AUGUSTA, Georgia (Reuters) – Bubba Watson conjured a miraculous par from pine straw to become only the third left-hander to win the Masters with an emotional playoff victory over Louis Oosthuizen at Augusta National on Sunday.

On the first hole of the masters playoff (#18), both players hit very good first and second shots. Both had a shot to hole their putts but couldn’t. On the 2nd playoff hole (#10), both hit terrible tee shots. Oosthuizen got a lucky bounce and was left in the rough. Watson, however, was deep in the woods. Oosthuizen played first and left his second shot off the front of the green. Watson, in a shot that will be remembered for years to come, hooked a shot around many trees to within 25 feet of the cup. He then 2 putted to win his first major and the 2012 Masters.

Reuters: Top News

The Fray’s National Anthem

I’m not going to spend a ton of time on this one but did you happen to witness The Fray’s national anthem before the start of the NCAA Basketball National Championship?

Wow. Before I get accused of being out of touch and “not cool”, I’ll point to the tepid applause from the crowd. Over 70,000 people clapped like it was lecture on mathematics. Did you see the looks on the faces of the head coaches as it was being sang? How about the players? Cheerleaders were laughing. Those are facts.

Now for my personal opinion…It might have been the worst Star Spangled Banner I have ever witnessed. I don’t remember all of them but this one was really bad. Rosie O’Donnell is up there and Carl Lewis did not do well but this one was brutal.

For those of us who are patriotic, the Star Spangled Banner is a revered and wonderful anthem that allows us all to be united as one group. For those of US who don’t get caught up in the “corniness” of the Star Spangled Banner, the song is a way to bring the hype of the game to a fever pitch. It gets the blood going in anticipation that the game is ready to start. The hype is over. It’s the signal that it’s “time to get in ON!”

The Fray’s version of the anthem did none of that. I still shake my head thinking about it and we’re two days removed from the game. I’m guessing The Fray will not be asked to do that again. They may have lost some fans over that one. What they probably hoped was to build a following from standing out. Maybe they did but it’s certainly not the demographic I’d be looking for.

Let’s be clear, this was not the NCAA tournament, or even the NIT, this was the Lancaster Recreation League Midget Division Championship.

My son participated in our local recreation department basketball league. The age group is 9-11 and was a terrific experience for a kid who isn’t all that interested in sports to ease into it. The league consisted of 8 teams and has a nice format.  Each team consists of 2 captains (two of the older boys) and did not have an actual ‘coach’.  Some might question the lack of a coach, but it was really a terrific way to set it up for this level.  There are too many adult coaches who interject themselves too much and get obsessed with winning rather than learning at this stage.  Don’t get me wrong, I hate to lose, but at this entry level the format that brought the younger boys in slowly and laid the responsibility on the older boys was a terrific building block for the next step.

The captains are responsible for subs and making sure each player gets equal time.  The responsibility assigned to the older boys was worth its weight in gold for them.  I didn’t witness a single argument about playing time or substitutions.  The captains were tasked with handing it out evenly and they did a terrific job. Our team captains deserve a lot of credit. I would call them out by name, but not all parents want to see their kids name on the web nowadays.  Great job Jacob!

My son’s team had a captain who took his responsibility very seriously and even made sure every player scored during games where a cushion allowed it.  As someone who is new to the game, my son was rather lost out there.  The first few sessions of the league were instructional, but since he doesn’t watch the game on TV, he didn’t know what they were saying when they would shout “cut through”, or “set a pick at the top of the key”.  He had a deer in the headlights kind of look at times, but he worked as hard as he could (amidst his confusion) to make sure he didn’t let his teammates down.  He must have seen a Ray Lewis pep talk.

I am not sure if winning or losing is the best in terms of a learning experience at such a young age.  My son participates in Tae Kwon Do and should be testing for his black belt this summer, however Tae Kwon Do doesn’t have a winner and a loser in the pursuit of your black belt.  I hope that he doesn’t take the experience for granted and continues to build on it. My hope is that he is instilled with the winning feeling and never stops chasing it.

Ray Lewis is a motivator.

Say what you will about the man, but Ray Lewis is all about supporting the guy beside him and not letting his teammates down.  If the first minute of this Ray Lewis Pep Talk to the Stanford basketball team before their 2012 NIT semifinal game doesn’t give you chills, or make you well up with a bit of pride / emotion / inspiration, I would be surprised.

$29 National Championship tickets? The NCAA tournament is widely considered the best sporting event in america. The final game is tonight between Kansas and Kentucky. The game is being played in the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana. I live 8 hours away and have thought about going to the game. It’s 8am CST. If I leave now, I could be there by 4pm. Stub Hub has over 2,500 tickets available for the game and some as low as $29. There are fantastic seats available at $125-$200 a seat. That’s an awesome deal for a championship game featuring 2 “blue-blood” and storied basketball programs. It’s likely to be a good game. If Kentucky wins, New Orleans is libel to break out in the Blue Grass version of Marti-Gras. Apparently, there was a lottery for Final Four tickets and Kentucky fans requested 34% of the Superdome tickets. The next closest percentage was Ohio State at 4%.

