No, they haven’t faced off head to head on the links, but President Obama, in just nine months on the job, has tied George W. Bush in the number of rounds played while in office: 24. The thing is, it took Bush 34 months to reach that number. The golf statistics come courtesy of CBS’s Mark Knoller, whose job apparently is to keep up with such things.

In addition to tying Bush with his round yesterday, Obama made history with his choice of playing partners: Chief domestic policy adviser Melody Barnes became the first female to ever play in a presidential foursome.

LeBron James is arguably the best basketball player on the planet. But what about his upbringing? Who influenced him growing up? A new book and documentary shed some light on these aspects of his life, as James remembers the man he calls his teacher, father figure, and friend:

“What Coach Dru did for us was set up life for us after the game of basketball. He taught us to use the game of basketball and not let the game of basketball use us.”

WORLD’s Megan Basham was able to sit down and talk to Coach Dru Joyce II, who, by using the principles of Christ, helped keep the superstar and this teammates grounded as they grew up fast in Akron, Ohio. Megan asked Coach Joyce how he continues to inoculate kids against complacency and arrogance so that they don’t get “used up by the system.” Joyce responded:

You can always be replaced and life will, in its own way, move you out if you don’t understand that you need to be thankful that you are blessed with certain God-given talents. You need to use them to His glory and you need to defer to your teammates because we never reach any success all by ourselves.

I talk to my team about seven principles: humility, servanthood, thankfulness, integrity, discipline, passion, and unity—those principles that, if you live by these things, you’re going to be a person of good character. The principles Christ taught are real, and if you apply them, your life will not necessarily be easy, but you will stand out in our world as extraordinary, and you’ll be able to weather whatever storm comes. I was reading a Scripture in a men’s Bible study I’m a part of this morning about how our foundation is built on a rock. I try to impart that truth to every kid who plays for me. Now they may not all receive it—and that’s not my job to make sure they receive it—my job is to offer the coaching.

You can read the interview in its entirety here. Also, be sure to read Alisa Harris’ review of the film More Than a Game from the current issue of WORLD Magazine.

We’ve been looking for a bipartisan issue for our country to rally around, and maybe Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, has finally found it. Shortly after he was elected president last year, Barack Obama let it be known that he wasn’t too thrilled with the way college football crowns its national champion:

“If you’ve got a bunch of teams who play throughout the season, and many of them have one loss or two losses, there’s no clear decisive winner. We should be creating a playoff system. …

“I don’t know any serious fan of college football who has disagreed with me on this. So, I’m going to throw my weight around a little bit. I think it’s the right thing to do.”

In a letter, Sen. Hatch reminded the president of his promise and called for a Justice Department investigation into possible antitrust violations. The senator from Utah does have a rooting interest in such action: The University of Utah football team finished last season undefeated but didn’t rank high enough in the BCS standings to contend for the national championship.

Hatch wrote that the system “artificially limits the number of nationally relevant bowl games to five. The result is reduced access to revenues and visibility which creates disadvantages to schools in the non-privileged conferences.” Utah plays in the Mountain West Conference, which does not receive an automatic BCS bid.

Though my beloved St. Louis Cardinals were swept out of the postseason in the first round, I am not a man of sour grapes. A true baseball fan presses on no matter how the hometown team fares.

And, though my predictions for the first round of play resulted in a score of 0% – as in, I got all four wrong – I will press on with predictions for the two Championship series and the World Series.

The League Championship Series games begin tonight.

Last week I said that Colorado would beat Philly in 5. Instead, the Phillies beat them in 4. Now the Phillies will play the Dodgers who were supposed to lose to the Cardinals in 4 but instead won in 3.

Last week I said that the Twins would beat the Yankees in 3. The “3″ was right, but it was the Yankees who swept the Twins. The Yankees now play the Angelswho I said would lose to the Red Sox in 5, but instead beat Boston in three.

I am most thankful to the editors at WorldMag blog for providing me with such a public forum for prognostication humility.

My picks for the next two rounds are as follows:

The Phillies will defeat the Dodgers in 7 games.

The Angels will defeat the Yankees in 6.

The Phillies will repeat as World Series champions as they defeat the Angels in the 7th game.

