From the other side of the world, it looks as if the Dodgers and Angels are sort of melting away. The Angels let free agents Chone Figgins (Seattle) and John Lackey (Boston) join key rivals. The Dodgers have allowed Randy Wolf and Orlando Hudson to walk. But the Dodgers did something right today. Addition by […]

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So, let’s see … Usain Bolt has run the 100 and 200 in the Beijing Olympics last year, and the 100 and 200 in the world championship this month in Berlin … And he has set world records in all four finals. I wrote a few days ago that I remain an Usain Bolt unbeliever. […]

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Let me take you back to 1987. I was in Rome at the track and field World Championships, covering the event for Gannett News Service. A great assignment. No question. Great event, and a great venue. Rome and Italy? Can’t beat it. Anyway, Ben Johnson and Carl Lewis were the great rivals, back then, in […]

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It looks like it might be a good job. A print journalism job. Titled. Overseas. Maybe a real salary. The sort of job any of the thousands of print journos thrown out of the business in the past couple of years might find attractive. The ad is for a pair of openings at the China […]

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We knew this even before the Olympics were over. Beijing built far too many big and exotic venues. Stadiums and arenas anyone with the slightest knowledge of Chinese sports interest … knew would be useless as soon as the Summer Games circus struck the tents and left town. Now, we have the Los Angeles Times […]

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If I’m picking up on this correctly, from the other side of the ocean, 2008 can’t be over fast enough for a lot (most all?) of people. “People” meaning Americans. Or at least English-speakers. Like, everyone is all fixated on this “economy” thing … Letting it get them down. Hey, 2008 wasn’t that bad. Take […]

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Back at the Beijing Olympics I rued my inability to speak Mandarin. You show up at a big event, you’re there for three weeks, you feel as if you ought to be able to throw a few local words at the hometown folks. “Bonsoir, Fifi!” “Guten Abend, Heike!” But I got to Beijing and Mandarin […]

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I am back on the other side of the Pacific. In Hong Kong, former British crown colony and current Special Administrative Region of China. Didn’t see that one coming, barely a month ago. After doing the Beijing Olympics on a freelance basis, my first and (presumably) last journey to China, and returning to Long Beach […]

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Just finished a one-hour media conference call with the four “disgraced” U.S. Olympic cyclists who were excoriated by the U.S. Olympic Committee for wearing protective masks when arriving at the Beijing airport last month, and then threatened with expulsion from the Summer Games if they didn’t apologize, muy pronto. An apology that was not written […]

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It’s a little weasel-wordy, but it’s clear: The U.S. Olympic Committee is asking the forgiveness of the four cyclists it bullied into a false and unnecessary confession of sins to the Chinese people, etc., a few days before the start of the Beijing Olympics. I suppose this will do. It’s rare to see a big […]

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