Either way, it should be a great time and for people who complain about sporting event tickets being to pricey (I occasionally do this), this is a great way to see the games most important game.

I should go. Any sports fan within 2 hours should definitely go.

Is US Soccer making progress? Shouldn’t there be dramatic improvement based on all the kids that play soccer in this country? In light of our US team not qualifying for the 2012 London Summer Olympics, these questions are worth asking.

While I might be a little late on the review of the US Men’s soccer team, I just can’t get past how poorly we continue to play. Last Saturday, The US Men’s U23 Olympic team (not sure if that’s an accurate statement since they are decidedly NOT an Olympic team as of Monday night) lost to Canada 2-0 to force a Monday showdown with El Salvador. The US, needing a win, had to play prove that, as the overwhelming favorite, they could take care of business when necessary. It didn’t happen. A 3-3 tie to El Salvador meant the US team will stay home and El Salvador and Canada advance to Kansas City’s semi-final round.

Game Opinion: The US played the first minute and several good minutes in the second half. In between was a series of kick ball games and bad coaching decisions that led to the end of a bid for the 2012 London Summer Olympics. A goal in the last 20 seconds of stoppage time by El Salvador sealed our fate. The goal itself was bad. Don’t believe, here is some footage: El Salvador/USA highlights (or lowlights depending on your point of view!)

I’ve been saying this for years now but I’ll say it again…In a country of 311,000,000 people, can we not find 11 soccer players who can play real soccer? Maybe we need to change the name back to futbol so they start attempting to reach a standard of “soccer” that everyone else is trying to play. It’s so frustrating to sit and watch players kick the ball aimlessly, send misguided passes to the center of the field (see tying goal footage), take horrible first touches, make piss poor coaching decisions by taking out Joe Corona AND captain Freddie Adu, and exhibit strange and hapless defensive play.

It’s really inexcusable. I don’t have the answer. I’m no expert. I get that. But why do I have the SAME QUESTION year after year. El Salvador has about 6,000,000 people in the entire country. We have 9 metro areas with that many people! Canada has 34,000,000 and it snows all the time! When do they even play soccer? I can go on and on about the reasons why US soccer should be far superior to what it is. No wonder why so many Americans prefer to watch other sports. Watching Men’s soccer is like watching ___________ (name a really frustrating and poorly played sport that other countries play extremely well). AAAAHHHHHH!

As I’ve said, it’s really frustrating.

Are you Rooting For Tiger Woods?

I used to root for Tiger Woods. I don’t anymore. I used to enjoy seeing someone so talented leave everyone in his dust. Tiger, when he was on his game, man-handled golf courses. How good must someone be that the odds makers were taking bets for Tiger or the rest of the field. We know the answer. 14 majors good. Lately, Tiger seems to be making a sort of a comeback.

I’m noticing a lot more attention being paid to him. I saw the SportsCenter ticker listing him as the leader after the second round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational. Part of me gets caught up in how I used to pull for him. Then I realize all that’s happened in the past several years and I look for something else to do. While I remember the good ole days and my interest in golf, those days are gone.

The Midday 180 – 104.5 The Zone – Nashville, TN

If you have any interest in sports, I suggest listening to The Midday 180 on 104.5 The Zone in Nashville, TN. It airs between 12 noon and 3pm CST. You can listen live online from their website. The show features Jonathan Hutton, Chad Withrow, and Paul Kuharsky. These guys could not be more different. Actually, I think Chad Withrow and Jonathan Hutton are much more similar than Paul Kuharsky. Kuharsky, a 1991 graduate of Columbia University, and self admitted “die-hard Yankee” has been a sports reporter ever since…I believe. He’s worked for the Tennessean, ESPN.com (current gig), and 104.5 the zone. He participates on the morning show with Frank Wycheck (former Tennessee Titan) and is one of the hosts of Midday 180.

The reason I spend so much time on Kuharsky is because he’s probably the guy you’ll love to hate. Either Kuharsky doesn’t at all care to be liked or he goes home at night and sobs like a baby over all the people in Nashville who dislike his loudmouth and arrogant attitude towards his listeners, especially those from the south. He insults people and defends himself as being a guy willing to speak his mind. I think Kuharsky believes it’s his job to point out the shortcomings of anyone he believes doesn’t do it his way. My guess, however, is ratings are going through the roof, because, even though your skin may crawl just to hear the sound of his voice, it’s like a train wreck…you just can’t avoid listening to it. Speaking of train wrecks, it might eventually end in a train wreck. Ok not a train wreck but a fist fight among the hosts could be in the offing.

