O.K., when we last talked the trade deadline had ended, Manny was still in Boston and I had just chastised him for his juvenile on-field behavior.

Thinking I had another story in the bank I took a nice bike ride to my local brewery to enjoy a frosty, celebratory beverage, and what should I see scrolling along the ESPN’s bottom line on a soundless television?

“Manny Ramirez traded to the Dodgers in a three-way trade with Pirates”

I almost choked on my beer!

Apparently an 11th hour blockbuster deal was struck and will send the embroiled slugger to the Dodgers. In return, the Sox receive Pirates outfielder Jason Bay and the Pirates receive four minor league prospects, two from each team.

So congrats Manny, I guess. Your wish has been granted. Your whining and cute little dugout signs paid off. The Red Sox are paying the remaining 7 million dollars of your contract and your tumultuous relationship with Boston is over.

Too bad for Boston though, they are (at least on paper) a worse team than they were before. Bay’s 22 homers and 64 RBIs are certainly welcome and comparable to Manny’s 20 homers and 68 RBIs. But I just don’t think he is nearly the same player as Manny (when he tries), especially in the post season.

In fact, I think this trade could effectively kill Boston’s shot at the Playoffs, not to mention a return trip to the World Series.

But never mind me. Enjoy the West Coast.

After all you “deserve” it.

–Aaron Whitebread, RED Editorial Staff.

Ok, Manny bein’ Manny can be quite endearing. Going to the Green Monster to take a leak, high-fiving a fan after a great catch, watching your own long balls sail out over the outfield wall—this is funny, amusing and what I like about baseball.

But what is not cool, nor funny (and certainly not endearing) is dogging it. That’s right Manny, you are dogging it. You’re being paid millions and you still take your sweet time getting to first base. (Over five seconds? I could beat that on crutches!)

You’re holding your team hostage, hinging on your temper tantrum. And not just any team either, but the Boston Red Sox; a team with serious play-off possibilities and a legitimate shot at back-to-back World Series Championships.

So you know what that makes you Manny? Selfish. More so than a certain quarterback who is also holding a team by the you-know-whats.

You have claimed the Sox have done this before to other players, like Nomar Garciaparra and Pedro Martinez, making them seem like the bad guys when they are no longer wanted.

Yet, you are the one out there not trying. How does that make you look? I’ll tell you: like the bad guy.

And all this is happening while the Red Sox are slipping, losing the last 5 of 6 games played including a sweep in Fenway by the Angels.

In Monday’s game, Manny casually trotted to first base on a hard hit grounder. Later, Manny took a leisurely stroll to second resulting in a double-play. He wasn’t even fast enough to be in the camera shot!

Manny has said the Red Sox are going to try and paint him as the bad guy, but with this behavior, it ain’t gonna take much paint.

He also said the Red Sox don’t deserve a player like him. Which player is that, Manny? The one with 24 post-season homers is surely what you mean, but I can’t stop thinking of the player who answers his cell phone in between innings, lollygags in the outfield, and basically lays down on the job.

Anyone with a real job knows that type of attitude will quickly land you in the unemployment line.

But whether or not the Sox “deserve” Manny is moot. He’s staying in Boston. So here’s my advice Manny—shut up and play ball. Get the lead out and try. Run out hard hit grounders, slide into second to break up the double play, and help your team win another Championship.

You say you love the fans in Boston, well now is the time to show them just how much you love them by sucking it up.

–Aaron Whitebread, RED Editorial Staff.

Hell hath no fury like the media scorned, which means the Olympics should be a blast to watch on multiple levels.

The International Olympic Committee has announced that China is going to block certain “sensitive” Web sites during the course of the Olympics despite their earlier promises of delivering the same kind of unrestricted Internet access that foreign reporters are accustomed to. I understand why this is important news, but I don’t understand why some people are surprised.

Seriously folks, raise your hand if you didn’t see this one coming.

China’s governing communist body has decided there are some things about their country that are best kept under wraps. As a result, the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG for short) are blocking any site that criticizes, jeopardizes, or just flat out doesn’t like China’s communist leadership.

It’s almost like they’re communists or something. Odd.

Chief among the blacklisted sites are Amnesty International and the official Website of a human rights group called “Falun Gong,” which has been described to the international press by BOCOG spokesman Sun Weide as “an evil, fake religion which has been banned by the Chinese government.”

