20th Anniversary Edition! 

It is an age-old question in sports. At what point is a man betrayed by the athletic acumen that defined his prime? Many superstars of the past have faded into the annals of history, remembered for their previous conquests than for their present successes. Sports, in general, are playgrounds for the young and talented. Age ravages the reaction time, the ability to drive the ball, to accelerate in crucial moments. But sometimes, we are greeted with such a sublime instance of veterans vanquishing Father Time that former glories can be revisited in real time. For even when they fall short of their ultimate goal, those who show resilience in the face of declining ability inspire us to play beyond our own abilities. 

Whether it is the resurgence of a guy like Tom Watson, who was one of golf’s most dominant players of the 1970s and 1980s; the continued relevancy of someone like Lance Armstrong, who has come back to the sport of cycling four years removed from his unprecedented run in the Tour de France to reclaim a prominent position in the race; or even the return of a veteran like David Beckham to a hostile environment, now in the shadow of younger superstars like Landon Donovan... well, even if you never have been the biggest fan of these aging prodigies, it still stirs up a sense of nostalgia which cannot be undervalued. So this week, let’s take a walk down Memory Lane and view the exploits of these three men as we dive into the world frequented by A Non-Traditional Sports Fan in America... 
 

Over three decades had passed since the Ailsa Course at Turnberry, a golf resort on the southwestern coast of Scotland, first hosted The Open ChampionshipThis year’s British Open was an instant classic as much for what it wasn’t as what it was. You would’ve been forgiven for thinking the clock had been turned back two or three decades if you tuned in this past weekend. One big former Tour leading money winner was on top of the leaderboard after several big rounds... but his name, for a change, was not Tiger Woods. The prime name in golf, Woods was cursing and fuming his way around Turnberry and missing just his second cut in a major during an already-storied career. But even though Eldrick was absent for the weekend on the Scottish links, we watched a storybook flip page after tantalizing page before us. 

It very nearly played out in a manner which would make fairy tales jealous. Turnberry’s original champion had returned to make a stunning run at a record-tying sixth British title. For Tom Watson, whose famous “Duel in the Sun” with Jack Nicklaus in 1977 ended in a one-stroke victory after the two were tied far ahead of the pack after three rounds, Father Time had seemingly flipped the calendar back a couple dozen years this time around. But real life doesn’t operate like fairy tales... too often the clock strikes midnight before Cinderella takes the trophy. 

On this visit to the Firth of Clyde, Watson opened the first three rounds electric, claiming the slot at the top of the leaderboard as his exclusive real estate going into the final round on Sunday. But 54 proved to be Watson’s midnight moment, as the final round saw a man who had been but four years old when Watson first conquered Turnberry come along and wrest the Claret Jug from his elder’s grasp. For sports, inevitably, must see the torch passed to a new generation, and time had run out for Watson. 

Perhaps, though, the case was that the time was far overdue for Stewart Cink, the 36-year-old veteran from Alabama who has often found himself just on the brink of becoming a champion -- but never crossing over that threshold. He had placed in the top three at all the other majors, the Masters and the U.S. Open and the PGA Championship. But it wasn’t until he stared down the man twenty years his senior on a patch of Scottish linksland that Cink finally found his way to a title. Recovering a three-shot deficit through the final run through Ailsa, Cink tied up with Watson at the end of 72 after the latter had self-destructed to shoot a two-over 72 in his Sunday round. Despite the mediocre round, Watson still had his chance for victory when he arrived at the eighteenth on Sunday. 

But it simply wasn’t to be. His par putt, which would’ve handed him a sixth Claret Jug in his long and luminous career, it was apparent in his body language that the man on the cusp of sixty would not be taking home the spoils. After failing to seal the deal in regulation, the four-hole playoff set itself up as Watson’s Waterloo. By the time the dust had settled once again on hole eighteen, the familiarly named Duel in the Sun, the course had turned on the five-time Open champion. The weekend would ultimately not end nearly as sweet as it had 32 years before, as any Cinderella dreams melted into a pumpkin patch of reality. 

