AAVR Magazine

I want to apologize for my long absence—with the summer upon us I feel I will be better able to write more consistently.

With baseball in full swing and football training camps beginning, we’ve started to hear that ugly word “injury,” the word nobody likes to hear. For owners, managers, and even fantasy baseball enthusiasts, injuries are killers of the season. And recently I have noticed that the number of injuries in many sports have skyrocketed, and the types of injuries that are being suffered vary greatly. Yet, what truly drives this article is the astonishing feat that Tiger Woods was able to pull off just two weeks ago in five days. I know that he has been in the headlines for a long time now and that his story has become like an overplayed song, but it really is spectacular.

We all know the story of Tiger Woods in the US Championship tournament at Torrey Pines two weeks ago. But what amazes me is what he went through to accomplish this great task, and how it compares to other sports. We do not know for sure when exactly Tiger incurred all of these injuries. However, we do know that for most of the tournament he was playing in terrible pain, that to be honest most of us would call in sick for at a job where we sit behind a desk. But he went about his day and his “job” and completed all tasks ahead of the rest. And when all was said and done the carnage report came out with two fractures in each bone of his leg, and a torn ACL. This is mind boggling.

Let’s compare this to other athletes in other sports. Many defend athletes in other sports, saying that he wouldn’t be able to do this in this sport or do that for that sport. I think differently. You hear it all the time in football, this man out with an ACL tear, or this player goes down with a fractured leg. And most people argue that they have more physical needs than that of Tiger Woods. Again, wrong. The swing that Tiger uses places more pressure on his front leg (the leg injured) during the downswing and follow through than any movement a football player makes.

We can compare that to another sport, baseball. First of all I would like to say that baseball is America’s and the world’s greatest sport in my mind. But the players sometime take it all for granted. For instance, just the other week I saw three pitchers go on the 15-day DL because of shoulder soreness. This is inexcusable. In the past when true baseball was played by the greats, the players went out everyday regardless of if they were 100% or not. They loved the game therefore they played everyday with a smile on their face and a small paycheck to boot. Again people will argue Tiger did it for the money. Sure he did, thats how he gets paid. But he also did it because he wants to be great and be distinguished from the rest.

Another sport I would like to use as an example is soccer. The most popular sport around the world is, I feel , filled with the most prima donnas. Honestly, they get clipped in the leg running for a ball and they fall and yell and complain begging for a card to be handed out by the referee. And then they are taken off in a golf cart because their own teammates cannot help them off. It is atrocious to see some of the lengths to which these players go to get a card drawn for a harmless foul. Do not get me wrong—soccer is a good sport filled with many talented and hard working athletes but I think these few who take “dives” really give all involved a bad rap.

In short, my hat is off to you Mr. Tiger Woods for your superior efforts. You are a true athlete who suffers for what they do best, as well as the other millions of athletes both past and present who played through adversity to become legends.