photo credit: RMTip21

When the 2008 NFL playoffs began, few would have guessed that the Arizona Cardinals and the Pittsburgh Steelers would be the teams to meet in Super Bowl XLII. However, both teams enter the biggest football game of the year playing at a very high level. As always, expect the ratings to be high, the commercials to be memorable and the game to be intense.

The biggest surprise of the Super Bowl is the presence of the Cardinals. Although they began the regular season 7-3, Arizona struggled mightily down the stretch. In a five game span at the end of the regular season, they lose four games. In those four games, the New York Giants, Philadelphia Eagles, Minnesota Vikings and New England Patriots beat the Cardinals by an average of 24.3 points per contest.

The beginning of Arizona’s turnaround came in the final game of the regular season. Playing against the Seattle Seahawks, the Cardinals had a good showing on both sides of the field and won 34-21. The momentum from that game carried into the 2008 NFL Playoffs for the Cardinals.

In wildcard round, the Cardinals were able to beat an Atlanta Falcons team that many picked to advance. Trailing 17-14 at halftime, the Cardinals got two key touchdowns and a safety to take the lead and never look back on their way to a 30-24 victory.

The divisional round saw the Cardinals travel to Carolina to take on the Panthers. Although the Panthers were heavily favored, the Cardinals proved the betting world wrong by cruising to victory. Arizona came out of the gates on fire and simply crushed Carolina by the final score of 33-13.

In the NFC championship, the Cardinals were again the underdogs. The Eagles were playing extremely well and seemingly had the better defense and the more balanced offense. But Arizona shocked the world by breaking out to a 24-6 halftime lead before hanging on for a 32-25 victory.

As for the Steelers, they aren’t nearly as much of a Cinderella story. In the regular season, the Steelers went 12-4 and lost only one time in their last seven contests. Overall, they have won eight of their last nine games.

In the playoffs, they’ve defeated both the San Diego Chargers and the Baltimore Ravens. Against the Chargers, the Steelers fell behind early 10-7 before their offense woke up and starting rolling. By the time the final whistle sounded, Pittsburgh had handed San Diego a 35-24 defeat.

Against the Ravens, the situation was reversed. The Steelers were the ones who got out to an early lead but then had to hold on. After being up 13-10, the Ravens cut Pittsburgh’s lead to 16-14 before the Steelers were able to claim victory after a Troy Polamalu 40-yard interception return for a touchdown.

While most odds makers have the Steelers as favorites in the Super Bowl, the Cardinals have proven that they thrive in the underdog role. For Arizona, the players to watch are all on the offensive side of the ball.

Orchestrating the Cardinals’ attack is quarterback Kurt Warner. The former Super Bowl champion with the St. Louis Rams and former NFL MVP is back at the top of his game. Combining a quick release, a strong arm and very good instincts, Warner is a very dangerous weapon. He has the swagger and the experience to pull out a victory almost single-handedly.

Perhaps the best player on the entire Cardinals roster is wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald. Immensely talented, Fitzgerald is playing better than ever at the moment. He has three straight games with at least 100 yards receiving and at least one touchdown in these playoffs. When it comes to hauling in long passes, Fitzgerald is proving to be the game’s best.

Anquan Boldin is another very talented wide receiver on the Cardinals. Although he has battled injuries as of late, he is one of the most physically gifted wideouts in the NFL. Boldin has great size, very good hands and is a beast once he catches the ball and looks to pick up more yardage.

The running back position in Arizona is handled by a committee of Tim Hightower and Edgerrin James. Hightower is a rookie who was drafted late in the 2008 NFL Draft. A touchdown scoring machine, he runs hard and has a definite nose for the end zone. James, conversely, is a wily veteran who knows all the tricks in the book. He’s a very good blocker who can pick up yardage when it’s needed the most.

On defense, the Cardinals don’t have many name players. Instead, they have a unit that has played extremely well as of late. After ending the regular season with a few poor performances, the D has been a big reason why the Cardinals have made it to the Super Bowl.

In Pittsburgh, the defense is what keys their entire attack. The Steelers’ defense was arguably the best in the entire NFL during the regular season. Not only are they hard to score against, they are physical and can create turnovers. It’s hard to run against them and almost equally as hard to pass against them.

On offense, the Steelers have a few notable players. It starts with quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, who is trying to win his second Super Bowl as a starting signal caller. His nickname “Big Ben” suggests, Roethlisberger is a big quarterback who is tough to bring down. He also has an accurate arm and can make plays when flushed out of the pocket.

Roethlisberger’s favorite receiver is Hines Ward. Although he injured his knee against the Ravens, Ward has vowed to play in the Super Bowl. If he does and if he’s at the top of his game, Ward is a wide receiver who is not only a great target, he’s also the best blocking wide receiver in the NFL.

Santonio Holmes is the other wide receiver on Pittsburgh and his role is simple: make plays. Roethlisberger likes to look for him in deep patterns and Holmes is also a threat in the return game. Once he gets his hands on the ball, he’s capable of taking it to the house.

The running game features Willie Parker, who had a memorable 75-yard run in his other Super Bowl appearance. Parker has very good speed and is underrated in terms of his toughness. If he gets an inch of daylight, Parker can exploit the gap and turn it into a big gain.

Super Bowl XLII will take place this year in Tampa, Florida on February 1st in Raymond James Stadium – the home of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The game will begin at around 6:00 PM ET and will feature a halftime show by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. Don’t forget about the Super Bowl commercials. According to reports, purchasing a Super Bowl commercial this year cost $3 million for a 30-second spot.

As for the game itself, the main battle will be between the great defense of the Steelers and the explosive offense of the Cardinals. Whichever side wins that battle will likely be crowned as Super Bowl champions and will thus be on top of the football world … until next season’s Super Bowl.

Coming into the 2008 baseball season, experts never saw this series coming. Last season, the Rays finished dead last in the American League. In fact, Tampa Bay had never even come close to making the playoffs – or even finishing the season at .500. The talent was always there but the Rays couldn’t get it together on the field.

But early on in the 2008 season, things looked different for the Rays. Their youth had matured and they started winning games. Experts thought that the Rays would cool off and fade near the end of the regular season. That simply never happened. In the American League East, which is regarded as the toughest division in baseball, the Rays were able to hold off perennial powers such as the reigning World Series champion Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees, the most successful team in the history of baseball.

The Rays have a young core but their ability simply cannot be questioned. Their star hitter so far in the postseason has been BJ Upton. The 24-year-old outfielder is hitting .304 with seven homers in 11 playoff games. To put things in perspective, Upton had only nine homers in 145 regular season games. His explosion at the plate has been a big reason why the Rays have made it to the World Series.

Another key player for the Rays is third baseman Evan Longoria. Not to be confused with Eva Longoria the Desperate Housewives star, this future star has made a huge splash during his rookie season. Not only is he a good fielder but scouts claim he is one of the best rookie hitters of the last decade. His potential has been very evident during this postseason run.

Carlos Pena, who at 30 years of age is considered one of the old men of the team, is arguably the team’s best hitter. Pena was a journeyman player before he got to Tampa Bay and finally lived up to his potential. Now he’s a middle of the lineup terror who has hit 77 home runs in his two years in with the Rays.

Other key hitters for the Rays include Akinori Iwamura, Jason Bartlett, Carl Crawford and Dioner Navarro. Iwamura is the team’s Japanese second baseman who offers a good glove and a very quick bat. Bartlett is a slick fielding shortstop who has gotten some big hits in the postseason. Crawford is an outfielder who has been with the team six years – which makes him the team’s longest tenured player. Navarro is the Rays catcher who is regarded by many as an indispensable part of the team due to his defense and his ability to handle pitchers.

The ace of the Tampa Bay pitching staff is none other than James Shields. The 26-year-old right-hander from California is known for pitching well in big games. Matt Garza is another young pitcher who has been the team’s best hurler during the postseason. In the team’s American League Conference Series win over the Boston Red Sox, Garza was named the Most Valuable Player for two great performances during the series including a Game 7 victory. Scott Kazmir, 24, is an underrated pitcher who may have a higher ceiling than anyone on the staff. The bullpen is made up of veterans such as Dan Wheeler and Grant Balfour, and young arms such as rookie David Price – who got the save during the Game 7 victory in the ALCS.

On the other side of the diamond, the Phillies certainly do not lack star power of their own. Ryan Howard, Philadelphia’s slugging first baseman, is likely the most dangerous player in the 2008 World Series. This National League MVP candidate had 48 regular season home runs to go along with 146 RBIs and 105 runs. For the Phillies to win the championship, he’s going to have to have a big series.

