December 31, 2008.

GM was a primary sponsor of Woods for nine years.

It is reasonable to expect another primary sponsor will fill the void very shortly. GM's action wasn't unexpected given the economic situation in the automobile industry.

Pete Terns, a GM spokesman, said Buick will continue to sponsor the tournaments in both California and Michigan indefinitely.

Anyone need a slightly used Buick logo-ed golf bags formerly used by a significantly talented celebrity???.

"http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/080922/sports/golf_ryder_faldo_critics"

These critics forget their attacks on past Captains - but, as one said, "in the long run this is good for the game - but it sure hurts today".

Faldo, as expected, is now target practice. The harsh British press will have a field day drilling Faldo over-and-over. It's a game they enjoy and, without fail, they always over-do the attacks and revert to personal attacks.

The Brit press used to call him FOLDO when he led for three rounds then collapsed to blow the tournament..

Nick's ego will survive somehow..

In many golf writers' columns they bloviate about the "Pooh-Bahs of Washington Road", referring to the members, whom they regularly criticize and belittle, of the Augusta National Golf Club which is located on Washington Road -at least they got the location right.

Here's what they don't write about: Post-Masters tournament disbursements from the tournament's income which include generous checks to the PGA,, the Royal and Ancient, as well as to other golf oriented groups, First Tee, etc.

Locally, they have given $1,000,000 or more to the Community Foundation serving the Augusta area - this year it's a bit over the usual $1 million. A new touch is that each employee of the National will get $1,000 that the employee is encouaged to donate to a  well-deserving charity organization of their choice.

The Community Foundation supports the mission and needs of non-profits in the Central Savannah River area, which includes Augusta.

Continue reading this post »

Ryan Herrington has a first-class two-page spread in GolfWorld, May 9, 2008, on Tif, including a half-page photo (first page) and about one-quarter page photo on page two.

Her run-up to becoming successful is quite interesting as well as bits about her humility, sense of humor and self-deprecation.

Congratulations to a hard-working, very deservingly successful young lady.

The Wall Street Journal of Saturday, April 5, 2008 in the Weekend Journal section has an interesting article about up-and-coming college-bound girls who might be the challengers in a few years.

If you are interested in reading this article please respond and we'll work out an e-mail arrangement wherein I can send it to you.

One sometimes wonders how much organized tournament golf goes on. This, from Golf Investor.com, presents some numbers for last week:

Interesting Note: This past week 1,289 players played 3,331 rounds in 1,847 OVER par (240,159 strokes; 72.10 average per round) in 11 tournaments which distributed $11,426,148 in winnings (averages: $8,864 per player; $3,430 per round; $48 per stroke).

Source: Golf Investor.com

From Reuters today. They ask if there is interest in this blog.

http://www.reuters.com/article/blogBurst/sports?type=sportsNews&w1=B7ovpm21IaDoL40ZFnNfGe&w2 =B80FEget9rRxz3kXTMmfixri&src=blogBurst_sportsNews&bbPostId=BCdDQvUwo4otB6ZxD67luGX4CzF9nL8H MDBAWB7OKVlk3DBsA&bbParentWidgetId=B84QUnZGrXRRz7weDInFJOrs

He doesn't have much time before the skildillion innings catches up with him -

 March 2, 2007

BY THE NUMBERS
By ALLEN ST. JOHN    

DOW JONES REPRINTS
This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies for distribution to your colleagues, clients or customers, use the Order Reprints tool at the bottom of any article or visit:
www.djreprints.com.

When free agent pitcher Barry Zito signed with the San Francisco Giants during the off-season, his seven-year, $126 million contract (the biggest ever for a pitcher) raised eyebrows. Despite his 2002 Cy Young award and huge marquee appeal in the Bay Area, Mr. Zito was not universally perceived as an elite starter. Throwing in the low 90s, he lacked the overpowering stuff of many top pitchers, such as Johan Santana of the Minnesota Twins and Mr. Zito's former teammate Rich Harden.

Even New York Mets general manager Omar Minaya, one of those who pursued Mr. Zito, was unwilling to offer him a guaranteed contract of more than five years. What did the Giants see that made them open up their pocketbooks? Reliability. Over the last five seasons, Mr. Zito has made more starts -- 173 -- than any pitcher in the major leagues.

But does a history of handling a high workload predict future reliability -- or does it make Mr. Zito a risk? To assess this we looked at pitchers who, like the 28-year-old Mr. Zito, made a reputation as workhorses in their mid-20s. We compiled stats for every pitcher since 1980 with 150 or more starts from age 24 through 28 who posted a .525 or better winning percentage in the process. Then we measured their performances after age 28.