For Cink, it was the vindication for all the years in which he has plugged away despite finding only middling success on golf courses around the world. Coming into The Open with but five wins to his name through the fifteen years of his career -- and all in lower-level tournaments, no less -- Cink was the type of player who is only on someone’s radar if that person is family or friend. But in vanquishing the dreams of glory harbored by Watson on this nearly-magical weekend, Cink struck a little magic of his own. Perhaps, for the 36-year-old southerner, this tournament will prove to be the turning point upon which to build a greater legacy... 
 

In this year’s Tour de France, we’ve seen the battle of generations play out right within the framework of the sport’s most dominant team. Astana, the Kazakh-sponsored squad of Alberto Contador and Lance Armstrong, has provided the grounds for an intergenerational battle for the leadership of the team. Both men have the history to be considered worthy -- Lance with his record seven consecutive Tour titles from 1999 to 2005, Alberto with his victories in all three grand tours. But the battle, ultimately, has come down not to which rider has compiled the more impressive record but how they currently perform on the road. 

Through two weeks of racing, the two men were right aside one another in the standings, an insignificant two seconds separating them through the second week while Italian rider Rinaldo Nocentini played the caretaker role with the maillot jaune. But on the climb to Verbier, Switzerland, youth defeated experience on the first Alpine stage of the 2009 Tour de France. Contador, standing on his pedals and dancing away up the road (just like Armstrong did so many times during his reign at the top of the sport), left his much older teammate in the dust along with every other purported contender to snatch the yellow jersey from Nocentini. Unable to follow the accelerations of his teammate on the mountain passes, Armstrong drifted down the road to ultimately finish over ninety seconds behind his teammate in just two kilometers of attacking. 

On one hand, Lance has been magnanimous in defeat, praising his teammate in public and asserting that he will be the consummate domestique in support. He has marked other contenders as Contador jumps up the road. But Armstrong did not win seven Tours by playing the foil, and pride still plays a large part in everything he does. He demonstrated a second wind lacking among many men half his age the next day, pulling back level with the contenders after seemingly being gapped for good. 

But that reemergence was to prove short lived. If it isn’t his teammate Contador, it is the Luxembourgian brothers Frank and Andy Schleck on the Saxo Bank squad who are putting him under pressure. On the road to Le Grand-Bornand, where in 2004 Armstrong battled now-teammate Kloden to take the stage victory in a display which five-time Tour winner Bernard Hinault chalked up to giving one’s opponents “no gifts”, Armstrong again could not maintain contact with the trio of Schleck, Schleck and Contador. He can say all the right things, but in the end it is obvious that this changing of the guard has rankled the Texan. 

Being a runner-up after so many years of dominance surely stings. Watson can attest to that fact. Few get to taste the rarified air which floats around the pinnacle of a sport; and for those that have attained such heights, the desire to return is strong. But sometimes what a person desires and what their body is able to accomplish are two vastly different things. There is no shame in second place; the torch must be passed down sooner or later, and there is still much glory in elevating one’s game at such an age... 
 

That’s a lesson which has failed to resonate between the ears of David Beckham. The midfielder and former captain of the English national team has largely been a bust since his much-heralded signing with the Los Angeles Galaxy of Major League Soccer. Surely even the most ardent of soccer detractors amongst American sports fans have at least heard of Sports Illustrated writer Grant Wahl’s new book, The Beckham Experiment. We’ve heard tales of what a poor locker-room leader Beckham had become; how he seemed genuinely disinterested in the task at hand. Some time spent on loan with Italian powerhouse AC Milan seemed to reawaken his drive and desire. 