Second baseman Chase Utley is another certified star on the Phillies. During the regular season, Utley had 33 home runs and 104 RBIs. Not only is he good at the plate, Utley is a fine fielder at second base and is speedy on the base paths.

Reigning National League MVP Jimmy Rollins is another headliner for the Phillies. Although he didn’t replicate his MVP success during the regular season, he has been a major spark for the team during the postseason. Rollins can hit for power but is also pleased with great speed. On the field, he’s a world class shortstop who can make difficult plays look easy.

The Phillies have many more solid hitters such as Pat Burrell, Shane Victorino and Jayson Werth. Burrell has always been regarded as a talented slugger and he has really started realizing some of that potential in the last few seasons. Victorino has led the team in RBIs during the postseason, even though he’s had to deal with a death in the family during the run. Werth is another talented outfielder on the roster who has an explosive bat.

The four-man pitching rotation for the Phillies during the playoffs has featured Cole Hamels, Jaime Moyer, Brett Myers and Joe Blanton. Hamels is obviously the most talented pitcher on the Phillies and he hasn’t disappointed at all in the 2008 baseball playoffs. With so many young stars in this World Series, the 45-year-old Moyer is an absolute marvel. While he hasn’t been as good during the playoffs, his steady hand during the regular season helped the Phillies get to where they are. Myers and Blanton have both had big moments during the postseason for the Phillies, including a legendary at bat by Myers that has been replayed across the nation. The closer for Philadelphia is Brad Lidge, who has five saves during the playoffs and is now 46-for-46 in save opportunities during the 2008 season.

Game 1 of the World Series will feature a pitching matchup of Phillies ace Hamels going against Kazmir of the Rays. Game 2 will pit Myers against the Rays pitching ace Shields. To be played in Philadelphia, Game 3 has old man Moyer going up against ALCS MVP Garza. Game 4 and Game 5 will also be played in Philadelphia, while the final two games of the series will be played in Tampa Bay – if they are necessary.

The winner of the 2008 World Series will be crowned after one of the team wins four out of the seven contests. The Rays have home field advantage due to the American League winning the 2008 All-Star Game. Coincidentally enough, Kazmir was the winning pitcher for the AL during the All-Star Game.

The betting community has this series very close, however the oddsmakers have made the Rays a slight favorite. The most likely outcome, according to the oddsmakers, is for the Rays to beat the Phillies in seven games to win the 2008 World Series and claim the baseball championship. However, while the Phillies may be the underdog, they certainly have the talent to end up as champions.

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Originally, the US Open was an exclusive tennis event that was only open to members of high society. It was created when two separate events, a men’s tournament and a women’s tournament, began to evolve into greater events that would encompass more types of players and draw more public attention. In 1881, the first incarnation of the predecessor to the US Open was held at the Newport Casino in Newport, Rhode Island, but the only event was men’s singles. This event was known as the U.S. National Singles Championship for men and admission was only open to clubs that were part of the United States National Lawn Tennis Association. Given the popularity of tennis at this time and the status of those who could afford the time to pursue tennis as a career, participation in the U.S. National Singles Championship was exclusive to say the least. For the first several decades of the tournament’s existence, from 1884 to 1911, a challenge system was used wherein the winner of any given competition was given automatic entrance into the finals of next year’s competition. The tournament would move from Newport to Forest Hills, New York in 1915 and then again in 1921, where it be played for two years in Philadelphia, only to return to Forest Hills afterwards.

Throughout this time, women’s tennis in America was also flourishing. The U.S. Women’s National Singles Tournament began in 1887 at the Philadelphia Cricket Club while the U.S. Women’s National Doubles Tournament followed in 1889. By 1900, men’s doubles tournaments had begun, as well as mixed doubles that were held alongside the women’s singles and doubles. Competition at this point in the event’s history culminated in an east vs. west scenario, where the best players from both halves of the country would compete for the grand prize. This would continue all the way until 1968, when the idea for the US Open was born. All five events, including singles and doubles of both gender, as well as mixed competition, would be merged together to create a massive competition on a large scale that would draw much public attention, namely the US Open. It would be played at the West Side Tennis Club in Forest Hills, New York. Another notable aspect of the US Open was that professionals would be welcome to play in the event, whereas professionals were unwelcome in US Open’s preceding tournaments. This widened the field, creating interest in the event and upping the ante considerably.

In the first US Open, 96 men and 63 women entered the competition to vie for $100,000 in prize money. Two years later, the US Open would introduce the tie-break at the end of a set, paving the way for the rest of the Grand Slam tournaments to follow suit. The US Open was played on grass courts until 1975, when Forest Hills switched to clay courts. DecoTurf was the material that composed the court of the US Open in 1978, when the US Open moved to its current home at Flushing Meadow. Over the years, the US Open evolved from a rather low-key event with only hundreds of thousands of dollars at stake to a hugely-covered event that sees certain lucky players walk off the court a million dollars richer. For the 2007 US Open, for example, the winner of the singles competition of either gender could expect to receive $1,400,000 for his or her feat, while the runner-up would receive half of that, tapering downward as the prestige of one’s placement in the tournament dwindles. The doubles team that won the event received $400,000, while the mixed doubles winner received $150,000. This is a far cry from the original US Open that only had $100,000 at stake total.

The main court for today’s incarnation of the US Open is the Arthur Ashe Stadium, named for the African American tennis player who won the very first US Open in 1968. Court number two is Louis Armstrong Stadium and Court Number 3 is the Grandstand Stadium. All of the courts are lit, allowing television coverage of the event to extend into a time where more people are likely to be watching the event. This has been used in order to draw better television ratings for certain events, most notably the women’s portion of the competition which was moved to Saturday nights in order to increase the popularity of the event. Recently, the courts used in the US open series turned blue because some people thought that it would increase the visibility of the ball for both players and those watching the event, but critics of the switch say that it is difficult to see the ball either way and that it should have been kept the same. Another crucial aspect of the US Open is the fact that the courts are composed of DecoTurf, which is notably low-friction and creates a lower bounce, which means that games played on DecoTurf are faster than those that take place on other materials. This has historically benefited a certain type of tennis player, referred to as serve-and-volley players.

Over the years, certain tennis players have achieved great fame and fortune partially because of their success at the US Open. One of these is Pete Sampras, whose five wins at the US Open throughout the 90s and in 2002 helped to propel him to mega-stardom as an athlete. He is a member of the international tennis hall of fame and is one of the most recognizable faces associated with the sport. Roger Federer, a Swiss tennis player, is notable for dominating the event from 2004 to 2007, winning each and every US Open played during those years, and has become a modern phenomenon in the sport. Martina Navratilova, a tennis player from the Czech Republic, has received many accolades for her overwhelming success in every possible bracket of the US Open. Her victories in singles, doubles, and mixed competition make her one of the most successful women in the sport.

The US Open is one of those sporting events that draws the attention of those all over the world who aim to see if somebody from their country will take the grand prize and make them proud. It will begin on August 25, so do not miss out.

As we all gear up for a possible rematch of the two top seeds at the US Open this week, let’s take a look at some other great matches.

Borg v McEnroe, 1980

One of the sport’s greatest rivalries ever became the stuff of legend that year, beginning at the men’s finals at Wimbledon. Twenty-four-year-old Bjorn Borg was going for his fifth consecutive title while John McEnroe, 21, was vying for his first. Borg went on to win the title, but not after losing a grueling fourth set 18-16 tie break.

The pair met again two months later at the US Open, a venue that Borg–the number one player in the world at the time–just couldn’t win. This time was no different; when it was over, John McEnroe had triumphed 7-6, 6-1, 6-7, 5-7, and 6-4.

A year later, McEnroe took Wimbledon as well as the US Open and Borg’s career was effectively over. After his four-set loss at the Open, Borg walked off the court, refusing to talk to the press. He never played in a major pro tournament again.

Wimbledon 1984
Jimmy Connors v. John McEnroe

John McEnroe trounces two-time champion Jimmy Connors, 6-1, 6-1, 6-2 in only 80 minutes. It was a nearly faultless game for McEnroe–he connected on 74 percent of his first serves, had 10 aces, no double faults and lost only 11 points in his 11 service games. It was the sixth straight time he defeated Connors, to raise his record to 15-12 against him.

That was perhaps McEnroe’s best year on the tour; in 1984 he went 82-3 and won a career-high 13 singles tournaments, including Wimbledon and the U.S. Open. He also was on the U.S.’ winning World Team Cup and runner-up Davis Cup teams.

Wimbledon 1975
Arthur Ashe v. Jimmy Connors

That year, the two were fighting as often in the law courts as the tennis court: Connors was suing Ashe for libel over remarks Ashe made about Jimmy’s refusal to join the Davis Cup Team. He was also suing the Association of Tennis Professionals, of which Ashe was president.

