December 24 -- Tiger Woods can wish Associated Press members Merry Christmas and happy holidays for not voting his ongoing sex scandal the year’s top sports story.* Tiger Woods sex scandal finished fifth in voting for AP 2009 Sports Story of the Year, but these photos make a good case for the saga being Number One
With Woods hiding out on his yacht still docked in Florida, in the Bahamas on the same yacht, golfing in Dubai, farming in Sweden with his wife, in rehab for sex addiction and drugs, or rocking in the holidays in the illicit love nest of his once-and-future alleged mistress, Tiger can count his holiday blessings that news of his ongoing sex scandal did not even make the front page of the AP leaderboard.
Steroids instead of sex. The AP, which earlier this month chose Woods as its Athlete of the Decade, determined that the impact of steroids on baseball was 2009’s Sports Story of the Year. Woods’ seamy sexcapade saga finished fifth in voting among AP members, behind a NASCAR driver, a tennis player, and a football player’s second return from retirement.
Balloting for the top story began before Woods’ infamous car crash on November 27 and the bombshell of bimbos and broken car windows that exploded afterward. By that time, editors of U.S. newspapers who are AP members had submitted 37 of 161 ballots, according to the AP.
Vote early and often. The AP, which added the Woods story to the top-story roster on November 30, offered voters the chance to recast their ballots. Phil Kaplan, deputy sports editor of the Knoxville (TN) New Sentinel, was one of only 10 voters who opted for a new ballot, the AP said.
"I think [the Woods story] transcended sports in general. It's become a national story," Kaplan told the AP. "[Woods is] such a figure in sports that people are interested. People who don't follow sports are following this story."
Final-round tally. In the final round, Woods’ tale of tawdry trysts with trashy tarts came up 183 votes short (800 to 617) of the winning score.
The embattled golf great was able to card more first-place votes (41 to 27) than the steroids story, but that wasn’t enough to give Woods the win.
Oh, yeah. The other stories that bested Woods’ saga, despite Tiger’s final-round push for the trophy, involved NASCAR’s Jimmie Johnson winning his fourth straight championship, Roger Federer capturing his 15th tennis Grand Slam, and Brett Favre’s leading the Minnesota Vikings to the NFL North division title.
No comments:
Post a Comment