Been donkey’s years, as the Brits would say, since I did a list. It’s time. This one is going to be a little apples-and-oranges. My favorite road trips as a professional sports journalist. Some considerations: –What is more important? The travel? Or the event I was there to cover? –Or will we almost certainly get […]

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Have I done this before? After 10-plus years I must have. But know what? I’m not going to check because the 10 teams I love to hate changes a bit, from year to year. This list would probably be unlike any other I might have done. For instance, most of my life I have wished […]

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This is a list of reasons why regular folks around the baseball world should support the Los Angeles Dodgers over the Boston Red Sox in the World Series, which begins tonight in Beantown. First and foremost? –The Dodgers have not won the World Series in 30 years. The Red Sox have won it three times […]

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Russia 2018 is over. It was France 4, Croatia 2 in the championship match, and the final whistle had barely been blown before some pundits were suggesting it was the best World Cup final in the history of the event. Granted, six goals is a good place to start. That is as many goals as […]

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I find it nearly impossible to be a neutral observer in any competition. Give me five minutes in a game involving teams I don’t know … and I will have a favorite. It could be about geography or playing style or history, but I will have made a choice. A girlfriend from a long, long […]

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Another benefit of waking up at 4 a.m. in France. West Coast baseball is just getting started! And I stumbled on to the start of the Los Angeles Angels home opener, versus the Cleveland Indians — also known as “Shohei Ohtani’s first game in Anaheim Stadium.” And the Japanese Babe Ruth acquitted himself well, slugging […]

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The best opening sentences in literary history. Always a fun exercise. This has been going on pretty much forever. An early leader for “best opening line” has to be Genesis chapter 1, verse 1. “In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth.” There’s a book you want to check out, just from the […]

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Finally saw The Post, the Steven Spielberg movie about the Washington Post and the Pentagon Papers. It was an afternoon screening at the multiplex at the nearest semi-big town. And it was in English. So. I recommend that all former newspaper journalists see the film. And most certainly those over the age of 50, for […]

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This is not an exercise in academic rigor. I did not have someone sitting with a note pad writing down literally the first 10 facts I could recall pertaining to sports in 2017. But … it is a fairly accurate recreation of a fairly quick trip through my brain to see what stuck from the […]

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Eli Manning will not start for the New York Giants on Sunday, ending a streak of 210 consecutive starts at quarterback for the Giants, going back to 2004. However, the Giants are 2-9 and their playoffs hopes were buried weeks ago, and Eli will be 37 in five weeks and is not having a very […]

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