When Childhood Obsessions Turn Into Letdowns
We are planning for a project that would involve finishing a portion of our currently unfinished side of the basement. To prepare, I’ve been going through some of the crap stored down there to free up space. Part of that is digging through the massive box of sports cards I’ve been lugging around for decades. I knew these were largely…
D’s Notes
Another dive into the notebook for a selection of random notes. College NIL Shockwaves went through college sports last week when UNLV quarterback Matt Sluka, who tore up KU in week three, announced he was sitting out the remainder of the season so he could transfer and retain a year of eligibility. He claimed that UNLV had not lived up…
Final Olympic Notes
Strap in for a good, old fashioned, mega post about the Olympics! In a week filled with amazing events and results, it would be impossible for me to not start with Saturday’s men’s basketball gold medal game. The first quarter was nearly perfect, a breathless, back-and-forth, up-and-down, punch-and-counter punch 10 minutes. The US seized control early in the second quarter…
Olympic Notes, Part 1
Tradition requires me to share some Olympic thoughts. I debated waiting until the games ended and publishing one, extra-stuffed post. But the games move so fast that things that struck me in week one are bound to get over-written by events of week two. Hell, the notes I’m about to share may already be fuzzy in everyone’s memories. Guarantee I’ve…
Sports Notes
Time to knock out some sports notes while I avoid going outside and facing Heat Dome ’24. Say Hey The incomparable Willie Mays died Tuesday night. I never saw him play live as the tail end of his career just barely overlapped with my life. I did hear the stories and saw the grainy highlight reels. And I remember how…
A Wild-Ass Day
Below are some collected thoughts on what is going on with COVID–19. I’m not going to promise they are coherent or all that intelligent. I’m trying to get them into text and online quickly, so I may contradict myself or miss some glaring flaws in logic. My apologies if it goes off the rails anywhere. Wednesday was the craziest damn…
On the Skiing
This time of year I enjoy rolling through the sports channels and stopping at NBCSN or one of the Fox channels to watch some winter sport for 15–20 minutes. If I find downhill skiing, I’ll watch for an hour. It’s such a badass sport and I’m thrilled I get a chance to see it more than just during the Olympics.…
Some Catch Up
I’ve finally made my way through my RSS reader, which collected over 1800 articles while we were gone. In that glut, I found a few items that can very loosely be connected, as all are about one kind of loss or another. First, Lindsey Buckingham announced he was leaving Fleetwood Mac again. I had to wonder why this was such…
The Joys of Losing
I tried writing several introductory paragraphs for this piece. But they all felt wrong, probably because this is such a wonderfully written essay. So just go read it and enjoy it like I did. Unpacking Forty Years of Fandom For a Losing Team
Links: On ESPN and UVa
Wow, a two-post day! I know, right?!?! Actually, I’m trying to get back in the habit of sharing links on a more regular basis, with or without some commentary from me. In this case, I’d like to address the stupidity that was ESPN removing broadcast Robert Lee from next week’s University of Virginia home football game. If you haven’t read…