So, while I had my head turned, Al Jazira fired its coach for being too harsh or too lenient or perhaps too Belgian, Baniyas owned up to the fact that it owed significant chunks of money to a couple of players, and David O’Leary, the Irishman who coached in Dubai last season, is going to […]

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The women’s and men’s tennis tours come through Dubai in consecutive weeks this time of year, tournaments that each go under the name of “Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships,” though they run consecutively and not concurrently … and it’s a pretty big deal. Odd thing about the events this year? Two months ago, the women’s […]

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  I hate sandstorms. It might be the biggest drawback to living in the UAE. Even worse than the six months of brutal heat. I am in my third winter in Abu Dhabi, and I was duly impressed by my first sandstorm experience, back in 2010. Winter is sandstorm season.  Sounds counter-intuitive, but we get […]

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I was in Tommy Lasorda’s office at Dodger Stadium for the infamous “Kingman’s performance?!?” rant of May 14, 1978. It was a Sunday afternoon, and I was not the Dodgers beat writer, and I can imagine I was covering the game only because we were giving a day off to our regular guy. Anyway, Dave […]

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No joke. Someone who lived here before we arrived told me about this, and I took a look … and it’s true: To go to the google map of Abu Dhabi, and to hover over the main island of the city, and to blow up the picture … is to be taken aback by how […]

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Actually, I will take credit for this. The entire staff came in one day last month for a meeting with the executive editor, and I remembered some instances in the past where the sudden arrival in the same spot of a group with a common goal but far-flung addresses … seemed like a good opportunity […]

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Super Bowl Sunday is, in the Middle East … Sunday. The first day of the work week. Nothing super about it, unless you’re an American or a Canadian or one of those rare non-North Americans who are interested in the NFL. In the UAE, the big story in world football today (after the Chelsea-Manchester United […]

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The UAE is a country overrun by expatriates — 85 percent of a population of 7 million. But only a small fraction of them are Yanks. Probably fewer than 50,000. So, even though I spend most of my days in a room with native English speakers … they are speaking with accents I sometimes find […]

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Mark down Luca Toni as the latest old guy to realize he can make a few bucks in the UAE. Like, say, Fabio Cannavaro, David Trezeguet and yours truly. And, as another old guy who has come to the UAE to extend his career, I say: “Well done, Luca!” So, where in the UAE does […]

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I’m not sure I know of anyone who wants to see Maria Sharapova lose. Any time. Anywhere. She’s just so personable and so cute. And she had that shoulder surgery a few years ago, and she’s battled her way back to relevance after being No. 1 while still a teenager. And when she was playing […]

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