Queen of Sports

Queen Of Sports 101: A Couple Things About Golf

We’ve done some posts about various golfers over the past several months. Everyone is familiar with Tiger Woods, he’s been in the news more for his personal struggles over the past year than his play on the golf course.

But his play was all the talk of the golf world this weekend. Tiger was in Akron, Ohio competing in the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational, where he had his worst performance as a professional golfer. The winner of the tournament, Hunter Mahan finished an overall 30 shots better than Tiger.

For today’s Queen of Sports 101, we are going to dive into how the game of golf is scored. Each hole in golf is classified by it’s par, the number of strokes a skilled golfer should require to complete play of the hole. The key factor for classifying the par of a hole is the distance from the tee to the green. The goal is to play as few strokes per round as possible.

A few important terms when scoring golf:

A hole in one: when a golfer sinks his ball into the cup with his first stroke (a drive from the tee).

Par: when a golfer equals the same amount of strokes

Eagle: when a golfer is two strokes under par

Birdie: when a golfer is one stroke under par

Bogey: when a golfer is one stroke over par

Double Bogey: when a golfer is two strokes over par

One of the four men’s major championships is taking place this week, the PGA Championship. The other three major championships include the Masters (second weekend in April), the US Open (third weekend in June) and the British Open (3rd weekend of July). These are the four most prestigious men’s tournaments of the year.

The only golfer to win all four majors in one year was Bobby Jones in 1930. Two golfers have won three of the majors in one calendar year, Ben Hogan in 1953 and Tiger Woods in 2000.

Legendary golfer Jack Nicklaus has the most major wins with 18. Tiger Woods is trailing him with 14.

The PGA Championship will begin on Thursday, August 12th. The first two days of the tournament will air on TNT. Saturday and Sunday’s events will be broadcast on both TNT and CBS. This years major is taking place at Whistling Straits in Kohler, Wisconsin.

Queen Of Sports 101: NFL Training Camp

We are going to tackle NFL training camp for our Queen of Sports 101 this week!

NFL training camp is underway and it refers to the period of time before the season commences. During training camp, teams typically meet at an outside location, often a local university.

Training camp gives new coaches and players the opportunity to acclimate themselves new teammates, new systems and different weather conditions. Young players use this time as an opportunity to prove they can be stars and veterans show that they are still able to compete with the younger players.

The components of an NFL training camp include scrimmages which are pseudo-games where the teams tend to run a full games worth of plays. Sometimes they hold two practices in one day which is often referred to as two-a-days. Other parts of training camp include weight sessions, meetings with the coaches, drills and pre-season games. Training camp leads right into exhibition season starts. Exhibition season consists of several warm-up games that are played but are not counted for their season record.

One major concern for the NFL during training camp is dehydration. In 2001, Minnesota Vikings player Korey Stringer died from a combination of dehydration and heatstroke during training camp. This prompted the NFL to change their training camp policies which now require teams to have a doctor and medical staff on the field at all times during practices.

To get the latest updates on NFL training camp, click here.

Queen Of Sports 101: Home Run

So, I’m guessing everyone knows what a home run is. But just in case, a home run is when a batter is able to score in a single play because they have hit the ball over the outfield fence between the foul posts.

But sometimes, it’s not that simple, here a few variations on the home run:

Inside-the-park home run: occurs when a batter hits the ball into play and is able to circle the bases before the fielders can put him out. Unlike with an outside-the-park home run, the batter-runner and all preceding runners are liable to be put out by the defensive team at any time while running the bases.

Grand slam: occurs when the bases are “loaded” (that is, there are base runners standing at first, second, and third base) and the batter hits a home run.

Walk-off home run: is a home run hit by the home team in the bottom of the ninth inning, any extra inning, or other scheduled final inning, which gives the home team the lead and thereby ends the game.

The home run is a hot topic right now because New York Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez is one home run away from the 600 career home run mark. A-Rod had a chance to hit number 600 on Sunday night against the Kansas City Royals but was hit by a pitch in the 8th inning.

