For people in their late-thirties and, particularly past forty, athletic prowess has rarely been world-class competitive.  Especially with indisputable proof of being free of performance enhancing drugs.  The body gives out, not all at once but imperceptibly slowly to most.  This is, of course, not true of professional athletes whose performance and statistics are under microscopic scrutiny at all times.  

Even as a child I always rooted for the oldsters; knowing the obvious fact that, if I was lucky, I’d be old too someday.  So, when I was a little kid, there was George “The Fossil” Blanda, the oldest player ever to play in an NFL game aged 48 years, 109 days.  He was a quarterback until he was 43 and a kicker during and after.  The only NFL player to appear in games in four different decades, having debuted in 1949 and finishing the 1975 season with an appearance in the AFC Championship game.  He was good the whole time too.  Later there would be Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who was playing on a championship Lakers team at the age of 42.  The Lakers played three consecutive NBA Finals in his last three years, winning the first two.   Baseball, a team sport easier on the body, had always had players in their 40’s, most of them pitchers and pinch/designated hitters.  Many of them played in The World Series.  So there were and still are old guys I can root for, but none like “Satchel” Paige (who was still playing, at 59, in 1965, before I was old enough to be aware).  Paige, widely considered the best pitcher who ever lived, was excluded from Major League Baseball until he was 42, because he was an African-American.  He became the oldest rookie in MLB history.  Such were his talents that he remained effective into his fifties.  Therefore, there is a single example of an athlete past fifty who was still competitive in a major American sport.  But in team sports, like in the case of “Satchel Paige”, one may never get to play for a championship based on one’s own merits.  Golf and tennis are two sports where the greatest glory is achieved by individual effort.  Given the predisposition I’ve described, one can imagine my glee, in 1986, when Jack Nicklaus became the oldest Master’s champion at the age of 46.

Last year, I got to root twice for men who would defy decrepitude: Rocco Mediate and later, for Greg “The Shark” Norman, both of whom made deep runs at becoming elderly champions at a golf major.  Rocco Mediate, 45, threatened against the number one player in the world, Tiger Woods, at last year’s U.S. Open at Torrey Pines.  Woods, being Woods (even with a blown-out knee), added another amazing clutch putt to his résumé on the final hole of the tournament forcing an 18-hole playoff (the rules of this major call for a full round the following day to determine the winner).  When Tiger sank that putt I considered the playoff contest between the world’s 1st ranked and the world’s 158th ranked to be merely a formality.  Well, supreme nice-guy Rocco surprised the world at large by continuing to play brilliantly, if unevenly, finishing the playoff in a tie and ultimately losing in a sudden death continuation on the 91st hole played.  In The Open Championship (which is how the British like to refer to their sole major, a right I think is indisputably theirs as the earliest practitioners of such an event) “The Shark” looked poised, at 53, to become the oldest golfer ever to win a major.  That record is apparently vigilantly defended by the ghost of Julius Boros, who won the 1968 PGA Championship at the age of 48.  Greg Norman is simply the manliest player who was ever great.  Whether it was strategically necessary or not, he always aimed right at the pin.  He had one of the hugest and purest swings ever seen and he was ranked number one for 331 weeks.  Also one of the unluckiest players in history, he was robbed of victory by incomprehensible “miracle shots” so many times that his peers jokingly told him in the clubhouse: “Stay away from me, man.  You’re snakebit!”  His great golf more than a decade behind, he shocked the world by becoming the oldest 54-hole leader in a major.  Leading by two strokes going into the last round, he suffered a meltdown that left him settling for a tie for third place.  Two bummers in a row for lovers of the geriatric.  But what just happened in Scotland are the most stunning development and the cruelest blow to those who would steadfastly ward-off “the home for the aged”.

No one seriously entertained that Tom Watson could contend for his sixth title at the British Open, less than two months shy of his 60th birthday, despite being the greatest links player of a very long era in golf.  He was ranked below number 1300 in the world going in.  He himself planned/was scheduled to miss the cut and be in the commentator’s booth for the final two days as an expert (a five-time champion who got one of those titles at this year’s course, Turnberry in 1977).  Or so they all thought.  (Actually, Watson was being cagey as to what he thought his chances were of still being in the match on the weekend).  But Watson set a record on each day for being the oldest player to lead a major.  At the end of 54 holes he had sole possession of a one-stroke lead.  He had completed the third round with a one-over-par 71.  (Not that it was great prescience, but I did say to my best friend and former golf buddy Mike, “71 might be good enough if he can just do that again tomorrow.”  It turned out to be the exact score necessary for Watson to win.)

