WEDNESDAY. SEPTEMBER 29, 2004
SPORTS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Singh matches strength of 1999, rivals Tiger Woods
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Vijay Singh has one month to put the final touches on what already is a masterpiece.
He won for the eighth time this year at the 84 Lumber Classic, setting the single-season earnings record with more than $9.4 million. Singh has at least three tournaments left, so the 10-10 mark — 10 victories, $10 million — is in range. And as a sign that the 41-year-old Fijian is only getting stronger, he has won five of his last six starts.
Clearly, comparisons with Tiger Woods are inevitable.
As long as the year is 1999 — not 2000.
Five years ago, Woods launched a spectacular finish to the season by winning the PGA Championship at Medinah. He became No. 1 in the world, shattered the single-season money record and wound up with eight tour victories, winning five of his last six starts.
Singh is every bit as good as that.
But no one stacks up against
Woods in 2000, the modern standard of greatness.
"Tiger won three majors in 2000," Singh said. "You can't beat three majors. It's so much more difficult to win major events than normal tournaments. I'm just going to try to enjoy my good season."
Indeed, Singh should take a bow.
He joins Woods (1999, 2000), Johnny Miller (1974) and Arnold Palmer (1960, 1962) as the only players since 1960 to have won at least eight
PGA Tour events in one year. If he were to run the table and finish with 11 victories, that would tie for third all-time behind Byron Nelson (18 in 1945) and Ben Hogan (13 in 1946). Sam Snead also won 11 in 1950.
Still, Singh's phenomenal season only illustrates how dominant Woods was in 2000, when he won nine times, captured the final three majors and set or tied 27 records.
"To me, that's still the best year anybody ever had."
stewart Cink said. "Unfortunately for Vijay, he doesn't have any more major tournaments this year."
Everyone remembers the majors, but that was only a part of what made Woods' 2000 the Mona Lisa of golf. And that's why trying to match Singh in 2004 against Woods in 2000 is like putting the Americans against Europe in the Ryder Cup.
It's no contest.
Majors: Singh won his only major, the PGA Championship
at Whistling Straits, when Justin Leonard bogeyed the last two holes in regulation and Singh won the three-hole playoff by making his only birdie of the day.
Woods won the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach by a record 15 shots. He completed the career Grand Slam at St. Andrews by winning the British Open by eight shots. He won the PGA Championship in a playoff over Bob May after both shot a bogey-free 31 on the back nine at Valhalla.
Vermeil gets friend's help
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Since Sunday afternoon when his Kansas City Chiefs fell to 0-3, friends of Dick Vermeil have been calling, e-mailing and sending word through mutual pals.
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Everyone seems to have basically the same message: Hang tough. Coach, we believe in you.
He's heard from Hollywood types, a renowned geologist and a former NBA all-star, as well as a host of other men who played for him during a coaching career that began in 1959.
"I get calls from all over the country, from different guys who know me, and have been through this kind of routine with me," Vermelil said Tuesday. "We all need a little pumping-up from time to time. I need it."
Fred Dryer, the former NFL star who had the lead role in the television series "Hunter," told him, "Coach, stick in there. I know you can get this thing going."
Dancers perform at Athens' main Olympic stadium during the closing ceremony of the 2004 Paralympic Games yesterday.
Charles Barkley, who became friends with Vermil when he was playing for the NBA's Philadelphia 76ers, called to offer his support.
Petros Karadjias/AP PHOTO
That was Vernell's first head-coaching job.
So did Claude Humphrey, who played defensive end on Vermeil's Eagles teams of 1979-81 and left a message on his answering machine.
"Coach, don't change," the message said. "Don't let them get you. Stick with your way. It's always worked before and it will work now."
"He writes the leading textbooks in geology right now in the country," Vermeil said. "I've got his textbooks. They're way beyond me."
vernaps no sentiment meant more to the old coach than the e-mail he got from Bobby Christopherson, the captain on the Hillsdale High School team in San Mateo, Calif., in 1960.