Reason to Be Pleased

The result? At first glance, the Giants and their fans have reason to be pleased. Taken as a whole, the pitchers declined relatively little. When they were in the 24-28 age range, they had a collective 3.40 ERA and .610 winning percentage. Over the rest of their careers, the ERA rose to 3.83 and the winning percentage slipped to .583, both still enviable figures. Just as importantly, they averaged 176 starts, 1,166 innings, and 77 wins after age 28.
[Before and After]

But there's a hitch. The list also reveals a large standard deviation. It includes some of the game's best, most durable pitchers. There are two 300-game winners -- Roger Clemens and Greg Maddux -- plus Tom Glavine, who's almost there. It also has three other strong Hall of Fame candidates in Pedro Martinez, John Smoltz and Mike Mussina.

But some names on the list give nightmares to pitching coaches and GMs. Fernando Valenzuela, the Los Angeles Dodgers phenom, had only two winning seasons after age 25. And Chan Ho Park, who after leaving the Dodgers signed a five-year $65 million deal with the Texas Rangers, won only 22 games for them over about 3½ seasons. And Mr. Zito's career numbers lie closer to some of the busts than to the legends.

Close Comparison

The best comparison for Mr. Zito is to the man he replaced as the game's richest pitcher, Mike Hampton. The Atlanta lefty is still collecting on his $121 million deal with the Colorado Rockies. And at age 28 (one year after signing that deal), his stats were close to Mr. Zito's -- a 99-66 record, vs. Mr. Zito's 102-63, 974 strikeouts to Mr. Zito's 1096, and a 3.71 ERA to Mr. Zito's 3.55. But Mr. Hampton's record since is 39-35, with a 4.60 ERA. And he missed the 2006 season after Tommy John elbow surgery.

What's in store for Mr. Zito? His numbers should be helped by moving to a pitcher's park in the National League. But the numbers also say that Mr. Zito is a bit below the game's best starters, with his best years likely behind him. So while the Giants' future is bright thanks to young pitchers like Matt Cain and Noah Lowry, Mr. Hampton and others have made one thing clear: Giving a pitcher an ace's contract doesn't make him one.

Write to Allen St. John at allen.stjohn@wsj.com1
      URL for this article:

Some people try to find things in this game that don't exist but football is only two things---
Blocking and takling
                      __Vince Lombardi

Till I was 13 I thought my name was "Shut Up".
 ---JOE NAMATH

I like linebackers. I collect 'em. You can't have too many good ones---BILL PARCELLS

American football is an occasion at which dancing girls, bands, tactical huddles and television breaks are interrupted by short bursts of play---TIMES OF LONDON

If God had wanted man to play soccer He wouldn't have given us arms.---MIKE DITKA

The fewer rules a coach has, the fewer rules there are for players to break---JOHN MADDEN

Nobody in the game of football should be called a genius. A genius is somebody like Norman Einstein.
---sage remark by JOE THEISMAN
 

I have missed some days checking the Chronicals (my absence vs "here" record is amazing bad) and I missed the once-highly secret Christmas present for Grant....and, yes, I did chip in.

Only one answer needed.

"Though it's been said many times, many ways, Merry Christmas to you"

Schulman says Klesko signed for 1 year, terms not yet available.

Another 4th/5th infielder
Another 4th-5th outfielder...and a really bad one.

It appears Bochy is being fed all the rope he wants-the hanging awaits him. "All managers get fired no matter what anybody says", said a former MLB manager who is also in the HOF.

Henry S. says Klesko will be able to spell Bonds in LF. Klesko will be a uniform in LF but he'll not replace Bonds - who is old & slow and aches, but he's still a player. Klesko is a washed-up, foot-dragging, overweight misfit in anybody's outfield.  

   
BY THE NUMBERS
By ALLEN ST. JOHN    

DOW JONES REPRINTS
This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies for distribution to your colleagues, clients or customers, use the Order Reprints tool at the bottom of any article or visit:
www.djreprints.com.

Baseball's winter meetings are winding down, and judging by the signings so far not even the sky is the limit for teams looking to acquire free-agent talent. With the stakes higher than ever, now's a good time to ask whether front offices have learned anything from the market's recent successes and failures.

Which are the best and worst free-agent signings in recent history? It's a big subject, so we'll focus on position players and how they fare at the plate. (Free-agent pitchers will be the subject of a future column.)

To gauge a hitter's contribution in relation to his salary, we'll rely on a stat called Dollars Per Base. It starts with the money a team has paid to a player who came to that team as a free agent. It divides that number by the grand total bases (the sum of total bases, walks and hit-by-pitch) that player has amassed for his new team.

