Cheering for a Champion

I love sports and I love underdogs. I liked the Patriots in 2001 and then grew to hate them as they kept winning. I liked the Red Sox in 2004 and then grew to hate them as they kept winning. I hate the Cowbodys, Yankees, and Lakers. I hate dominance in sports.

Except Tiger Woods. I don't know why. I should hate him. He wins all the time. He tied Rocco Mediate today on his last shot to force a playoff in the U.S. Open tomorrow, and you knew he was going to do it, just as you know he's going to win his 14th major tomorrow. He's Tiger Woods. He always wins. So why don't I hate him?

I think the nature of the sport has something to do with it. Somehow it's okay for an individual to dominate in a way that it isn't for a team (I also enjoy watching Roger Federer cripple everyone he faces who isn't Rafael-Nadal-on-clay). There's more of an element of luck in team sports: bad breaks, bad officiating, bad schedules, bad crowds. Tiger just has to show up and do better than everybody else there: same course, same weather, same pressure.

The other element is the history; or, the Grandfather Effect. My grandkids won't ask me about seeing the Yankees doing what they also did in my granddad's lifetime and will still be doing in their lifetime; but they might ask what it was like to see Tiger Woods establish the greatest golf career ever.

And I'll start by telling them he caused me to care about golf.

Golf.