Once again, sports reporters eager to avoid angering Tiger Woods and becoming 'Persona non Tiger'

My comments follow this latest update from TMZ.
-----------
TMZ.com
Tiger Woods Cornered -- Turns Cops Away

Posted Nov 28th 2009 5:09PM by TMZ Staff

http://www.tmz.com/2009/11/28/tiger-woods-elin-nordegren-florida-highway-patrol/

-----------
Well, what do you know?
Maybe ESPN's Sunday morning edition of
The Sports Reporters will actually be
interesting and relevant for the first time in
what seems like ages, as the Usual Suspects
of sports sages weigh-in, gingerly, on what's
happened the past few days on the golf icon
and guaranteed moneymaker named
Tiger Woods.

Personally, though I know it will never
happen, I'd love to hear them be
straight-shooters for a change and publicly
call-out their more spine-less and craven
colleagues in the sports and marketing
industry, esp. at the TV networks, who
walk on eggshells when speaking about
Tiger Woods, someone whom I've yet
to ever hear an original and thoughtful
comment from, just like fellow Nike
spokesperson Michael Jordan,
even though he has the benefit of a
Stanford education.

(Not that a Stanford education really did devout
Oriole fans like me any good in the '90's while
Mike Mussina was pitching for the Orioles,
despite how frequently it got brought-up during
ballgame broadcasts, much to our consternation.

A lot of my friends and I still blame Mussina for
not winning Game 3 of the 1996 ALCS against
the Yankees at Camden Yards -I was there-
blowing a 1-0 lead in the eighth inning, with a
dominating David Wells slated to pitch for the
Orioles the next day, which could've plausibly
created a 3-1 Oriole series lead.

His choking performance prevented the Orioles
from getting to the World Series and beating
the Atlanta Braves, when the O's were clearly
the best-balanced team in baseball that year
-despite being the AL Wild Card team- having
thoroughly annihilated the Braves in Atlanta
during an intra-league weekend series.)

Which is fine, of course, since Woods
doesn't have to be interesting off the course,
or even take a public stand about any issues
he privately cares about, as long as he keeps
winning.
But it would be nice if he would...

How interesting would it be if he declared
publicly in the near-future that, as a matter
of fact, he's greatly troubled by the whole
'immigration reform' racket in this country,
including the basic concepts behind the
so-called "Dream Act."

That he was particularly dismayed at the
overwhelmingly sympathetic and one-sided
way the American news media have
portrayed the debate, having been played,
hook, line and sinker, by someone like
Cheryl Little of the Florida Immigrant
Advocacy Center,
http://www.fiacfla.org/staff.php#1
who seems to promise access to her clients
in exchange for favorable media coverage.

(So where are the on-camera questions
about -or interviews with- the parents
who came here illegally or who knowingly
broke the law and have successfully
avoided deportation for YEARS?
Not on camera, that's for sure because
that'd be off -message, don't ya know.
So who's the most recent example I've
seen of a local Miami TV reporter playing
Cheryl Little's game of Show-and-Tell?
CBS4's David Sutta, who did one on
Nov. 20th after CBS4 did a story the
previous day on the same kids attending
Miami-Dade College.
"Reyes Bros. Freed After Immigration
Struggle."
http://cbs4.com/video/?id=86995@wfor.dayport.com)

If Woods actually said that he thinks this sort
of upside-down proposal penalizes hard-working
foreigners who have followed the proscribed
rules and laws we've insisted they follow, and
patiently bided their time waiting anxiously for
legal admittance, while others have come to
this country either illegally, or intentionally
overstayed their visas, and now want to create
a cause célèbre just because their kids aren't
dopes and actually paid attention in American
schools, just imagine what people would be
saying?

It'll never happen, of course, but...
Personally, I suspect this latest incident in
Orlando, whatever the true facts, will only
show once gain the full extent to which the
news media, in this case, well-known sports
reporters and columnists -like certain
well-known political reporters and
columnists last year were (and remain)
completely in the tank for Obama-
have drunk the Tiger Woods marketing
Kool-Aid, and have deluded themselves
into thinking that , a la O.J., that they
'really know him.'

They don't.
They just think they do.

What those particular reporters fear most
is losing access to him and his tightly-knit
entourage and being put permanently on
his "No comment" list.
That's the same thing as excommunication,
since it will quickly become known throughout
the industry.
And they will be labeled 'Persona non Tiger.'

