Greg Norman, LIV Golf defectors have yet to provide acceptable explanation

It remains only as simple as you wish it to be. Thus, the simple answer to the questions remain a question: “Would you turn down that kind of dough to play golf, or to just show up to play golf?” I don’t blame those who defected to the Saudi government golf tour for unearned and guaranteed riches, that they prefer to explain that they don’t wish to enter global “political” debates. It’s just professional golf, ya know? But what is political about an organization of 9/11 murder victims’ families — “9/11 Justice” — appearing at the first Saudi golf event in the U.

S. , this past week in Oregon, to remind the ex-PGA players that surviving families remain convinced the Saudi government was in large part or fully responsible for the massacre of 3,000 Americans? Or did 15 Saudis among the 19 attackers — 16 Saudis if you count Osama bin Laden — act with no organizational, financial support and instruction while living and plotting in several cities within the U. S.

and the U. K. ? Were they fully credentialed, freelance terrorists? The group 9/11 Justice isn’t a political movement, it’s an association of those most deeply and irreversibly afflicted by the attacks, an organization that pursues justice and demands accountability for a calamity that didn’t distinguish victims based on political affiliations.

And I’d pursue Saudi golf front man Greg Norman’s satisfactory explanation until he provides one, if there is one to provide. Thus far, he has spoken nothing better than perversely comical rationalizations, including his dismissal of Saudi Arabia’s assassination of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi as, “We all make mistakes. ” “Yeah,” say the rationalizers and Norman Tour sympathizers, “well what about China and the NBA and LeBron James?” Agreed.

But if we shouldn’t ignore that, why should we indulge this? And being against golf backed by Saudi government money is a stand-alone position; it’s not a pro-PGA stance, as far too many people, again, try to rationalize and simplify. There was an added, regional story to the Saudis’ Oregon event, another that Norman, Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, Sergio Garcia, Brooks Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau and the rest should be asked to explain. In 2019, an investigation by The Oregonian newspaper reported that more than two dozen Saudi students studying in the U.

S. returned to Saudi Arabia to avoid the adjudication of their felony arrests. Among the suspects was Abdulrahman Sameer Noorah, a student at Portland Community College.

He was charged in the fatal hit-and-run of 15-year-old local Fallon Smart. The suspect vanished, but was later found in Saudi Arabia, where he remained to avoid prosecution. But as a recent convert to Saudi-money-golf , Pat Perez, said: “I understand the topics you’re trying to bring up, and they’re horrible events, but I’m here to play golf.

That’s my deal. I’ve got an opportunity to play golf, and that’s it. ” I can’t recall this many truly bad, fundamentally lost MLB teams.

The A’s, Tigers, Royals, Cubs, Reds, Marlins, Mariners, Nationals, Diamondbacks, Pirates and Rockies have all looked as if they missed all the meetings. The White Sox, expected to be the only AL Central team to finish above . 500 (and by plenty), before games on Friday were 35-39.

In the AL East, the Rays were 40-35, yet nonetheless a brutal team to behold as they had scored the fewest runs, other than the Royals, Pirates, A’s and Tigers. Five clubs had team batting averages below . 230: Orioles, D’backs (.

215!), Tigers, A’s (. 212!) and Pirates. Impossibly bad.

As a team, the Angels had struck out more than 28 percent of the time. Mariners third baseman Eugenio Suarez had struck out an MLB-leading 107 times — in 286 at bats, 37 percent! Padres DH Luke Voit had struck out in just over 38 percent of his at-bats. Home runs or strikeouts persists.

Hitting into shifts persists. Hitting the ball somewhere else to defeat the shift? Sure, but analytics printouts frown on it. Makes too much sense.

Maybe if Rob Manfred allowed all teams to use a DH … Oh. Bears linebacker Matt Adams was arrested June 24 in Chicago for alleged illegal possession of a gun . Question: Did he need a gun before he enrolled on full scholarship at the University of Houston, during his time in college, or after he joined the NFL? And some questions for Roger “Sgt.

Schultz” Goodell: Why are so many NFL players arrested for weapons? Where do they go and why do they go there that they anticipate shootings? And why, as this issue grows worse and more conspicuous, has Goodell, a panderer of the first order, remained silent, as if to pretend it doesn’t exist? Odd, or so it seems, that pitchers have mostly stopped throwing Aaron Judge the one pitch that troubled him: the low, away breaking ball. And it shows. Once again, the Yankees are not scheduled to play on the Fourth of July.

But, once again, the Toronto Blue Jays are, this year not at home, but at Oakland. So on the day before July 4, I paraphrase the words of Patrick Henry when I declare to the King of YES, “Give me John Flaherty or give me death!”.