Press-Telegram: The truth hurts for injured athletes

Tiger Woods didn’t miss the British Open, he lost the British Open. Venus and Serena Williams and Lindsay Davenport aren’t missing the East West Bank Classic, they’re losing this week’s tennis tournament in Carson. If the Dodgers don’t win the division, it won’t be because Rafael Furcal had the bad luck to get a bad back, it’ll be because he blew the season for them.

Pardon me while I try out a new attitude about sports injuries.

If you’re like me, you’re tired of big events being spoiled by the absence of an injured superstar or two, and you’re fed up with ballclubs using injuries as excuses.

Injuries have always been regarded as pure misfortune, accidents, acts of God. We talk as if it’s just a rotten shame the best golfer in the world wasn’t at Royal Birkdale and the Wimbledon finalists aren’t at Home Depot Center. We argue about whether Paddy Harrington deserves an asterisk for winning a major tournament that didn’t include Tiger.

Well, not anymore, not me: From now on, I’m looking at injuries not as bad luck but as what they are, which is a particularly painful form of athletic failure.