The Return of Tiger and the Conundrum of The Next One

Hello again.

I recently noticed a couple of undesirable trends with the blog. The first and most obvious issue is that I had stopped writing altogether lol. Secondly, it was clear that my sports writing became increasingly restricted to game predictions/picks and, more specifically, to the NFL. That is unacceptable to me and urges to answer any question I may have ever had about my dwindling readership (or, ultimately, lack there of).

So in an effort to regain the touch I had developed over years of attentive, armchair sports analysis, I’m going to return to what I did best: discuss sport in all its glory, all its facets, all its phases, its societal reach, its psychology, and of course clue you in on who is going to win what and where ;)

The Return of Tiger and the Conundrum of The Next One

Every once in a while an elite talent emerges in a sport that redefines it and elevates the game and all those who participate in it and follow it to a new level. This is sometimes per generation; sometimes the timeframe is much longer. Tiger Woods is that sort of athlete and it is no surprise that he transformed Golf in much the same way that Michael Jordan transformed Basketball and Wayne Gretzky transformed Ice Hockey.

The existence of these sorts of personalities has another unintended effect. Not only does it beg the question of who the “Next One” is but it also, subconsciously, almost demands that there be one. And there is where the problem lies.

As many pundits in every corner of the globe have been saying (to no avail, sadly) there can never be another Tiger. That is even if another golfer were to arise that was even as good as Tiger let alone better than him. And by better we don’t mean just in pure ability. This “Next Tiger” would also have to be as prolific, break damn near every record in the books, dominate the marketability of the sport and also act as a global icon. This person has to do all these things simultaneously. The task is far more daunting than just being better than everyone else…

Tiger Woods, like Michael and like the Great One and like Babe Ruth, is universally untouchable. They cannot be duplicated or supplanted as the Primes of their respective sports. This makes the constant labeling of every new prospect that comes up as the next Tiger all the more inane. It’s the unfortunate byproduct of his accomplishments.

So awesome are his accomplishments that as soon as he starts to slip from said pedestal of awesomeness, everybody is quick to shovel dirt on the man as if he is in the twilight of his career and is finished. It’s impossible for anybody who has been paying attention to what Tiger has been able to do in the past decade and a half to think that sort of ability is suddenly extinguished. He shows flashes of it as he regains his footing after an awkward series of events off the course and a nagging knee injury and the lingering complications.

The problem here is that when you’ve performed as greatly as Tiger has, your bar of expectation has been raised far beyond what is even reasonable. Even for somebody as pristinely gifted as Tiger Woods. Tiger suddenly has to be as good as mid 2000s Tiger for as long as he is alive. This is the curse of the fan’s expectation. We saw it destroy Metallica's public opinion. It almost destroyed Michael Jordan's when he came back to play for the Wizards. It is trying to destroy Tiger's.

To the sensible fan, this is of course completely unfair to Tiger. Tiger answered it best when he was recently asked if he was “back” after a spectacular performance at the Memorial Tournament; instead of being the old Tiger again, he simply suggested he was a new different Tiger. Maybe not the same Tiger, maybe a better Tiger, maybe not a better Tiger. But does it matter?

Most of Jordan’s accomplishments (if not just about all of them) will never be broken. We will never see another player completely transform the sport of Basketball and globalize it the way that he did. Gretzky’s career numbers are even more unattainable than Jordan’s. In fact, Gretzky probably has the single most unattainable stat line of any athlete in pro sports history (with maybe the exception of the Babe only because Babe Ruth was equally as prolific a pitcher as he was a hitter and the game has changed to where nobody ever gets to hit and pitch in that sort of volume anymore). But Gretzky’s single season and career marks for goals, assists and points are so mindbending, that even today’s finest stars don’t have a ballpark chance of catching them.

This is also Tiger and will be cemented further when his career really is over… which by my unofficial eyeball estimation isn’t anywhere near the horizon. Rest assured, my friends, there will not only never be another Tiger Woods. There will likely never be anyone as good at the game of Golf ever again so please… enjoy it while we are seeing it live.

Be well.