Worth the Price of Admission

Has there been a more dominating week/weekend in the world of sports then the shows that Roger Federer, Tiger Woods, and Alex Rodriguez put on?

It was a huge sports weekend with the U.S. Open Finals, the BMW Championship, and the MLB Playoff races, not to mention opening weekend of the NFL. I literally did not have enough time to watch everything, but what I did catch was undeniably the three best and most dominating athletes in their sport all turn it up a notch and wow the sporting world.

Lets begin with Tiger. You could say his "Tiger Slam" in 2000-01 was his most dominating stretch, you could also argue for his 7 straight PGA tour victories in late 2006/early '07. However, this latest stretch of play should be brought up in that argument. Starting Aug. 2, Tiger won the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational, won the PGA Championship, placed 2nd at the Deutsche Bank Championship (thanks to Tits Magee's first ever non-breakdown against Tiger), and that brings us to this weekend where he won the BMW Championship. The way Tiger won this tournament however, is what makes him the greatest of all time. Hanging around all weekend shooting 67, 67, and 65, he was one stroke behind the leaders going into Sunday. One problem, no one, and I mean no one, thought Tiger wasn't going to win. It was a forgone conclusion. And what did he do? Shot a course record 63 on the final day to take the win by 2 strokes. The field didn't stand a chance.

Alex Rodriguez, just an insane, unbelievable mind blowing stretch this weekend. My roommate Chip and I have become numb and not even surprised anymore at what this guy can do. Starting Tuesday morning Arod had 45 HRs and 130 RBIs. By Sunday night, he had 52 HRs and 140 RBIs and that includes the game Friday night where he had 2 HRs in one inning! The guy is a beast. He also raised his BA ten points from .308 to .318 during this stretch, added 9 runs for a total of 132, and increased his Slugging % to .672 from .634. Not to mention, the Yankees have won every game during the hitting parade and now have a 4 game strangle hold on the AL wild card. Before this week, there was a slight argument for making Magglio Ordonez MVP of the American League, particularly if the Tigers made the playoffs somehow. Arod single handily squashed any chance that he would not be the MVP this year.

To save the best for last, I turn to Roger Federer who I am now thoroughly convinced is either an alien or a robot. He is flat out a tennis machine. He is better than Sampras, Agassi, Borg, and any other name you want to throw at me. He would beat any of those guys in their prime on hardcourt or grass (Borg would have probably beat him on clay). He's got the return to beat Sampras' serve, the baseline game to beat Agassi, and the overall game to beat Borg. He doesn't have a weakness. He is the greatest of all time and will beat Sampras' grand slam record easily by the end of next year. I would be willing to bet he will win a French Open at some point in his career as well and Roger again showed why he's unstoppable this weekend. After putting it on autopilot for the first few rounds. He beat Roddick in straight sets when Roddick played some of the best tennis of his career. And beat two up and coming stars with literal ease in straight sets in the semis and the finals. It was easy, no one gave him a challenge, no one will in the next 4-5 years, and the dude wasn't even trying in the first few rounds. Federer will end his career with 18+ (I'd even say 20 or more) grand slams barring injury and no one will ever come close to that record.

This week/weekend in the sports world was one for the books, and I don't think there's ever been more dominating performances simultaneously before, and I doubt we'll ever see one like this again in our lifetime.