Happy Monday everyone, here's my Top 5 for April 12, 2010 from Len Berman at www.ThatsSports.com.
1. Quick Hits
* Phil Mickelson wins his 3rd green jacket, winning the Masters by 3 shots over Lee Westwood. Tiger Woods finishes tied for 4th place 5 shots back.
* The Garden will be dark in May. The Rangers are eliminated on the last day of the NHL season, losing a shootout in Philadelphia.
* Give us your tied and your poor. The Jets acquire troubled Steelers wide receiver Santonio Holmes.
* Reports say Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger will not be charged with sexual assault when a Georgia district attorney makes his announcement today.
* Legendary boxing ref and good guy Arthur Mercante is dead at the age of 90. He reffed the first Ali-Frazier fight in 1971.
2. The Masters
Some will paint this is a victory of good over evil. The wholesome Phil Mickelson, with his wife fighting breast cancer, won the Masters. The philanderer Tiger Woods didn't. But what do we really know about any of these golfers? If nothing, the Woods fiasco taught us that. We have no idea if Mickelson really kicks his dog, or worse. This isn't a morality play, it's golf. And the better golfer won this week. That's all that really happened here.
3. It's not a Sprint, it's a Marathon
While I was watching Yankee pitcher CC Sabathia flirt with a no-hitter the other day, I had two thoughts. 1) It still looks like he pitches while wearing his pajama bottoms, and 2) as his pitch count mounted, was it really worth personal glory at the expense of season-long goals? Fortunately it was made moot by a clean Tampa Bay single with two outs in the 8th inning. Yankee manager Joe Girardi said he was going to pull Sabathia after the 8th even if his no-hitter were still alive. Good for him. Sports-talk radio would have been crazed if that had happened, but not as apoplectic if "going for history" had cost the Yankees a chance at a pennant down the road.
4. Obstacle Course
Nice touch for yesterday's triathlon in Sydney Harbor. While the swimmers were splashing their way for nearly a mile, boats were on hand emitting signals to chase the sharks away from the competitors. Not sure if it was for safety reasons, or if sharks chasing you is defined as "performance enhancing." Well, apparently it worked. A Kiwi won the event with all his body parts intact. No sharks were sighted. Then again, no elephants were spotted either.
5. And Now This Word...
Old Texas Stadium in Dallas was reduced to rubble yesterday by over a ton of dynamite. If you like watching buildings get demolished, here's the video.
Even stadium demolitions get sponsored these days. "Watch us blow up a stadium, brought to you by Kraft... makers of Cheddar Explosion, a macaroni and cheese product." Honest.
As I mentioned last January, if the city of Irving, Texas had a sense of humor it would have been sponsored by Kaopectate.
Happy Birthday: Red Sox owner Tom Werner. 60.
Bonus Birthday: David Letterman. 63.
Today in Sports: Bad news for dentists. A catcher's mask is used for the first time in a game. 1877.
Bonus Event: We got you, babe. Sonny Bono is elected mayor of Palm Springs, California. 1988.