And while numerous members of foreign media in Beijing have complained about this limited access, Paris-based media group Reporters Without Borders are making the most noise. They also claim that the censorship will only get worse.

On the Reporters Without Borders Website, the front-page features a picture of the Olympic Rings composed entirely of handcuffs. I guess they don’t believe in subtlety. “This is yet another provocation by the Chinese authorities,” the Website claims before supplying readers with detailed instructions on how to avoid Chinese firewalls that are blocking certain sites.

Provocation? Maybe. Maybe not. One thing is for sure, though. With the Olympics a scant nine days away, the air quality in Beijing isn’t the only mess that China has on its hands.

What this entire situation lacks is a sense of compromise, and in that respect, watchdog media groups are just as despicable as China’s censorship policy.

Sure, China doesn’t really give off the requisite “hello world let’s feel good and get happy” vibe that every Olympic Committee would like to see host countries exude during the games, but then again, not all media is friendly, either.

Does China have a thing or two to hide? Yes they do, but for as shady as they can be, they’re also perfectly aware that certain media groups are hell bent on raking China over the coals (even if they do deserve it) and that’s a situation China would rather avoid.

So groups like Reporters Without Borders are right. It is going to get worse, but it’s going to get increasingly difficult to assign blame as we move forward since Reporters without Borders is essentially advertising how to break the rules that BOCOG has in place; even if those rules aren’t fair.

Every time the Olympics rolls around, there is always a group of people who use it as an opportunity to voice political concerns, but this is the most potentially serious case in awhile.

Hey, did you know there’s going to be sporting events at the Olympics too?

–Joey Alfino, RED Editorial Staff.

The first printing run of “Tuesdays with Morrie,” was 25,000 copies and Doubleday, the company publishing the book by first time author Mitch Albom, thought they’d be lucky if they sold those. But the book, about a dying professor who teaches life lessons to Albom, his former student, shot up to the New York Times Best Seller List and stayed there for a phenomenal four years, claiming the title of bestselling memoir of all time. Since then Albom’s books, which also include best sellers “The Five People You Meet in Heaven” and “For One More Day,” both published by Hyperion, have sold over 23 million copies worldwide—including 17 million copies of his last three books in the United States alone.

Albom, who lives in the Detroit metro area and is a newspaper columnist for the Detroit Free Press, has had several of his books made into movies. He talked to Red about “Tuesdays with Morrie” and his life since he became famous (he’s still the same down to earth guy he was before).

In the six years following the release of “Tuesdays with Morrie,” you didn’t write another book. That must have seemed like an eternity to your publisher. Why did you wait so long?

The reason I took that long to write something after “Tuesdays” is that I could have written 10 more Morries. But I wasn’t going to do that. Everybody wanted “Wednesdays with Morrie,” but that wasn’t the right thing to do and that wasn’t the spirit of how I wrote that book. I wanted to wait until a story meant something to me the way that “Tuesdays” did. Six years is a long time to sit around, but I was trying to be sincere.

How has your phenomenal success changed you?

Before “Tuesdays with Morrie” I was working as a full time newspaper columnist, a full time radio host and full time on television. I lived in Connecticut three days a week working for ESPN2. It was insane doing all these different jobs and doing them the same way someone would have if they had been their main job. For me to work 120 hours a week was not unusual at all. I’ve changed my priorities. Now I focus on what I think counts more, such as family, friends and being part of a community.

Besides your success, what other impact did Morrie have on you?

Morrie’s perspective is don’t just work for the sake of working to accumulate money, do some good with what you do. My life now is filled with charitable stuff, visiting hospitals, things like that.

When Detroit hosted the Super Bowl in 2006, a program to help the homeless watch the big game inspired you to do more for that population. Can you tell us about that?

I spent the night at a homeless shelter, not pretending to be homeless. One guy said, “Aren’t you Mitch Albom, the writer?” I said, “Yeah.” And he said, “What happened to you?” Meaning, I must have fallen so far that I ended up homeless. It didn’t throw him at all that I could be that way. After spending the night there, I wrote a story about it and my hope to raise enough money for better conditions for the homeless for the rest of the winter. I said if we could take care of our homeless for one weekend, then we should be able to take care of them at least until it’s not so cold on the streets. My goal was to raise $60,000. We ended up raising $360,000 in a week’s time.

The money you raised went to S.A.Y. (Super All Year) Detroit: Reaching Out to Detroit’s Homeless, a non-profit that you founded that helps improves the lives of the city’s homeless as well as two other charities. Why is helping others so important?

