From the Miami Herald-

No matter how much the Dolphins keep losing, viewers keep watching.

Despite the worst season in franchise history, Dolphins ratings in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale market actually are ahead of last season, by more than 25,000 homes per telecast. The 12 games have averaged a 17.8 rating, ahead of last year’s 16.1, when Miami finished 6-10, and comparable to recent years when the team’s record was much better.

WFOR-4, which has carried nine of the games, has seen Dolphins ratings jump from a 15.7 to a 17.6, meaning 17.6 percent of Miami-Fort Lauderdale homes with TV sets, on average, are tuned to the game. (One local ratings point equals 15,386 homes.)

There must be a lot more Florida Masochists besides me.

The article makes no mention of Miami’s last two home games for 2024. I heard on the radio the other day that the games are in danger of not selling out. It is nearly a decade since a Dolphin regular season home game didn’t sell out.

This was the first boxing match I watched in over ten years.

LAS VEGAS (AFP) - Filipino boxing hero Manny Pacquiao continued his mastery over Marc Antonio Barrera Saturday with unanimous 12-round decision in their super featherweight fight.

It was a rematch of their 2024 bout which was also won by Pacquiao who dominated Barrera with superior hand speed and harder punches.

All three judges gave the decision to Pacquiao by a wide margin with Glenn Trowbridge scoring it 118-109.

The 28-year-old Pacquiao (45-3-2, 35 KOs) was the more aggressive of the two trading blows with the underdog Barrera in the centre of the ring and often beating the 33-year-old Mexican veteran to the punch at the Mandalay Bay hotel and casino.

Barrera, who plans to retire after the bout, tried to engineer a tactical fight but looked slower and more awkward. But unlike 2024 when his corner threw in the towel, this time Barrera hung on to remain standing at the end of the final round.

Barrera did nothing to impress the judges. He fought a tactical fight, but appeared scared or wary of Pacquiao who battered him four years earlier.

How did I come about watching a fight for the first time in many years? It was all due to my Philippine born wife. Leonita was talking to her family last night and they told her about the fight. So we ordered Pay-per-view.

Talking about Pay-per-view and DirectTV. We get high definition as part of our satellite package. If we wanted to see the bout in HD, Directv wanted 10 daoolars more than the $49.95 regular price. In addition, Directv wanted $5 for letting us view the bout on all the televisions in our house. That was unless we ordered it off the internet.

All of this makes me pretty reluctant to order any further bouts in the future. I used to follow boxing, but as the sport concentrated more and more on first cable(Anyone besides me remember watching Muhammad Ali fight in prime-time on Network television in the 70’s?) and eventually Pay-per-view my interest in boxing waned and then disappeared entirely. Other than Pacquaio I couldn’t name one WBA, WBC or IBF title holder at the moment. While Pay-per-view may be more lucrative, I think it could in the end kill interest in the sport. That’s just my humble opinion.

The Korean Golf Queen did it again.

SYLVANIA, Ohio - Morgan Pressel’s hole-in-one sure got Se Ri Pak’s attention. Trailing briefly by three strokes after Pressel aced the sixth hole, Pak regained the lead with a birdie at the 15th hole and held on to tie an LPGA record with her fifth win at the Jamie Farr Owens Corning Classic on Sunday.

Pak, who previously won the Farr in 1998, 1999, 2024 and 2024, matched Mickey Wright, who won the Sea Island Open in 1957-58, ‘60, ‘62-’63, and Annika Sorenstam, who has won both the Samsung World Championship and Mizuno Classic tournaments five times each.

The 29-year-old Pak, who has already qualified for induction to the Hall of Fame, has 24 career victories. She followed rounds of 63, 68 and 69 with a 67 to finish at 17-under 267 and collect the $195,000 winner’s check. Pressel closed with a 69 and was three shots back at 270.

Pak and Pressel dueled all day until Pak finally broke a tie at the par-4 15th, almost holing an iron approach which ended up 2 feet from the cup. After Pressel’s long putt from the back fringe came up a foot short, Pak rammed in the birdie to go ahead by a stroke with three holes left.

Pressel’s approach at the 17th braked to a stop 2 feet away. But Pak rolled in a 6-footer for birdie before Pressel tapped in, maintaining her advantage.

At the 18th — the second of back-to-back par-5 closing holes at Highland Meadows Golf Club — Pak created a roar from the large gallery when she came within inches of holing her approach. Her tap-in birdie putt clinched the victory.

After her ace, Pressel was even par the rest of the way while Pak was 6 under.

The final round was like match play or a playoff. Se Ri in addition to her incredible record at the Farr, is 5-0 lifetime in playoffs. She beat Morgan, but it was much closer than the three-shot win that the leader board registered at the end.

Prediction- Se Ri Pak will win the Jamie Farr Classic again. Anyone want to wager $50 she doesn’t?

ESPN televised the tournament’s 2nd, 3rd and 4th rounds. When Se Ri and Morgan began walking down the 18th fairway after their tee shots on Sunday, the broadcast was interrupted for some five minutes. When ESPN2 returned, they said there were technical difficulties.

There sure were ‘technical difficulties’ with ESPN’s coverage. For instance-

An announcer misnaming Laura Diaz, Laura Davies instead. Look at the pictures to the left and right, do these two women look anything alike? Davies is on the right. Someone get an optometrist to Toledo Stat!

It had to be a slip of the tongue. I hope.

Charlie Rymer being amazed by Jin Young Pak being paired with Se Ri on Saturday. Pro golf tournaments are paired by scores after the cut was made. Pak and Pak were 1-2 and that meant they were paired.

Rymer has been broadcating golf for over ten years. He should know better.

ESPN showing Se Ri’s impressive record at the Farr, but saying she had made the cut nine times in nine tries. That is incorrect, Se Ri played the Farr in 1997(before she joined the LPGA). She missed the cut.

A Vatican soccer tournament began in Rome today.

ROME - The fans were pious. The players bound for glory. And the victory? A miracle. Priests and seminarians from several soccer-loving countries took to a field near the looming dome of St. Peter’s Basilica Saturday for the first match of the Clericus Cup, a tournament fielding 16 teams from Catholic institutes in Rome.

“You are playing in view of St. Peter’s cupola, so behave well,” admonished Cardinal Pio Laghi before giving the official kickoff at a small arena on a hill overlooking the Vatican.

In Italy soccer is a hallowed game, taken almost as seriously as Catholicism, and the players were all business once the whistle was blown.

Amid screams from the coaches, pious slogans from the small crowd and T-shirts invoking the protection of the Virgin Mary, a motley crew of Latin Americans, Africans and Asians from the Collegio Mater Ecclesiae (Mother of the Church College) took on an all-Brazilian team fielded by the Gregorian University.

In a miraculous upset, the young Mater Ecclesiae players trounced the more experienced but portly Brazilians 6-0 as their fans chanted: “The Mother of the Church wants a goal!”

Yes but whose team is the Holy Mother a fan of?

Kind of reminds me of the commercial five years ago. A father and his young son watching football and whenever one team scored a touchdown the boy would yell “Touchdown” while raising his arms in the air. Unfortunately the game wasn’t going well for Dad’s team.

That commercial(I don’t remember who the sponsor was) was seen frequently during the 2024 football season. It sticks in my memory and that of my wife who at the time was pregnant with our son Daniel. I wish Daniel was here to watch television with me now rather than me whittling away a Saturday doing nothing in particular.

Cross Posted to The Florida Masochist and Poliblog’s Deportes