A Different but Amazing Take on Tiger

Thomas Boswell of the Washington Post, putting Tiger Woods’ accomplishments in perspective:

“Imagine that all five tournaments--the 2000 U.S. Open, 2000 British Open, 2000 PGA Championship, ’01 Players and ’01 Masters--were one huge combined event.

“What would the scoreboard look like? Of those who played in all five, Woods would lead Ernie Els by 55 shots and Vijay Singh by 57 shots. . . .

“Tiger has established a level of superiority within his sport that may be the largest of any American athlete who ever lived.”

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Trivia time: Can you identify these former boxers by their nicknames: “the Toy Bulldog,” “the Bronx Bull” and “the Golden Boy”?

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Buckle down: This falls in the category of a wife keeping her husband focused. Kirk Triplett saw this for himself before heading to Augusta, Ga., for the Masters:

“I told my wife before I left, ‘I think I can play well this week.’ She said, ‘Well, aren’t you trying to play well every week?’ ”

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Not a top priority: Mike Bianchi of the Orlando Sentinel on the prospect of retired Albert Belle as a future Hall of Famer:

“There are many things I’m troubled and concerned about, but Belle’s Hall of Fame status isn’t one of them. In fact, here’s a partial list of of things that concern me more than Belle getting into the Hall:

“1. The Major League Soccer draft. 2. The results of the U.S. Alpine Nationals. 3. Static cling.”

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Revolving door: Tulsa has lost four basketball coaches to bigger programs in six years. This can prove disorienting to a team, but the Tulsa players are used to it.

“The way I look at it, bring in the next coach so we can make him famous,” said junior guard Greg Harrington.

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Rationalizing: Orlando Magic forward Tracy McGrady, on his return to Toronto, where he formerly played: “They didn’t spit on me, but they spit at [me]. They still love me. If they didn’t love me, they wouldn’t be booing me.”

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Looking back: On this day in 1990, Dave Taylor, Tomas Sandstrom and Tony Granato scored three goals each as the Kings routed the Calgary Flames, 12-4, marking the first time in NHL playoff history that three hat tricks were recorded in one game.

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Trivia answer: Mickey Walker, Jake LaMotta and Art Aragon.

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And finally: This from basketball-obsessed New York Knick Coach Jeff Van Gundy ripping his team pastor, John Love:

“The two worst things to happen to the NBA were God and golf. Do people at offices have preachers coming into their places of business, interrupting their work? We’ve got to minimize those distractions, period.”