Aprill 11 - Tiger's Terrific "Two" Helps Net Fourth Green Jacket

***** I have been waiting for this day for almost 30 years so I regret to inform you that today's column will be brief. After all, it is not every day that the Red Sox get to raise a World Championship Flag at Fenway Park and therefore the column must take a back seat. This promises to be an emotional day for the kid and I hope I don’t lose it when they unfurl that banner. Tomorrow, I will have full coverage of today’s ceremony (over at backtofoulke.blogspot.com) as well as my review of Fever Pitch, but for today, you will get a helping of Tiger’s win at Augusta, Pedro’s win down the road in Atlanta, Beckett’s opening week brilliance, Belhorn’s opening week nightmare and a week’s worth of baseball observations. *****

Was Tiger’s ridiculous chip on sixteen yesterday the greatest shot in Masters history? I wouldn’t call myself a Masters historian, but I have watched a ton of golf from Augusta over the past twenty-five years, and from this spot in the gallery, I would have to put Tiger’s critical bank shot near the top of the my list, although it probably falls just short of the top spot. In case you missed it, and there is really no excuse for those of you who did, Tiger was in a tough spot on 16 yesterday. He led Chris DiMarco by a shot, but he was long of the green while DiMarco had a relatively routine twenty footer. Woods faced a tremendously difficult shot where the undulation of the green demanded that he play a shot twenty feet above the hole and let it drain back down to the flag. If flubbed, there was a decent chance a chip would stay twenty feel above the hole or roll twenty feet past it. Basically, a minor screw up would result in nothing less than a four and DiMarco would be in a position to tie or take the lead with two holes remaining.

So what does the big cat do? He maps out a plan to drop his chip high on the hill overlooking the hole and let it track down to the cup as if it were equipped with Lockheed’s new pin-seeking technology. At first, the execution didn’t appear too good as the ball looked like it might get stuck on top of the green’s upper shelf. But after a brief tease, the ball began to stalk the hole with a purpose. Finally, it lost speed and came to an apparent rest just nanometers from the cup. The fans were going crazy at this point since all assumed Tiger had just miraculously saved par without having to use his putter and, in the process, had probably retained his lead. But as the gallery was going crazy, Tiger’s caddy Steve Williams did his best Lou Loomis impersonation as he silently pleaded for the ball to complete another quarter revolution. And guess what – it worked. The ball dropped and what followed was anarchy in the crowd and a patented paw pump from Mr. Nordregan. It truly was a brilliant shot and it turned out Tiger really needed it since he bogeyed the final two holes and without that chip, he would not have snuck into a playoff and won his fourth green jacket.

So Tiger now joins Jack and Arnie as the only guys to have ever won the Masters on at least four separate occasions. That is pretty select company and given his track record at Augusta, I cannot see Tiger stuck at four with Arnie for too much longer. Tiger simply has too much for Augusta. His length is more then the course can handle and his putting is easily up to the challenge presented by those 13 stimp greens. This is clearly his best Major venue and for that reason, I expect him to win at elast a couple more Masters. Some guys just have certain courses figured out. Hogan had Riviera, Jack had Pebble and Davis Love has a hammerlock on Hitlon Head. Well, Tiger has Augusta (as well as Muirfield in Ohio). He will win there again and considering he is 4/9 there as a pro, it is probably safe to assume he wins three more green dinner jackets over the next 15 years.

While Woods certainly went out and won the tourney, kudos are in order for D-Mark who resiliently bounced back after he puked all over himself Sunday morning. D-Mark went into Sunday with a four shot lead with 27 to go, but he surrendered that lead almost immediately by shooting a 41 right out of the gates. That isn’t exactly a demonstration of grace under pressure. So after nine morning holes, DiMarco had turned a four shot lead into a three shot deficit. It would have been safe to assume at that point that Tiger would have walked away with the tourney, but D-Mark rallied hard and when he made a bomb at 11, we had the makings of a tourney. I have to give the guy credit – he played his ass off on the final 18, keeping the pressure on Tiger throughout. And after Tiger made that miracle on 16, DiMarco kept plugging away with a couple of fours to beat Tiger’s fives. In fact, Tiger was the one yesterday who was having trouble with the pressure. Woods errant tee shot at 17 and wild approach at 18 were both the result of sweaty palms and had Chris been able to sink a makeable chip at 18, we would be discussing D-Mark’s tremendous comeback this morning and not Tiger’s fourth green blazer. That would have suited me fine since I cannot take too much more of this crap with Tiger and his tearful dedications to his father. Lest you forget, we heard yesterday’s rant before when Tiger won his first Masters. It was syrupy then and it belongs on some IHOP table today.

