06/18/2002

Tiger Woods already has won more majors than Arnold Palmer, Bobby Jones or Sam Snead. Think about that for a second.

And he's only 26.

Shaquille O'Neal now has won his third consecutive NBA title, has become far and away the most dominant player in basketball, the centerpiece of a Laker team that's in the middle of a dynasty.

Barry Bonds already holds the major-league record for home runs in a season, already is No. 5 all time in career homers.

Do sports get any better than this?

Maybe not.

The only problem is, it probably flies in the face of human nature to realize it. We tend to romanticize the past. The winters were colder, the summers were longer, music was better, television shows were better, everything was better. At least that's the way we so often remember it.

This is especially true in sports, where so much of being a fan is a link to childhood, to the point that we tend to regard the athletes from our childhood as better, more mythic, larger than life. Athletes never seem better than when viewed through young eyes. They also never seem better than when viewed from a distance. Like the summers of childhood, they get better as time goes by.

Woods punctures that myth.

It's impossible to watch him and not realize he's one for the ages, that we're watching someone who one day is going to be recognized as the greatest golfer ever. It's impossible to watch him and not realize that we are watching sports history being made, a legend's story being written, like being there when Bobby Jones was in his prime, or being with Jack Nicklaus every step of the way through his career.

Shaq also punctures the myth.

It's easy to poke fun at Shaq. There's a certain cartoonish quality to him, an image no doubt aided by his TV commercials and his attempt at being a rapper. Sometimes more actually is less, too much exposure making an athlete seem somehow diminished. It's also easy to dismiss Shaq's accomplishments, to say it comes because he's bigger than everyone else, gets away with too much pushing and shoving, whatever.

We shouldn't. He just might be the most dominant center the game has ever seen. Not the most aesthetically pleasing. Not the most skilled. The most dominant.

Don't believe me?

You don't have to.

Listen to Pete Newell, the ex-college coach who has achieved almost legendary status in basketball as a teacher of big men. He is quoted in the latest issue of Sports Illustrated as essentially saying Shaq's the best inside player of all time, not only bigger and stronger than anyone else, but more offensively versatile, too. Only Hakeem Olajuwon had better moves, Newell says, and he didn't have Shaq's force inside.

Which brings us to Bonds.

He is the most shining star in a constellation of bombers who have changed the game in recent years, the incredible home run explosion that dominates highlight films and puts people in seats. In the long, long history of baseball, is there any doubt he's right there in the thin air of the true greats? Any doubt that watching him is like being able to watch Cooperstown come to life?

Not that we should be surprised. Athletes today have better nutrition, better training, better coaching, better everything. Rest assured that Jones, Palmer and Nicklaus didn't work out like Tiger does. Ditto for Hank Aaron, compared to Bonds. Rest assured Wilt Chamberlain didn't get the kind of coaching Shaq has gotten. Today's athletes are the beneficiaries of all the people who have come before, like artists who do detail work after others already have put the broad strokes on the canvas.

Why shouldn't they be better?

It's easy to be jaded by professional sports today, to get worn down by the egos and the money that's always in your face, the money that's dramatically changed the landscape of sport, often seems to drain the joy from it. It's easy to yearn for a simpler time, back when sports seemed less mercantile, less commercial, more in tune with the games we remember as kids.

Still, even with the flaws, there's no denying we are living in a golden age of sports. More money. More exposure. More attention. More sports. More opportunity for more people.

More.

All this, and great performances, too.

These are the good old days.

Tiger, Shaq and Bonds are just three reminders.