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I’ve recently added jogging to my training regime as I was only a handful of pounds away from being automatically ordained according to my demonination’s by-laws. It just so happens that I’m speaking at a camp in Ohio this week on the amazing race.

I’ve been moved with gratitude that Paul picked such a simple sport to build an analogy for understanding spirituality.

Left Foot…

…Right Foot

Love God…

…Love your Neighbor

Repeat:

Or this gem in Hebrews 12:1-3: “Don’t run with heavy objects on your back.”

Running the Christian walk isn’t easy but there is a simplicity at it’s core.

ESPN.com is reporting that Tiger Woods is out for the year with a damaged ACL that will require surgery.

My first reaction: WOW. Just when you thought his 91-hole win last weekend couldn’t be more impressive, you find out he was playing on a stress-fractured tibia and a busted anterior cruciate ligament. This has to surpass Jordan scoring 37 with the flu in the 97 Finals, right?

My second reaction: Bummer. The British and PGA are going to be nowhere near as fun without Tiger. Come to think of it, he’ll probably be the top story of both, without even being there.

My third reaction: Write it down now, the return of Tiger Woods will be THE sports story of 2009.

They were the best team on paper, the best team in the regular season, and the best team in the Eastern Conference Playoffs this year.

With their 39-point blowout of the Lakers in Game 6 on Tuesday, the Celtics confirmed they were the best team in the NBA Finals as well.

Break out your boomboxes*, the Boston Celtics are the 2008 NBA Champions.

Congratulations to Doc Rivers, the Big 3, and the Big Bench that carried the Celtics to their 17th NBA Title.

Congratulations to Paul Pierce, the NBA Finals MVP who suffered through a brutal stabbing 8 years ago and suffered through watching Antoine Walker take so many terrible shots over the years on those mediocre Celtic teams. Truth be told, you deserve this.

Congratulations to Kevin Garnett, who now has an NBA ring to go along with his League MVP. For the sake of his heart, here’s to hoping he tones it down a notch of three. This guy is so intense, he makes Tiger Woods look like Rocco Mediate.

Congratulations to the sports fans of New England, who better enjoy what they have now, because multi-sport title runs like this don’t happen very often, and rarely last long.

Now, who’s ready for some football?

*on a personal note, 22 years ago the Celtics beat the Rockets for the NBA title. To celebrate, me, my buddy Luke, and my brother Josh paraded around the block of our New Bedford, Massachusetts home with a boombox and homemade signs declaring we were the champions.

Josh called me tonight during the 4th quarter from Boston, where he was watching the game with our youngest brother Jordan. We wondered if Luke was watching up in Toronto, and we both decided to take a walk around our respective neighborhoods when the game was over, just for old time’s sake. I opted not to go with the boombox this time.

is there any reason why a game 7 isn’t a good idea? whoever prevails at that point, it’s a great story and a huge win. if it ends tonight, i sort of feel cheated. no disrespect to the Celtics but how many times are the Lakers going to blow a lead like that? like, never! even if they lose, it just feels right for Kobe to make it to a game 7.

i know this, i’m going to be bummed if i stay up that late to see it through to the end, and there is no game 7. i’m already working on a sleep deficit, and it would be nice to be rewarded with one last game in the Garden.

i want the Lakers/Celtics for 7 games. what else are you going to watch? this or this. give me a break!

the last game 7.

(photo by yoppy)

Sure, I could say something about Gimpy Tiger’s crazy-good U.S. Open win over Rocco Mediate, or the NBA Finals, or this morning’s 3 a.m. firing of Willie Randolph, or how Yankees co-chairman Hank Steinbrenner threw a hissy fit over the weekend, calling for the National League to “grow up” because they don’t have the Designated Hitter and, as a result, Chien-Ming Wang hurt his foot running the bases in interleague play on Sunday.

But I’m not going to discuss any of those things.

I just want to bring your attention to the fact that I am now in first place in the Prayers for Blowouts Fantasy Baseball League:

Please notice that my team — the prophetically named “Team of Winners” — has made the fewest roster moves of any team in the league. In fact, the second place team has made 10 times the moves my winners have made. That, friends, is known in the business as Having Serious Fantasy Baseball Skeelz.

It’s also occasionally known as Being a Big Nerd.

Either way, I’ll own up to it.

a few images to remind you to cultivate that relationship with your father/son if you still can. And if they’ve passed on, remember the good times and a be a better father/son for it…

(yeah, that’s me with my dad and my two brothers - jordan and josh - a couple years ago)

Happy Father’s Day!

Wow.

I almost turned off Game 4 in the third quarter, but for some reason, I didn’t. My reward for sticking with the game? Witnessing one of the greatest comebacks in NBA history.

Without the help of the refs or a Home crowd, the Boston Celtics played shutdown defense and hit one clutch shot after another, scoring 47 of the game’s last 68 points to beat the Lakers 97-91. That was an inspired comeback and a stunning collapse rolled into one.

