CKNW Editorial
for April 12, 2001

This morning, a rare move into the sporting world.

Jack Nicklaus calls Tiger Woods winning four straight majors the most amazing athletic achievement of all time. I don’t know about that though it must be noted that he himself once held three titles at once – the 1971 PGA, the 1972 Masters and the 1972 US Open … these were consecutive Majors victories done only two other times in modern history – by Ben Hogan in 1953 and by Tiger Woods.

Nicklaus on another occasion stated that in his day there was more competition citing the presence of Arnold Palmer, Gary Player, and, later, Lee Trevino. With the greatest respect, Nicklaus is wrong. The competition today is light years ahead of that in his time.

By 1964 Palmer had ceased to be much of a force. Player, a winner of all four majors along with Hogan, Nicklaus and Woods was a great player as was Trevino. But there it ends.

Today, I would argue, the competition is much deeper. There are no Palmers, Players and Trevinos today because Tiger Woods has obliterated all who would become these kinds of players. He has destroyed Mickelson, Duval, Davis Love III and Colin Montgomery. That can change, of course, but for the moment it's true ... and don't bet against it continuing. Just look at the World Rankings where Tiger is over 30 and his nearest rival just 10 and a bit.

More than that, though, is the extent of the competition and its depth. The Nike Tour is a full time triple A back-up to the PGA Tour. Then there is the European Tour, only marginally behind the PGA and which has sent marvelous players onto the scene. Look at the Ryder Cup record of the Europeans after Nicklaus’ day. There is the Asian Tour and one need only look at the record of Japanese players on the PGA tour to get an idea of how good it is.

The fact remains clear – Tiger Woods dominates what is clearly the best world full of golfers that has ever existed.

At one of the early America’s Cup yacht races Queen Victoria asked an aide who was winning. "The Americans", he replied. "And who is second", asked the Queen. "There is no second, Your Majesty", he replied.

Thus it is at this moment with Tiger Woods who at the age of 25 has 6 Majors under his belt and who amongst us would be so brave as to bet against him not adding to it in June when the United States Open is played.

Right on the first point, Jack Nicklaus, but dead wrong on the second.

It is being said that Hockey Night in Canada and the CBC are biased in favour of the Toronto Maple Leafs. Wow! What a revelation! How did it take this long to figure that out?

Back in the beginning, when there was only radio, the CBC decided on a two section Canada. Only seeing the country as Toronto/Montreal they decided that Quebeckers would get the Canadiens games while the rest of Canada got the Leafs. Thanks to Foster Hewitt – who makes Bob Cole sound the very model on impartiality – it was soon across the land that red blooded, real Canadians, which is to say all who didn’t live in Quebec – were to be and must remain Toronto Maple Leaf fans. It was a sort of treason if, like me and many of my friends, you pulled for the "frogs" instead of clean cut athletes like Syl Apps, Ted Kennedy and Howie Meeker. This was propaganda pure and simple and it came out of upper crust Toronto who saw the real part of the nation, which is to say all but Quebec, as simply an extension of Toronto.

When, about 1955, under pressure from Canadiens fans across the country, the CBC began to broadcast some Montreal games they always made sure that at the end of the season Toronto had many more of their games on air.

As Television came in, during the play-offs Toronto always had more games on TV than Montreal notwithstanding the fact that the Canadiens dominated the league.

Foster Hewitt was a bigot through and through. Read his biography by the friendly Scott Young. He deliberately mispronounced French names – notable in memory is the 1972 Russia/Canada Cup series where he consistently called Cornoyer, Cornoir.

Even though there is now regional televising, when it comes to the crunch you can be sure that Hockey Night in Canada will support the Leafs. In more modern times, take 1994 when the Canucks played the Leafs in the semis and beat them 4 games to one. Harry Neale and Don Cherry, most notably the latter, were so obviously pro Toronto it wanted to make one throw up.

Fans in Ottawa, who have not had a team all that long, obviously don’t realize that deeply engrained in the CBC psyche is the notion that all right thinking, decent, patriotic Canadians take their lead from Toronto and that accordingly they all, as one, cheer for the Toronto Maple Leafs.

The best, indeed only way to handle this is for Ottawa to thump the Leafs in the coming series as the Canadiens used to in better days of yore.

In the meantime, you can expect Bob Cole, Harry Neale and Don Cherry to call them as they see them – which is to say, all Toronto whate’er betide. If they were truly impartial they would betray a long CBC tradition – which prevails in politics as in sports - and that would never do, now, would it?