Ashe was considered the underdog in this match against defending champion Connors. But after Connors won the first game, it was over. Ashe took 12 of the next 13 games. His 6-1, 6-1, 5-7, 6-4 victory made him the first black man to win Wimbledon.

Wimbledon 1985
Boris Becker wins at age 17

Boris Becker came into the tournament as an unseeded outsider. After three hours and 18 minutes against eighth-seeded Kevin Curren, he was the youngest man ever to win the Men’s Final here and the first German winner.

US Open 1968
Arthur Ashe wins first US Open

Ashe is the first African-American to win a men’s singles title at a Grand Slam Championship and the first American to win the U.S. men’s singles title since 1955. The win is “the most notable achievement made in the sport by a Negro male athlete,” according to the New York Times.

As an amateur, the 25-year-old Ashe, a US Army lieutenant, was ineligible to receive the $14,000 first prize in the $100,000 event. Instead, Ashe collects only his $20 per diem.

But Ashe wasn’t the player who broke the color line in tennis. That milestone goes to a woman: Althea Gibson, who in 1950 was the first African American to play in the U.S. National Championships.

Gibson was also a tournament winner: She won singles titles at the French Championships in 1956, at Wimbledon in 1957 and 1958, and at the US Nationals in 1957 and 1958.

Chris Evert v. Martina Navratilova

You only need to look at the number of times these two played each other–80 times–to see this was a mammoth face-off.

At their first match in Akron, Ohio, in 1973, Chris was a star while Martina was an unknown. It would be two years before Martina finally beat Chris, and another year—after Navratilova had dropped twenty pounds and improved her game—before Evert publicly betrayed her first hint of concern.

Evert won 11 of their first 12 matches, but Navratilova eventually overtook her and finished with a record of 43-37. In the end, both finished their careers with 18 Grand Slam victories a piece. Evert earned 157 titles, while Martina took 167–a n all-time ATP record for men as well as women.

Sampras V. Agassi
Australian Open 1995

The Sampras-Agassi rivalry goes all the way back to 1979 when they played against each other in a junior tournament in Northridge, California at ages eight and nine respectively.

But the ongoing competition reached its height in 1995. The two players traded the number one ranking several times that year, and each player agreed to participate in the Davis Cup only if the other also played. They were concerned that if one played while the other rested during the weeks leading up to the French Open, the one who rested would have a competitive advantage. Both men did play and the U.S. won the Davis Cup that year.

Agassi with his newly shaved head won the Australian Open (above), his first tournament there. Agassi and Sampras met in five tournament finals in 1995, all on hardcourt, with Agassi winning three of the five.

The next time Sampras and Agassi met in a Grand Slam final was at 1999 in Wimbledon; this time Sampras won in straight sets.

The second highest-rated match of their rivalry was the final of the 2002 US Open. It was the first Sampras-Agassi meeting in a US Open final since 1995. It was also notable because both had defeated several up-and-coming players to get there.

The sibling rivalry:
Venus v. Serena

Many tennis fans have downplayed the ongoing competition between the Williams’ sisters, charging that neither have played their best when facing the other. Allegations have also been made that when the two sisters face each other on the court, the family has already decided which sister will win.

Much of those suspicions should be erased after this year’s final at Wimbledon.

There was no sign of the obligatory apology from Serena as the ball trickled over after flirting with the net cord. There were sighs of exasperation when Venus repeatedly pulled out of serves as the breeze buffeted her ball toss. Serena tried to intimidate by blazing one viciously hit backhand into her opponent’s body, and when Venus tumbled when trying to turn wide in her backhand court, there was barely a look of concern. At one stage Serena even questioned Ramos when she felt that her sibling was taking too long between points.

These two hit the ball harder than anyone in the women’s game and the extended rallies saw the ball pummelled back and forth with groundstrokes full of venom. No quarter was asked for, none given, and if Elena Dementieva — suspicious of the sisters’ competitive instincts in big matches against each other after losing the semi-final to Venus two days earlier — had cared to watch, she would have reason to reassess.

photo credit: Rick McCharles

The modern Olympic Games date back to 1894. Pierre Fredi sought to improve international relations and understanding by creating a sporting event that would require the world to come together. His idea for this event stemmed from the Wenlock Olympian Society National Games which had been hosting a similar event since 1850. Although the turnout for the first of Fredi’s games was low, with only 245 athletes and 14 countries represented, it was still the largest international event that had been organized. Four years later, the event was merged with Paris’s World Fair and attracted four times as many athletes, but it is unclear which events were actually considered “Olympic” because of the lack of distinction between fair events and Olympic events. Throughout the rest of the decade, events were held all across the world with varying levels of success, mostly because of the lack of adequate means to travel to these locations, but by 1912, the games in Stockholm were able to attract competitors from every continent, numbering over 2,500 athletes. Between World War I and World War II, the Summer Olympic Games experienced many outside influences, ranging from Nazi propaganda from Hitler to the inception of advertising by Coca-Cola.

photo credit: renaissancechambara
From then until today, the Summer Olympic Games have seen their fair share of controversy and disaster, as well as inspiring stories of success and triumph. It is certainly the desire of everybody to see that the latter is the norm at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China. This year will mark the first time that the Summer Olympics were held in the country, a decision made in 2001 at a meeting of the International Olympic Committee. Traditionally, the method of choosing the city in which the Summer Olympics will be held falls to a vote within the IOC. Through several voting rounds, the short list of eligible cities is slowly diminished until one remains. The decision to host the Summer Olympics in Beijing, though, came as a bit of a surprise when an absolute majority was reached in the second round of voting, which eliminated the need for any further rounds. The other cities in contention included Toronto, Paris, Istanbul, and Osaka, but they did not receive enough votes. Winning the bid was a source of great national pride for China.

photo credit: Rick McCharles
Construction of the venues for the 2008 Summer Olympics in China began as early as May 2007. The majority of the budget for the construction of the six main venues comes from corporate bids and tenders, all of which are looking for ownership of the venues after the Olympic Games are completed. These investments make up $2.1 billion, or 85% of the total budget. Although most of the events will take place in Beijing, some, such as sailing and equestrian, will be held outside of the city for safety and practicality reasons. The centerpiece of the Olympic Games will be the Beijing National Stadium. Nicknamed the “Bird’s Nest” because of its unique structure, the Beijing National Stadium is the second attempt at creating an Olympic venue in China. The first venue, the Guangdong Olympic Stadium, was decided against, and a worldwide design competition took place in order to determine what shape the Beijing National Stadium would take. A Swiss design firm, working together with China Architecture & Design Research Group, won the contest and created this design for the stadium that will be used during the opening and closing ceremonies as well as during certain events.

photo credit: flibblesan
Beijing has also undergone many other changes in order to accommodate the massive rush of tourism and foreign interest in the city. The transportation system has been retooled and improved, with the subway system, for example, reaching a capacity that is twice of what its former size was. There are also several public transit routes that have been set up to link the Olympic venues. Going green has been a major part of Chinese preparation for the event, especially in the wake of a global surge in environmental awareness that has left China the task to clean up a notoriously polluted city. The Olympics will be broadcast solely in high-definition and is likely to have billions of viewers, but there are still lingering worries about Chinese censorship of certain events. Although the Chinese government has said that it will allow free reign of the media throughout the events and from one event to the other, there have been reports that the proceedings are bogged down by lengthy application processes, strict rules and regulations, and worries of violations of the supposed free media reign.

One of the most important Olympic traditions is the Olympic Torch Relay, which involves the world-spanning journey of the torch. The relay is expected to last over four months and the torch will travel over 85,000 miles. A smooth journey, though, the torch has not and will not have, as widespread protests against China’s human rights violations have injected politics into the venerable tradition of the torch relay. For example, many attempts in Great Britain were made to extinguish the Olympic torch, and it was completely extinguished in Paris, although it is specifically designed to avoid such encounters. Still, China maintains that such protests are contrary to the Olympic spirit and that such protests should be put aside and subject to the laws of the country in which they occur, rather than marring a tradition that has taken place for many years before 2008 and one that will continue long after.

The 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing will be a time for the world to watch as their nation’s representatives compete for a gold, silver, or bronze medal. Friendships will be built and rivalries will be fueled, but it is all in the name of the Olympics. With billions of viewers, the Olympic Games are the most important sporting events in the history of the world and they continue to be of great significance to international relations and sportsmanship in general. While political and cultural tensions threaten to put a wedge between many forces involved in the 2008 Summer Olympic Games, the Olympic spirit of international peace hopes to carry on when the games begin.