All helping is fulfilling. When people would come visit Morrie, he’d ask them, “How’s your job going? How’s your divorce?” And they’d end up telling him all their problems. One time I asked Morrie why he was always trying to solve everybody else’s problems. I said, “You’ve got bigger problems than they do,” and he said—and I’ll never forget it—”Why would I take from people like that? Taking makes me feel like I’m dying. Giving makes me feel like I’m living.” That little sentence has never left me. I go down to the homeless shelter for a couple of hours to put food boxes together for homebound people. I’m like wow, it’s Saturday morning and I did something with my three hours instead of just watching TV. It’s a feeling you can’t get anywhere else.

Mitch Albom might never have written “Tuesdays with Morrie,” with all of its life lessons, if his first career choice had panned out. An aspiring singer and pianist, he played with myriad bands in high school in New Jersey. After graduating from Brandeis University with a degree in sociology and wandering through Europe, he landed a gig in a taverna on the Greek island of Crete. Albom talked to Red about his first career and how he became a writer.

Mamma Mia! So you used to be a lounge singer in Greece?

I was a featured American performer singing Elvis Presley and Ray Charles songs. This was so far off the beaten path that I think they thought they were originals that I had made up the songs. I often wondered why I ever left there, because I could have had that job forever. When you’re young, you want to get back home and get started on your career. So I voluntarily walked away from that job and came to New York, where I was just another failed musician.

Your first writing gig was a non-paying job with a free local newspaper. Why did you do that?

I wanted to get into newspaper writing, and there weren’t any paying positions. No one had any money. They said we’ll let you do it, but you have to do it for free. So I did that for six months, then they paid me $25 a week after that. I was curious about the business–just wanted to experience it–wanted to do something creative and see it come to pass. In music, I was writing all these songs, and no one was recording them. At least the paper was printing what I was writing. Then I decided to get a master’s degree in journalism at Columbia University.

How did you support yourself during this time?

I would play piano from 10 at night until two in the morning and I tried to get my college friends to come and spend some of their money down there so that they would let me keep my job but it was such a dive that most of them didn’t want to come. I also took a day job writing for a sports magazine. If it had been a business magazine, I probably would have been a business writer instead.

Was there a down side to your books?

My father has watched me put out three books now in which the fathers were bad. In “Tuesdays with Morrie,” Morrie’s father was a real jerk. I wrote “The Five People You Meet in Heaven,” and one character’s father beat him. Then I put out “For One More Day,” and the father runs away when the boy is 11 years old. After “For One More Day” came out, my father pulled me aside and asked if there was anything he should know about that had happened when I was young. He had started to notice a pattern because many stories in my books are right out of my life. Everyone just assumes that poor Mitch’s dad was a jerk. It’s completely the opposite.

–Interview by Jane Ammerson, RED Editorial Staff

It’s been so long since I’ve had the chance to write about the NFL that I was going into withdrawals over the weekend. Now, with the start of NFL preseason right around the corner, I find myself dreading the topic. And it’s all the Packers’ fault.

There’s so much news already developing around the rest of the league as training camps get underway, but the custody battle over Bret Favre in Green Bay is bigger than Chad Johnson’s ego, so let’s hurry up and point some fingers so we can get on with the season.

Let me first say that in comparison to Brett Favre’s tumultuous relationship with the Packers organization, I’ve seen worse.

If this sort of thing were to happen in a domestic setting, the cops would show up at some point–probably right after someone got hit over the head with a vase.

There are plenty of adjectives a person can use to describe the mess that Green Bay, Favre, and general manager Ted Thompson are in, but “sad” is the only effective one. And to describe Ted Thompson specifically, I think “scared” is the only real choice.

I’m not sure what it was that robbed Thompson of his common sense or his ability to man up and make a decision about what he’s going to do with Favre, but the way it looks now, Thompson is content with locking one of the greatest players in the history of the game away in some secluded dungeon under Lambeau Field so nobody can get their hands on him.

The Packers are obsessed with “moving forward.” That’s why they’ve already announced that Aaron Rodgers is the starting quarterback in Green Bay. Brett Favre doesn’t have any chance playing (or at least starting) in front of his semi-adoring fans ever again.

And even though some people want to pin all of the blame on Favre for this situation, it’s ultimately Green Bay’s cowardice to let him go that will be remembered after all of this is over.

