Kenneth Reich didn’t know me, but I knew of him. He was in the L.A. Times newsroom in the fall of 1975 when I was a wide-eyed intern there, and I saw him all the time in the run-up to (and coverage of) the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. Practically nothing was a news story, before […]

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Spain 1, Germany 0 in the Euro Cup championship map, in Vienna. Interesting match on several levels. The first being that most soccer experts seemed fairly confident Germany would win. If for no other reason than … Spain never wins anything. Or hadn’t, since the 1964 Euro Cup. But form was turned upside down. The […]

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Back in March we linked to a haunting photo gallery put together by a designer at the San Jose Mercury News. The gallery dramatically recorded the emptying out of print journalism newsrooms in The Great Purge of 2008, and was seen by thousands of people — much to the chagrin of Merc management. Martin Gee, […]

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Jim Inghram may have been The Oddest Kid who worked in the sports department of The Sun in the 30 years from 1976-2006. And that’s covering some territory. He could tell you what was on all four corners of every intersection in just about any city he’d ever been in … but he couldn’t punctuate […]

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I know more about particle physics than finance, but I remember bidness people talking about how even the biggest economic downturns produce winners. For a batch of reasons, I guess. They sell before the collapse, they get into companies relatively immune to market forces. They hoard precious metals then scoop up bargains as the market […]

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This team has “ugly” covered, coming and going. Not only are the 2008 Dodgers lousy, they’re dull. The worst of both worlds. The lousy is fairly easy to document. They’re five games under .500 despite playing in the worst division in baseball. They rank among the bottom in baseball in runs, home runs, doubles, saves, […]

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How many times can this hit home? Probably not until I stop going to live sports events. I am not a sports fan. Not of any team. Not of any individual. And never again will be. At least, not in a fashion that would be recognized as fandom by actual sports fans. Why? Because I […]

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Germany and Turkey in the semifinals of the Euro Cup today. A game of no little interest among soccer fans. With more than a few television viewers around the globe. I’m going to throw out a number … oh, let’s say ONE BILLION people watching … And the feed from Basil, Switzerland goes dead. Twice. […]

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Just came across this while clearing out some e-mail. It’s from the guys at bodog.com … one of those online gambling services that would like to take your money. I don’t advocate sports gambling. I never do it myself. But odds do, in fact, make for some interesting conversations. My only question here is … […]

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Interesting bit of silly drama. Shaquille O’Neal can say what he wants about Kobe Bryant. I have no problem with that. If he wants to stand up at what amounts to “open mike” night at a club in New York, well, get busy. (And you can read the news story and watch the bleeped-over video […]

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