Jim Thorpe, 1912

Considered the greatest all round athlete in first half of the 20th century, Thorpe reportedly trained for the Olympics on the ship over. He went on to take the gold in the pentathlon and decathlon. Thorpe was also awarded two challenge prizes by King Gustav V of Sweden for the decathlon and Czar Nicholas II of Russia for the pentathlon.

Before Thorpe could walk away, Gustav grabbed his hand. “Sir,you are the greatest athlete in the world.” Replied Thorpe: “Thanks King.’”

Thorpe was later forced to return his medals for the crime of having been paid for playing baseball a couple of years earlier.

Harold Abrahamson and Eric Liddell, 1924

In the “Chariots of Fire” Olympics Liddell, a Christian missionary, was selected for the 100m, 200m and 400m. The 100m was his to win, but he refused to run on the Sabbath. Instead, Abrahams, a Jew, won the 100m and went on to become a prominent official in sport and an admired BBC commentator.

Abrahams’ win was not without controversy: In order to train for the Olympics, the athlete had hired a personal coach. At the time, the establishment looked with disdain at any hint of professionalism in sports; hiring a coach simply wasn’t done.

Paavo Nurmi, 1924

Nurmi was the top middle and long distance runner throughout the 1920s, competing in three Olympics that decade. His best showing came in 1924 in Paris when he won the 1,500m and 5,000m with only 26 minutes in between to rest. He also won the cross country and was a member of the winning 3,000m relay, but was denied a chance to win a fifth gold medal by Finnish officials who said he had too much on his plate to attempt to defend the 10,000m.

In 1932 he was favored to win the 10,000m and marathon, but was barred for having accepted more than his expenses while on tour the year before the Games.

In all, Nurmi won 12 medals, nine gold and three silver–more than any track and field Olympian to date.

Jesse Owens, 1936

Three quarters of a century later, Owens’ performance has taken on mythic proportions: Jesse Owens, snubbed by Hitler after winning his first gold medal, singlehandedly demolished the Fuehrer’s claims of Aryan superiority.

It’s not quite that simple.

Hitler did not congratulate Owens, but that day he didn’t congratulate anybody else either, not even the German winners. As a matter of fact, Hitler didn’t congratulate anyone after the first day of the competition. That first day he had shaken hands with all the German victors, but that had gotten him in trouble with the members of the Olympic Committee. They told him that to maintain Olympic neutrality, he would have to congratulate everyone or no one. Hitler chose to honor no one.

Hitler did snub a black American athlete, but it was Cornelius Johnson, not Jesse Owens. It happened the first day of the meet. Just before Johnson was to be decorated, Hitler left the stadium. A Nazi spokesman explained that Hitler’s exit had been pre-scheduled, but no one believes that.

None of that, however, takes away from Owens’ wins. He gave four virtuoso performances, winning gold medals in the 100- and 200- meter dashes, the long jump and on America’s 4x100 relay team.

It was during the qualifying rounds for the long jump that saw perhaps the most extraordinary moment of the Nazi Olympics.

Luz Long, Owens’ main rival in the long jump, noticed Owens struggling to qualify for the competition. His first jump failed and the judges counted what Owens thought of as a practice jump as his second try. Then Long–who had set an Olympic record in the qualifying round–got up, introduced himself to Owens and suggested Owens should try taking off from several inches behind the line. He did, and managed to qualify.

In the final, Long came in third while Owens’s sixth jump broke Long’s record and took the gold. Long and Owens walked arm-in-arm to the dressing room afterwards, posing for press photos. Long died during World War II, but Owens kept in touch with the German athlete’s family until he died.

Hungary v USSR, 1956

Twenty six days after Soviet tanks entered Budapest to put down the Hungarian uprising, Hungary’s water polo team met the USSR team in Melbourne in a semifinal match.

More than 2,500 Hungarians had been killed, 200,000 had lost their homes and 13,000 had been imprisoned as a result of the Soviet invasion. But Hungary’s water-polo team only learned of their country’s fate weeks later; they were kept incommunicado at a training camp in Czechoslovakia until just before they arrived in Melbourne.

The Hungarian team decided to exact revenge in the pool in what became known as the “Blood on the Water Match.”

“The pool,” wrote British sports commentator Harry Carpenter, “became a bubbling cauldron of spite.”.

In scoring the first goal, Dezsö Gyarmati of Hungary, who would eventually win medals in five Olympics, nearly KO’d his Soviet opponent. Minutes later, the USSR’s Vyacheslav Kurennoi was sent to the penalty box for slugging. Then the Soviet Union’s Boris Markarov and Hungary’s Antal Bolvari went at it. It was open warfare thereafter, with players from both teams trading blows and headlocks.

However, the avenging Hungarians did all the scoring, and they led 4-0 with only a minute to play. At that point Zador, who had scored twice, looked away from the man guarding him, Valentin Prokopov, to respond to a referee’s whistle. Prokopov rose out of the water and sucker-punched Zador hard above the right eye. Blood streamed from the wound into the pool. When angry Hungarians scrambled out of the stands, apparently eager to join the fight, officials called the game. The Soviet team was led by police through a cordon of cursing spectators to the safety of its locker room.

The match was awarded to Hungary. Forty-five members of the Hungarian Olympic team defected after the games, including Zador who went on to coach future Olympian Mark Spitz.

Abebe Bikila, 1960

As a last-minute add-on to the Ethiopian Olympic team, Bikila was stuck with a pair of ill-fitting shoes in which to run the 26 mile race.

So he ditched the shoes. And he won the race.

Bikila finished the race in a record time of 2:15:16.2, becoming the first African to win an Olympic gold medal. He became the first man in history to retain the marathon title in 1964 in Tokyo. That time, however, he was wearing shoes.

Cassius Clay, 1960

Cassius Clay won gold in the light heavyweight class against Polish fighter Zigzy Pietrzykowski. a three-time European champion. Clay, who would later change his name to Muhammad Ali and hold the world heavyweight title three times, was so proud of his gold medal that he didn’t take it off for two days.

Legend says that Ali later threw his medal into the Ohio River after being refused service at a white-only restaurant. At the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta he was awarded a new medal by the US basketball team.

Wilma Rudolph, 1960

The 20th of 22 children, Wilma Rudolph suffered through double pneumonia, scarlet fever and polio as a child. She wore a brace on her leg until age 11. At age 16, Rudolph was a member of the 1956 Olympic Team where she won a bronze for her part in the 4x100m relay.

Four years later she was back. Rudolph won three gold medals in Rome and remains one of only three women to win all three Olympic sprint events on the track. All with a sprained ankle.

The Romans dubbed her La Gazella Nera, The Black Gazelle, so graceful was her flowing style, so easy did she make her victories appear. Her world records over 100 and 200m, 11.0sec and 22.9sec, survived the 1964 Olympic Games.

Bob Beamon, 1968

Beamon pulled off one of the greatest Olympic feats to date, jumping 8.90 meters (more than 29 feet) in the long jump at the 1968 Games in Mexico City. At the time, defending Olympic champion, Lynn Davies of Great Britain, told Beamon, “You have destroyed this event.” The jump beat the old record by 55 centimeters, making Beamon the first person to reach both 28 and 29 feet in the event.

Beamon was assisted by wind speeds of 2 meters per second and an altitude of 2,240 meters. Still, his record survived for another 22 years.

Dick Fosbury, 1968

From the long jump to the high jump, 1968 was also the year the world was introduced to the Fosbury Flop, named after gold medalist Dick Fosbury’s head first, backwards leap over the bar. Fosbury took the gold with a (2.24 meter jump. (That’s 7 feet and 4.25 inches for those of us not on the metric system.)

Although the move revolutionized the sport, Fosbury had his detractors. Among them was the US coach at the time, Payton Jordan.

“Kids imitate champions,” Jordan said. “If they try to imitate Fosbury, he’ll wipe out an entire generation of high jumpers because they all will have broken necks.”

Forty years later, athletes are still using the technique.

Olga Korbut, 1972

Millions of girls worldwide took up gymnastics after seeing Olga Korbut in Munich in 1972. And the adoration of Olga didn’t stop there. Merchants in Munich were so taken with the 17-year-old gymnast that they refused to take payment from her. After the games, the Soviets assigned a special clerk to answer the gymnast’s fan mail.

She became the first person ever to do a backward somersault on the balance beam in competition. She was also the first to do standing backward somersault on bars, and a back somersault, a move now known as the Korbut Flip, on beam. She won three gold medals and a silver that year.

But it was her personality rather than her technical skills that made Korbut a star. In contrast to her Eastern bloc counterparts, Korbut showed emotion on the floor: Crying when a disastrous performance on the uneven bars shattered her chances of medaling in the all around and smiling ear-to-ear after taking the gold.

