We've Had Enough Of The Wave
I always like it when Olympic champions from one sport go to another competition, so I was particularly touched to see Kobe Bryant, with his children in tow, watching as the magnificent Michael Phelps...
View ArticleFeeling Just Wild About Wild Cards
Bud Selig, the commissioner of baseball, has persuaded his owners and the players to add an extra wild-card team to the playoffs, so now five teams per league will qualify. Not only is this terrific...
View ArticleSerena Williams Takes Tennis For A Ride
For the first time in a long time there is actually more than a modicum of interest in the women's side of a Grand Slam tournament. And, of course, it's all strictly due to a party of one: Serena...
View ArticleJust Say No: Doping Diminishes All Athletes
Certain forms of art are performed in private. The painter is alone when he paints, the writer likewise. But the most pertinent aspect of the performing arts is that they are watched. Dance, music,...
View ArticleSouthern Pride And The Southeastern Conference
Well, the Southeastern Conference season has begun. I have it on good authority that other college football teams around the country will also be playing games this fall. I don't know when exactly the...
View ArticleNFL's West Coast Teams Have An Edge: The Sandman
Hi! Are you a gambler? Do you like to bet football? Then this is your lucky day, for if you'll just stay tuned, I'm gonna offer you a free money-back guarantee: how you, too, can pick an NFL winner....
View ArticleThe Big East Conference: What's In A Name?
All you have to know about the nonsense of college athletic conferences in America today is that the Big Ten has 12 members, and the Big Twelve has 10. Honestly. But as badly as athletic conferences...
View ArticleRG3: A Game Changer For 'Thirds' Everywhere
We're all familiar with the many sports terms that have moved into general usage: "par for the course," "slam-dunk," "curveball," "photo finish" and so on. Curiously, though, every now and then...
View ArticleThe NFL's Lesson: There's No Replacing Good Refs
So, we found out that the National Football League is too big to fail. But not so big that it couldn't make a complete fool of itself and show to the world that its owners are stingy, greedy...
View ArticleWhy You Should Root, Root, Root For The Home Team
My first protocol on rooting in sports is that you should stick with the teams that you grew up with. I know we're a transient society, but that's just it: Continuing to cheer for your original...
View ArticleKickers Are Taking The Kick Out Of Football
Of all the strained sports cliches, my favorite was "educated toe." Remember? An accomplished field goal kicker possessed an educated toe. I had a newspaper friend who wrote that a punter had an...
View ArticleBrooklyn Finally Nets A Team Of Its Own
It's largely forgotten now — but there was a time when the mere mention of Brooklyn would produce a cascade of laughs. It was like saying "woman driver" — surefire guffaws. Everybody from Brooklyn was...
View ArticleThe American Pastime Fades In Popularity
Jacques Barzun, the esteemed cultural historian, lived 104 years and wrote a multitude of words about the most important issues in society, but when he died last week, his one quote that was invariably...
View ArticleDear Sports Czars: Take Your Ball And Go Home
Czars. It was fun to call American sports commissioners czars, but once players started to have unions, a commissioner really became more like a majority leader in a legislature, trying to keep his...
View ArticleCollege Football: Pro and Con(servative) Views
What do anti-abortion beliefs, and patronizing Chick-fil-A, and a devotion to college sports have in common? Hmm. Well, according to Trey Grayson, the former Kentucky secretary of state and U.S. Senate...
View ArticleNavel-Gazing: Why Golf Should Embrace Belly Putters
When did "issues" become such an all-purpose, often euphemistic word for anything disagreeable? We have issues now where we used to have problems, and concerns, and troubles, and hornet's nests. Like...
View ArticleNHL Lockout Leaves Fans Out In The Cold
The entertainment industry seems to give us only three things: sex, Justin Bieber and boxing.Justin Bieber aside, don't producers know almost nobody cares anymore about boxing? But here we have...
View ArticleTime For Gun Owners To Be Good Sports About Gun Restrictions
I've never had any interest in hunting. Among other things, I'm a terrible shot, but I have friends who hunt, and it appears to me to be a perfectly reasonable sports hobby — certainly every bit as...
View ArticleNew Jersey Tries To Move In On Nevada's Gambling Turf
For those dearly devoted of you who paid attention to me in September, I noted that the best bet in the NFL had proven to be whenever a West Coast team played an East Coast team at night, because the...
View ArticleSteroid Accusations Likely To Bench Baseball Hall Of Fame Candidates
The results of this year's baseball Hall of Fame voting will be revealed on Wednesday.Given the exit polling, it appears both Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens, as well as other candidates stained by...
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