OmahaSportsSource.com

Brad Lidge, troubled closer of the Philadelphia Phillies, came through when his own teammate and the opposing closer couldn’t.

Lidge watched from the bullpen as the Colorado Rockies scores three runs in the bottom of the 8th inning to take a 4-2 lead. The crowd was happy, loud and not quite as a cold, as the Rockies trailed 2-1 in the best-of-five series.

But then the Phillies answered with three runs of their own in the top of the 9th inning, with Ryan Howard driving in the game-tying runs and scoring the go-ahead run.

After a struggle early in the bottom of the 9th inning, the Phillies brought in Lidge. He is 0-8 this season, with 11 blown saves.

On Sunday, he walked two batters but retired the other three he faced, and earned the save.

On Monday night, two walks would have tied up the game. But Lidge returned to his 2008 form, faced one batter and struck him out on five pitches.

The storyline itself is a home run, but the results are much different.

– Zachary Baehr

Who knew that being 2-3 would place the Dolphins just one game out of first-place in the NFL’s AFC East Division?

The Wildcat formation didn’t thrill my wife, as the Dolphins ran the ball up the middle nearly 80% of the time during one third-quarter stretch. But the Jets still couldn’t stop it.

And quarterback Chad Henne looks like he has a stronger arm than injured quarterback Chad Pennington, and if can play near that level, the Dolphins may make up that 1-game separation over the next 3 weeks.

On the schedule: a week off, then the Saints, Jets again and the Patriots.

– Zachary Baehr

Golf as an Olympic sport is one step closer to teeing off. In the spirit of counting your total score on hole 17, here’s a few formats I would find intriguing:

* Qualifying rounds. Similar to track, swimming and other events that don’t care how well you did the previous round, I’d say start off with 80 golfers, and the lowest 20 get cut each round. But in round two, everyone starts at even par. So in order to win, you have to be pretty solid all four days. On the fifth and final day, it’s straight stroke play between the final foursome.

* Team play. Similar to the Ryder Cup, only two-day formats. So on Days 1 and 2, it’s team #1 vs. team #8, and so on. From there, it’s a bracket format, which requires great golf over an 8-day period. (It’s supposed to be tiring and grueling; it’s the Olympics, not the John Deere).

* Four-man scramble. Tiger, Phil, Zach Johnson and Kenny Perry each tee off, then play the best ball from there, and the same after the second shot. A par would be a bad score, and we’d get to see some great shots.

The point is not to have another four-round, stroke-play event. It’s the Olympics, and my vote is to make it a team sport.

– Zachary Baehr

What’s to gain from taking away wins from a school? It has been reported that the NCAA may take away wins from the Memphis basketball program as punishment for violations.

To say these types of punishments are the most absurd part of the NCAA is to forget all the other absurd parts of the NCAA.

So, what exactly is lost when these wins are stricken? And who is punished by this?

In order to get tough, the NCAA needs to start punishing the coaches and ADs in charge of places that can’t follow the rules. They are the ones ultimately in charge, and thus, they should suffer the losses, not the record books.

– Zachary Baehr

You think anyone will put a final group that includes Tiger Woods on the clock anytime soon?

Last Sunday, with Woods trailing Padraig Harrington by 1 stroke at the Bridgestone Invitational, a PGA Tour official put the two on the clock.

That means his group was being told to pick up the pace or else; they reportedly were 17 minutes behind the second-to-last group. They weren’t slowing anyone down, they only had 3 holes left, and it was a close match.

There are rules, such as stay with the group ahead of you, and then there is the spirit of those rules, such as don’t slow down the group behind you and disrupt their rhythm. Woods was reportedly fined for his complaint to the media.

My take … Woods has done players a favor by openly complaining about the move of the tour official. Rest assured it won’t happen, at least for a while … as in, go ahead, Tiger, take your time. Oh, you playing with Tiger? Same for you.

And it only cost a bit of money.

My conspiracy theory is that Woods asked Harrington if he felt the warning was justified or necessary, when Harrington said no, Woods said he’d take the heat (and the fine) because he carries more weight (and, oh yeah, he won). If Harrington complains, and Woods knows this, Harrington will be viewed negatively.

Rather than risk that, Woods gets the point across with the most powerful sportsman in the world doing the talking.

– Zachary Baehr