Gonzaga #1. If there is any justice in the world, that will be the headline when the new weekly AP college basketball poll is released this afternoon. Last week, as the Goliaths of college basketball—Indiana, Florida, Duke, Michigan—all fell, it was a historic week. Not only because all four of these teams, projected as top…
Read More »In a matter of days, major league baseball spring training camps will begin springing to life. Pitchers and catchers will report first, of course, followed by the position players and, with that, the marathon begins. No other sport anywhere in the world plays as many games over as long a period of time as the…
Read More »Last week, the annual Major League Baseball owners’ meetings took place, and everyone expected lots of wheeling and dealing. But the expected flood of player movement was not happening—it was more like a trickle. Analysts maintained that the logjam was created by the two top free-agent players, pitcher Zack Greinke and outfielder Josh Hamilton. Once they…
Read More »As the calendar turned to October, the quality of games in college football ramped up dramatically. This past Saturday, there were numerous matchups of great significance—and with even more significant results. Florida upset #4 LSU, West Virginia beat Texas, and, in the day’s biggest upset, North Carolina State toppled #3 Florida State. It was a…
Read More »Tomorrow night, at long last, college football returns. I love the NFL, but college football is just special—and this weekend boasts a great slate of games to kick off the 2012 campaign. On Friday night, Michigan State hosts Boise State in what should be a cracking game. Saturday night, two preseason top 10 teams, Alabama…
Read More »One of the toughest positions in Major League Baseball is that of the closer—the relief pitcher who enters the game in the late innings to try and save the win for the team. One closer said that his was the only role on the team where, if he has a bad day, the whole team…
Read More »NASCAR racing at Talladega is never uneventful, often featuring multicar pileups at 190+ miles per hour, with plenty of raw nerves, bent sheet metal, and exposed tempers along the way. Saturday’s Nationwide race was no exception, but the dangers were unusually high—even for Talladega. In the closing laps, a massive crash in Turn 3 collected…
Read More »Like many football fans, I thoroughly enjoy the NFL draft, and was glued to it much of this past weekend, not only following the picks of my team (the Browns) but the picks of key athletes around the league. Many of the picks were no-brainers. Some, however, were head-scratchers. Everyone will have their own list of…
Read More »Until recently, I paid little attention to NASCAR. It seemed that all NASCAR was about was turning left and going fast while turning left. Then, a few years ago, I went to Charlotte, NC, to do some work with Motor Racing Outreach. While there, we visited the car shops and met the teams that build…
Read More »On Sunday afternoon, as I awaited the start of the final NASCAR race of the season, it occurred to me how strange things were about to become in stock car racing’s top series. No matter who won the race at Homestead, Florida, NASCAR would have a new champion for the first time in half a…
Read More »