Many years ago, it was my job to produce interviews with the members of a championship high school football team. I talked to every member of the team, and the interviews ran as fillers on the local station during the week leading up to the state championship game. When I asked one player what he …
Tag: baseball
A Nice Break From Desolation
He’d have never wanted anyone to know it, but, yeah, Jack Pinson was drinking, even though it wasn’t even noon on Tuesday, when he got a text message from Hank McGonigald. Hank wanted to get together and have lunch the next time Pinson swung through Atlanta. I hate to fucking tell you, Hank, but I …
Talking Baseball, Yastrzemski, Petrocelli …
I love baseball. Tomorrow the local college is playing at home. I think I shall go. Right now the Los Angeles Angels, who also just happen to be of Anaheim, are playing the Seattle Mariners of Cano. This is from the MLB Network in the living room, but the actual game is apparently being …
Continue reading Talking Baseball, Yastrzemski, Petrocelli …
A Book, the Highlights of Which Were …
Sometimes reading is a pleasure. Sometime it is more an investment. At the moment, I’m fairly racing through Frank Deford’s Over Time: My Life as a Sportswriter. He’s been my favorite writer of sports since I read his first novel, Cut ‘n’ Run, when I was about 15. I’ve been using a highlighter, as if …
Practical Rules of Writing
These are not practical tips in terms of serious. Lots of readers might be pissed because they clicked on this expecting something that really helps their writing. This is meant to be practically funny. Of course, whether it succeeds or not depends on the reaction of each reader. Some who are humorless will read this …
Useless What I Know
Some things I know. For instance, I know who framed Roger Rabbit. I know how to spell “Mississippi.” And “Ueberroth,” even after, lo, these many years. I don’t know how to spell “al-Qaeda” and “Qadhafi.” Neither does anyone else, though there are various and sundry opinions. My sad fate is to be a whiz at …
A Bit More Olympian About Football
The Winter Olympics are about to begin. I don’t know why it’s a plural since no one ever mentions any individual Olympic. Olympics is one of those words where you’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t.Grammatically.I’m embarrassingly uninformed. The only person I know who seems to be in the Olympics is Vladimir …
It’s Even History Now
It seems self-evident that history is important. Those who fail to heed it are doomed to repeat it, and all that.Yet it’s pretty obvious that fewer and fewer care. Many seem to take pride in their ignorance, which becomes obvious as one gets older. Any times comparisons are made, invariably someone says, “Well, that was …
The Godforsaken Glitter
Modern college football has taken the luster away from Notre Dame. Literally. I used to marvel at how glittery the Fighting Irish helmets were. Other teams wearing gold or silver would wear helmets that, by mid-season, were dulled by scrapes and streaks of colors from opposition helmets. Not the Irish. I wondered if they …
Nightrider's Lament 