February 21, 2024 – 12:15 pm
A Lowell, MA High-school girl’s basketball team had to forfeit their game yesterday after three of their players were injured by a mentally ill young man playing on the opposing team. The male player, who is over six feet tall and has facial hair, says he’s female. The triumph of subjective fantasy over objective reality […]
I haven’t paid much attention to baseball this year (although if you do, I’ll make a shameless plug for my son Nick’s outstanding baseball-analysis website, Pitcher List). But I have just noticed that what used to be called the “disabled list” is now the “injured list”. Why? It’s because the word “disabled” might offend someone. […]
January 17, 2018 – 10:48 pm
If there’s anything worse than an imbecile, it’s a smug imbecile. And — forgive me if this seems ungallant — if there’s anything worse than that, it’s a smug, “progressive” imbecile with a chip on her shoulder (but I fear I repeat myself). When it gets better is when such a person is put in […]
December 3, 2017 – 2:17 pm
By now you’ve all heard all about the suspension of ABC News reporter Brian Ross for his story on Friday claiming that General Mike Flynn had copped a plea for lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russia. Ross initially reported that, during the campaign, Donald Trump had told Flynn to arrange meetings with […]
November 29, 2016 – 9:41 pm
We were treated to some grandmaster-level trolling at the Guardian yesterday, by one Godfrey Elfwick. Here.
October 5, 2016 – 5:31 pm
Just now I put up a post linking to a Washington Post article about simulated violence in football. “Not parody”, I said, and mocked its author. I’ve changed my mind, and taken down the post. The article is parody — well done, and richly deserved. A good example of Poe’s Law, either way.
November 12, 2015 – 5:02 pm
In what I think is called “must-see TV”, Neil Cavuto interviews one Keely Mullen, of the Million Student March, on the details of her plan. Here.
January 26, 2015 – 1:59 pm
You may recall that my son Nick, a baseball analyst and former college pitcher, launched a wildly popular website last year called PitcherGIFs. In it he presented animated GIFs of every pitcher in the majors throwing every pitch they had, along with Nick’s insightful analysis. The site was taking off like wildfire, until a dispute […]
February 10, 2014 – 11:47 pm
If any of you happen to be baseball fans, my son Nick has just launched a new website: Pitcher GIFS. Go have a look. .
This just in: as of 2014, the U.S. armed forces are to begin phasing out their traditional physical-fitness programs in favor of a new, full-body conditioning system, which has already shown dramatic effects after being adopted by police forces in the U.K. and Sweden. You can see it here.
February 12, 2013 – 4:09 pm
My God, this is unbelievable. The IOC has decided that wrestling will no longer be part of the Olympics as of 2020. Wrestling. What next, running? Well, at least we still have synchronized swimming, ping pong, kayaking and badminton, for you traditionalists.
November 30, 2012 – 12:48 pm
Another thunderbolt from the frontiers of science: men like sports more than women. This will require an intervention, I think.
November 28, 2012 – 4:55 pm
I used to run. I never liked it much, but I did it anyway. I was never fleet of foot, and I never ran very far — two or three miles, usually, with the longest effort ever being only about six miles or so. I did it mainly because I found running to be good […]
September 26, 2012 – 9:44 am
Here’s an item from Iowahawk, posted way back in 2006, that’s as relevant today as the day it was written. Update: As is this.
September 22, 2012 – 12:16 am
Too busy today for any writing — so for tonight, the Irish perspective on Olympic sailing, courtesy of a longtime reader.
August 6, 2012 – 10:10 pm
Here’s a clever graphic presentation by the Times putting all the Olympic 100-meter winners since 1896 in the same race.
April 10, 2012 – 10:36 am
Life is a risky business. To reach a comfortable dotage, one must thread one’s way past such omnipresent mortal hazards as cancer, auto wrecks, random assault, falling objects, air disasters, bullets stray or otherwise, atherosclerosis, capsizings, snakebite, cyclones, suicidal depression, carbon-monoxide leaks, cerebral haemorrhage, defenestration, shark attack, overdose, industrial accidents, poisoning, autoerotic asphyxiation, crib death, […]
January 8, 2012 – 11:06 pm
Gotta love this: the upstart Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow, who has attracted nationwide attention for his ostentatious Christianity, is fond of associating himself with the New Testament verse John 3:16. For you damned heathens out there who may not be familiar with this oft-quoted passage, it says: For God so loved the world that […]
November 30, 2011 – 11:25 pm
This from the Telegraph: Olympic swimming records set to tumble at London 2012 as Speedo unveil Fastskin3 swimwear system I realize I’m just an old fossil, but this is a depressing trend. Next it’ll be quantum-tunneling suits, or something. I think the ancient Greeks had the right idea: make ’em compete in the nude. It’d […]
In this new climate of austerity, when we have to wean ourselves from so many lavish indulgences, it’s good to be reminded of life’s simple pleasures — like seeing someone give that Chris Hedges a good poke in the eye. Sam Harris does so here.
