TAKEAWAYS FROM THE MATCH II
For sports fans, 'The Match II' was a sight for sore eyes
May 26, 2020, 9:23 am
Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images for The Match.
I'm not the biggest golf fan. I'll watch the majors. I'll watch Tiger Woods play if he is in contention at a tournament but for the most part, there are plenty of other sports I would watch before I would sit down and watch golf for five hours. We are all struggling to find compelling live programming due to COVID-19, especially compelling live sports programming. The biggest storyline in sports the last 5 weeks has been watching The Last Dance on ESPN featuring Michael Jordan and 1997-1998 Bulls. As fun as that was, reacting to a story that ended 23 years ago is not what the typical sports fan was hoping to watch during the prime sports months of the spring.
However, everything changed on Sunday with The Match II: Champions for Charity. A fantastic event that Turner and Capital One put together at Medalist Golf Club in Hobe Sound, Florida to raise money to combat the ongoing virus. Instead of Tiger and Phil playing against each other as they did in 2018's first installment of The Match, they would go against each other with a legendary QB playing with each of them. The storylines were there for The Match. Tiger Woods playing with Peyton Manning and Phil Mickelson playing with Tom Brady. Superstar athletes that all sports fans respect regardless of sport.
The most recent charity golf outing, The TaylorMade Driving Relief skins game, featuring Rory McIlroy, Rickie Fowler, Dustin Johnson and Matt Wolff didn't keep my attention. If you are a hard core golf fan, I'm sure that you loved watching those guys play but to the casual sports fan, the game of golf needs Tiger Woods or Phil Micklelson playing to get a big rating. While there was undoubtedly star power when you have Dustin Johnson and Rory Mcllroy playing, The Match featuring four sports legends felt like a way bigger event of a higher magnitude.
The expectation coming in was that we as fans watching at home would get to hear the players mic'd up, talking trash, and having fun. However, until you actually see a plan like that executed it felt as if many people were skeptical especially after the first Match was negatively impacted due to technical issues. TNT took a chance and made the broadcast so enjoyable. The booth of Brian Anderson, Trevor Immelman and Charles Barkley, with Amanda Balionis and Justin Thomas as on-course reporters had a great balance of golf analysis and plenty of laugh out loud moments. Brian Anderson is as smooth as any top-notch broadcaster out there and anything Charles Barkley says can go viral at any given moment. Justin Thomas has a future in broadcasting whenever he decides to stop dominating the PGA Tour. Despite horrendous weather throughout, TNT did a remarkable job keeping the broadcast on the air.
Charles Barkley's mouth even helped create the moment of the entire match. As Brady struggled mightily on the front nine, getting roasted on social media by everyone for finally not being great at something, Barkley told Brady he wanted to challenge him sometime on the course. Things changed on the 7th fairway for Brady as he found himself standing over an approach shot. With Barkley's challenge in mind, he flew a wedge just a few yards past the pin, spinning it back into the cup for a birdie. It was one of the most impressive shots any golfer can have let alone an amateur playing with two of the all-time greats with millions of sports deprived fans watching. Brady telling Barkley to, "Shut your mouth, Chuck. Take a little of that medicine" was laugh out loud funny
Both the amateurs held up well with the pros. Give Tom Brady credit for getting things together after a rough start that even featured the 6x Super Bowl winner splitting his pants as he and Mickelson really challenged Woods and Manning late and nearly pulled off a big comeback after trailing 3-0. It felt like Brady was struggling worse than Johnny Drama was when he used Brady's clubs during a season 6 episode of Entourage. Manning's tongue in cheek dry humor made him highly entertaining the entire afternoon. From ribbing Brady about Bill Belichick, Eli Manning and Nick Foles, to laughing at his own expense, it is easy to see why Peyton remains one of the most likable athletes ever.
The pros held up their end of the bargain. Tiger Woods didn't miss a fairway. His swing looked sharp and he moved around well. It's unclear when we will see the 15x major winner play next but when we do we are all going to watch. Phil Mickelson was steady throughout and kept him and Brady in the match after Woods and Manning grabbed the lead early. Mickelson provided all of us at home with a bunch of free golf lessons. It was fascinating to see him try to teach Tom Brady where to putt the ball on the greens.
The collection of epic moments, awesome golf shots, and finally a live and competitive sports competition helped The Match become a major success. TNT says it was the most watched golf event in cable TV history. From 5:45 PM - 6 PM Eastern, the broadcast peaked with 6.3 million viewers.
Sports fans are starved for content and it certainly helps when the content was as interesting as The Match II lived up to be. How about the next time they play, we get Tiger Woods and Michael Jordan against Phil Mickelson and LeBron James for The Match III? You know that Michael will be ready to gamble. I can't wait to see the hot takes about that foursome...