Since his return to the United States, though, after his attempt to leverage a buyout of his contract or an outright transfer to Italy, Beckham has reentered a vastly different soccer environment than the one to which he was first exposed back in the summer of 2007. He never did develop any semblance of chemistry with the true leader of the squad, Landon Donovan. He alienated himself from his teammates, preferring the company of Hollywood stars to the camaraderie of the pitch. He largely underperformed -- when he was present on the field in the first place. 

Now, in his return to American soil, we are witnessing an awkward reunion with the club with whom he was once heralded as the savior of an entire league. His signing ushered in the designated player rule (which fans enthusiastically took to as the “Beckham Rule”), which allowed each club to sign a marquee player for whatever price necessary while taking a predetermined ($400,000) dent in their salary cap. Network partners scrambled to plaster his likeness all over their promotional advertising. He was the golden boy, the man who was supposed to turn around the league’s fiscal situation and bloat its fan base to NFL levels. 

Now, though, he returns as the antihero, the vaudevillian villain which everyone is quick to boo whenever he gets the ball. In his return to Los Angeles, he had the misfortune of facing the club with whom he tried to engineer his exit from MLS -- AC Milan was in town for an exhibition match. Yet the press still wants to treat the petulant midfielder with kid gloves, acting as though it is the fans rather than Beckham who is being insensitive in the situation. 

Get things straight... Beckham is still, at this moment, plotting his exodus out of California for the more competitive waters of Serie A. It is not out of line to state the obvious: Major League Soccer, for all the strides it has made in its history, is still nowhere near the same level of competition as the top European leagues. This is not meant to insult; not even the well-established leagues of South America and Mexico can maintain their most magnificent maestros. 

But Beckham is not merely exhibiting a “competitive zeal to win” as he flees for greener pastures as was asserted by Bloomberg writer Scott Soshnick in a July 23 article. That article, titled Beckham Owes the L.A. Riot Squad Nothing, stemmed from that Galaxy homecoming against Milan, where the Briton was berated by the famed crowd of rabid supporters who call the Home Depot Center home every match. At halftime, Beckham decided to try confronting the fans, approaching the Riot Squad section and provoking one of their numbers out of the stands and onto ground level. It was a punk move, intended solely to have the man jumped upon by security and meant to send a message to the rest of the fanatics. 

The problem with Soshnick’s assertion is simple -- because Beckham was sold to the public, driving up both the number of paying customers at the turnstiles and the viewers for televised games, he does owe at least his full effort every game. The veteran has this sense of entitlement that makes him believe he is above anything which might be a challenge -- whether it is trying to grow the stature of the league to which he signs a fat contract or manning up and actually carrying through with a provocation. What ever happened to the guy who booted Diego Simeone in the calf while he was down? Yeah, it earned him a red card right out of the 1998 World Cup -- but at least he still had that “competitive zeal to win”. 

Now all it seems is that Beckham wants to play for a historic club, rather than creating history at a club. He wants a spot on the national team again, but he doesn’t want the challenge of being so dominant in MLS that he forces English national coach Fabio Capello to pick him or face the collective ire of the infamous British tabloids. A fire to succeed is not something that should wane based on the venue or one’s teammates. The truly great athletes, guys like Eddy Merckx, put as much effort into the smallest local contests as the greatest challenges in their sport. Beckham’s behavior has been wildly out of line for someone seemingly so talented and media-savvy. Obviously, he’s proven that one of these is true during his tenure in the United States... 
 

In the end, winning breeds the desire to win more. For some, that first victory instills a muscle memory that can seemingly be drawn upon at will. The greatest have a fire within which drives them to dizzying heights, writing their legend for all posterity. Watson and Armstrong (and to a lesser extent Beckham) have discovered that single-willed focus that is required if one is to win the big contests. As an athlete ages, that fire doesn’t die -- though sometimes it gets misguided. It is inspiring to see these athletes at least making a run for recaptured greatness... even if they go about it the wrong way. Sometimes it is that which is wrong in a situation that you learn more and gain greater inspiration from than that which is right...