Fred Bowen's "The Score" column,
August 13, 2009, Washington Post

Here's What I'm Thinking . . .

While you read this, I'm lying on a beach or playing golf in New England. Which means it's time for my annual column of random thoughts about sports. But recently I realized that my column of random sports thoughts is really . . . a blog. Or, OMG . . . tweets! So here is this year's vacation thoughts column . . . blog . . . or tweets. Or . . . whatever.

-- I thought that the Washington Nationals' recent trades of first baseman Nick Johnson and reliever Joe Beimel would make the Nats worse for the rest of the season. Surprise: They are suddenly the hottest team in baseball.

-- Everybody talks about the 1962 New York Mets (40 wins, 120 losses) as the worst team in the history of baseball. The worst team was the 1899 Cleveland Spiders. Their record was 20 wins and 134 losses. The Spiders were so bad they disbanded after the season.

-- Can anyone explain why there are so many ties in Major League Soccer? Look at D.C. United. About half of the team's matches have ended in ties. I guess because the games are low-scoring, the chance of a tie goes way up.

-- Maybe MLS teams should play a 15-minute overtime period, with seven players on a side and no goalies. I think that would be real exciting.

-- I know lots of fans are excited about the Redskins' preseason. But will someone please wake me up on Sept. 13, when the real games start? Preseason football is boring.

-- I still feel bad that 59-year-old golfer Tom Watson didn't win the British Open. But isn't it amazing he came so close to winning the championship?

-- How about the golfer who won the women's British Open, Catriona Matthew? She won the tournament just 10 weeks after she gave birth to her second child. Now that's a cool mom.

-- Did you see Tiger Woods at the British Open? I hope not. Tiger spent most of his time smashing his clubs into the ground and using words no KidsPost readers should use. Tiger's a dad now; he should watch his language.

-- I'm glad swimming officials outlawed those high-tech swimsuits. It should be the swimmer who wins the race, not the swimsuit.

-- But what should they do with the 43 world records set at the recent world championships? And the more than 170 world records that have been set since swimmers started wearing the skintight suits? Maybe they should put an asterisk beside the records to explain they were set while wearing a super-duper swimsuit.

Fred Bowen writes KidsPost's sports opinion column and is an author of sports novels for kids.

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