Common Ground: LANCE ARMSTRONG: ANOTHER AMERICAN PROFILE IN COURAGE.

Photograph courtesy of the Associated Press.

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NOW IS THE TIME FOR ALL GOOD PEOPLE TO COME TO THE AID OF THEIR COUNTRY!

LANCE ARMSTRONG HAS DONE SUCH A FANTASTIC JOB OF STATESMANSHIP FOR THE UNITED STATES AS HE HAS RISEN, LIKE THE Phoenix, a CLASSIC AMERICAN HERO WHO ROSE from his deathbed in an oncology ward to dominate the world's premiere athletic event -THE TOUR DE FRANCE.

AND GUESS WHAT? HE'S FROM TEXAS...EAT YOUR HEART OUT, bush!

Wayne Dennis Kurtz.

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By LYNN ZINSER

Published: July 8, 2009

For a day at least, Superman has returned and he’s riding a bike across France. Lance Armstrong not only came an eyelash from snatching the yellow jersey in the Tour de France Tuesday, but he also lifted the entire sport over his head and reminded the world it exists. Yes, it is an early stage and Armstrong is 37 and cycling has been plagued with drug use, but for sheer star power, stubbornness and audacity, you have to hand it to Lance.

As Rick Reilly writes on ESPN.com, Armstrong’s comeback once seemed like a joke and now the joke is on us and perhaps his “I was supposed to win” teammate Alberto Contador. While the former racer Bobby Julich reminds us that the hard parts of the Tour are still ahead, Bonnie Ford writes that Armstrong is bending time to his will. All of this is making Jay Mariotti of Fanhouse.com go searching for Versus on his television dial (hint: go higher).

Back stateside, baseball is crowding the sports news with its pre-All-Star Game rush, which includes getting fans to vote for the final player on each team, a race currently led by the Rangers second baseman Ian Kinsler in the American League and Giants third baseman Pablo Sandoval in the National League. Yahoo.com’s Jeff Passan has 246 reasons to vote for Sandoval although if you want a truly stunning story involving the Giants, read Jeff Fletcher’s tale on Fanhouse.com about pitcher Ryan Sadowski.

In the less-than-heartwarming category, Manny Ramirez got his expected shower of boos at Citi Field, but the Mets were so woeful in an 8-0 loss to the Dodgers that they got the worst of the crowd’s disdain, writes John Harper in The New York Daily News. Ramirez did get ejected in the fifth inning and did enough to remind us why he lives in a universe of one, as described by Fanhouse.com’s Lisa Olson, and ignores everyone’s rules but his own, said Wallace Matthews of Newsday.

Elsewhere, Toronto is trying to trade ace Roy Halladay, an idea Gordon Edes of Yahoo.com said it probably should have had last year. And the Cubs’ Ryan Dempster reminds us why people laugh at baseball players by breaking his toe celebrating a victory.

There will be no celebrating at LP Field in Nashville, which will open Wednesday and Thursday for fans to pay tribute to the slain former Titans quarterback Steve McNair. The story of his homicide gains a few details each day, with his good friend Robert Gaddy saying Steve and Mechelle McNair had no plans to divorce. The police are still waiting for test results before classifying the case as a murder-suicide. The Baltimore Sun polled Hall of Fame voters on McNair and they said he would not make the cut.

The N.H.L.’s free agency season has been interrupted by the retirements of two notable players: the beloved Joe Sakic in Colorado and the not-so-beloved Claude Lemieux, who tried a short comeback with San Jose last season at 43. Free agency is still shaking out, with a shaky list of possible winners and losers, according to Michael Farber of SI.com, although Toronto made a big splash with the signing of the Swedish goalie Jonas Gustavsson. The Flyers, meanwhile, have gambled big that defenseman Chris Pronger’s nastiness survives the aging process, writes Bob Ford of The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Women’s sports might have gotten a boost from the Williams versus Williams final at Wimbledon, but Dave Zirin of The Nation writes that tennis’s efforts to use sex appeal as a selling point succeeds only in selling sex, not tennis. The world of women’s golf is less cheery, with the United States Open serving to highlight the L.P.G.A.’s woes.

The recession might be bad for women’s golf, but it might just be good for recreational marathoners, writes Reed Albergotti on WSJ.com, for whom being laid off has been a training boon.

President Obama, meanwhile, is trying to boost Chicago’s economy with his latest pitch for his city’s Olympic bid, just after thanking the Russians for loaning the hockey star Alex Ovechkin to the fans in Washington.

In his promotional efforts, even Obama could take a few tips from Armstrong.

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Common Ground

Thursday, July 9, 2009

LANCE ARMSTRONG: ANOTHER AMERICAN PROFILE IN COURAGE.

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