The Masters, The Tribe, The Nigerian

THE MASTERS

Can you believe that shot of Tiger's on number 16 on Sunday? Just before he took his shot, I commented to a friend that I had seen David Duvall at about the same spot in 2001 (having had the great fortune of actually having badges for the Sunday round at Augusta, one of the highlights of my life), and as I recall, he bogeyed the hole, letting Tiger slip back into the tournament. That was on the day Tiger won the "Tiger Slam," and I half expected Tiger to bogey the hole this year to give DiMarco a chance at the Green Jacket. After all, he hit his 8-iron well over the green, and mere mortals would be lucky to extract a par from the position Tiger was in. Heavy rough, severely sloping green, the whole bit...but I also noted that I had seen Tiger make a very similar shot on number 14 at the Memorial Tournament a few years ago. Number 14 at Muirfield Village plays very much like number 16 at Augusta, and let's face it, you can't NOT expect Tiger to come up with the clutch shot.

THE TRIBE

I was able to go to the Cleveland Indians' home opener on Monday, and although the Tribe lost the game 2 to 1, it was a great game, and a great day for baseball. Well, it might have been a bit nippy -- it was about 72 degrees and sunny in Columbus on Monday, but Jacobs Field is only about a mile from Lake Erie, whose temperatures probably are still in the 40's, following the long cold winter we just went through. So it was 48 degrees in Cleveland, very windy, and it was hard to believe that 120 miles would make that much difference in the weather. Having grown up in these parts (a lot closer to Cleveland than to Columbus), I know the weather can be much different, but it still amazes me.

THE NIGERIAN

Well that Nigerian guy who got my bank account and routing number (see previous post) still hasn't made the deposit. (Mgoto - if you're reading this, please make the deposit!) I only have a few days of work left, then it's off to retirement, but if I don't get that cash in the next day or two, I'm going to start wondering about Mgoto's sincerity. Maybe the Nigerian authorities caught wind of our arrangement, in which case I'll have to make some contacts in Washington to see if we can prevent this from becoming an international incident.