I loved watching Pedro Martinez stick it to his critics yesterday with a dazzler down in Atlanta. In case you missed it, Pedro was vintage Pedro yesterday afternoon, yielding just two hits in a 101 pitch complete game victory over John Smoltz. He was masterful as he attacked hitters early in the count and then put them away with ease. Moreover, he was hitting 94 on the gun and silencing hitters with both his heat and his change. This was clearly not the guy who critics, mostly based in New York, had laid to rest over the off-season. I cannot tell you how many times I have heard over the past year that this guy was damaged goods and on his final legs. In fact, just last October, I can recall some guys on ESPN radio remark that Jeff Suppan gave the Cards an edge over Pedro and the Sox in Game 3 of the World Series. Jeff Suppan? Such talk was asinine as Pedro later proved by shutting down the Cards that night in St. Louis. But the talk didn’t stop there. Chris Russo – the dog on New York’s WFAN – has consistently argued over the past six months that Pedro is not in the top-10 or even top-15 starters in the game. When pressed, Russo has no problem putting guys like Mark Mulder, Roy Oswalt, Kerry Wood and Jason Schmidt ahead of Petey. Listen Chris, you couldn’t be any further off the mark. Pedro, as evidenced by his first two starts in the National League, just needed some new scenery. He may not last four years, but with his health, he is a dominant starter, as he proved yesterday. I’ll take Pedro over Russo’s love child – Jason Schmidt – any day of the week.

It is way too early to go crazy, but perhaps the most important opening week showing goes to Florida pitcher Josh Beckett who has been lights out right out of the gate. Beckett, the star of the 2003 World Series, opened the season by blanking the Braves over six and then went out yesterday and threw a complete game shutout over the Nationals. That is fifteen scoreless innings and seventeen strikeouts for you scoring at home. Now both the Braves and Nationals don’t figure to be near the top on the NL in offense this year, but scoreless innings count against anyone in my book. This start has to be tremendously encouraging for Fish fans that are banking on this guy to become a dominant starter. This hefty gunner showed much promise in the 2003 World Series, blanking the Yanks in the game 6 clincher, but 2004 was a lost cause due to injury and blisters. But if this week is any indication, Beckett appears ready to dominate and with this kid anchoring the rotation, the Fish will be the team to beat in the NL East.

Baseball Observations from week one - Eighteen teams in major league baseball completed the week at 3-3. And I thought the NFL was the league struggling with parity? Pat Burrell is simply killing the ball down in Philadelphia. How long before he reverts back to the mean and becomes the underachiever Philly fans have come to love? JD Drew is off to a great start with two hits in his first 27 at bats. Just think Dodgers fans, you have him until October of 2009. Former Dodger Steve Finley has gone hitless in five of the six games he has played so maybe GM Jerry DePodesta isn’t as stupid as we all assumed. Jim Edmonds and Scott Rolen picked right up where they left off in the World Series, going a collective 7-35 this week. Jason Giambi is the worst defensive first baesman in baseball and his bat isn’t a whole lot better. That begs the question: who plays his position worse – Jason or Bernie? Arizona hit 13 bombs this week and is slugging at a .560 clip. You think that will hold up for another week? Not unless they get to keep on facing the back end of the Dodgers rotation, which featured Scott Ericsson on Saturday night. Billy Beane broke up his big three and the A’s still had the best pitching in the AL over the first week. And if Barry Zito hadn’t been bombed twice, the results would have been even better. Eddie Guardado is awful and should be dropped from any fantasy team. The Rangers are counting on Ryan Drese? And speaking of the Rangers – there goes that plan of trading Alfosnso while he still had some value (6-30 with one walk).

Can you believe that Mark Belhorn has already struck out eleven times this year? That is not a misprint. ELEVEN TIMES! That is 11 K’s in six games and it puts him on pace to easily shatter the Adam Dunn’s year old record. Last year, Belhorn earned some points for his run production and his walks, but such virtues have not shown up in the early stages of 2005. He has no walks or RBI’s over the season’s first week and he looks a lot like the player who was almost benched before he warmed up and hit that big dong in game six of the ALCS last year. The word coming out of Spring Training this year was Belhorn was going to be more aggressive in 2005, hoping to avoid taking so many strikes early and thus reducing his exposure to unfavorable counts. I have no confidence that this strategy will pay any dividends whatsoever since Belhorn is just as prone to rack up strikes swinging as he does taking pitches. I probably asked this question 112 times last year, but it probably bears repeating – have you ever seen anyone swing and miss pitches as badly as Belhorn?