As usual, Tiger puts rest of PGA in a deep hole
Tiger Woods had an amazing year playing golf, ya think?
Not only did he win seven of the 16 tournaments he entered, wrote Kurt Badenhausen of Forbes.com, “His scoring average of 67.8 was 1.5 strokes better than the second-place finisher, Ernie Els. “For perspective on how big a gap that is on the PGA Tour, 1.5 strokes was also the difference between No. 2 Els and the 88th-ranked player in scoring average.”
Extra points
In case you missed it Saturday night, Weber State beat Portland State by a whopping 73-68 - in football.
The Weber and PSU men’s basketball teams, for comparison’s sake, didn’t combine to score that many in either regular-season meeting last season.
Money squawks
“Sometime in the next two weeks,” predicted David Thomas of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, “we will hear Alex Rodriguez say, ‘It’s not about the money.’
“When an athlete says he doesn’t care how much money he makes, he really doesn’t. He just cares about how many athletes make less money than he does.”
Read the fine print
The Yankees, undaunted by Joe Torre’s rejection of their incentive-laden deal, reportedly plan to offer A-Rod a $30 million-a-year offer after all.
As in a $5 million base salary, plus $25 million in incentives for winning the World Series.
Bum’s Rush Dept.
Britain’s serial streaker, Mark Roberts, struck at an NFL game for the first time since Super Bowl XXVIII in Houston, this time during Sunday’s game at Wembley Stadium in London.
“Shortly before the second-half kickoff,” reported Newsday’s Bob Glauber, “Roberts, dressed in a referee’s outfit, ran to the middle of the field, took off his uniform and ran around the field dressed in nothing more than a red, white and blue G-string.”
In a sad commentary of the Giants’ 13-10 win over the Dolphins, Roberts’ near-naked rollout was the longest run of the day.
Hippo wader
The San Diego Chargers moved their practice operations to Arizona during last week’s devastating fires in Southern California, depriving special-teams coach Steve Crosby of a genuine Kodak moment back home.
As Jay Glazer reported at FoxSports.com: “Crosby received a call from his wife informing him that she walked outside to assess the damage and - get this - she found a hippopotamus in their swimming pool! A hippo!
“She called the authorities, who came and tranquilized the animal and removed it.”
The Crosbys live near the San Diego Wild Animal Park.
Quote marks
• Red Sox manager Terry Francona, to reporters after Game 3 of the World Series, when asked if he had any words of advice for the Rockies on how to get out of a 3-0 hole: “I don’t know how to answer that. You know … I really don’t want them to win.”
• Comedian Argus Hamilton, on China convening a worldwide environmental conference to clean up Beijing’s air pollution before the 2008 Olympics: “Nothing is more embarrassing for the host country than when a javelin gets stuck in the smog.”
• Scott Ostler of the San Francisco Chronicle, after the NFL added $10 million to its medical fund for retired players: “The squeaky hip gets the grease.”
Liberal return policy
Three Romanian boxers accused of shoplifting at a Chicago Nordstrom’s were sent home from the AIBA World Boxing Championships, the Chicago Tribune reported.
In other words, they’re pulling their punchers.
Dwight Perry: 206-464-8250 or dperry@seattletimes.com