It's reassuring, Vermeil said, "to know that people who have gone through the adversity with you in the past still believe the way you did it was the right way to do it."
Dancing queens
The Chiefs' road does not appear to get any smoother, with their next four opponents sporting a combined 10-2 record. Monday night finds the Chiefs at Baltimore.
"I've lost eight in a row before. I've gone from 0-8 in division play to 8-0 and world championship in a one-year turnaround," said Vermell, who coached his 200th NFL game on Sunday. "I've seen both sides."
After so many years, he said,
"There is nothing you haven't been exposed to. And if you don't handle them right, you don't get to coach 200 times."
Compounding the disappointment of an 0-3 start for a team many picked as a Super Bowl favorite have been some game-management miscues on Vermell's part. Joking that "early dementia" may be setting in, he admitted he'd made a few strategic mistakes in the past two games.
The mistakes and the losses have brought heavy criticism from fans and media.
"If you don't develop some toughness and some resolve within yourself, then you're in the wrong business," he said. "But to me it starts with my commitment to my players."
BASEBALL
Hector Luna made most out of his limited role
ST. LOUIS — Every December, major league baseball has a lightly publicized redistribution of developing players designed to prevent teams from hoarding talent in their minor league system.
Almost all of the names on the Rule 5 list, players not on a team's 40-man roster with three seasons in professional baseball, never make it big. In 1996, the St. Louis Cardinals plucked Megija Jia and he was mostly dead weight all year on the roster for a team that won the NL Central under first-year manager Tony La Russa.
The next seven years, the Cardinals didn't take anyone. Players must remain on the 25 man roster or the disabled list for the entire season or be offered back to their former
Hector Luna is one of the rare success stories.
teams for $25,000; and for a contending team it can be dicy allocating valuable roster space for a prospect.
The Cardinals took Luna, 24 from the Indians' organization and he's been a valuable, versatile reserve for the NL Central champions.
He's played five positions left and center field, third base, shortstop and second base — and he's been better at the plate than the Cardinals had anticipated even after he won a job with an impressive spring training.
"If a veteran played like he's played this year, we'd be complimenting him for doing a hell of a job." La Russa said. "He's been outstanding."
Luna's average has languished near .200 most of the season. A pair of four-hit games Thursday and Sunday hit it to .256 with three homers and 22 RBIs in 164 at-bats.
He's also had his share of
struggles, such as a two-error game earlier this month.
La Russa prizes him for accepting and making the most out of a limited role, and Luna has no complaints about playing time.
"It's a good situation for me," he said. "I've got a good feel for the manager."
Luna also gets points for being ready whenever he's needed, and for his potential. The Cardinals had him on their potential draft list for two years before they took him. The Devil Rays selected Luna in the 2002 Rule 5 draft, then returned him to Cleveland in April 2003.
"Watching him in spring training it was like 'Wow, look at his hand, look at his arm, I like his stroke,'" La Rusa said. "For a big guy he's got above-average speed and I watched him in the games and he wasn't playing like he was afraid.
"He was worth keeping."
La Russa isn't certain
whether Luna, whose favorite
position is shortstop, is a potential regular. Luna has played more at third base, subbing for the injured Scott Rolen, or in the outfield.
"I think he has the ability to be a second baseman or short-stop every day," La Russa said. "But he's going to have to show that as well as he's played part-time that he can keep it up.
"You don't know that until someone gives you a shot."
Luna isn't likely to get that shot anytime soon with the Cardinals, who have the best record in the major leagues and don't really have the luxury of being patient with a developing talent right now. Still, they're doing their best to nurture him. Luna is from the Dominican Republic and speaks in halting English.
So the Cardinals put his locker between fellow Latin American ballplayers Edgar Renteria and Albert Pujols to help him make the adjustment.
"It's been good," Luna said.
"We they helped me a lot."
The Associated Press
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