A-Rod will have another opportunity to hit the milestone when the Yankees play at the Cleveland Indians tonight.

Right now, Alex sits at the number 7 spot on the career all-time home run list with 599. Ahead of him are Barry Bonds (762), Hank Aaron (755), Babe Ruth (714), Willie Mays (660), Ken Griffey (630) and Sammy Sosa (609).

Queen Of Sports 101: NBA Summer League

The NBA Summer League is a pro basketball league run by the NBA in the United States just after the NBA draft. Teams consist of players who have been in the league for three years or fewer as well as newly drafted talent. This gives rookies and other young talent the opportunity to play against each other and showcase their skills.

Since 2007, the NBA Summer League has been held in Las Vagas at the Thomas & Mack Center and the Cox Pavilion. The rules of the game are generally the same as the NBA regular season rules, except that they allow for a more liberal foul-out rule. Players can have up to 10 fouls (regular NBA is 6).

In addition to the Las Vegas Summer League, there is also a Orlando Summer League run by the Orlando Magic.

NBA Summer League games concluded yesterday.

Queen Of Sports 101: MLB All-Star Selection

The MLB All-Star festivities are under way!

The All-Star game is an annual baseball game between National League (NL) and American League (AL) baseball players. The All-Star players are selected by a combination of votes from fans, players and managers. Until 2009, 32 players were selected to each team but they added a 33rd player to each team allowing for an extra pitcher.

8 players are voted in by the fans: Baseball fans vote on the starting position players for the All-Star Game, with ballots distributed at Major League Baseball games before mid-season and also online. The designated hitter for the AL team is also selected in this manner. This method has been recently criticized because most of the starting players can come from teams that have large fan bases, like the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox.

16 players are voted in by the major league players: Eight pitchers (five starters and three relievers) and one back-up player for each position are elected by the players, coaches, and managers. If the top vote-getter at a position has also been selected via fan voting, the second-place finisher in this category is selected.

9 players are selected by the managers: The manager of each league’s All-Star team, in consultation with the other managers in his league and the Commissioner’s Office, will fill his team’s roster up to 33 players. The NL manager will also select his team’s designated hitter.

1 additional player is selected via the final vote: After the list of 33 players for each league is announced, fans vote (on the Internet) for one additional player, chosen from a list of 5 players that is compiled by the manager of each league’s team and the Commissioner’s Office.

Nick Swisher of the New York Yankees and Chris Young of the Arizona Diamondbacks were the final vote winners for this years game. Check out the full 2010 MLB All-Star roster here.

Don’t forget to check out last weeks MLB All-Star game themed Sports Date of the Week!

Queen Of Sports 101: Handball

The Queen Of Sports is starting a new weekly post – Queen Of Sports 101. Each week we will dive into a different aspect of a certain sport and explain it.

This week we are going to talk about the “handball” in soccer.

As you all know, when playing soccer the only person allowed to touch the ball with their hands, is the goalkeeper. So a hand ball is illegal use of arms or hands while playing soccer.

This rule came into play last week during the quarterfinal match between Uruguay and Ghana.

Uruguay’s player Luis Suarez intentionally swatted away a header (that was going to be a goal) by Ghana’s Dominic Adiyiah at the very end of extra time with the score 1-1, forcing a penalty kick shootout to decide the winner of the match. Suarez was issued a red card and dismissed from the game. He will receive an automatic one-game suspension for the handball violation but some feel he should get a harsher penalty.

Uruguay won the shootout 4 – 2. Ending Ghana’s World Cup run. Check out the video and some ESPN analysis:

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Another controversial hand ball occurred a about seven months ago during the World Cup qualifiers. French national team hottie Thierry Henry used his hand to position a match-winning goal against Ireland. In this case though, the handball was not called and Thierry went unpunished, France won the game ending Ireland’s chance to be included in the World Cup. Check out the video below:

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Don’t forget to check out the semi-final World Cup matches where Uruguay will take on the Netherlands on July 6th at 11:3oAM PST and Germany will play Spain on July 7th at 11:30AM PST. Keep an eye out for those handballs!