The best free-agent bargain since 2000 is David Ortiz of the Boston Red Sox, who gave his team three near-MVP quality seasons at just $9,133 per base. While it was impossible to know that Ortiz would become one of baseball's best hitters, there were signs he'd do well. At age 27, he was entering his peak years, and he'd been hampered by his home park -- in his last two seasons in Minnesota, he hit 27 of his 38 homers on the road.
HIT LIST

Which free agents were the most overpaid? While Alex Rodriquez and Manny Ramirez signed huge contracts, they've also provided their teams with impressive production. It's players like Todd Hundley, who collected over $23 million but gave the Cubs little production, that represent the worst investments in the free agent market.
PLAYER     GRAND TOTAL BASES     TOTAL SALARY     COST PER BASE
T. Hundley     288     $23,500,000     $81,597
D. Segui     382     $27,762,895     $72,678
J. Hammonds     397     $22,200,000     $55,919
A. Rodriguez     2,707     $135,680,727     $50,123
M. Ordoñez     496     $23,400,000     $47,177
M. Ramirez     2,447     $111,291,965     $45,481
K. Matsui     445     $20,099,999     $45,168
Grand total bases = Total bases+BB+HBP

Other bargains: Jermaine Dye for the Chicago White Sox ($12,519 per base) and Frank Thomas ($9,091), who gave the Oakland Athletics big production (341 bases) for little cash ($3.1 million) -- although his one-year deal at age 38 makes him more of a short-term bargain than Mr. Ortiz.

Top Dollar

While a superstar like Alex Rodriguez doesn't come cheap ($50,123 per base), blue-chip hitters at least carry the promise of long-term consistency. The danger in the free-agent market is spending big on aging journeymen. In December 2000, the Chicago Cubs signed 31-year-old catcher Todd Hundley to a $23.5 million contract. Over the course of that contract (during which Mr. Hundley was sent to the Los Angeles Dodgers), he cost a mind-boggling $81,597 per base.

The American League's spendthrift prize goes to the Baltimore Orioles for signing David Segui. The 34-year-old first baseman cost the Orioles $72,678 per base over a four-year contract -- nearly $30,000 more per base than the Red Sox have paid Manny Ramirez. A similarly bad signing: infielder Kaz Matsui, who cost the Mets $45,168 per base.

Another pitfall is overemphasizing a free agent's last year on his old contract. That's why, in dollars per base, the Seattle Mariners paid nearly twice as much for underachieving third baseman Adrian Beltre ($38,148 per base) than the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim did for Hall-of-Fame-bound Vladimir Guerrero ($21,777 per base).

How about this year's free-agent crop? Alfonso Soriano's eight-year, $136 million deal from the Cubs may not be the wisest money ever spent by a baseball team. If he continues hitting as he has over the past five years -- unlikely, because he is aging and has played in more hitter-friendly parks -- his cost to the Cubs would come out to a hefty $44,386 per base.

Even scarier is the Angels' signing of Gary Matthews Jr. to a five-year, $50 million deal, called by Baseball Prospectus's Joe Sheehan perhaps "the most perfect example ever of a bad free-agent contract." A career .263 hitter who plays decent, but not stellar, defense, Mr. Matthews got his big payday by hitting .313 this past season in one of baseball's best hitters' parks at the age of 31. If he keeps up his past five years' numbers, he'd cost the Angels $42,265 per base -- about as much as Mr. Soriano will cost the Cubs. But if his production slips a bit, and Mr. Matthews were sidelined, that figure could skyrocket. To put this in perspective, the amount of Mr. Matthews's contract is on par with the four-year contract extension Mr. Ortiz signed with the Red Sox in April. So the Angels are buyers who should indeed beware.

Write to Allen St. John at allen.stjohn@wsj.com1
      URL for this article:

www.forbes.com/2006/11/22/baseball-japan-mlb-biz_cx_tvr_1122baseball_print.html

One of my gripes about Sabean/Giants is paying far too much and getting too little in return.

Listed, below, are salaries and I know these are youngsters-- but some of them were front-line talent in the reguklar season and front-line in both the playoffs and the Series.

Justin Verlander 980,000
Vance Wilson 750,000
Nate Robertson 402,500
Omar Infante 385,000
Fernando Rodney 385,000
Ramon Santiago 375,000
Chris Shelton 365,000
Jason Grilli 350,000
Marcus Thames 342,000
Curtis Granderson Jr. 335,000
Joel Zumaya 327,000

This link to the WSJ story expires in 5 days from now, August 7, '06. Read about Dusty's abuse of pitchers.

"http://online.wsj.com/article_print/SB115464603421226312.html"