What Thompson doesn’t realize is that the Packers can’t “move forward” while clutching like a spoiled child to their favorite toy of yesteryear.

If the Packers are so confident that they don’t need Favre, then why make it so difficult to leave?

From a business standpoint I understand how leery Green Bay’s front office is to let Favre suit up for a rival team in their division (like the Vikings), but last I checked there are 12 other teams outside their division and 16 more in the other conference.

Are you really telling me that none of those 28 teams are options? Not a single one?

This whole “If we can’t have you nobody can” approach that Green Bay is subscribing to is far beyond bad business. It’s childish, and if Thompson wants to keep this up he might as well just give Favre a new jersey with “Rapunzel” written on the back of it and lock him in a tower.

Maybe the handsome and charming Prince Gruden will rescue him.

–Joey Alfino, RED Editorial Staff

Don’t let its stately exterior fool you. BoMA is definitely one of Columbus, Ohio’s, most happenin’ spots. And once you step through its massive arched oak doors, you’ll see why.

For more than 100 years, the expansive building located about a mile east of the Statehouse served congregants of Columbus’ First Baptist Church. But today, BoMA ― aka the Bar of Modern Art ― is an innovative bar/fine-dining restaurant/nightclub/fine arts gallery.

BoMA was the brainchild of a Columbus native son who once worked as a bouncer for New York’s famed Studio 54 disco. A fan of his hometown, he figured Columbus was just as good a spot as any for a similarly cutting-edge nightclub. And so two years ago, BoMA was born.

BoMA’s 23,000 square feet sprawl across three floors and contain eight bars, two dance floors, a restaurant and numerous secluded spots for private dining and events. Artwork in a variety of media is everywhere, but BoMA’s bars are probably its highlight.

Designed by area artists, local fans quickly gave them nicknames. The Glass Bar, for example, features glittering, multi-colored glass objects reminiscent of the work of famed artist Dale Chihuly (its creator was a Chihuly student). The Metal Bar features pyramid-shaped designs welded onto a steel façade. The Ice Bar in BoMA’s avant-garde lower level, or “underground,” looks like it belongs in Sweden’s Ice Hotel.

Tables for dining are scattered around the former church sanctuary and along the balcony overlooking it. Dinner is the only meal served; look for delicacies such as Kurobuta pork, Loch Duart salmon and foie gras served with roasted cashew butter, Grand Marnier marmalade and black pepper-infused honey on the menu.

And then there’s the art, all several hundred pieces of it. Paintings are hung throughout the facility’s 1,000 linear feet of wall space (don’t miss the mural in the downstairs lounge, painted by a New York subway graffiti artist), while sculptures are tucked in various niches.

Kite-like paper artwork is suspended above the hallway leading to the restrooms. Prices range from about $200 to more than $6,000, with a percentage of sales going to rotating charities. Every three months, a new batch of artwork goes on display.

BoMA’s nightlife gets rocking around 10 p.m., when the 20-to 30-somethings crowd in, dressed to the nines, to see and be seen. If you can’t stay up that late, don’t worry–BoMA never fails to entertain.

–Melanie Radzicki McManus, RED Travel Writer.

There’s a picture on MSNBC.com of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama standing in front of 10 Downing Street in London, and even though he looks like a slightly silly American tourist, Obama’s campaign said his trip was a huge success.

McCain’s campaign disagrees, which is to be expected since Obama’s trip seemed to dwarf everything McCain was doing here at home. But let’s not forget that McCain took this very same kind of trip months ago while Sens. Obama and Clinton were still scratching each other’s eyes out in the Democratic primaries.

One of Obama’s obvious missteps during his European tour was the cancellation of a visit to see wounded troops at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany, and McCain has no intention of letting Obama forget it.

And that’s just fine. Obama really should have made that trip, but according to his spokesmen Obama cancelled the trip amid the Pentagon’s concerns that it would be “politically motivated.”

Does this give anyone else a headache?

My political knowledge pales in comparison to some, but when a person is running for the White House, there are only two things that person can do in the entire world that aren’t politically motivated: eating and going to the bathroom.

Everything else, including the reason why McCain and Obama get out of bed every morning, is “politically motivated.” They’re politicians, for Pete’s sake.

When McCain was overseas in March, he was very careful to define his experience as a “Congressional fact-finding mission,” but I have my doubts.

In politics (and comedy) timing is everything, and I find it very hard to believe that McCain was really taking time out of his presidential campaign to go overseas and expect everyone to buy that his time there wasn’t “politically motivated” by his candidacy.