Mark Spitz, 1972

Seven events, seven gold medals, seven world records. Spitz won four individual events — in the 100m and 200m freestyle and 100m and 200m butterfly — and three relay races.

No one had done it before and no one has done it since although Michael Phelps will try to better or equal Spitz in this Olympiad when he competes in eight events. Phelps went after Spitz in 2004, but “only” achieved gold in six events.

Nadia Comaneci 1976

When 14-year-old Nadia scored the sport’s first perfect 10 in on the uneven bars, the scoreboard couldn’t accommodate the extra digit as it was assumed no athlete would ever achieve such a score. So Nadia’s perfect mark was displayed on the board as 1.00. Comaneci went on to score six more 10s.

Naturally she was a sensation. After ABC’s “Wide World of Sports” set a montage of her performance to the theme from “The Young and the Restless,” it became a top-selling single and was renamed “Nadia’s Theme” by the composer.

Comaneci was the first Romanian gymnast to win the all-around title at the Olympics. She also holds the record as the youngest Olympic all-around champion. The age requirement has since been upped to 16, so that record can never be broken.

Carl Lewis, 1984

Lewis entered the games a star in the track and field world. Then he matched Jesse Owens’ 1936 four-gold-medal performance and the whole world took notice.

One of only four Olympic athletes to win nine gold medals, Lewis is also one of only three to win the same individual event four times.

At the 1988 Seoul Games, Lewis gained a second gold medal in the 100m after Ben Johnson was disqualified. He also defended his long jump title. At the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, Lewis won a third gold medal in the long jump; he also anchored the world record-setting U.S. relay team. At Atlanta in 1996, he barely qualified but then went on to win the long jump.

Mary Lou Retton 1984

Inspired by Nadia Comaneci growing up, Mary Lou Retton became an Olympian herself when she became the first American to win the all-around title at the 1984 Games in Los Angeles. She won the gold by earning a perfect 10 in the vault, the final event of the competition. It was the first time a female gymnast outside Eastern Europe won the Olympic all-around title. Retton also won two silver and two bronze medals in individual and team competitions.

Greg Louganis, 1988

Greg Louganis is the only male diver ever to retain both the Olympic platform and springboard titles – in 1984 and 1988 – and the only diver to win three successive world platform crowns.

After gashing his head on the end of the springboard during the preliminaries, which earned him five stitches and a concussion, Louganis went on to capture gold in both the 3-meter springboard and 10-meter platform at the 1988 Games in Seoul.

Michael Johnson, 1996

The only male athlete to win both the 200m and 400m events at the same Olympics, Johnson is also the only man to successfully defend his Olympic title in the 400m.

After breaking the 200-meter world record at the U.S. Olympic Trials, Johnson shattered his own record at the Games, clocking in at 19.32 seconds. Johnson’s time of 19.32 broke his own world record by a third of a second. No other man in history has run below 19.6.

“The Man With the Golden Shoes” also breezed to the gold medal in the 400 meters, blowing away the field by almost an entire second. Johnson was noted for his unique running style. His upright stance and very short steps defied the received wisdom that a high knee lift was essential for maximum speed.

Kerri Strug 1996

The 88-pound gymnast won the gold for the American gymnastic team by achieving a near perfect vault on a broken ankle.

Strug needed to nail the vault because teammate Dominique Moceanu had fallen in both her attempts. Strug fell on her first attempt, also, and wrenched her ankle. Then she stood up, and limped to the end of the runway for her second attempt. She landed the vault on one foot, raised her arms in a salute to the judges, then collapsed in agony to the mat. She had to be helped off the stage.

Rulon Gardner, 2000

In the “Miracle on the Mat,” Gardner beat Russian Greco-Roman wrestler Aleksandr Karelin, who had not lost a match in 13 years or given up a point in six years. But American Rulon Gardner stopped the champion in his tracks.

Michael Phelps, 2004

Though he may still have a chance to break Mark Spitz’s record of seven gold medals in a single Olympics in Beijing, Phelps came close in 2004.

Phelps began his assault on the record books on the first day of competition, winning the 400m individual medley. The next day he added a bronze medal in the 4x100m freestyle relay, and the day after that he picked up another bronze by setting a personal record in the 200m freestyle.

Phelps then won the 200m butterfly and, an hour later, won as the leadoff leg for the U.S. 4x200m freestyle relay team. His next gold-medal came in the 200m individual medley, which he won by 1.64 seconds. In the 100m butterfly, Phelps earned his fifth gold medal. Phelps gained another gold in the 4x100m medley relay by swimming the preliminary heats. Phelps and gymnast Aleksandr Dityatin are the only athletes to earn eight medals at a single Olympics.

Faster. Higher Stronger. That’s the motto of the Olympics–an event that’s supposed to be about athletic perfection. An event where the greatest athletes of the world meet to compete on neutral ground just for the glory of it.

Not in this world.

When the Olympics become an athletic meet for saints, perhaps we’ll see such perfection. In the meantime the Olympics have seen their share of cheating and chicanery. In general, the worst Olympic moments involve drugs, money or politics with politics far outshadowing the first two.

It was politics that led to the worst moment in Olympic history: The 1972 massacre of 11 Israeli athletes by Palestinian terrorists.

It started in the early morning of Sept. 5, 1972 when eight members of Black September faction sneaked into the Olympic Village and entered the rooms where the athletes slept. Two men, wrestling coach Moshe Weinberg and weightlifter Yossef Romano were killed on the spot. Nine more were taken hostage. Twenty one hours later they were dead in a botched rescue attempt.

Politics also played a role in the basketball match between the US and the USSR that year as it had in other years, most notably the 1980 Miracle on Ice.

It wasn’t just competing ideologies that came to bear in these confrontations: American athletes also objected to the fact that their Eastern bloc counterparts were essentially paid to play while the US athletes were amateurs.

None of the Soviet athletes had sneaker deals. None of them appeared on a box of Wheaties. But they were employees of the state who were able to devote themselves to their individual sports full time. They also didn’t have to worry about paying for trainers or the any of the other numerous expense borne by amateur athletes in the US.

That was the case when the athletes competed for gold in the 1972 basketball finals.

Led by the inside outside combination of guard Sergei Belov and forward Alexander Belov, the well seasoned and well coached Soviets proved to be the stiffest competitor the Americans had ever faced.

“They had a great team,” said U.S. assistant coach John Bach. “Their team, it was reported, played almost 400 games together. 400 games. We had played 12 exhibition games and the trials.”

The quasi-professional Soviet club stood in stark contrast to America’s system of selecting a new amateur team every four years to conquer the world’s best. In 1972, the politics involved with picking the right team and naming the right coach became thorny issues. Henry Iba, the legendary retired head coach of Oklahoma State, was chosen to coach the U.S. team for a third straight Olympics. Iba led the U.S. to gold in 1964 and 1968, but by 1972, his conservative, defensive style of play was viewed as out of touch with the modern game.

With the score at 50-49 for the Americans, officials called a foul on team Russia, but the clock failed to stop in time, and was a second over. After the final buzzzer, the Americans celebrated their victory, but both teams were told they had to replay the final seconds of the game because of the clock malfunction. Instead of restoring the clock to the correct one second, the officials added two extra seconds, giving Russia enough time to score a layup and win 51-50.

The American team protested the outcome to no avail.

To this day, the American team’s silver medals lay unclaimed in a vault in Lausanne, Switzerland.

“If we had gotten beat, I would be proud to display my silver medal today,” [forward Mike] Bantom said. “But, we didn’t get beat, we got cheated.”

“I have placed it in my will that my wife and my children can never, ever receive that medal from the ‘72 Olympic games,” said [team captain Kenny] Davis.

The Soviet players claim the American players were bad sports, albeit patriotic bad sports, who couldn’t bear to accept defeat from their enemy. The Americans point to an abundance of Eastern bloc judges on the panel.

There’s much talk this year about China as a venue for the Olympics given the People’s Republic’s human rights record and its penchant for censorship. In 1936, when Germany hosted the games, there were also objections to the venue.

Germany was awarded the 1936 games in 1931, a year before Adolph Hitler came to power. By 1933, Hitler’s discriminatory policies toward Jews and Gypsies were known throughout the world and some thought the Olympics should be boycotted.

Responding to reports of the persecution of Jewish athletes in 1933, Avery Brundage, president of the American Olympic Committee, stated: “The very foundation of the modern Olympic revival will be undermined if individual countries are allowed to restrict participation by reason of class, creed, or race.” Brundage, like many others in the Olympics movement, initially considered moving the Games from Germany. After a brief and tightly managed inspection of German sports facilities in 1934, Brundage stated publicly that Jewish athletes were being treated fairly and that the Games should go on, as planned.