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Cam Smith’s reaction to making the Astros Opening Day roster is priceless
Mar 25, 2025, 4:16 pm
It’s go time! While the Astros are not the juggernaut they were over the more than half-decade stretch from 2017 through 2022 that yielded regular seasons with 101, 103, 106, and 107 wins, four American League pennants, and two World Series Champions, as the saying goes, they ain’t dead yet. There is no superpower in the American League West the Astros need to overcome. In fact, the American League as a whole is grossly inferior to the National League. As a result, a fifth Astros’ AL title in this era is not some absurd fantasy, though it is certainly unlikely. But winning the pennant is unlikely for every AL team, so if you’re a fan of the Astros there is nothing wrong with a “Why not us?” mentality. On the other hand, the floor for the 2025 Astros is lower going into a season than it has been in almost a decade. The lineup has numerous question marks, and if the terrific trio atop the Astros’ starting rotation (Framber Valdez, Hunter Brown, and Ronel Bronco) runs into injury or performance issues the Astros would have serious problems. That the Texas Rangers and Seattle Mariners both finish ahead of the Astros is clearly plausible. Play ball!
Astros history lives in these moments
It is simple fact that time marches on, but it is still amazing that the Astros are beginning their second quarter-century of play at what for its first two seasons was called Enron Field, then for the past 23 seasons Minute Maid Park, and now Daikin Park. That’s 25 seasons in the books, at least 26 more to come, with the Astros a few years ago having extended their lease through 2050. In non-specific order, I have twenty easily come-to-mind most spine-tingling moments at the ballpark. If you want 25 for 25 years, I leave five more to you.
Not all spine-tinglers on the home field are generated by the home team. Here are three produced by visiting players. In 2001, Barry Bonds smashed his 70th home run of the season to tie Mark McGwire’s single season Major League record. We know what went into the home run numbers of that era, but it was still jaw-dropping stuff. Bonds would finish the season with 73 homers. Game five of the 2005 National League Championship Series, with the Astros one out from winning their first ever pennant, Albert Pujols launched a Brad Lidge hanging slider that might still be airborne if not for the glass wall above the train tracks. It may be the most instantaneous crowd delirium to utter silence moment ever. It turned a 4-2 Astros’ lead into a crushing 5-4 loss. But, the next game Roy Oswalt pitched the Astros to that pennant in St. Louis. Lastly, the second game of the 2013 season, Rangers’ pitcher Yu Darvish retired the first 26 Astro batters before Marwin Gonzalez smacked a ball through Darvish’s legs up the middle for a base hit. Soooooo close to a perfect game. Only 22 perfect games have been thrown in MLB’s modern era (1900-today).
Now to Astro achievements. Fudging a bit by including Roger Clemens since it’s not for one specific moment. But the Rocket’s starts with the Astros were events. Speaking of Hall of Famers, Craig Biggio’s 3000th hit is an obvious list-maker. Jeff Kent is not a Hall of Famer but he was better in the batter’s box than any second baseman elected after Joe Morgan. Kent won game five of the 2004 NLCS with a bottom of the ninth three-run bomb to end what had been a scoreless game. Alas, the Astros would lose the next two games and the series in St. Louis. The crowd went much wilder over Kent’s homer than over Chris Burke’s series-winning homer over the Atlanta Braves in a 2005 NL Division Series. Burke’s homer came in the 18th inning, so sheer exhaustion held down the decibel level a little. A sleeper for the list occurred earlier in that same game, when Brad Ausmus of all people hit a two-out game-tying homer to get the game into extra innings.
Four no-hitters have been thrown by Union Station. Working backwards: Ronel Blanco last season, Framber Valdez in 2023, a combined job started by Aaron Sanchez in 2019, and the first in 2015 by Mike....yes, Fiers.
And now to the grandest home park moments of this Platinum Era in Astros’ history. Carlos Correa authored two of them, each in a game two of the American League Championship Series. In 2017 he doubled home Jose Altuve with the winning run in the bottom of the ninth. That came off of Aroldis Chapman who shall appear once more in this column. In 2019 Correa tied the series at one win apiece with a walk-off homer. Yordan Alvarez also gets a pair of entries. You know, Yordan hit just .192 in the 2022 postseason. But talk about making your hits count. In game one of those playoffs, ALDS vs. Seattle, it was a two-out three-run walk-off blast off of Robbie Ray to give the Astros an 8-7 win. Then in the final game of those playoffs, it was a sixth inning gargantuan three-run launch to dead center turning a 1-0 deficit into a 3-1 lead.
That leaves four moments that are 100 percent non-negotiable entries. While not dramatic (4-0 final score), the payoff warrants inclusion of the Astros winning Game seven of the 2017 ALCS over the Yankees. Similarly, while the moment of victory lacked drama (4-1 final), how could one exclude the Astros winning the World Series on home turf in 2022. Finally, for my money the two most pulsating, goosebump-inducing, viscerally exciting moments at 501 Crawford Street. In one of the most scintillating games ever played in any sport, Alex Bregman’s bottom of the 10th inning single gave the Astros’ their epic 13-12 win over the Dodgers in game five of the 2017 World Series. Then in 2019, Jose Altuve’s game six homer ended the ALCS (I warned you Aroldis).
Here’s to the new season! Join Brandon Strange, Josh Jordan, and me for the Stone Cold ‘Stros podcast which drops each Monday afternoon, with an additional episode now on Thursday. Click here to catch!
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