sports

Eugene Robinson on sportswashing

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I am not much of a soccer fan, but I have enjoyed following the World Cup. I was skeptical about holding the event in November and December (it was held at this time because of the excruciating Qatar heat), but […]

Hail!

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Over at The New York Times, Matthew Walther, editor of the Catholic literary journal The Lamp, makes the case of the University of Michigan football program. Here is a taste:  In this year’s College Football Playoff, which begins on New […]

Vin Scully, RIP

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Scully was a native New Yorker and grew-up at New York Giants (baseball) fan: Scully was silent for more than 1 minute and 47 seconds at the end of this “call.”

Kareem Abdul Jabbar on Bill Russell

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Here is Kareem at his Substack page: I always knew I wanted to be active in civil rights, but I didn’t always know how I would do that. I had attended some anti-war and civil rights protests rallies while at […]

AMAZING! (1969 edition)

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Here’s Curt Gowdy: People I recognize in this video: Joe Garagiola, Lindsey Nelson, Joe DiMaggio, and Pearl Bailey. Do you recognize anyone else?

Mets retire Keith Hernandez’s number

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Number 17 goes up in the rafters alongside the numbers of Jackie Robinson (42), Casey Stengel (37), Gil Hodges (14), Tom Seaver (41), Jerry Koosman (36), and Mike Piazza (31). You know this is a big moment in the New […]

Is professional wrestling fake?

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Of course it is. But that doesn’t really help us understand its historic appeal. In a fascinating piece at the blog of the Journal of Intellectual History, historian Aaron D. Horton offers a brief history of this form of “entertainment.” […]

How did the 2022 Winter Olympics end up in Beijing?

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Those who listen to The Way of Improvement Leads Home Podcast know historian Bruce Berglund. He last appeared on the show in February 2021 to talk about his new book on global hockey. You can listen to that interview here. […]

Big Ben’s Redemption

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I grew up a Miami Dolphins fan. (How a kid raised in the New York metropolitan area became a Dolphins fan is a long story, but there are a lot of us out there.) I thus despised the Steelers. As […]

Why is there a lack of coaches and referees in youth sports?

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I miss watching my kids play school sports. Over the years (K-12) my daughters played basketball, volleyball, soccer, and softball. It was fun to watch them compete. I don’t miss the parents of their teammates and opponents. Don’t get me […]

My first John Madden memory

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As a kid I was a diehard Miami Dolphins fan. It is thus tough for me, over 46 years later, to post this highlight video from the 1974 AFC Divisional Playoff: To this day I cannot hear the names Ken […]