Westhampton - Let's take a moment, sports fans, during this holiday season, and reflect on sports stories we can be thankful for in 2011. After-all, sports is supposed to be fun and an outlet for the daily stresses of life. With the gloom of the Penn State child sex abuse scandal, the NBA lock-out and the college football conferences realignment mess hovering over the sports landscape, let's try to turn our attention on some of the more positive stories out there to be thankful for. Here are a few of my picks:

 • Baseball players and owners signed a new five-year collective bargaining agreement weeks before the old agreement expired. Shocking! No work stoppages, lock-outs and mediators needed! That seems unheard of in today's sports business climate but it looks like Major League Baseball was able to pull it off!

 • Tim Tebow's amazing 'will to win' and mental toughness suppresses his critics for at least another week.

 • Tiger Woods gets the winning point for the American team at the President's Cup. Can this be the boost of confidence that Tiger needs for future play, to put four consistent low rounds together?

 • Roger Federer, one of the classiest athletes in sports and the best tennis player ever, is not finished yet! He continued to show his brilliance, beating nemesis Rafael Nadal 6-3, 6-0, to move to the semis in the round robin format of the ATP World Tour finals.

 • A healthy Sydney Crosby, with no concussion-like symptoms, back on the ice!

What in sports are you thankful for? Happy Holidays!