It’s about time that a blog called “Sports @ Large” should have a sports post in it. So, here it is, but before you read on, a little explanation is in order.

This blog shares a name with a radio commentary I do each week for WYPR 88.1 FM, the NPR affiliate in Baltimore. I’ve been fortunate to do this for 13 years now, and I’m proud to say the show has been renewed for another year, thanks to the sponsorship of the University of Maryland Medical Center.

The show airs each Monday at 4:45 p.m. and re-airs the next morning. If you’re in the Baltimore area when it airs, feel free to listen. If you’re not, you can catch it streaming through the station’s app or at the website.

Or you can catch archived editions of the show here.  Enjoy!

The phrase “How the mighty have fallen” most famously appears in the Old Testament, in second Samuel and is uttered by David as his brother Jonathan dies in battle.
Those five words have been appropriated in modern times to reflect a tumble in stature by someone who once was powerful.
At the beginning of 2015, we thought those five words would apply to Alex Rodriguez, who has returned to baseball after a year-plus suspension for use of performance-enhancing drugs.
And many wondered if those five words would also apply to Tiger Woods, the most dominant golfer of his generation who has flailed about over the last five years.
True, it’s been seven years since Woods last won a major tournament, meaning the Masters, the U.S. Open, the British Open or the PGA Championship.
But the real line of demarcation for Woods appears to be that Thanksgiving weekend in Florida in 2010 where his domestic life fell apart and the rift between he and his then-wife broke open.
Since then, Woods’ game has similarly broken apart with the most recent example coming over the weekend at the U.S. Open.
To use another familiar phrase, once upon a time, Woods dominated this tournament, winning it once by an astounding 15 strokes.
However, by last Friday, Woods was more tabby than Tiger, shooting 156 for two rounds, an equally astounding 16 strokes over par. It was the worst two round score of Woods’ career and landed him not only on the wrong side of the cut line, but on his backside after one embarrassing shot.
To be fair, Woods’ issues extend beyond the psychological. He has famously changed his swing on a number of occasions, partly because of back and knee ailments.
And those may be reflections of the fact that he is now 39, closer to the end of his era of productivity than the beginning.
Advancing age was supposed to be the thing that would ruin Alex Rodriguez’s return. He, like Woods, is 39 and a year away from the game should have diminished his skills.
But his batting average, home run and RBI totals for 2015 are rather respectable. And his career totals have moved him past some of baseball’s royalty.
Rodriguez has passed Willie Mays for fourth on the all-time home run list, and joins Mays and Hank Aaron as the only players in baseball history to have 3,000 hits and 600 home runs. In addition, he is now second on the all-time RBI list.
Rodriguez’s return has been met by the Yankees and baseball in general with all the enthusiasm of a father disposing of his infant’s stinky diaper and understandably so.
Rodriguez embarrassed baseball with his transgressions and, as a result, the Yankees have done all they can to ignore his milestones.
But, amazingly, there is actually talk of Rodriguez receiving a berth on the American League All-Star team next month.
The final chapter on Tiger Woods and Alex Rodriguez has yet to be written and likely won’t be for a while, because you can’t measure the desire of the once mighty who have fallen to try to get up, especially when everyone else wants them to stay down.