LPGA appeal needs aid

The sports world has had better months.
The LPGA Tournament that has been staged in the Mahoning Valley over the past 15 years has been a good thing, raising many dollars for local charities.
Much of that money came from corporate sponsorships, especially from local businessmen and businesswomen playing in pro-am events. It's nice to know that in our economically-challenged area there have been plenty of deep-pocketed supporters of women's golf who have pitched in for a good cause.
But women's professional golf is, at best, a cult sport with limited appeal. Take it from someone in love with a cult sport pretending to be a major (the NHL), there aren't many ticket-buying fans with whom you can share your passion.
No TV for local event
How limited is the appeal of women's golf? Even The Golf Channel didn't show last weekend's Giant Eagle LPGA Classic from Squaw Creek Country Club.
It's one thing when the LPGA isn't televised because its tournament is played at the same time as PGA and Champions Tour events, but the major competition last weekend -- the British Open -- was off the air long before the LPGA coverage would have started.That doesn't mean there wasn't golf on television Sunday afternoon. ABC found sponsors for "Michael Douglas & amp; Friends." NBC found sponsors for the Tahoe Celebrity event that featured former and current pro athletes.
The golf networks showed as little interest in the LPGA as 19 of the 20 leading money winners who didn't participate. And maybe if television cameras had been here, more of the better players would have shown up.
If it's true that you're only as strong as your weakest link, maybe the LPGA big shots should do a better job of ensuring the players take part in more events on their schedule. Perhaps a revision of the "one in four" rule -- where a player is required to play an event at least once every four years -- is in order.Sometimes, it's about the good of the game.
Baseball
Word out of Houston is that "American Idol" winner Fantasia just finished her rendition of "The Star-Spangled Banner" that began before baseball's All-Star Game last Tuesday.
It's a good thing the game was played in Texas because there aren't too many states that could fit her ego.
Thanks to the American League shelling of Roger Clemens, the All-Star Game ratings were pathetic. FOX didn't help by dragging out the game with endless self-promotion.
Boxing
Recently, Mountaineer Gaming Resort proudly presented a boxing card that had area fighters going against some of the worst imaginable: heavyweight Brian Minto fought Kevin Tallon (10-16), Davey McBride took on Margaro Senquiz (1-10) and Durrell Richardson fought Matt Hill (5-20).
Go figure -- none of the below-.500 boxers won.
Olympics
It looks like we won't need to send Cheech & amp; Chong to Greece to serve as mascots for the U.S. Olympics track and field team. The United States Anti-Doping Agency's campaign against suspected performance-enhanced athletes seems to be working.
Those of us old enough to remember when Mark Spitz won seven gold medals at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich also recall when communist athletes, particularly East Germans, were considered to be the champions of laboratory cheaters.
For a while, it seemed the U.S. was becoming a reborn East Germany.
No one wants to return to the days when U.S. athletes were amateurs struggling to make ends meet while having to compete against other countries' athletes who were disguised as amateurs.
But the relaxed rules on amateur status have created a privileged class of U.S. athletes, some of whom need a wake-up call.
Not all champion track stars have been helped by steroids and human growth hormones. But it seems obvious to anyone with common sense that some have earned enough money in now-legal endorsements to purchase whatever it takes to make them better.
If we don't see them in Athens, August promises to be a better month.
XTom Williams is a sportswriter for The Vindicator. Write to him at williams@vindy.com.