I am crestfallen.  Mr. Watson missed a putt on the final hole of regulation to card a bogey and opened the door to a four-hole playoff with the eventual winner Stewart Cink.  He lost a most valiant battle.  He competed for the title of “all-time geezer in a major sport”, legitimately contending for a major championship until the very end.  He nearly schooled all those whippersnappers.  He came to the final hole with a one-stroke lead, needing to score a four (par) to win.  He had a perfect drive.  Later he would describe how on the 18th hole (72nd of the tournament) he flew the green with an eight-iron he thought he struck perfectly (it was right on-line but long).  I thought: “Not a problem for Watson,” [who had a brilliant short-game all week].  He just needs to get close and sink a putt for victory.”  Unfortunately, he didn’t get close enough and missed the remaining eight-footer.  He scored five.  One man’s cinq is another man’s sank.

In what was clearly an agonizing post-tournament press conference, Tom Watson fielded journalists’ questions with candor and grace.
 
Asked how it feels he said: “It tears at your gut as it always does.  It always did tear at my gut.”

Asked if, at his age, fatigue was a factor in the four-hole playoff loss: “It looked like it, didn’t it?  It didn’t feel like it.”

“Before coming to Turnberry did you really think you had a chance?” another asked.
 
“It was almost…The dream almost came true.  I don’t like to go to Augusta [Augusta National, home course of The Masters]… I feel like a ceremonial golfer there…  But out here I have a chance, I knew I had a chance.”

Indeed!  There is no joy in Mudville.

Footnote:
There was an Olympic Gold Medalist, Oscar Swahn, in a shooting (marksmanship) event who in 1912, at 64, became the oldest Olympian so honored but, although technically a sport, it doesn’t require much physicality.

But it was not as impressive as the Dodgers’ team offense. In their series opener against the Milwaukee Brewers, the Dodgers hit five homeruns; one from Manny, Matt Kemp, Andre Ethier, James Loney and Russell Martin. With the 12-8 victory, the Dodgers bring their record to 55-31. 

The offensive showcase puts the Dodgers at 11^th in the NL in homeruns. A romantic thought, but if the Dodgers played their remaining 81 games in Miller Park, they’d likely finish higher. Manny’s presence will do just fine and Dodgers fans should expect to see more long balls in the second half of play. Homeruns are not the Dodger’s signature, but effective scoring should be noted. The team has four players with 50-plus RBI’s and one nearing the same mark. 

Moreover, the Dodgers seem to hit the long ball when most needed. They have certainly helped in the team’s 23 comeback victories. The team expects to win these close games, especially those in extra innings (Dodgers are 9-2 in such games.) 

“We’ve been there a while and we know even if we’re up or down, we know – especially if we’re down late in games – we can come back with the kind of lineup we have,” said centerfielder Matt Kemp.

Friday, Kemp proved to fans he is worthy of his last-minute All-Star selection. Wait, that didn’t happen. Well, perhaps Kemp’s grand slam in the top of the 10^th, which turned a close, one-run lead into an impassible deficit, or his over-the-shoulder running catch sounded the point. Either way, Kemp’s teammates appreciated both efforts. However Kemp, who blasted off his third grand slam this season, (the fourth in his young career) was amused by one more than the other. 

“Willie Mays Hayes,” Kemp said as he entered the dugout. He was referencing the fleet-footed center fielder of the All-American classic film, “Major League.”

Of course, Kemp could have easily been proclaiming quotes from the movie’s slugger, Pedro Cerrano. 

“I look after you. I do a lot for you. If you do not help me now, I say (explitive) you Jobu, I’ll do it myself.”

The Dodgers have not needed Jobu this season. Time and time again, they’ve been able to make something out of nothing. From the look of things, they’ll do just fine without Jobu, even in October. 

Taking out the Spotlight

The Dodgers victory was not the buzz around the league Friday. Jonathon Sanchez of the San Francisco Giants pitched a no-hitter as the Giants beat the Padres, 8-0. 

Sanchez (3-8) did it on 110 pitches, 77 of which were strikes. He had 11 strikeouts. Sanchez became the first Giant to accomplish the feat since John Montefusco did it on Sept. 29, 1976. The Padres were no-hit for the seventh time and first since 2001. 

A 27th-round draft pick in 2004, Sanchez pitched four no-hitters in college for NAIA Ohio Dominican. 

The success of their pitching puts the Giants at second place in the NL West (48-38). They have the second-best record in the NL behind the first place Dodgers.