Debate over participation in the 1936 Olympics was greatest in the United States, which traditionally sent one of the largest teams to the Games. By the end of 1934, the lines on both sides were clearly drawn. Brundage opposed a boycott, arguing that politics had no place in sport. “The Olympic Games belong to the athletes and not to the politicians.” He wrote in the AOC’s pamphlet Fair Play for American Athletes that American athletes should not become involved in “the present Jew-Nazi altercation.” As the Olympics controversy heated up in 1935, Brundage alleged the existence of a “Jewish-Communist conspiracy” to keep the United States out of the Games.

Brundage’s rival, Judge Jeremiah Mahoney, president of the Amateur Athletic Union, pointed out that Germany had broken Olympic rules forbidding discrimination based on race and religion. In his view, participation would mean an endorsement of Hitler’s Reich.

As we all know, the Olympics went on as planned and the IOC brooked no opposition to its plan: American athlete Ernest Lee Jahnke, the son of a German immigrant, was expelled from the IOC for encouraging athletes to boycott Hitler’s Berlin Games.

Before the games began, the Nazis cleaned up the streets of Berlin, removing anti-Semitic signs from the streets and anti-Semitic rhetoric from the newspapers. A month before the games, 800 Roma (Gypsies) residing in Berlin were interned in a special camp. A huge sports complex was constructed and Olympic flags and swastikas bedecked the monuments of Berlin. Nazi officials also ordered that foreign visitors should not be subjected to the criminal penalties of the German anti-homosexuality laws.

Germany took most of the medals that year, earning 89, with 33 gold medals including one for cycling won by Toni Merkens who fouled Dutchman Arie van Vliet in the cycling sprint final, but was allowed to keep the gold medal after being fined 100 Reichsmarks.

For 101 years, from the start of the Olympic Games in 1896 to 1987, the Olympics forbade athletes from earning money for athletics. Money, the International Olympics Committee alleged, would taint the games. But from the beginning critics of the policy have charged that barring athletes from receiving payment made the Olympics little more than an exclusive club for the rich, who could afford to devote themselves to sport without thinking about remuneration.

Jim Thorpe was one of the first athletes to face sanctions for playing for pay.

“The greatest athlete in the world” lost his medals in 1913 after a newspaper account revealed he had played baseball for money.

Depending on which biography you consult, Thorpe received $2 a game or $25-$35 a week in 1909 and 1910 for playing minor league baseball. Two years later, Thorpe became the only athlete ever to win the pentathlon and the decathlon as a member of the US Olympic team in Stockholm, beating out the prohibitive favorite, Avery Brundage.

Brundage, who later served as president of the International Olympic Committee, finished sixth in the pentathlon and 15th in the decathlon, which some say led to his intransigence on the subject of Thorpe’s medals. For decades, Brundage steadfastly refused to overturn the ruling and reinstate Thorpe’s medals, even after the US Olympic Committee voted for reinstatement in 1973.

Thorpe eventually received his hard earned medals in 1983, 30 years after his death. The decision was made under the auspices of then-IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch, who also played a leading role in allowing professional athletes to compete in the games.

In the 1932 games, Swedish athlete Bertil Sandstrom was demoted to last after winning the silver medal in equestrian dressage for clicking at his horse to encourage it. He claimed it was his saddle making a creaking noise.

Another possible cheating scandal could be called the she-male controversy.

Tamara and Irina Press won five golds and one silver. They also set 26 world records in shot put, discus and pentathlon. The sisters mysteriously disappeared from international competition when genetic testing was instituted.

Western track and field officials and media representatives often mocked the sisters for appearing masculine and speculated that the two received male hormone treatments. Some even conjectured that the sisters were actually men. Those questions led in 1966 to the imposition of gender tests for international competitions. The sisters withdrew from competition; Soviet officials announced the pair were retiring to care for their ailing mother in Ukraine.

These days, questions of cheating generally involve doping. The most recent scandal was revealed last year when Marion Jones, who won five medals in the 2000 Summer Olympic, admitted to taking drugs.

In October 2007, Jones admitted she had lied about her steroid use in statements to the press, sports agencies and two grand juries. Jones accepted a two-year suspension form track and field competition, and eventually announced her retirement on October 5, 2007. She also lost her medals.

Jones is far from alone. Here’s a partial list of summer Olympians caught doping:

• Seoul 1988: Ben Johnson, a Canadian sprinter, was stripped of his gold medal in the 100m after testing positive for stanozolol. Johnson had astounded the world when he stormed to gold in the 100m in Seoul a record time of 9.79 seconds.
• Sydney 2000: Romanian Andreea Raducan became the first gymnast to be stripped of a medal after testing positive for pseudophedrine, a banned drug. Raducan was fighting off a cold, and the Romanian team doctor game her cold medicine pills. The doctor was expelled from the Games and suspended for four years. Raducan’s teammate Simona Amanar, who had taken the silver medal, was eventually awarded the gold and Raducan was allowed to keep her other medals.
• Athens 2004: Kenyan boxer David Munyasia tested positive for cathine and was banned from competing.
• Athens 2004: Greek sprinters Kostas Kenteris and Ekaterini Thanou withdrew from their team after they failed to take drug tests before the games began.
• Athens 2004: Myanmar’s Nan Aye Khine tested positive for steroids after finishing fourth in the women’s 48 kg weightlifting event.
• Athens 2004: Turkish weightlifter Sule Sahbaz tested positive for steroids and was barred from competing.
• Athens 2004: Bronze medalist Leonidas Sampanis lost was his bronze medal in the 62 kg weightlifting competition after testing positive for testosterone.
• Athens 2004: Robert Fazekas of Hungary was stripped of his gold medal and Olympic Record in the Men’s discus after failing to produce a sufficiently large urine sample, then leaving the testing facility early.
• Athens 2004: Irish showjumper Cian O’Connor was stripped of his gold medal after his horse, Waterford Crystal, tested positive for fluphenazine and zuclophenthixol months after receiving the medal.

photo credit: minds-eye

The Professional Golfers’ Association, or PGA, was established in 1916 when Walter Hagen and thirty four other golf professionals came together to establish a unifying organization to provide rules and set up competitions. Today, the PGA is the world’s largest sports organization, consisting of the biggest names in golf and managing many events all over the world, among other things. One of the first missions of the PGA was to create a national championship where professional golfers from all over the country could come together and compete for monetary prizes and the Wanamaker Trophy, named after Rodman Wanamaker. The first PGA Championship took place at the Siwanoy Country Club in New York and it was won by James Barnes. Along with the trophy, Jim Barnes won all of $500 dollars. The following two years, the event was canceled because of World War I, and when it was held again in 1919, Jim Barnes emerged victorious once again. The 1920s and the 1930s saw numerous victories from now-legendary figures.

War once again interrupted the event in 1943, when World War II was in full force for the United States, but from then until 1958 the event remained unchanged. In 1958, the event changed from match play to stroke play, which means that instead of directly competing against each other, competitors would instead compete to have the lowest number of strokes at the end of the game. This change is often said to be a result of network broadcasting pressure because they desired the final day of the event to be played by a large group of well-known golfers. Regardless of the change, the event continued to be very popular and, as was the intention of the network broadcasters, began to make the winners and the popular contenders more notable in the sports world. Throughout the history of the event, American golfers have been the most successful, winning the vast majority of the time. Although there have been notable winners from South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Fiji, the United States is, by far, the most consistent winner of the event.

The PGA created the PGA Championship during a time when wealthy amateurs were the leading force in the sport of golf and professional golfers were not held in high esteem. Because of this, the event historically does not accept leading amateurs and it reserves 20 out of 156 spots for club professionals. It is the only major that does either of those things to such a degree. For those reserved slots, the individuals who fill them are usually determined by the top finishers in the pro club championship, which is held in June. The other competitors are derived from another set of qualifications which include: former PGA champions, winners of any of the last five major championships, the last Senior PGA Championship, low scorers in the last PGA Championship, leaders in the official money standings, members of the most recent United States Ryder Cup Team, winners of PGA Tour-sponsored events held since the last PGA Championship, and other qualifications that are only met by the best professional golfers.

photo credit: mandj98
Because of the nature of the PGA Championships, many winners and contenders of the event have reached national prominence as talented athletes. These golfers become part of pop culture during their heyday, being featured in television advertisement, among other things. Tiger Woods is one of these golfers, whose massive success has made him the highest-paid professional athlete in the world. He is credited with creating a surge of interest for the sport of golf and has won the PGA Championships four times, which is a record only surpassed by two other golfers. Jack Nicklaus is one of these golfers, an iconic figure largely thought to be the best professional golfer of all time. While Tiger Woods created a surge of interest for the sport, Nicklaus is said to have turned golf into a major spectator sport during his career. Throughout the history of the PGA Championship, many other golfers have defined themselves as forces to be reckoned with in subsequent tournaments.