I keep tuning in so I don’t miss it. We might need to start an over/under on the date all three start wailing on each other. Hutton and Withrow seem to have it under control so it probably won’t  get to that point. Kuharsky is also very much in control. No one would characterize his behavior as out of control. But Kuharsky’s attitude is DEFINITELY combative. All three probably also realize how the ying and yang make for some pretty good “train wreck” style of radio. It’s almost a “shock jock show” southern style. Think Tabasco sauce on chicken wings. Chicken wings are mild until you throw Tabasco sauce on them.

On some level, Kuharsky is a bully with a microphone. He’s got control of the mike. He can cut you off when he feels like it and keep talking. I think he likes the power. While Withrow and Hutton occasionally agree with Kuharsky, the disagreements are worth listening to. Withrow and Hutton live by a kind of human decorum that is foreign to Kuharsky. Instead of going home at night and sobbing, Kuharsky might go home and laugh at how much he digs at so many listeners.  If that’s the case, he won’t make any lifeboats among listeners.  But, at the end of the day, the owners of 104.5 the zone are also laughing and maybe all the way to the bank.

Speaking of lifeboats, I did hear a story that Kuharsky lives/lived by a lake and next to a country music singer. Apparently, Kuharsky and this country music singer got into a dispute because Kuharsky, big shock here, complained about something so much, the singer decided to do something about it and, from what I recall, got the last laugh. I cannot confirm this story but…that’s what I heard. I say this because I believe complaining is a tiring exercise. It wears you out and ultimately doesn’t do anyone any good. Maybe Kuharsky got what was coming to him for all the complaining he does.

Most Popular Sports Team…In The World

According to the number of Facebook likes, which because of their popularity around the world, here are the most popular sports teams in the world:

1. FC Barcelona – 28.3 million “likes”
2. Real Madrid – 25.8 million “likes”
3. Manchester United – 23.4 million “likes”
4. Los Angeles Lakers – 12.5 million “likes”
5. AC Milan – 9.6 million “likes”
6. Arsenal – 9.4 million “likes”
7. Chelsea – 9.1 million “likes”
8. LIverpool FC – 8.7 milllion “likes”
9. Boston Celtics – 6.2 million “likes”
10. Chicago Bulls – 5.5 million “likes”
11. New York Yankees – 5.2 million “likes”
12. Miami Heat – 5.1 million “likes”
13. Dallas Cowboys – 4.5 million “likes”
14. Pittsburgh Steelers – 4.2 million “likes”
15. Boston Red Sox – 3.4 million “likes”
16. New England Patriots – 3.3 million “likes”
17. Bayern Munich – 3.3 million “likes”
18. Juventus – 3.3 million “likes”
19. Green Bay Packers – 2.8 million “likes”
20. Chicago Bears – 2.3 million “likes”
21. New York Knicks – 2.2 million “likes”
22. Manchester City FC – 2.2 million “likes”

Most Popular sports team…in the world source: Facebook

NHL Most Popular Teams

Taken from Yahoo! Sports team pages, here are the NHL most popular teams by fan follows:

1. Detroit Red Wings – 253,430 fans
2. Chicago Blackhawks – 140,580 fans
3. Boston Bruins – 127,939 fans
4. Pittsburgh Penguins – 123,746 fans
5. Anaheim Ducks – 120,777 fans
6. Dallas Stars – 105605 fans
7. New York Rangers – 103,213 fans
8. Colorado Avalanche – 102,708 fans
9. San Jose Sharks – 95,353 fans
10. Philadelphia Flyers – 93,890 fans
11. New Jersey Devils – 76,306 fans
12. Los Angeles Kings – 73,014 fans
13. Buffalo Sabres – 59,865 fans
14. Toronto Maple Leafs – 59,384 fans
15. St. Louis Blues – 57,041 fans
16. Washington Capitals – 56,206 fans
17. Carolina Hurricanes – 53,718 fans
18. Minnesota Wild – 49,130 fans
19. Tampa Bay Lightning – 44,690 fans
20. Montreal Canadians – 43,195 fans
21. Winnipeg Jets – 41,366 fans
22. Columbus Blue Jackets – 40,203 fans
23. New York Islanders – 39,138 fans
24. Vancouver Canucks – 37,468 fans
25. Phoenix Coyotes – 31,092 fans
26. Nashville Predators – 28,578 fans
27. Calgary Flames – 27,679 fans
28. Florida Panthers – 26,068 fans
29. Ottawa Senators – 25,039 fans
30. Edmonton Oilers – 20,382 fans

NHL Most Popular Teams Source: Yahoo! Sports.

Related Story: MLB Most Popular Teams