A detour on the way to med school

The Boston Globe's Gordon Edes has a nice piece on the divergent paths of two left-handed geniuses that played baseball at Yale.


Jerry Izenberg has a Negro League column on the eve of what could be the last class of players from that era inducted to Cooperstown.

Eligibility factories

The New York Times' Pete Thamel investigates the eligibility factories posing as prep schools sending players to Division I schools.

The legend grows

The legend of Jason McElwain continues to grow. Scott Pitoniak of the Democrat& Chronicle in Rochester writes about it today, and says that Disney is already interested in the story.

An Unlikely Hero

If you haven't heard the story yet of Jason McElwain, it should make your day. Here's the Associated Press account from the San Jose Mercury News.

McElwain is an austic student at Greece Athena High School outside Rochester, N.Y. He was the basketball team's manager until the last game of the season when the coach gave him a uniform and put him in the game. The kid went out and made six 3-pointers and was carried off the floor. This could be one of the most heartwarming sports stories of all time.

Photos from the game are here. Video on CNN is here.






I'm still waiting for a good print account of the Jason McElwain story. If you missed it, I've seen some TV coverage. I want to read about. Send me links if you find something good. It looks like an A.P. Story just moved so I'll try to link it later when it shows up on somebody's web site.


Steve Rushin's column in this week's SI about a blind baseball fan in New York is a nice read.

ESPN has a powerful story on a Pennsylvania high school wrestler, competing after tradgedy.

Can't pass it on

Duke may be No. 1, but Coach K's coaching tree hasn't blossomed.

True Olympic Spirit

Sports Illustrated's S.L. Price has a great story on Kathleen Kauth, the U.S. women's hockey player, whose father was killed on 9-11. He captures her meeting with members of the Iranian ski team.

The Olympics isn't nearly the symbol of peace internationally that it used to be, but stories like this are a reminder of that it can be.

The State of the NBA

Michael Wilbon looks at the lack of a white American NBA All-Star and what the future may hold for the sport.

Moving on...

Terry Hutchens, Jason Whitlock and Pat Forde look at Mike Davis' departure from Indiana.

Welcome back, Vac

Mike Vaccaro, who's one of the best columnists and best people in this business, is back writing after suffering a heart attack the day of the NFC Championship Game. His comeback column is here.

More Olympics

Bob Ford 36 words to get to "mellifluously" in his column about Turin.

Plaschke's got the only Olympian from Serbia-Montenegro, who could be his neighbor.

Pre Olympic stuff

My favorite thing about the Olympics as a newspaper person is that the stories are often far more interesting to read than the events are to watch. If yesterday's entry was New York Times heavy, today is loaded with Washington Post. I'm looking forward to being in D.C. next week just to pick up the Post during the Olympics.

KC Star's Joe Posnanski says Curt Tomasevicz is representing all of the heartland at these Olympics.

Chasing mom. Alex Ovechkin is chasing a medal a generation after his mom did.

The Denver Post's Mark Kizla on the moving story of Michelle Roark, the formerly homeless Olympian.

Mike Wise has clearly taken a course in aerial skiing lingo for this story.

Sally J will take Daron Rahlves sustance over Miller’s style

Les Carpenter on Shani Davis, who shuns the spotlight even as he’s on the brink of breaking barriers.

The Oakland Tribune's Monte Poole on Chris Mullin looking back on winning his battle with alcoholism

PLAY

The New York Times launched PLAY, a sports magazine that will come out four times this year and perhaps more in coming years. I'm curious about its considerable potential.

A little background info on Play is here.

A feature on the growingly overhyped Bode Miller appears to be the centerpiece.

Further scrounging around the NYT sports section produced:

A feature on footballer/skier Jeremy Bloom.

A look at Todd Bertuzzi in the Olympics

Plaschke's wonderland

Bill Plaschke looks warmly at the Winter game.