This year’s event is the 90th incarnation of the PGA Championship and will be held from August 4th to August 10th. The event will take place in Detroit, Michigan, at the Oakland Hills Country Club south course. First played in 1924, the course earned the nickname “The Monster” in 1951 because of Ben Hogan’s proclamation that, as winner of the US Open that year, he had brought “the monster to its knees”. He has also been quoted as saying that the course is the toughest he had ever played, so one can be sure that the participants in the 2008 PGA Championships will be challenged not only by each other. Spectators are encouraged to attend the event, but they are encouraged to navigate to the official PGA website in order to procure a copy of the spectator’s guide. They can also find information about the surrounding area, Bloomfield Township, especially about the various things one can do as a tourist in the area. Because of the nature of the event, there are plenty of rules and regulations to follow as a spectator, so it is important that one be prepared. Of course, the event will be broadcast in its entirety on television, which, for most people, will be the best way to keep track of the developments on the course.

The PGA Championship is one of the true tests for professional golfers and, as the nickname “glory’s last shot” hints, the last chance for these golfers to reach champion status in one of the majors. From all over the world, competitors come to test themselves against the course and against each other, hoping to bring their best game to the table in order to walk away with a sizeable share of the purse, a prestigious trophy, and the adoration of golf lovers everywhere. Most of all, though, the PGA Championship is a time for professional golfers to put themselves to the test, because at this point in competition, victory is not only for the money or the fame. So make sure to keep on eye on the proceedings at the PGA Championships as golf history unfolds and champions are born, because it only comes one a year.

photo credit: Boy27wonder

It seems as if everywhere you turn, you hear someone talking about fantasy football. Fantasy football has gone from a game that was played by just a few people to a game that is played by millions of millions of people. Fantasy football is now responsible for a multi-billion dollar industry that is growing each and every year. By 2015, the fantasy football industry is expected to double in size.

What is fantasy football? Fantasy football is a game that involves the National Football League and the stats of its players. In fantasy football, a league is formed that consists of usually between eight and twelve teams. Each team is run by a different person. The teams in the league compete against each other until one team in the fantasy football league is declared the winner.

Fantasy football follows the flow of the NFL regular season. The first week of fantasy football is Week 1 of NFL action, for example. Each team in the fantasy football league has a roster comprised of NFL players. As the games are played each week, the real life statistics are used to determine how well the fantasy football teams do each week. Weekly winners are crowned, just like in the NFL. The best fantasy football teams in the league then go on to play in a fantasy playoff. After a single-elimination playoffs, a fantasy champion is crowned – usually either in Week 16 or Week 17 of the NFL season.

Nowadays, fantasy football is spoken about and tracked by the mainstream media. NFL players openly talk about fantasy football. Television networks that air NFL games have live updating stats, in large part to help their fantasy football playing audience. Primetime NFL-themed shows oftentimes discuss fantasy football busts, fantasy football sleepers, fantasy football tips and fantasy football strategy.

photo credit: RobotSkirts

If you want to form your own fantasy football league, the first thing you have to do is find a group of friends who wants to play in your fantasy football league. Once you have your group of fantasy team owners, you and the team owners need to agree on a set of rules you will use as guidelines for the forthcoming season. The next step is to decide if you are going to play for money. In a lot of fantasy football leagues, each owner pays a buy-in and the monies collected as part of the buy-in are then later distributed to the winning teams of the fantasy football team. However, be sure to check in your local jurisdiction concerning the legality of using money in fantasy football because doing so is illegal in many parts of the world.

The final step in creating your own fantasy football league is to pick a website to host your fantasy football league. Many websites exist that can host your fantasy football league – a lot of which are free to use. In addition to free fantasy football hosting sites, there are a number of sites that charge a fee, however these sites typically offer more features than its free counterpart.

The most important aspect of a fantasy football hosting site is that it can handle everything you desire. To make sure it can handle your fantasy football league, look at the rules of your league and compare your rules to the capabilities of the fantasy football hosting site you are considering. As long as the host can do everything you need, you can consider that particular host an option.

Many premium services should also be looked for when considering a fantasy football host. These services make life as a fantasy football team owner a lot easier. It also makes fantasy football much more fun for everyone involved! Here are some premium services to look for when picking your host site:

Online Draft
One of the most important days of the fantasy football season is the fantasy football draft. The draft is how the players are dispersed throughout the league. For example, if you have 12 fantasy football owners in your league, the draft will start with one team and will go team by team until each roster is filled with NFL players. Since this is such a vital part of the fantasy football process, you want to make sure that the hosting site you choose has an online draft that is reliable and easy to use.

photo credit: sanchom

Live Scoring
When you are playing fantasy football, it is always better to have live updated scoring on your fantasy football team. For example, if a player on your fantasy football team scores a touchdown, you want the stats to update for your fantasy team online. If your league does not offer live scoring, you will either have to calculate the stats of your team by hand or wait for the scoring to update. Waiting for the scoring to update can sometimes take as long as 24 hours on some hosting sites – which can feel like an eternity to a fantasy football owner.

News, Rumors and Analysis
While you can use third party websites to get the latest information on the players who comprise your fantasy football team, it is much easier and much more convenient if the news, rumors and analysis are provided by your fantasy football hosting site. If you are looking over your roster, you want to be alerted if there is NFL breaking news regarding a player on your team. If you host on a site that doesn’t offer news, rumors and analysis, each owner in the league will have to individually research each player on their team continually to check for updates.

In recent years, a few fantasy football league hosting sites have emerged as the most popular options. While there is no perfect host as of yet, the number of options available to fantasy football owners is impressive and everyone should be able to find a suitable solution. Here is a list of the top fantasy football league hosting sites:

Yahoo Fantasy Football
Yahoo has many years of experience in the fantasy football field and they are currently the most popular destination for fantasy football owners. The best parts of Yahoo’s fantasy football hosting package is its fantastic draft software, its unmatchable news, rumors and analysis, and its overall ease of use. While Yahoo is free to use, you need to pay if you want live scoring. Additionally, Yahoo doesn’t offer nearly as much customization as other hosting sites.

Fox Sports Fantasy Football
Fox Sports has impressed fantasy football owners due to its free live scoring. It is rare to find a hosting site that offers free live scoring, however Fox Sports does just that. On the other hand, Fox Sports loses a few points due to being complicated to use.

ESPN Fantasy Football
ESPN, being at the forefront of the sports world, offers a hosting site that has a lot to like. However, the free version of ESPN’s fantasy football host is very limited in terms of customizations.

CBS Sportsline Fantasy Football
While CBS Sportsline’s hosting site doesn’t offer a free version, that hasn’t stopped many fantasy football owners from using their service. CBS Sportsline offers just about everything imaginable, with the only real drawback being their relatively high asking price for their fantasy football hosting services.

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Among the super sport event spectaculars that occur throughout the year, The Open Championship, or just The Open, is one of the most important golf events and the oldest major golf championship event out of them all. Held on the weekend of the third Friday of July, the Open Championship is the only major held outside of the United States and the third major that takes place each year, following The Masters and the U.S. Open. Millions of dollars are at stake, and although The Open historically had the smallest prize fund out of all the majors, it has recently surged to the front. The grandeur with which the event is put on today, combined with its rich history that goes back almost 150 years, makes The Open one of the most important sporting events in the world.

The Open Championship originated in 1860 at the Prestwick Golf Club, a Scottish golf club that is a classic links golf course, which means that the golf course is located on a coastal area with few water hazards and little to no trees. Originally, The Open was restricted to professionals, and the first championship drew a field of eight who were to play three rounds of the twelve-hole Prestwick golf course. The next year, the field opened to amateurs as well, and this drew eight amateurs to join ten professionals for the 1861 Open Championship. Winners of the first several Open Championships received a ceremonial Championship Belt. Today, instead of the belt, winners receive The Claret Jug, the colloquial name for the large, impressive trophy. Prize money was introduced three years after the first Open, but the prize was rather small, only $50. Compared to today’s prize funds in the millions of dollars, it was rather paltry compensation for the tournament.

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Eventually, the Prestwick Golf Club joined forces with The Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews and the Honorable Company of Edinburgh Golfers to administer the race, which was growing larger and larger as the years passed. In 1982, the number of holes doubled from 36 to 72, which worked out to four rounds of 18 holes which, by then, was the standard. By 1920, the Royal & Ancient Golf Club assumed full control of The Open. In those days, winners of the event were mostly Scottish professional golfers who worked in golf-related occupations, like greenkeepers and clubmakers. They needed to take up such occupations because the winnings from tournaments were meager in comparison to today and they would not be able to make a living otherwise. Professionalism was—and is—an important quality in achieving success in The Open Championship, because only six amateurs have won the event ever, and their victories were all between 1890 and 1930. Especially before 1939, it was also apparently beneficial to be Scottish or English because only two Americans and one French person represented the only non-British winners in the history of the event.

