Friends,
Good to see you again. Did you get that email I sent you? Oh, man, that was funny. Remember? It had all these great pictures of rednecks doing silly things. Can you believe that one guy and the problems he was having with his truck? Classic, right? Email forwards sure are hilarious. I also have another great one about the differences between men and women. I'll send it along soon. You're definitely going to want to send it to other people, because it's both funny AND true!
Today, since we're all trying to pretend to look the other way and not get too excited about UK items, lest the rest of the world think we're "crazy" for paying attention, let's turn our attention to the world of golf. You see, there's this guy who plays golf and his name is Tiger Woods. If you haven't heard of him, you WILL. He's going places. For the past two months, Woods has been sidelined as he recuperates from surgery to clean out torn cartilage from his knee. He's slated to return in June to Torrey Pines for the U.S. Open, prompting many sports analysts to opine (even though Mickelson now becomes the favorite) that if Tiger can take the event, he may only strengthen the case for his absolute greatness.
This prompted a good question for the NTKW staff to ponder. During a supersecret off-site team-building luncheon of meatball hoagies, highballs and cattle sedatives, we asked ourselves which athletes have overcome obstacles to achieve their own milestones. We wore out two dry-erase boards, then we went and bought a third dry erase board, and almost filled that one before we all fell asleep. When we woke, we culled the top answers -- and you'll find them below.
Jon Lester - Boston Red Sox
Diagnosed with anaplastic large-cell lymphoma in summer of 2006, the rookie Sox hurler came back to not only pitch in the final game of 2007's World Series, but just this month threw an amazing no-hitter against the Kansas City Royals.
Leon Powe - University of California
The Golden Bears' power forward went a stunning 629 days between game appearances as he underwent two knee surgeries and overcame a stress fracture in his foot. Powe returned to not only lead the Pac-10 in scoring and rebounding but was chosen to the All-Pac-10-team and was one of 22 finalists for the John Wooden All-America Team.
Nikki Lauda - 1977 Formula One World Racing Champion
Austrian-born racer Lauda faced tragedy in 1976 when his Ferrari hit an embankment and was engulfed in flames with Lauda trapped inside. After suffering severe burns and inhaling toxic gas, he collapsed into a coma. Lauda returned to racing less than two months later to lose the '76 Championship by only one point, claim the trophy in 1977, invent that box that movers give you to hang your clothes in and single-handedly track and kill all the bears in his troubled neighbor country of Hungary.
Jennifer Capriati - 2001 Australian Open
Once a budding child superstar, Capriati's name was tarnished when, in 1994, she was associated with shoplifting and marijuana use, prompting the Chicago Sun-Times to label her "the poster child for burned out sports prodigies." Then, in 2001, having gone five years without winning a singles match in a Grand Slam event, the twelfth-seeded Capriati defeated Martina Hingis, Monica Seles and others to win the Australian Open and earn World Number One Ranking. A brief but unfounded accusation that Capriati left Australia having stolen a baby koala and one of those hats that button up on the side failed to hold water. A 2005 Ebay auction claiming to be Capriati's "didgeridoo bong" was also found to be a fake.
Wilton Sheffield - Stoke City Football Club, 1952
Sheffield, born to a wild dog in an Aylesbury alley, worked in England's tea mines until discovering soccer at a young age. An instant prodigy, he rose to professional levels with great acclaim before rocking the sporting world with a proclamation that he was born with his eyes backward, and operated on-field solely by watching the muscular movements in his own brain.
"Jingo" Pete Stransky - National Boxing Association, 1927
Stransky, widely hailed as one of the forefathers of American boxing and known for his curious and unorthodox habit of wearing a hat in the ring, died of blunt trauma during a 1926 match against "Jumping" Jim Broadwater, causing a stir among the boxing world. His family, in accordance with his will, won a lawsuit against the NBA to enter his cadaver in the 1927 circuit. Stransky lost all but one match, defeating "Cappy" Moran, who died on the mat of tuberculosis in the third round.
John LaRouche - Canadian Curling Association, 2004
One of curling's greatest and most controversial success stories, LaRouche was all but left for dead after a lion attack in his native Nova Scotia. His mangled body, outfitted in a titanium alloy supersuit and configured with an elaborate, state-of-the-art endoskeleton, brought him new success in the sport. A highly publicized CCA ruling allowed him to return to curling after he flew up into space, grabbed a missile and threw it outside of our solar system, though his eye-lasers continue to raise hackles of curling purists.
---------
I don't know about you guys, but I'm inspired. I'm going to go out and start overcoming obstacles right now. You should too. In the meantime, enjoy the following minor league hockey video. Because I know you guys can't get enough minor league hockey.
Discuss This Article
Comments have moved.
Join the conversation and talk about this article and all things Kentucky Sports in the new KSR Message Board.