HB resident earned it the old-fashioned way: Brad Adamonis qualifies for PGA Tour

Noticed this news last week in The Miami Herald and meant to post it sooner.
Since he's from Rhode Island, if I ever run into him, I'll have to ask him if he knows my old Arlington housemate Jennifer Dugan, since as I was always told by Jen's friends whenever they came down from R.I. to Washington for a weekend visit, "Everyone who's anyone in Rhode Island knows" the adorable and personable Jen.
And that was before she was flying out of Logan Airport for U.S. Airways.
Nice backgrounder on Brad's years of hard work in The Boston Globe from October is below the Herald excerpt of last week.
________________________________________
http://www.miamiherald.com/sports/story/332651.html

The Miami Herald
SPOTLIGHT ON GOLF: Honda Classic diversifies
By Jeff Shain
December 5, 2007

ADAMONIS ARRIVES
Brad Adamonis (Hallandale Beach) is headed to the PGA Tour, capping a breakthrough year by earning one of 26 cards handed out Monday from qualifying finals in Orlando.
Adamonis was one of just four players to break 70 in each of the final three rounds of the six-day marathon at Orange County National. He tied for ninth at 18-under-par 414.A six-year Nationwide Tour veteran, Adamonis broke into the win column last October by surviving an eight-hole playoff in West Texas. He wound up 33rd on the money list.
_____________________________
Brad's PGATour.com profile page: http://www.pgatour.com/players/02/37/78/
_____________________________
http://www.boston.com/sports/golf/articles/2007/10/18/the_long_awaited_payoff/

Boston Globe
GOLF NOTES
The long-awaited payoff
Adamonis on cusp after playoff win
By Jim McCabe, Globe Staff
October 18, 2007

It went into the record books as a victory that needed eight playoff holes, but Brad Adamonis knows better. It required years of perseverance.
Now in his fifth year on the Nationwide Tour, the Rhode Island native is 34, married, and the father of two, so how his life has changed since he graduated from Miami of Ohio and began his quest as a professional golfer. There always have been flashes of good play to keep him motivated, but what transpired last Sunday validates the time he has put into his game.
"I've been chasing the dream," said Adamonis. "So it feels good to finally win."
He insists that he surprised himself by being so calm in an eight-hole playoff to win the WNB Golf Classic in Midland, Texas, that he was actually more nervous in the closing holes of a final-round 70 that left him at 10-under-par 278. There had been birdies at the 14th, 15th, and 17th holes, but a bogey at the 72d hole, thanks to a poor drive, had cost him.
Or so he thought.
"Guys closing behind me were in good position, so I figured I'd just have a good finish," said Adamonis. "I felt fortunate to get into a playoff.
"Vance Veazey and Ron Whittaker were eliminated on the first two holes, so onward went Adamonis and Tjaart van der Walt. They matched pars on the next five holes, but on the eighth extra hole, van der Walt made bogey, so Adamonis's par earned him $85,500 - though it could be a far greater payoff if things continue on an upward turn the next three weeks.
"I know I need at least one more good tournament the rest of the way," said Adamonis.
He was referring to the fact that he has vaulted to 30th on the money list and the top 25 will earn PGA Tour cards for 2008. With $161,735, Adamonis knows he's just $11,379 behind No. 25. He's in Tennessee for this week's stop, with tournaments in Miami and the Nationwide Tour Championship in Lakeside, Calif., to follow.
There's much to look forward to, yes, but so, too, has he tried to savor a victory that has been a long time coming.
"I've been playing fairly well, but it's always felt like I'm one or two shots away from being really good," said Adamonis, who inherited his passion for the game from his father, Dave, the founder of the US Challenge Cup Tour for junior golfers.

Woe is Wie
What has to rate as the season's saddest story took another disheartening turn when Greg Nared became the second manager within a year to walk away from Michelle Wie.
"After careful consideration for my future, I have resigned, effective immediately," said Nared, who worked for the William Morris Agency.
Wie just turned 18 and has been a pro for barely two years and already she's gone through two managers, both of whom - Nared and Ross Berlin - had her best interests at heart.
Game plans envisioned by first Berlin and then Nared never emphasized high-profile tournaments against the men, nor was it ever considered best for the teenager to get her wrapped up in aggressive endorsement deals.
Both managers had paid close attention to the almost flawless way in which Tiger Woods had been brought along slowly, and they felt a similar blueprint was in order for Wie.
Somewhere, somehow, it has all gone terribly wrong, and since her parents are so in control of their daughter's life - from picking agents to hiring and firing caddies, which they've done at such a pace that father B.J. Wie was back lugging the bag at last week's Samsung Championship - they are the ones who must share the blame.
In 2006, Wie was very much in contention to win three majors.
In 2007, she played in eight LPGA Tour events and had a stroke average of 76.7.
Yet, the numbers don't explain the half of it.
The year has been a public relations nightmare, from the disrespectful way in which she treated LPGA Tour members and organizers at the Ginn Tribute, to the shame of accepting a sponsor's exemption into the Samsung when the dignified thing to do would have been to say, "Thanks, but I'm not worthy of this right now."
Wie is enrolled at Stanford, which is a nice place for any 18-year-old to be.
It's the perfect opportunity for her to take care of herself and tend to decisions for herself.
But with her parents having left Hawaii to rent a house near Stanford, you wonder if that's possible.