Stirring The Pot
I love it when the Onion says things that are both funny and true. Example: their take on a new (fictitious) ESPN show. “We’re looking for three, maybe four absolutely reprehensible, know-it-all fucks to sit around a table and share their idiotic opinions about the day’s biggest sports stories,” said ESPN’s vice president of original programming Jamie Horowitz, adding that…
Sports Pages
Catching up on some sports stories. I had a chance to cover a big high school sports milestone last week, but weather kept me from doing it. The coach of one of the softball teams we cover was on the verge of his 600th career win, the most in state history. Twice I had assignments to cover the big win,…
Smoke And Fire
I’ve wanted to believe Lance Armstrong for a long time. I know I’m not the only one. Each time there was a new allegation claiming Lance had, in fact, benefited from various banned substances and procedures during his Tour de France reign, I held the company line: He had been tested over and over and over again through his career…
The Coolest
There was a thread on Twitter Sunday soliciting suggestions as to who the coolest Kansas City athletes of all time were. While I was never a true Chiefs fan, I did spend 23 years in the city and have some thoughts on the subject. First, let’s go ahead and admit this covers the 30-35 years that I’ve been aware of…
Fake Baseball
The latest installment in ESPN’s 30 for 30 documentaries is a funny look at the origins of fantasy sports: Rotisserie Baseball. I enjoyed it for many of the same reasons the AV Club reviewer enjoyed it: while the idea of fantasy sports appealed to me, I must admit I was more in love with the books that explained the game.…
Sports Briefs
Let’s take a look at the burning sports topics of the day (or week), shall we? Kansas Loses to Tennessee. This kind of sucked. It was, arguably, KU’s most losable non-conference game at the start of the season. Tennessee was supposed to be good, played us tight for 39 minutes in Lawrence last year, and rarely get a chance to…
Must See TV
I’ve been remiss in not recommending ESPN’s 30 for 30 series. I’m a few weeks behind, but with the exception of the Baltimore Colts band episode (which I accidentally deleted after watching only 20 minutes), I’ve enjoyed every episode so far. Last night I watched Muhammad and Larry, an amazing piece about the 1980 Muhammad Ali – Larry Holmes heavyweight…
Fun With Racism
The feature in this week’s Sports Illustrated is about Kenny Washington, the man who broke the NFL’s color barrier in 1946. There’s a great sidebar covering the Washington Redskins’ refusal to sign black players until 1962, due entirely to their virulently racist owner George Preston Marshall. There is a fantastic picture in the article, which unfortunately is not in the…
Not What You Think
So I bet you’re thinking, “Man, he’s got a new baby laying on his chest every night. He’s probably been watching a boatload of football and baseball.” Wrong. Unlike four years ago, when then three-month-old M. slept on me for hours at a time while I watched the Red Sox- Yankees and Cardinals – Astros do battle in their epic…
Thought For The Day
Perhaps Brett Favre and Manny Ramirez should run off together. And then they could take a significant portion of the sports media with them. Every football off-season, it’s Favre’s retirement drama. And every July, it’s the Manny Wants Out Of Boston drama. Every summer Favre comes back to play another year. Every August, Manny wakes up wearing a Red Sox…