Recent Sports Commentaries

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Class and Character
Watching the end-of-the-season games between the Sox of Boston and the Bronx Bombers, the TV cameras would frequently cut-away from the action to catch a glimpse of Yankee Captain Derek Jeter. The 40-year-old Jeter has amassed enough stats to easily make Baseball’s Hall of Fame on the first ballot. According to Baseball Reference, a website devoted to tracking stats of...
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September 29, 2014
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Boobs on the Ground
What’s your reputation worth? That’s the question Minnesota Vikings principal owner Zygi Wilf needs to ask himself. It’s also a question that every league owner needs to seriously consider in the face of public criticism concerning the escalation of players who have moved beyond thoughtless conduct to criminal behavior. After benching Adrian Peterson for just one game stemming from charges...
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September 17, 2014
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Are You Ready for Some Fooootballl?
Are you ready Are you ready Are you ready, ready Are you ready for some football? – Hank Williams, Jr. I don’t ever remember a time when football wasn’t King. Yes, there’s always been baseball (love it), basketball, hockey, and golf to a lesser extent, but football has always reigned supreme in the hearts of most Americans. In the past,...
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September 12, 2014
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The Punch and the Roll Back
Two football stories made the news yesterday, but the focus on one all but buried the other. Let’s begin with the obvious. By now, most people have seen the video circulated by celebrity news web site TMZ that shows what happened inside the elevator between Baltimore Ravens’ Ray Rice and then-fiancé-now wife Janay. Frankly, after watching it, Rice is lucky...
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September 10, 2014
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Unbroken
Photo Credit: Thomson200 Talented linebacker Brian Banks spent more than five years behind bars for a crime he didn’t commit. Not only was his freedom gone, but his chances at a pro-football contract evaporated after a woman claimed that Banks had raped her. In a story from KCBS-TV (May 24, 2012), “Banks was 16 years old when he was arrested...
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August 4, 2014
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Hey, did Wainwright groove that pitch?
September 19, 1968: Detroit Tigers vs. New York Yankees. The Tigers had already sowed-up the American League pennant and were leading the Yanks 6-1 in the top of the eighth inning when Mickey Mantle comes to the plate. Mantle had not homered for several weeks. He was tied with fellow Yank Jimmie Foxx for third on the list for most...
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July 18, 2014
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This One’s for Walter
My friend Walter is a world class World Cup fan! Walter used to play professional soccer for a time and whenever I talk to him lately, all I hear is strategy. “Look at this guy play a wall-pass (a give and go) just to get more time on the ball if he’s being closed down, or can play the ball...
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July 4, 2014
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The “R” Word
In a move that surprised many, last week the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office cancelled six federal trademark registrations for the name the Washington Redskins, ruling that the name is “disparaging to Native Americans.” In an story authored by Travis Waldron for ThinkProgress, a liberal blog (June 18), the Patent board said, “We decide, based on the evidence properly before us,...
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June 30, 2014
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Two Gentlemen in Paris
It’s easy to succumb to cynicism from the recent ethics-related scandals causing one to lose sight of everyday acts of civility. At the end of the men’s final at this year’s French Open, Rafael Nadal stood on the podium to accept the top prize and the crowd’s approval after four hard-fought sets of tennis against his rival Novak Djokovic. Not...
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June 9, 2014
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Donald Sterling, Part ?
Alzheimer’s is a disease that robs an individual of their personality one piece at a time. Particularly insidious is the fact that some of the personality traits that once appeared as petty irritations of life, can grow to become acts of shocking intolerance. This brings me to the recent news about Donald Sterling. The L.A. Clippers owner went on a racist rant...
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June 2, 2014