In the spring of 1986, the three-sport star athlete Mark Collins of San Bernardino’s Pacific High School was one of the top prospects in the National Football League player draft. You could ask anyone. He was a leader as well as an elite athlete, and the NFL did not miss him, even if he was […]

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Been a while since I had the nerve to hold myself to a ridiculous plan to report on a sports event, to spend X-number of hours on the road — or in the air, or both. This was back before I got old and my nerves frayed. I have written about several of my hare-brained […]

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I have lived outside the United States for most of the past 12 years and I can vouch for this: Over that much time your sports interests mutate. Perhaps significantly. Some sports pretty much disappear from your mind. Thinking all high school sports; just can’t keep track of any of them, so I lost track […]

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Marvelous Marvin Hagler died this week at the age of 66, and he got a lot of things done in his sport and in his life : one of boxing’s greatest punchers and owner of the sport’s hardest chin; multi-year middleweight champion in the 1980s; actor in Italy; a ringside commentator in the UK … […]

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For much of my sports journalism career, being part of a good showing in the annual Associated Press Sports Editors competition was a big deal. Even now, in an era of shriveled and under-staffed newspapers, most sports editors want to see their sections make a mark. The APSE contest is the industry Oscars, after all. […]

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It was a preposterous bit of “news” in the offices of The National newspaper, based in the United Arab Emirates. Diego Maradona had signed a two-season contract to coach the Dubai club Al Wasl FC of the UAE Pro League. (Sure, and Pele was going to come with him as an assistant.) However, as that […]

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It was four years ago that I confessed, on this site, to being an elections wonk. I watch them for fun. For entertainment. For my own edification. For belly laughs. To watch my countrymen at their best, or worst. Probably the main reason I watch them is that a big election — like, say, the […]

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I need the Lakers to close out the NBA Finals tonight. Because I have money on them? Because I have become a fan of LeBron James? Because I can’t stand to see them lose? Nope. I need them to win so I can get a little sleep. A downside for an American living in France? […]

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Baseball is on the way back, we were told this week. “Spring” training camps will open on July 1, a 60-game mini-regular-season will begin play on or about July 24, and the World Series will finish no later than October 28. The NBA’s plan for a return-to-play “bubble” in Orlando was made public on June […]

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First printed in the San Bernardino Sun, November 3, 2002. Twice in my life I have gone to a hospital emergency room as a patient. On both occasions it was after suffering a head injury on a kickoff at a high-school football game. And you thought freeway driving was dangerous. From where we sit, it’s […]

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