Manny had a great trip to Japan. He's in a contract year, so the Red Sox will have to decide whether to pick up his option.

Tiger Woods’ competitiveness is well documented and extremely visible when ever he enters into any kind of activity.  On Sunday, at the WGC-CA Championship in Doral, FL, Tiger exploded with anger at photographers because they took a picture in the middle of his back swing.  Normally something like this would be a non-issue, but because it was the world’s greatest golfer, it made national headlines.  Personally, I don’t see anything wrong with what Tiger said, but because he threatened to break a photographer’s f-ing neck he was publicly criticized for it.  Anyone who has ever golfed before knows that one when someone is in the middle of their swing, stay quiet, and also, when you have a bad shot, anything is likely to come out of your mouth.

While I was riding in my car, I listened to a talked show host named Colin Cowherd discuss this topic and make his views on the subject very clear.  Then he had an ingenious idea; have the golf courses constantly play some white noise in the background.  I know at first is sounds ridiculous, but let me give you an example of how this could work.  You know how you fall asleep with the TV on, and there is nothing that will happen on that TV that will wake you up.  Well, this is the same concept, once you get used to the very subtle noise in the background, you will not notice it.  The purpose of the white noise is to eliminate the noise of the shutter on the cameras clicking while a golfer takes his swing.  This idea may not go over well with the golfers at first, but if they give it a chance it will work. 

As for what he said to the photographers getting on live TV, there are a couple of ways to ensure that it doesn’t happen again.  We all know that you cant tell an athlete to keep his mouth shut when something goes wrong, because that just isn’t going to happen.  But delaying the live feed by a few seconds will give the TV stations a chance to clean up the comments coming out of the competitor’s mouth.  The second thing that can be done is to stop setting up microphones on a players gear or in the tee box at a golf tournament.  Come on, seriously, is there anything that is going to be said at the tee box that we already don’t know?  Yes, you will occasionally get to hear the golfer and the caddy discuss what club to use on a certain par three or on a dogleg par four, but other than that, we know the golfer is going to get up there, smack the ball as hard as he can, and hope that it stays on the fairway.  Now let’s move onto something a little more important.

Before I get into some baseball, I would like to discuss a few NFL rumors.  The first rumor concerns the current playoff system.  They don’t want change anything with regard to the number of teams getting in, but they want to change how the first round of games is formatted.  Currently the two division winners get home field advantage over the Wild Card teams.  Certain people around the NFL would like to make it so that the team with the best record gets to have the home game.  Personally I like this idea.  Say a team like Jacksonville Jaguars finishes the year with a 12-4 record, but San Diego finishes the year with an 11-5 record and wins their division, the Jags would get the home field and not the Chargers. 

The baseball season opener has come and gone this week and there was an unsuspected hero in the first game of the year.  Rookie outfielder Brandon Moss got to start the season opener because J.D. Drew had back spasms.  In game one, Moss went 2 for 5 with a game tying home run in the top of the ninth off A’s closer Huston Street.  Earlier in the game Moss came up big with a clutch hit that scored Manny Ramirez to put the Red Sox in front 3-2.  He will be optioned to Triple A Pawtucket before the regular season gets underway.  Watch for Moss to come back sometime this season and fight for a spot on the roster.

I am going to leave this weeks grumble with a few things to watch in the upcoming week.  The first thing that everyone must watch is the real baseball season opener tonight.  I know it was really last week, but it didn’t feel like it.  Tonight, the Nationals get to show off their new park to the world, when they take on the Braves in the first game of the year on American soil.  This game will be boring, but come on, its baseball.  Fantasy owners will finally get a glimpse of how well Yunel Escobar will do in his first full season in the big leagues. 

The next thing to watch this week will be Elite Eight games taking place tonight, and tomorrow night.  I don’t know about you guys, but I don’t think Davidson is this years George Mason.  Davidson is a quality team that is flat out playing better basketball than anyone else on the planet.  Stephen Curry may not turn out to be a great NBA star, but right now he is playing his heart out.  Did anyone else see the basket he made in the second half while falling down last night.

The last thing to watch comes on Wednesday night at 10 pm.  It is the premier of the new season of the Ultimate Fighter.  The sport of mixed martial arts is on the rise and may be the most exciting combat sport ever.  On the Ultimate Fighter you will see 16 up and coming MMA fighters compete for a six figure contract in the UFC.  Most people say that the sport is barbaric and unorganized, but it has changed a lot since its early days.  The sport of MMA now takes more safety precautions than any other contact sport.  All I have to say is watch it once, if you don’t love the sport after that then, well your crazy.

Next week I will give you my thoughts on the watch list well as some good baseball news because we all know that is why we are all here anyways.