The same is true of Obama. Even a fool can see that.

And there’s nothing wrong with it, either. A good chunk of political success is image, and it’s pretty hard to set up photo ops that stick in people’s minds without any hint of political motivation being involved.

In fact, I would prefer all of my politicians to be motivated. We’ve got too many lazy ones as it is.

So even though McCain and Obama will continue jabbing at each other for the next 100 days or so over where they choose to go and why they choose to go there, I think the real loser in this situation is the Pentagon.

To tell any politician that they can’t visit our wounded soldiers because it’s cheap and politically motivated is like selling balloons to clowns with the caveat that they can’t twist them into animals.

If you think about it, there’s really only one reason why they want to discourage politicians from visiting our wounded troops.

Those silly politicians usually have cameras, and there are plenty of things the Pentagon would rather not share with us.

–Joey Alfino, RED Editorial Staff.

The Speedo LZR Racer is not your grandfather’s bathing suit.

Come August, Olympic swimmers will be shimmying into what Speedo has dubbed, “the world’s fastest suit.”

Guinea pigs of the product have compared swimming in the LZR Racer to swimming downhill or being shot out of a rocket.

A rocket may not be so far off. NASA actually tested the new materials that have resulted in the nearly flawless hydrodynamics.

This Space Age suit is said to cut the athlete’s time by 2 percent, which is huge in a sport determined by milliseconds.

Compared to Speedo’s other elite suits, the LZR Racer reduces drag by 10 percent and increases oxygen efficiency by 5 percent, meaning it will take 5 percent less effort to go the same speed.

Another innovative feature is the suit’s seamless construction. The Speedo LZR Racer is “ultrasonically welded.” Or for the layman, the plastic is bonded together using sound waves.

The suit fits tighter than any of its predecessors. The corset-like structure hugging the lower back and abdomen improves the athlete’s body position in the water.

It seems intuitive that you would want to have as much skin showing as possible though. Why would you want an extra layer above your skin?

The answer is simple: unlike the LZR Racer, skin moves in the water, thus creating drag.

But unless you are the head coach of the Dubai Country Club swim team, you won’t be seeing this swim suit at your neighborhood pool. The creation costs 500 dollars, and for a competitive swimmer, that adds up. The delicate material can deteriorate in fewer than 10 races.

Opponents of the LZR Racer argue that wearing the suit is “Technological Doping.”
However, FINA, swimming’s governing body, defends that there is no scientific evidence that the suit gives the swimmer an unfair edge.

Wait… what about all of the statistics Speedo has on their website about the drag reduction and that oxygen efficiency mumbo jumbo?

Could the time drops just be a result of the Placebo Effect? The athletes think they will go faster, so they actually do?

Since its release, 48 world records have been set in the LZR Racer. I highly doubt positive thinking is responsible for all of them.

Because nearly every swimmer competing in Beijing will be wearing a Speedo LZR Racer, no swimmer should have an unfair advantage.

But when it comes to comparisons to the past, the difference in attire should be taken further into account. We shouldn’t only judge a swimmer by his time anymore.

Mark Spitz was the king of the swimming world before Speedo’s superhero-like suits. In the 1972 Munich Olympics, Spitz swam his way to 7 top finishes in nothing but a nylon brief. He didn’t even wear goggles or a cap; just a Magnum P.I. mustache.

I hear by 2012, Speedo will release a swimsuit that swims the race for you as you watch from the deck.

–Gordy Jenkins, RED Editorial Staff.

In Las Vegas, it’s 110 degrees all the time. I don’t care what the thermometer says; it’s 110. Period. And even though there’s nothing wrong with the air conditioning in the Thomas and Mack center, it looked like the entire Canadian team was suffering from heat stroke after they got routed 120-65 by Team USA.

Our Redeem Team put on a clinic. In the press conference after the game, Canadian coach Leo Rautins said the Americans were “obviously the most talented team, without a question, in the world.” So, great. We’ve convinced the Canadians. But what about our domestic army of critics? After what I’ve seen tonight, I think we can all relax.

First, let’s get the disclaimers out of the way. Yes, this was an exhibition game. And yes, the Thomas and Mack Center felt more like a Harlem Globetrotters show than an actual basketball game at times, so there wasn’t as much pressure on Team USA as there will be in the trenches overseas.

