From where
I sit it looks like one man decided to throw his weight around and
ended up looking like a bully.
John Paramor is a rules official at
the Masters this weekend. He works on the European Tour, and after
his stunt on Friday, may see less work. Paramor selected the 17th
hole to enforce a seldom cited rule of a one stroke penalty for slow
play. At 14-years-old Guan Tianlang of China is the youngest player
to ever qualify for the Masters having won the Asia-Pacific Amateur.
Guan had been warned earlier in his round about the speed of his
play, so in that aspect Paramor was justified. However, given the
age of the player and windy conditions, it seems a needless time to
make the first recorded slow play penalty in tournament history.
It's also is worth mentioning the number of pros coming to Guan's
defence, including Lee Westwood and Ben Crenshaw. In a stroke of
good fortune for everyone Guan made the cut by a single shot.
Paramor was technically correct in his ruling, but still acted like a
jerk.
Carlos
Quentin is set to pick up an 8 game suspension for his idiotic actions
after instigating a massive brawl between the San Diego Padres and LA
Dodgers.
The fight left Dodgers ace Zach Greinke with a broken
collar bone and out of action for 8 weeks. Greinke hit Quentin with
a 3-2 pitch in the 6th
inning of a one run game on Thursday night. Yes, the two of them
have a history, that was the 3rd
time Quentin had been plunked by Greinke. But, both of them
over-reacted. Quentin could have just taken his base, happy to get
on late in a close game. Greinke could have kept his big yap shut
and not challenged Quentin. Then after the game Quentin was
confronted by the Dodgers' Matt Kemp, proving acting like an idiot
isn't limited to on-field actions. There is only one positive to
come from all this stupidity. Guaranteed sell-outs for every
Padres-Dodgers game.
“What's
in a name? that which we call a rose/By any other name would smell as
sweet...” That's Shakespeare. The NRA 500. That's bad timing.
As recently as last year, naming a NASCAR race after the National
Rifle Association would hardly raise eyebrows. However, after the
mass murder at Sandy Hook Elementary priorities changed. Now the
American government is wrestling with new gun laws with a lot of
pressure from the White House. I don't want to wade into that
debate. My point is simply that I'm not surprised. Disappointed,
but not surprised. In most forms of racing the main negotiation is
between the promoter and sponsor, the governing body has little to do
with the race name. Take a look at how long it took all forms of
racing to drop cigarette sponsorship. Governments had to take action
before changes were made. I remember the Winston Cup...Marlboro as
the main sponsor for Ferrari in Formula 1...Players Racing in CART.
NASCAR has promised to review their approval process for naming
races. Good plan, but it does come a bit late. I think Formula 1
world champion, and noted smart-ass, Keke Rosberg put it best, “In
the end, we're all whores - if the money's right, we'll do our stuff
for anyone."
At
least that's how I see it...and I sit in the cheap seats.
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