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Friends,
Good to see you again. Did you get that email I sent you? Oh, man, that was funny. Remember? It had all these great pictures of rednecks doing silly things. Can you believe that one guy and the problems he was having with his truck? Classic, right? Email forwards sure are hilarious. I also have another great one about the differences between men and women. I'll send it along soon. You're definitely going to want to send it to other people, because it's both funny AND true!
Today, since we're all trying to pretend to look the other way and not get too excited about UK items, lest the rest of the world think we're "crazy" for paying attention, let's turn our attention to the world of golf. You see, there's this guy who plays golf and his name is Tiger Woods. If you haven't heard of him, you WILL. He's going places. For the past two months, Woods has been sidelined as he recuperates from surgery to clean out torn cartilage from his knee. He's slated to return in June to Torrey Pines for the U.S. Open, prompting many sports analysts to opine (even though Mickelson now becomes the favorite) that if Tiger can take the event, he may only strengthen the case for his absolute greatness.
This prompted a good question for the NTKW staff to ponder. During a supersecret off-site team-building luncheon of meatball hoagies, highballs and cattle sedatives, we asked ourselves which athletes have overcome obstacles to achieve their own milestones. We wore out two dry-erase boards, then we went and bought a third dry erase board, and almost filled that one before we all fell asleep. When we woke, we culled the top answers -- and you'll find them below.
Jon Lester - Boston Red Sox
Diagnosed with anaplastic large-cell lymphoma in summer of 2006, the rookie Sox hurler came back to not only pitch in the final game of 2007's World Series, but just this month threw an amazing no-hitter against the Kansas City Royals.
Leon Powe - University of California
The Golden Bears' power forward went a stunning 629 days between game appearances as he underwent two knee surgeries and overcame a stress fracture in his foot. Powe returned to not only lead the Pac-10 in scoring and rebounding but was chosen to the All-Pac-10-team and was one of 22 finalists for the John Wooden All-America Team.
Nikki Lauda - 1977 Formula One World Racing Champion
Austrian-born racer Lauda faced tragedy in 1976 when his Ferrari hit an embankment and was engulfed in flames with Lauda trapped inside. After suffering severe burns and inhaling toxic gas, he collapsed into a coma. Lauda returned to racing less than two months later to lose the '76 Championship by only one point, claim the trophy in 1977, invent that box that movers give you to hang your clothes in and single-handedly track and kill all the bears in his troubled neighbor country of Hungary.
Jennifer Capriati - 2001 Australian Open
Once a budding child superstar, Capriati's name was tarnished when, in 1994, she was associated with shoplifting and marijuana use, prompting the Chicago Sun-Times to label her "the poster child for burned out sports prodigies." Then, in 2001, having gone five years without winning a singles match in a Grand Slam event, the twelfth-seeded Capriati defeated Martina Hingis, Monica Seles and others to win the Australian Open and earn World Number One Ranking. A brief but unfounded accusation that Capriati left Australia having stolen a baby koala and one of those hats that button up on the side failed to hold water. A 2005 Ebay auction claiming to be Capriati's "didgeridoo bong" was also found to be a fake.
Wilton Sheffield - Stoke City Football Club, 1952
Sheffield, born to a wild dog in an Aylesbury alley, worked in England's tea mines until discovering soccer at a young age. An instant prodigy, he rose to professional levels with great acclaim before rocking the sporting world with a proclamation that he was born with his eyes backward, and operated on-field solely by watching the muscular movements in his own brain.
"Jingo" Pete Stransky - National Boxing Association, 1927
Stransky, widely hailed as one of the forefathers of American boxing and known for his curious and unorthodox habit of wearing a hat in the ring, died of blunt trauma during a 1926 match against "Jumping" Jim Broadwater, causing a stir among the boxing world. His family, in accordance with his will, won a lawsuit against the NBA to enter his cadaver in the 1927 circuit. Stransky lost all but one match, defeating "Cappy" Moran, who died on the mat of tuberculosis in the third round.
John LaRouche - Canadian Curling Association, 2004
One of curling's greatest and most controversial success stories, LaRouche was all but left for dead after a lion attack in his native Nova Scotia. His mangled body, outfitted in a titanium alloy supersuit and configured with an elaborate, state-of-the-art endoskeleton, brought him new success in the sport. A highly publicized CCA ruling allowed him to return to curling after he flew up into space, grabbed a missile and threw it outside of our solar system, though his eye-lasers continue to raise hackles of curling purists.
---------
I don't know about you guys, but I'm inspired. I'm going to go out and start overcoming obstacles right now. You should too. In the meantime, enjoy the following minor league hockey video. Because I know you guys can't get enough minor league hockey.
Discuss This Article
Comments have moved.
Join the conversation and talk about this article and all things Kentucky Sports in the new KSR Message Board.
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