The question:  What is the biggest disappointment in sports so far this year?

Your choices:  Tiger Woods not making the cut at the British Open, LeBron James not making the NBA Finals, Manny Ramirez getting suspended for 50 games, or Tony Romo breaking up with Jessica Simpson right before her birthday.

For those of you that don’t follow closely I will break down your choices:

Tiger Woods not making the cut at the British Open

Even with top 10 finishes in the Masters and U.S. Open Tiger still hasn’t been his magical self in major championships this entire season.  The bottom fell completely out when he missed the cut after two dismal rounds at Turnberry last week.  70th!  He only had to be tied for 70th to make the cut and he couldn’t manage it.  Friday he went through one of the worst 6-hole streaks of his career shooting a ghastly 7-over including 2 double bogeys. Ouch!  I’m a terrible golfer and even for me that’s bad.  Worse were the temper tantrums El Tigre threw the entire round–flipping clubs, whining, yelping, slamming his club, cursing after poor shots.  It was disappointing and classless.  Some apologists might say it proves how bad he still wants to win.  But if golf has nothing else going for it at least it has standards of conduct.  He wants to win, great, everyone wants to see him win, but there is a proper way to not make the cut and there is an improper way.  Tiger chose the wrong one.

LeBron James not making the NBA Finals

James’ Cavaliers proved once again that the regular season means diddly squat if you aren’t playing your best basketball come playoff time.  After moving briskly through the first two rounds the Cavs were shellacked by a hungrier Orlando Magic team that caused them a heap of match-up troubles.  James’ inability to take his team to the finals crushed the hopes of Darth Stern and NBA sponsors who stood to make a boatload of money from a LeBron-Kobe Finals.  It’s not truly fair for me to frame it like it was all LeBron’s fault.  He was playing with a 50-year-old hairless Lithuanian Sasquatch and an Afro-headed pogo-stick whose spring popped three years ago.  His team failed him in every aspect, but it’s up to the superstar to carry the load–plus he makes millions and millions of dollars so I think he can take the heat on this one.  Regardless of whose fault it is, unless you were one of the 100,000 fair-weather Magic fans you had to be at least slightly disappointed not to get the 23 vs. 24 match-up.

Manny Ramirez getting suspended for 50 games

I know, I know, you are sick of steroids.  I’m sick of steroids.  God’s sick of people praying about steroids.  Even steroids are getting sick of hearing about steroids.  Good thing Manny never admitted to using “steroids,” he just got caught for using women’s hormones.   For Manny to get caught when he knew everyone was looking is hugely disappointing not only from a baseball perspective but for a human-evolution perspective.  How dumb do you have to be to rob a bank when SWAT is sitting right outside the door?  Not that Manny was any sort of genius, but really?  And women’s hormones?  Were they all out of horse tranquilizers?  Or was he so stupid he thought he might turn into Mr. Ed if he took those?  Not only did he miss 50 games, but he cast a shadow over everything he accomplished with the Boston Red Sox.  Of course we will never know if he was on ‘roids for sure in Boston, but at this point in baseball you have to assume anyone who could hit was using them.   Plus this story is doubly disappointing because once again it proved that cocky-self-righteous-blowhard Jose Canseco right again.

Tony Romo breaking up with Jessica Simpson right before her birthday

Tell me you didn’t laugh when you read “Tony Romo dumps Jessica Simpson the night before her “Barbie & Ken” themed birthday party.”  After you get done laughing you can decide whether its a bummer or not that he decided to do it right before her birthday.  He is a smart man to save himself buying her a present.  However, when it comes to real fan disappointment unless you are a die-hard Jessica fan that part wont move your emotion meter.  Sports fans could take it a couple different ways though.  Cowboys fans might be disappointed that he didn’t do it sooner, much sooner so the blond-headed bimbo didn’t show up in pink jerseys jinxing their team (said in the thickest Texan accent as I can muster).  Another way to look at it is that now that Jess is out of the picture Romo might actually focus on football, which could be a disappointment to fans of rival NFC East teams–trying to keep a straight face. Or you could be bummed that you didn’t get to see what would most certainly been hilarous pictures from that Barbie and Ken party.  Do you think it was right when Romo received his outfit that he realized, “I don’t care how hot this bitch is, she’s f’d-up more than TO.”

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