… goes unpunished. Next time, just throw it back. Accountants say the man who caught the home run ball that Derek Jeter smashed for his 3,000th hit Saturday will have to pay as much as $14,000 in taxes, New York media report. Christian Lopez, 23, caught the ball and promptly handed it over to the […]
We’ve just watched the 37-year-old Derek Jeter launch his 3000th career hit (that’s a pretty big deal in these parts, and Gotham has been on pins and needles for weeks). Jeter’s never worn any uniform other than the pin-stripes, so all of those hits were for the Yankees — and to add a spectacular touch, […]
If you haven’t already seen photographs, here is what happened in Vancouver when the Canucks lost the Stanley cup to Boston last night (after taking the first two games of the series). HT: Lawrence Auster.
Big news for Wolverines fans: Tressel’s out at Ohio State. Story here.
Here’s rock-climber Dean Potter, relaxing at Yosemite.
April 26, 2011 – 10:08 pm
For colleges, men’s sports are often hugely profitable, while women’s sports nearly always aren’t. This caused many schools not to support women’s sports at nearly the same level as men’s. Add to that the fact that far fewer young women than men are even interested in joining college sports teams — due, no doubt, to […]
My birthday’s just gone by, on April 13th — but in case you’re wondering what to get me next year…
January 25, 2011 – 11:51 am
By now you probably know that the high-flying New York Jets, en route to Dallas, were brought down Sunday night by a severe patch of turbulence over Pittsburgh — the result, perhaps, of an expanding pocket of hot air that had lingered in the team’s vicinity for several weeks. In case you missed the game, […]
January 18, 2011 – 5:15 pm
Here’s a scoop, as dispatched by our monocular Bay Area correspondent: Thousands of Sports Fans Drunk After Football, Baseball Games I understand this is the cover story for the forthcoming issue of DUH! magazine, but you heard it here first.
January 4, 2011 – 9:33 pm
On Boxing Day, the NFL announced that it was cancelling the Eagles-Vikings game. The reason? It looked like it was going to snow. I couldn’t believe it. Tough men playing in brutal conditions is (or, I suppose I should say, was), an unshakable pillar of the football mystique. No matter how bad it gets, the […]
Yogi Berra, on the death of George Steinbrenner: “George and I had our differences, but who didn’t?’
We note with sadness the death, at 99, of longtime Yankee announcer Bob Sheppard, and of the era he helped to define. From his New York Times obituary: From the last days of DiMaggio through the primes of Mantle, Berra, Jackson and Jeter, Sheppard’s precise, resonant, even Olympian elocution ”” he was sometimes called the […]
According to a graph-theory analysis of the two teams’ passing strategies, Spain will defeat Holland in the World Cup final. Here.
With all the fuss lately about LeBron whatsizname (and some soccer match that has apparently been taking place, I believe, in Africa), you may, like me, have been worrying that one of our most venerable sporting traditions was dying of popular neglect. Well, worry no more.
I’ve never been much of a soccer fan, but I’ve been watching some of the World Cup games this time around. What made the biggest impression on me, however, was not the play on the field, but the unvarying, awful blare of plastic trumpets that fills the arena. It is a horrible, buzzing drone, and […]
November 14, 2009 – 3:51 pm
As I write, the Wolverines are collapsing yet again, this time against Wisconsin. How I miss Lloyd Carr. Apparently I am not the only one who is upset with Rich Rodriguez, as you can see below.
August 31, 2008 – 11:30 am
For the second year in a row, catastrophe has struck in Ann Arbor. The Wolverines have once again lost their season opener to an unranked team — in this case, Utah. Well, we knew it was going to be a tough year; the old guard — Henne, Hart, Long, Manningham and others, even including Coach […]
February 3, 2008 – 10:25 pm
What a game! As a New Yorker, I do hope I will be forgiven a moment of undignified exuberance. Woo-hoo!
The revised and enhanced Barry Bonds, as some of you may know, broke Henry Aaron’s career home-run record yesterday by knocking the ball out of the park for the 756th time. His place in history is a controversial matter, however, due to his Bruce-Banner-like transformation from the wiry and slender athlete he was in the […]