There are my picks – what are yours?

Wow. What a finish to the regular season last night as the Minnesota Twins played the Detroit Tigers in a one-game, winner-takes-all, tie-breaker for the American League central division.

The Twins won the game in the 12th inning, as Detroit completed a historic season-ending fade away. Detroit led the division by three with four games to play, but instead they now go home for the winter.

At the end of August I made some predictions about who would make it to the postseason, getting 6 of 8 right as far as the teams go.  Of course, given the dominance of teams within their division at that time, successful predicting was not difficult to achieve.

The division series playoff games begin today at 2:30 pm ET. My own St. Louis Cardinals play at 9:30 pm on TBS — obviously nobody at MLB asked me whether such a schedule is helpful in passing along a love of baseball to my young sons, but I digress.

So, before the first round of games gets underway, let’s hear your picks.

Here are mine:

Colorado vs. Philadelphia:  Colorado in 5, (here’s hoping b/c Philly lefties will be the ruin of my Cards)

St. Louis vs. Los Angeles: St. Louis in 4, (Midwest vs. Tinseltown, Manny vs. Pujols)

Twins vs. Yankees: Twins in 3, (Twins now have momentum)

Red Sox vs. Angels: Red Sox in 5, (do the Angels ever get to play and get beat in the postseason by a team other than Boston?)

Rush Limbaugh is teaming up with the owner of the NHL’s St. Louis Blues, Dave Checketts, in an attempt to buy the NFL’s St. Louis Rams, a franchise, according to Forbes magazine, worth $929 million. If this goes through, Limbaugh, a Missouri native, would have a major dilemma on his hands: Would he forsake his beloved Pittsburgh Steelers to root for the lowly Rams?

Yesterday, Michael Vick’s agent announced that the reinstated pro football star had inked a new deal with Nike. Today, however, Nike is putting some distance between itself and the Philadelphia Eagles player, saying it does not have a “contractual relationship” with him but simply has “agreed to supply product to Michael Vick as we do a number of athletes who are not under contract with Nike.” The athletic shoe, equipment, and apparel company had initially signed Vick as a rookie in 2001 but terminated his contract in 2007 after his admission to involvement in dogfighting.

Over the weekend, an unknown, 17-year-old Georgia tennis player captured the nation’s attention as she beat some of the top names in women’s tennis, including Nadia Petrova, Elena Dementieva, and Maria Sharapova. Melanie Oudin, who was ranked 70th going into the competition, has given the United States hope in a sport long dominated by the Russians.

The teenager from Georgia with “Believe” written on her pink-and-yellow shoes is making believers out of a lot of people in her coming out party at the U.S. Open.

Melanie Oudin isn’t just the biggest thing to hit U.S. tennis since the Williams sisters began winning big a decade ago. She could be the fresh face that helps reinvigorate the sport in this country.

It is hard to believe, but there is little more than one full month left to the MLB season. In the final push toward the postseason, most of the division leaders are pulling out ahead of the second-place teams, with the exception of the tight race in the NL West.

Anyone care to make some early predictions for postseason play? Here are mine:

AL East: New York Yankees

AL Central: Detroit Tigers

AL West: Los Angeles Angels

AL Wild-card: Texas Rangers

AL Pennant: Los Angeles Angels

NL East: Philadelphia Phillies

NL Central: St. Louis Cardinals (maybe next year Cubbies)

NL West: Colorado Rockies

NL Wild-card: Los Angeles Dodgers

NL Pennant: St. Louis Cardinals

World Series: Cardinals over Angels in 7

What are your predictions?

It’s that time of year again—the beginning of the high school football season. And tonight’s there’s a national event designed to bring together players, coaches, and parents for a common experience. Theaters across the country will be offering a special showing this evening of “Tony Dungy’s Red Zone 09.” Here’s how the event’s website describes it:

This unique theater event will present inside tips on football from professional coaches and players, plus cover conditioning, increasing performance and mental toughness while providing inspiration, playing with passion and personal character development. It will challenge young players to avoid drugs, play clean and learn the benefits of hard work.  It will set a new standard nationwide for high school athletes.

Sounds like a great way to kick off the season.