Sports Then and Now

Caroline Wozniacki is in the U.S. Open Semifinals for the first time in her career.

Caroline Wozniacki sent Cinderella packing without her glass slippers after smashing her magic pumpkin.  She not only dispatched the fairy-tale princess, Melanie Oudin, she did it without pity, smiling all the way to the semifinals of the U.S. Open.  And what a smile she has.

She will face another teenager, Belgian Yanina Wickmayer, who, unseeded and at age 19, has made her way quietly through to the semifinals after taking out Kateryna Bondarenko, 7-5, 6-4.

Wozniacki, with quiet determination, upstaged the media darling, Oudin, taking the first set 6-2, followed by an identical 6-2 in the second set.  Oudin devastated previous competitors with a great inside-out forehand and the ability to run well.

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Just so you know, I love baseball and I love the major championships for tennis and golf and I love NASCAR (except when Jeff Burton is struggling like he is this year) and I’m somewhat infatuated with the NBA Playoffs, but I really LOVE football season.

So, you can imagine just how happy I am that the football season has finally started. For a while I wasn’t sure if it would ever start.

Before We Get Started
Since today marks the eighth anniversary of a tragic day in the history of our country and world, I would be remiss if I didn’t start my column with an acknowledgement that sports are wonderful, but in the larger scheme they are only games and entertainment. It is days like today when we must remember what is more important, family, friends, country, values, relationships and all the other things that we hold dear.

You will see on this site a couple articles that were submitted by regular contributors to this site. These are heartfelt stories and I hope you will read them with as much interest as any game story or player feature.

I especially encourage you to take a minute to read the amazing story written by Julia Civin, the 18-year old daughter of talented writer Todd Civin. You can see that his writing talent has not skipped a generation as she penned an amazing story called “When The World Decided To Share My Birthday” that is a must-read. It truly illustrates how the events of September 11 forever changed the world, even for a then-10-year-old girl.

Okay, now back to the sports.
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Michael Jordan was arguably the best basketball player ever. But he was more than just a basketball star, he became a global and corporate star.

There are few NBA stars that possess the ability to have there first names be recognizable above any other name in their sport.

Today’s game boasts interesting names such as Kobe and LeBron but before they were even old enough to lace up sneakers one man separated basketball from sports.

Michael was, and remains, the most recognizable name in not just sports but in popular entertainment. His air-ness may share his name with the King of Pop and their achievements may be similar on a global stage but Michael Jordan’s ability to combine his achievements as an athlete and his ability to bolster his public image with his successes in the business world undoubtidly separate him from the other Michael.

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Joe Andruzzi's brothers were the true heroes.

It’s been a quick eight years since that dreadful day in New York, PA, and DC. It seems like yesterday that the USA realized that we were not untouchable. It’s a day we will always remember where we were and what we were doing. It was this generation’s, Pearl Harbor.

I was working for Comcast at the time. I remember my co-worker saying a small plane hit the World Trade Center. Everyone thought it was a joke or a hoax, but it was a horror soon realized. We congregated in the café to watch CNN.  We saw the second plane hit the Twin Towers. I was in awe and I began to well up.

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