Crazy bet not crazy any more
A decade ago, Rory McIlroy was a 15-year-old kid with some skill at golf and a dad who believed in him wholeheartedly. So much so, in fact, that Gerry McIlroy and three friends put together $700 on an audacious bet: young Rory would win the Open Championship before he turned 26. The odds? 500-1.
McIlroy is now 25. And he stands six shots ahead of the field with 18 holes to play. That crazy little bet doesn't seem so crazy now, does it? The bet would pay approximately $340,000, if McIlroy is able to win.
Assuming each of the four partners threw in equally, that's $85,000 apiece. (You know there were a few guys who thought it was a throwing-money-away bet.) Not a bad return on their investment.
How safe is the bet? Consider this: McIlroy leads by six strokes, and no one has ever lost the Open Championship leading by that many heading into the final round. It's no sure thing; McIlroy lost the Masters by choking spectacularly in 2011, but he's since won two majors in dominating fashion.
No drama, please
Lucas Giolito is among the more promising prospects in the minor leagues. This would seem to be an exciting job by normal standards, but Giolito's family is far from ordinary. His mother is an actress and artist, and his father creates video games. One grandfather was a "Seinfeld" actor, and another was an Olympic fencer. An uncle was a creator of the TV series "Twin Peaks."
Giolito, 20, is 4-2 with a 2.47 earned run average in 14 starts for Class A Hagerstown, a Maryland-based team in the Washington Nationals' farm system. He could not say whether baseball was more challenging than acting, but from watching his mother, Lindsay Frost, he knew he wanted no part of life on the stage or the screen.
"I never even considered it because my mom always steered me clear of it," Giolito said. "She used to come home from auditions like, 'Oh, this is the worst.' I mean, it's fun, especially if you love drama and acting and all that, but it's a really tough industry. I think it's a little more fun being able to go outside and play a sport for money than to grind through the hard side of auditions and memorizing lines."
Even so, Frost has carved out a long career, with a regular role on As the World Turns in the 1980s -- she replaced Meg Ryan, her son said -- and multiple credits on Frasier and Crossing Jordan. Her father, Warren Frost, played Mr. Ross, the father of George Costanza's fiancée, in several episodes of Seinfeld.
"I've seen one of the episodes he's in," Giolito said. "I think he's complaining about his cabin being burned down or something like that."
Giolito is making a name for himself on the mound. He was initially best known for his right elbow, which needed reconstructive surgery almost immediately after the Nationals drafted him in the first round in 2012. But last week ESPN's Keith Law ranked him as the No. 14 prospect in baseball, though Giolito knows he has room to improve.
"It's good that I throw hard and my curveball breaks a lot, but there's more to it than that," he said. "I definitely want to improve upon the finer aspects of pitching."
That's just grand
Tennis legend Monica Seles, 40, is engaged to marry 72-year-old billionaire Tom Golisano.
Wrote RJ Currie of sportsdeke.com: "For Seles, that will make nine Grand Slams and one granddad."
Sports quiz
Who won the most British Open Championships in the 1950s?
Answer
Peter Thomson won in 1954, 1955, 1956 and 1958.
Sports on 07/20/2014