It’s official. I don’t have to write an article about Tiger Woods. Oh wait, what have I done? My apologies Mr. Cabrera, now that Tiger’s back, it’s impossible to keep him out of a golf conversation.
But let’s not take away from Cabrera’s accomplishment, after all, he played better than Tiger and of course better than everyone else on the course. His green jacket is also an important first as posted on Golf.com:
Cabrera, who won the U.S. Open at Oakmont two years ago, finally earned a green jacket for Argentina.
…
“This is a great moment, the dream of any golfer to win the Masters,” Cabrera said through an interpreter during the green jacket ceremony. “I’m so emotional I can barely talk.”
Sweet. Awesome. I can really get behind a player like that, bringing home a major award, and being the first from his country to do so. But, I’m still reading all about how Tiger also played, and how Tiger also might have won.
Is it wrong that I’m so happy that Tiger didn’t win? When I was living in South Korea I heard that certain pop stars there had something called, “anti-fans.” These were people who were obsessed with certain celebrities just because they didn’t like them. I wonder if I’ve become something of an anti-fan for anybody at the top for too long. I admit to getting much more interested in tennis after Sampras started losing, and again after Federer lost the number one spot.
I suppose it’s only natural that we have a certain amount of enmity towards people dominating their respective fields. I think my particular problem though, is when a sport becomes more-or-less a one man show. It’s hard to care when there’s no competition in the competitions I’m watching. Growing up a Bulls fan was great until their final season with Jordan. It seemed they couldn’t lose, and they hardly ever did. I barely paid any attention at all.
But it’s not any athlete’s fault if they’re too good, if anything it should motivate others to work harder to improve themselves. Should we make Michael Phelps swim an extra lap just to make it more interesting? We can’t handi-cap people for being too good, but I wonder if we can’t focus on them slightly less than we do. Maybe the reason I’m tired of Tiger Woods is because I’m constantly hearing about him. How often was Michael Phelps shoved in front of me last summer?
There’s only so much anyone can take of the same thing. Perhaps we should focus more on what happened and what’s important, and less on the A-list also-rans. I can understand that it’s necessary to grab people’s attention, and using a big name to get that attention is an easy way to chalk up hits on a web page. But there’s got to be a better way. Of course, this article was supposed to be about Angel Cabrera wasn’t it? Not Tiger Woods, Tiger Woods. I’ll try harder (Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan) next time.