In the 1960s, a “Big Three” emerged in South African Gary Player and the Americans Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer. These three golfers were met with overwhelming success in all of the majors, but their lasting influence, especially the Americans, increased international interest in golf and the majors. Improvements in trans-Atlantic travel were similarly beneficial for the participation in The Open, which was traditionally much easier for the British to participate in for obvious reasons. From the 1960s to the 1980s, American domination of the event was rather evident, but when American Tom Watson won The Open in 1983, it marked the end of said domination for twelve years. By 1995, The Open became part of the PGA Tour’s official schedule, which coincided with an American resurgence in the event. It also allowed the classification of all Open Championship wins before 1995 as PGA wins. This modified the list of leading winners on the PGA Tour list and added another source of prize money one on the PGA Tour’s official money list.

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Since 1872, the course at which The Open is played has been in rotation, determined by the number in which the current year ends. Years ending in 1, 3, 6, or 8 are played in England, and the rest are played in Scotland. In England, it is only played in the North West or the South East regions of England, and never in the other seven regions, never in Wales, and rarely in Northern Ireland. The Old Course at St. Andrews interrupts the rotation every five years or so; there are no set rules determining when this happens and it is booked years in advance. The nine courses in the rotation are The Old Course at St. Andrews, the Carnoustie Golf Links, Muirfield, the Westin Turnberry Resort, the Royal Troon Golf Club, the Royal St. George’s Golf Club, the Royal Birkdale Golf Club, the Royal Lytham & St. Anne’s Golf Club, and the Royal Liverpool Club. The Royal Birkdale Golf Club will host The Open Championship in 2008 because it corresponds with the number eight.

photo credit: Jonny Thirkill

The modern Open Championship is played by a field of 156 golfers. Over two thirds of the golfers are offered exemptions, meaning that they do not have to go through a qualifying round in order to get entrance to the race. The rest of the golfers go through local or international qualifying rounds in order to participate in the race. Exemption categories include decisions based on Official World Golf Rankings, the PGA Tour’s money list, previous Open Championship winners, recent winners of the other majors, and the top ten of last year’s Open Champions, among other categories. Amateurs must be represented in the Open Championships, as well as all member tours of the International Federation of PGA tours. Twelve places are available through a qualifying round played in Britain and Ireland, and since it is open to anyone all over the world, it tends to attract big names of those who try to come out and earn a spot. Today, many of these people play in International Qualifying rounds, which make it easier for people all over the world to get involved.

Outside of the United Kingdom, the event is most often referred to as the British Opens in order to distinguish it from the rest of the Opens that are held. The tournament itself, as well as a fair portion of Europe and most of the United Kingdom, refers to it as The Open, a colloquial term because there is hardly a reason to delineate it from the U.S. opens and such. With a rich history lasting almost a century and a half, The Open Championship is a spectacular event that attracts the attention of golfing aficionados and laymen all over the world alike. Similar to the Super Bowl and Wimbledon, the majors in golf represent the pinnacle of skill and determination in the players that participate and the stakes involved. The Opens, with the largest prize fund and the longest history of all the majors, holds its place as one of the more significant sporting events in the world, just on its own merits.

Typically, the All-Star game is played on a Tuesday. To make room for the game, Major League Baseball has no other games scheduled for the Monday before the game and the Wednesday after the game. This year, the Major League Baseball All-Star Game will be played in New York at Yankee Stadium on Tuesday, July 15th.

To understand why the Midsummer Classic is such a tradition, you must first understand the long history of the game. The first Major League Baseball All-Star Game was played in 1933 in Chicago. Like today’s game, that first All-Star game pitted the best players in the National League against the best players in the American League.

At the time, an All-Star game wasn’t seen much in North American sports. Today almost every sport has some version of an All-Star game. The National Football League has a Pro Bowl that is played after the Super Bowl that features the best teams in the American Football League versus the best teams in the National Football League. The National Basketball Association has a midseason All-Star game that features the Eastern Conference versus the Western Conference. The National Hockey League also has a midseason All-Star game.

Every year since 1933, the All-Star game has been played in baseball. Typically, the location of the All-Star game alternates between the National League and the American League each year. The rules of the league in which the All-Star game is being hosted are the rules that are used. For example, if the All-Star game is held at Wrigley Field, National League rules will be used because that is a National League park (Chicago Cubs).

Major League Baseball does a great job of letting the fans help pick who plays in the All-Star game. The fans vote to pick the starters for both the American League and the National League. Once the starters are determined, the head managers of each league pick which players will be on the bench. After the bench is determined, the final spot on the roster is determined by a fan vote. When all is said and done, there are 32 players on each team’s roster. If any players get hurt and are unable to play in the game, the Commissioner’s Office will pick the replacement players.

The managers of the All-Star games are the coaches who played each other in the previous World Series. For example, if the Los Angeles Dodgers play the Tampa Bay Rays in the 2008 World Series, the 2009 All-Star game will be managed by the managers of the Dodgers and the Rays. The managers have the power to pick who will be on their coaching staffs.

About a decade ago, it seemed like most fans, players, managers and even the media were losing interest in the Major League Baseball All-Star Game. Instead of letting the All-Star game lose popularity, Major League Baseball decided to do something about it. In 2003, the All-Star game suddenly became a lot more important in a tangible sense. That was the year that the winner of the All-Star game got home field advantage in the World Series. Since that point, the All-Star game has become a very competitive affair.

Since the All-Star game decides World Series home field advantage, nowadays you will see players and managers trying hard to win the game. For a lot of players in the contest, playing for the right to hold a Game 7 at home means there is a lot on the line. Not only are there bragging rights, the fate of their team’s chances of winning the World Series are also on the line.

In 2008, many fans are looking forward to a Major League Baseball All-Star Game which features many new and exciting players in addition to some of the best players of this generation. On top of that, this year’s All-Star game has added importance because Yankee Stadium is hosting games for the last time this year. Next year, the Yankees are moving into a new stadium, so this is the unofficial goodbye to the most famous ballpark in the history of baseball. Yankee Stadium has seen Yankees stars dating back to Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig and still remained to today’s tandem of Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez.

Speaking of Jeter and Rodriguez, those two Yankees will be starting at shortstop and third base – respectively. The American League starters also feature baseball superstars Ichiro Suzuki of the Seattle Mariners and Manny Ramirez of the Boston Red Sox. On the National League side, the starters include superstars Chipper Jones of the Atlanta Braves, Hanley Ramirez of the Florida Marlins, Chase Utley of the Philadelphia Phillies and Albert Pujols of the St. Louis Cardinals. The starting pitchers will be Ben Sheets of the Milwaukee Brewers for the National League and Cliff Lee of the Cleveland Indians for the American League.

On the bench, the American League has notable players such as star rookie Evan Longoria of the Tampa Bay Rays, MVP candidate Ian Kinsler of the Texas Rangers and Grady Sizemore of the Cleveland Indians, one of the best young players in baseball. The National League bench has rising star David Wright of the New York Mets, Miguel Tejada of the Houston Astros and Russell Martin of the Los Angeles Dodgers.

The pitching staffs of each league are very impressive. The American League has starters Roy Halladay of the Toronto Blue Jays and Ervin Santana of the Los Angeles Angels. The National League has starters Tim Lincecum of the San Francisco Giants and Carlos Zambrano of the Chicago Cubs. The American League has closers Jonathan Papelbon of the Boston Red Sox and Mariano Rivera of the New York Yankees. The National League has closers Billy Wagner of the New York Mets and Brian Wilson of the San Francisco Giants.

No matter which team in baseball is your favorite, you have a reason to watch the 2008 Major League Baseball All-Star Game. Baseball puts at least one player from each team into the All-Star game, so even if your favorite team isn’t having a good year – you can still watch a player from your team play with the best players in the world. If your favorite team has World Series aspirations, chances are that more than one player is representing your team in the All-Star game. Not only that, with the home field advantage for the World Series on the line, you have a rooting interest for a certain team to win the game.

You can watch the Major League Baseball All-Star game on FOX at 8 PM EST. Be sure to turn in for the All-Star game introductions to see all the All-Stars get introduced and get an ovation from the Yankee Stadium crowd. When the game is over, we’ll be able to crown both the All-Star game winning team and the league that will have home field advantage in the World Series.