Tiger Woods- 2009 SprungOnSports Man of the Year
It has been quite the crazy and eventful year in the sports world in 2009, and as the calendar moves to 2010 and a new decade, it’s time to appreciate the man who made the greatest impact-on or off the field, court or rink. And there’s only one person who made more impact in his sport, or in the sports world, than anyone else, and that’s Tiger Woods. Though he impacted golf in a negative way, it cannot be questioned that he truly turned the sports world, and golf, upside-down with his admission to cheating on his wife with what seems like a large harem of women.
Tiger Woods crashed his car near his suburban Orlando home on November 30, 2009 and his life, and his sport, went on a downward spiral ever since. He has admitted to marital infidelity and his wife, the mother of his two young children, is filing for divorce. Woods said that he is taking an indefinite leave of absence to get his personal life in order. The unquestioned greatest player in the history of his sport will likely be away from the game for a long time, and that’s as impactful as it gets.
Imagine Albert Pujols, Derek Jeter or even Babe Ruth having to leave baseball for a long period of time. When Michael Jordan retired from the NBA to fail in the Chicago White Sox minor league system, the impact on the sports world and in basketball was tremendous. Imagine Wayne Gretzky, Roger Federer, Lance Armstrong, LeBron James or Bill Russell having to leave his game for an extended period of time because of a scandal like Woods is going through right now. It is by far the most impactful sports story of the year and the SprungOnSports voters rightfully gave Woods the crown of SprungOnSports Man of the Year.
Some people don’t like to see someone like Woods get rewarded for his actions, but the long-lasting impact this has on Woods and the sport of golf cannot and will not be ignored. Golf lost its greatest and most marketable asset, and sponsors like Accenture, and today AT&T, dropped Woods altogether. His squeaky clean image will be tarnished for a very long time, and the exposure and TV ratings golf events will likely go down. If the best player in the history of any sport were going through what Tiger Woods is going through, the impact would be incalculable. So I am happy to present Tiger Woods with the 2009 SprungOnSports Man of the Year.
Many athletes had amazingly impactful years for their positive play on the field, including the two runners-up, Drew Brees of the New Orleans Saints and sprinter Usain Bolt. Brees is leading a Saints team to their best season in team history with an incredibly efficient offense and great passing numbers bringing the city of New Orleans something to rally around as they continue to recover from Hurricane Katrina. Usain Bolt continues to shatter world records in the 100 and 200 meters, including his legendary performance in Berlin this past summer, and the fastest man in the history of the world represents his native Jamaica so well and is a wonderful ambassador to his country. His nation rallies around him like they did around Bob Marley, and his infectious personality cannot be duplicated.
The two men who tied for third were Indianapolis Colts QB Peyton Manning and New York Yankees 3B Alex Rodriguez. Manning is well on his way to winning his second consecutive NFL Most Valuable Player award as he has led his Colts to their 7th straight year of at least 12 wins and clearly leads the overwhelming favorites to win the next Super Bowl. Rodriguez would have had the most impactful year of any athlete if not for my 2009 winner Woods. His admission to taking performance enhancing drugs rocked the sport to its core and his hip injury delayed the start to his 2009 season by six weeks. Then A-Rod’s clutch performance in the 2009 Major League Baseball postseason put to rest all the critics and naysayers who said that Rodriguez choked in key situations, and led the Yankees to their first World Series championship since the year 2000.
It was a wonderful sports year in 2009, with the Steelers winning their record sixth Super Bowl, North Carolina and Florida winning the College Basketball and College Football national championships, the LA Lakers winning their 15th NBA championship, the Pittsburgh Penguins taking home the Stanley Cup, Jimmie Johnson winning his record setting fourth consecutive Sprint Cup title and the Yankees winning their 27th world championship. But there was no person who made a greater impact in the sports world than Tiger Woods, and that is why he is the 2009 SprungOnSports Man of the Year.
Hot Stove Update 12/31
1 pm Eastern
-Marlon Byrd has signed a three year deal worth $15 million, says MLB.com’s Carrie Muskat.
12:25 p.m. Eastern
-Ken Rosenthal reports that the Cubs and Marlon Byrd are close on a three-year contract.
11:45 a.m. Eastern
-Justin Duchscherer cannot be offered arbitration if he’s a Type A free agent next year, making him desirable on the open market, Ken Rosenthal reports. Mark DeRosa gets $200,000 if he’s traded.
-The Mets are only offering Bengie Molina one year, and are not close to signing him, says the New York Daily News. The Mets have also not spoken with Joel Piniero’s representatives this week. Jorge Arangure reports that Carlos Delgado will make his Winter League debut this week.