You gotta win 4, though…so don’t break out those victory cigars just yet.

Anyone else watch the second half of this classic? Anyone give up on the game and go to bed?

Speaking of which, that’s where I’m headed now.

First off, Bryan– we need an MMA/Martial Arts Category…

…

I took my yellow shirt test in the McCollough Fighting Systems last night. The test was 1.5 hours of intensity. During the first hour I was asked to throw nearly 100 kicks, about 450 punches, demonstrate all the submissions I knew, and then do them all under 2 minutes. (1.32 minutes, thank you!)

I thought the test was done. I felt done anyhow. Then I was informed that I had to do ground fighting for 15 minutes with new opponents rotating in every 2-3 minutes.

I got through it. I’m still gassed today.

I went home fascinated by the role of the OO-KEY. That’s my attempt to transliterate the Japanesse word. If I spelled it wrong, shoot me. The ookey plays the role of the servant. When someone is learning a submission move they need a live body who is willing to lie on their back and let somebody choke you, or bend your arm in weird unnatural positions. There’s a bit of a danger in getting hurt. When you let someone practice an arm-bar on you and they don’t know when to stop– well you could have your elbow dislocated.

And the ookies are ideally the fighters with the most experience. They have the most potential to moderate the training and keep everything safe.

The ookey is the mentors by being a servant and and making himself vulnerable to injury.

It makes me think of the hymn in Phillipians 2 about Jesus’ humbling himself, making himself a man, so he could serve and teach others.

Thanks Jesus, creator and ookey. I don’t think I’ve ever called you that. I mean it reverently.. also it sounds weird when I say it out loud.

a few things to check out while you’re watching first round U.S. Open coverage from your desk at work…

+ Musician (and friend of PFB) Andy Osenga is running in a 5K on Saturday. The run is called “Ellie’s Run for Africa” (you can read more about it here). If you’d like to donate in Andy’s name, here’s your instructions.

Two things should be noted here: 1) Andy will only be running with nine toes and 2) you should download Andy’s latest EP for free here.

+ Matt Hughes blogged about his loss to Thiago Alves in UFC 85 on Saturday. I didn’t see the fight, but Matt comes across pretty humble in defeat on his blog post, for whatever that’s worth.

+ (PFB’s own) Jesse Carey blogs about a Chrstian Gym opening up in Florida, and whether or not this is a good thing.

The sun set fifteen minutes ago. Your mother is waiting patiently in the parking lot. And you are on the 18^th green, finishing your 54^th hole of the day.

And as you stand over your double-bogey putt, the only question is this: Is it to win the Masters, or the U.S. Open?

For me it was always the Masters. Probably because I grew up on a course that was hilly and dotted with pine trees. Of course the similarities between Briarmeade and Augusta National ended there, considering Briarmeade is bordered by a trailer park. Even so, in my imagination azaleas were always blooming, and the 18^th green was surrounded by cheering patrons and Claudia Schiffer (This is 15-year old Chad we’re talking about), waiting to give me a green jacket, so long as my last putt found the bottom of the cup.

I was a Masters guy because as a kid the U.S. Open was painful to watch. Overweight men, panting like dogs in the summer heat. Impossibly narrow fairways with rough so high you could lose a car in it. And those greens, like trying to land a ball on the roof of a VW Bug. Over the years I’ve learned to appreciate the U.S. Open, I guess in the same way I’ve learned to appreciate vegetables. I’m going to eat them, but I’m not really looking forward to it.

I never understood those kids whose putts were to win the U.S. Open. Maybe their dad was in the army? Maybe their dad was Toby Keith? They always explained it in patriotic terms, citing it was our national championship, which I get, but it’s still boring. The only time the two groups agreed was on cloudy or rainy days, when the putts were to win the British Open. Putts were never to win the PGA Championship.

I say all of this because the 108^th U.S. Open begins this Thursday, on the South Course at Torrey Pines, and Tiger Woods is set to tee it up for the first time since his second place finish at the Masters, and subsequent knee surgery.

This won’t be the first time Tiger begins a U.S. Open after a long break from tournament golf. In 2006 Woods skipped every event between Augusta and the Open after the death of his father Earl. Tiger shot 76-76 and missed the cut in a major for the first, and only time in his career. Perhaps he couldn’t overcome the rust from his 3-month layoff, or perhaps the emotional burden from the loss of his father was too much to bear, or perhaps he couldn’t stand to be seen in this shirt, which he was schedule to wear for Saturday’s round.

Regardless, in a year where everyone was talking Grand Slam, and a 3^rd U.S. Open title at one of Tiger’s favorite courses was a given, this week’s U.S. Open has enough drama and unanswered questions to keep us all interested.

And who knows, when I finish my round after work today, that last putt may just be to win our national championship. Not that I still do that sort of thing.