But there were still plenty of questions headed into this game, and finally, we’ve got some answers.

Before tipoff tonight, I was just as puzzled (worried, really) as the next armchair coach with our lack of size on the roster. Now, the answer is obvious.

The reason why we’re short on true bigs this year is because Team USA doesn’t plan on shooting the ball unless it’s at least 20 feet away from the rim.

Hyperbole? Sure. But not by much.

The Redeem Team’s perimeter game is scary, scary, scary good. Especially Michael Redd. Team USA shot 50 percent from downtown, hitting 11 threes. Of those 11, six of them were nailed by Redd. Two of those six were from 21 feet and 23 feet–and they were 27 seconds apart.

Then, 28 seconds later, Chris Paul dropped another one.

It was raining threes in Vegas tonight, which is good because Vegas needs all the rain it can get.

Another big concern in the days (months, really) leading up to this game surrounded Dwayne Wade’s health, and while his aggressive play made it easy to understand how he can injure himself in the first place, the only thing holding him down tonight was gravity–sort of.

Wade said he feels better physically than he did in 2006 during his championship season, and he spent so much time above the rim in the second half that I was pretty sure he was going to sign a lease and move in.

“That’s D-Wade,” said Chris Paul after the game. “We see it every day in practice and you saw it tonight, that he’s back. When he’s aggressive like that, we’re a dangerous team.”

Wade was definitely the most aggressive player on the court tonight, shooting 70 percent from the field and leading the team with three steals.

But overall, the game ball goes to Carmelo Anthony, who is by far the best player we’ve got under FIBA rules. He had the offensive glass under control for most of the game, and turned in 20 points. Then again, so did Wade and Michael Redd.

This team is built for speed, and there were a few times that they actually went a little too fast for their own good.

Team USA had 16 turnovers and some botched alley oops in a transition game that looked eerily like NCAA ball, not surprising with Coach K at the helm, but that kind of showboating is only consistently effective when a team has time to gel.

And that, I think, is the promising part. This team is comfortable with each other, but they’ve got from now until the start of medal play to get even more familiar with the details, which is one of Coach K’s biggest bragging points.

“We’re on the same page,” he said. “It’s just how well you’re on that same page. That only comes with playing together. That’s why Macao and Shanghai are so important. I think by the time we get to the medal round, we should be very good.”

Which brings up the biggest point of even having a national basketball team in the first place, and also another big question. When we get to the medal round, what about the other guy? What about Spain? What about China? What about Argentina?

I asked Coach K that very same thing; particularly what the plan might be to handle young upstarts like 17-year old Ricky Rubio and a Spanish roster that includes Kobe’s teammate, Pau Gasol.

“We haven’t done things where we’re looking at specific individuals,” he told me. “Rather in our practice sessions we’ve tried to work on situations. Our goal today was not to try and take any one player out, just play team defense and see where we’re at. That’ll probably change in our four exhibition games.”

So there you go; the next unanswered question.

All in all, the Redeem Team is looking to right the ship and end our gold medal drought through the use of baby steps. It’s a gradual, incremental process that, if you think about it, has been in the works for the last three years.

And now that the first set of domestic questions have been answered we can focus on the questions waiting for us across the ocean, and so far, things are looking up.

Oh, and by the way, LeBron is just fine.

–Joey Alfino, RED Editorial Staff.

A number of can’t miss phenoms have done something strange this decade: they haven’t missed.

From LeBron James to Sidney Crosby, prodigies everywhere have been managing the pressure and meeting expectations like there weren’t any.

An NBA finals appearance here, a Hart trophy there, the 2000s’ “next generation” has escaped the disappointment and talk of “what might have been” that usually comes hand in hand with teenage anointment.

It used to be that no one could ever live up to the hype, now they are transcending it.

Well, almost all of them are.

Of all the 2000s’ young guns, the strangest may have been a 13-year-old Hawaiian golf princess.

It was certainly different than a basketball prodigy from Ohio or hockey phenomenon from Canada, but Michelle Wie burst on to the scene with all the pomp, fanfare and Nike contracts of any normal teen sensation.

There were records (youngest winner of a USGA event, youngest to ever make the cut in a LPGA event), detractors (Vijay Singh, Annika Sorenstam), endorsements (Nike, Sony) and, of course, sponsors exemptions.

What there was not, however, were wins.

Wie has teased a great deal; placing second at the 2005 LPGA Championship, and earning three top 5 finishes in ma