-Carlos Zambrano will likely remain a Cub, GM Jim Hendry told the Chicago Sun-Times.
-New Arizona 2B Kelly Johnson says he expects to have a big bounceback season and some are already touting him as a fantasy sleeper for 2010.
-ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick goes through Robbie Alomar’s Hall Of Fame credentials. He also points out that Fred McGriff has the same career OBP as Brett Butler. Not a ringing endorsement of the Crime Dog.
-Yahoo! Sports’ Big League Stew brings us back to one of the funniest 2009 quotes. Lou Piniella could tell the difference between steroids and reefer, right?
College Hoops Thursday
Big East Off To Roaring Start
Its been an incredibly wild opening week to Big East play. West Virginia beat Seton Hall on Saturday in OT to start things off after the Pirates came back from 10 down with 49 seconds left in regulation. The Mountaineers then beat Marquette by one on a De’Shean Butler buzzer-beater and Syracuse came back from 12 down to beat Seton Hall on a 20 and 19 night from Wesley Johnson despite 38 points from SHU super-scorer Jeremy Hazell, who scored a career high 41 against WVU. Last night was another one of those nights at the Fifth Third Arena in Cincinnati.
The Bearcats have had their ups and downs thus far this season, including falling to Xavier and a 17 point loss to UAB, but heralded freshman Lance Stephenson stepped up bigtime against UConn. He scored 21 points including two free throws to win the game and upset the 10th ranked Huskies 71-69. Deonta Vaughn scored 17 points for the Bearcats, who needed to really carry the load with Yancy Gates in foul trouble. Jerome Dyson (30-5 in his UConn career, according to ESPN’s Fran Fraschilla) had 24 points, seven rebounds and five assists and Stanley Robinson had 22.
“UConn will drop in the national rankings, but they’ll be a force all year in the Big East.” said Peter Casey, the official Twitter writer for the St. John’s Red Storm, who knows a thing or two about Big East basketball. “The conference is DEEP! Kudos to Cincy.”
Connecticut will be even better when Australian freshman forward Ater Majok starts playing to his potential. Last night’s Cincinnati game was only his fourth this season because of academic issues and will be a force when he hits his stride. UConn’s next two games are against an under-the-radar Notre Dame team led by Naismith Award contender Luke Harangody and against Jeremy Hazell and Seton Hall. Notre Dame got 19 and 13 from Harangody, 23 and six off the bench from Jonathon Peoples, 22 and seven from Tim Abromaitis and a 10 point, 10 assist, eight rebound night from Ole Miss transfer Ben Hansbrough, the younger brother of Psycho T Tyler Hansbrough. Providence got 24 and nine from Jamine Peterson and 23 and seven from Sharaud Curry in the loss. The conference is so deep that potential cellar dwellar South Florida is 10-3, but lost their conference opener at Louisville last night 73-52 behind 16 points from Edgar Sosa.
Wednesday In Review
-Ed Davis scored 18 points and grabbed eight rebounds as North Carolina defeated Albany 87-70 at the Dean Dome. DaJuan Summers scored 20 as Michigan State downed Texas-Arlington 87-68.
-Juan Fernandez scored 26 as Temple scored a true road win at NIU 70-60 to get to 11-2. They host top ranked Kansas on Saturday.
-Harvard’s NBA prospect Jeremy Lin had 17 points, eight rebounds and five assists as the Crimson went to 9-3 with a 66-53 home win against George Washington, who also falls to 9-3.
-UAB has had an awfully impressive season thus far, but fell at Virginia 72-63 led by Sylvain Landesberg’s 19 points. Blazers leading scorer Elijah Millsap (just 6-6) scored 27 and grabbed 11 rebounds. He averages 10 per game!
-ODU got on the map after upsetting Georgetown, and last night the Monarchs got 24 from Gerald Lee, a senior forward from Finland of all places, to defeat Duquesne 63-54 at home.
-If y’all don’t know about William & Mary yet, please take notice ASAP. The Tribe beat Richmond, won at Wake Forest and now have a win at Maryland on their resume. Greivis Vazquez scored 26 for the Terrapins, but a 28 point night for leading scorer Quinn McDowell gave W&M an 83-77 victory.
-LaceDarius Dunn scored 19 as Baylor blew out Arkansas on the road 70-47 and Rakim Sanders had 22 and seven as BC defeated South Carolina 85-76 despite 29 from Gamecocks sharpshooter Devan Downey.
-Mike Tisdale had 31 points and 11 rebounds as Illinois won the Big 10 opener over surging Northwestern 89-83 in OT.
