Zo as inspiration

The Fort Lauderdale Sun Sentinel has an excellent piece on Alonzo Mourning inspiring people with kidney ailments.

Predictable response

I said to someone Friday. If the Colts lose, you'll immediately see people talk about how "the loss could be a good thing." Thanks Bob Kravitz for making me look good.

Sally lays another whippin'

Every couple months Sally Jenkins takes somebody behind the woodshed. It was the BCS' turn. She's as good as there is a delivering the scathing column.

Wetzel says the US needs to win a World Cup for people to truly start caring about soccer.

A great piece on Tulane etc.

The New Orleans Times-Picayune's account of the Tulane football season is excellent.

The Cincy Enquirer shares one of many stories of what a special guy Sean Casey is.

Art Thiel looks at one bizarre consequence of the NBA's random drug testing.

Barnett, Grady Litle and Anna Benson's husband

The Denver Post says Gary Barnett is out at Colorado, which seems a little belated after his embarassing conduct a year ago.

Plaschke lauds the Dodgers’ hiring of Grady Little. Plaschke makes it sound like Little’s only problem in Boston was leaving Pedro in. While it was certainly his most memorable. Little made lots of shaky decisions in how he set his lineups and handled his bullpen.

Posnanski's column on the Royals possibly getting Kris Benson has some entertaining lines in it.

Newspaper war

It's getting hard to tell which is the biggest baseball rivalry with roots in Boston. The Red Sox and Yankees or the Globe and the Herald.

After the 2004 baseball playoffs I pledged not to over do the Red Sox stuff on this site anymore. But watching the Globe and the Herald cover the Red Sox right now is interesting for those interested in the coverage as well as the story. In addition to the news they’ve been sniping at each other. The Globe guys are on TV and the Herald on sports radio. Plenty to follow if you’re interested.
Here’s both paper’s blogs: Herald , Globe.

Bob Klapisch wants Arod to stop waffling over which country he's going to play for.

Sports and Sex

Jason Whitlock has an interesting look at the problems created by interviews in the locker room.

Some good Sunday reading

Bob Ford on Army-Navy.

Michael Lewis in the New York Times Magazine on Texas Tech coach Mike Leach.

Lacy J. Banks on proud mama's boy Chris Duhon.

Woody Page decides to stop trying to write in Denver while doing bad television in New York. I'm not a Woody fan, but he's a name, which makes this relevant here.

The NY Daily News says the Yankees lost a lot of money in recent seasons.

The Seattle Times has the summer of Ichiro's discontent.

Bill Plaschke on Reggie Bush.

The New York Times wonders if Bill Parcells is still a great coach.

Bill Lyon hangs 'em up

During the busy couple weeks, I'm sure I missed quite a few links that should ahve been here. I don't usually go back, but I'm making an exception. When Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Bill Lyon's recent columns page had been vacant for a few months I asked a guy I knew at that paper what the story was. He told me Lyon had retired. I found it odd and disappointing that he didn't write a farewell piece. Turns out he finally did on Nov. 20. It's fine work like most of his columns. I've been to Philly a lot and usually read both papers at the airport Denny's every morning. Lyon always seemed to have the right touch on a topic. Here are some of his favorites, including one about his dog who died and another about Maurice Cheeks singing the national anthem along side the 13-year-old girl with stage fright. Here are some passages from his colleagues favorites. Lyon, whose wife battled cancer, always wrote warmly about Lance Armstrong. This piece remains one of my favorites.

Despite his loss the Inquirer still has an impressive collection of columnists, many of whom wrote about him including:

Bob Ford
Phil Sheridan
Stephen A. Smith

Some famous Philadelphians chimed in too.

His work will be missed.

Trying to get back into rhythm

After a few long stretches of sporadic posting, I'm hoping to get back to at least four times a week...

Former Bearcats coach Bob Huggins was finally free to speak about his firing at Cincinnati and did so at length with ESPN. Speaking of Huggins, I'm guessing this rumor will grow some legs.

Michael Rosenberg said the Yzerman era could end very soon

The only racehorse whose career ever interested me is done racing. Bob Ford eulogizes.

Jerry Izenberg on Saturday's Army-Navy football game. If you ever get a chance to to see this game live. I strongly recommend going. It's an event like no other.

Mike Wilbon has Juan Dixon and Steve Blake’s return to Washington

Richard Justice hopes Clemens is coming back

Nice story on Parcells

Woj has a nice piece on Parcells, who lost his brother earlier this season. What struck me about it is that I think Woj only got Parcells on a conference call with other reporters, but was still able to pull out enough to create a poigniant story.