Given that last night’s NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship was played in a cavernous NFL stadium, it seems appropriate that it eventually resembled a football game, with lots of hard contact as North Carolina and Gonzaga struggled to deny each other anything close to an open shot. One has to wonder how much Portland native Nigel …
For most of the second half of the North Carolina/Oregon NCAA Men’s Semifinal on Saturday, the Ducks were ice cold from the field and beaten regularly on their own glass, yet they managed to cling to life by drawing fouls and going 25 for 28 from the line. As often happens in such games, their …
On March 13, 2017, two former administrators from Pedophilia State University pled guilty to child endangerment after years of maintaining their innocence. Tim Curley, the former athletic director, and Gary Schultz, a former vice president, apparently thought the plea deal and their testimony at the upcoming trial of their former supervisor, former PSU President Graham …
Seven foot tall Bosnian basketball star Jusuf Nurkic came to the Trailblazers in a trade at the NBA All Star Break. Since then he has energized the Zers and led them to a considerable number of victories. Friday, a Bosnian band called Dubioza Kolektiv released a surprisingly good tribute song called “Nurk Fever,” which can …
The two biggest takeaways from yesterday’s Round of 16 action was Oregon’s advancement in a nail-biter over Michigan and Arizona’s demise to #11 Xavier in a similarly close contest. Kansas still looks like the most dominant team in the tournament, which bodes ill for Oregon, its Elite Eight opponent. My bracket is still on track …
Found this item today buried in a Ringer article about the Oakland Raiders and their pending move to Las Vegas: the San Francisco Giants just sent their last mortgage check for AT&T Park without even issuing a new release to mark the occasion: http://www.sfchronicle.com/giants/article/Giants-pay-off-AT-T-Park-prepare-for-another-10952512.php The windfall isn’t expected to impact the Giants greatly. The franchise …
One of the noticeable characteristics of the NBA nowadays is the constant din of music, promotions, giveaways, and dance routines during a game. Hardly a moment, even during time-outs, is allowed to go empty, possibly out of the fear that if fans’ attention is allowed to lapse for even a second, they will lose interest …
The initial weekend of the NCAA Tournament laid further waste to my bracket. As of the Sweet Sixteen, only ten of the spots are occupied by winners I picked. The East Regional was the worst, where I picked only one of the four winners. I’m sure I have a lot of company here, though, since …
My perfect bracket is already history with Day 1 not even half over—#12 Princeton lost to #5 Notre Dame, though the tightness of the game suggests the reasonableness of the pick. Oh, well. Maybe there’s a consolation prize out there for me. Also saw that my alma mater, UC Davis, won their play-in game to …
Monday Night: 3/13/17 – Most of the interest in NCAA basketball, I suspect, comes from the gambling opportunity offered by the March Madness Tournament. It also doubles as a free lottery ticket if you take one of the many free online bracket challenges, in this case Yahoo Sports. Only a few days remain before the …
Last Friday evening, my wife held a ladies’ bunco party at my house. Needing to make myself scarce, I paid a return visit to the Kings in Sacramento to see them play the Washington Wizards, who have been a rising team in the NBA’s Eastern Conference as recently described in The Ringer: https://theringer.com/nba-washington-wizards-scott-brooks-john-wall-bradley-beal-33e6a60ed931#.4j9ntquc1 The Wizards …
Last Sunday I visited the new arena for the Sacramento Kings, the Golden One Center, and what I found made every other NBA venue look like a D League gym. On the outside, the building resembled with its aluminum skin an alien spaceship that happened to land downtown—the roof has enough solar panels to render …
In the wake of the New England Patriots’ recent come-from-behind victory over the Atlanta Falcons in Super Bowl LI, many commentators have seen the game correctly as a final exclamation point for the legacies of quarterback Tom Brady, coach Bill Belichick, and the current New England Patriots sports dynasty: seven championships, two additional Super Bowl …
This may seem naïve, but I was actually a little surprised to hear that Chip Kelly was fired as coach of the San Francisco 49ers after their 2-14 season. No one realistically could have expected Kelly to win with the worst roster in the league, and hopefully he will get some benefit of the doubt …
TORONTO – Seattle Sounders FC have been one of Major League Soccer’s best regular-season teams ever since the club joined MLS in 2009, but that excellence never yielded a championship. Ironically, the Sounders finally landed their first MLS Cup tonight after their worst season. Multiple times over the years the Rave Green have dominated until …
I thought I had heard everything in sports, but now we have the New York Yankees accusing the Boston Red Sox, with their recent trade for Chris Sale, of being the Golden State Warriors. Who would have ever thought that the original Evil Empire would be looking up at the Dubs? http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/18223011/new-york-yankees-gm-compares-red-sox-warriors This quote by …
Sports books don’t come anywhere close to romance novels in their share of the publishing market, but there are still enough of them out there to present a bewildering array of choices for someone looking to purchase a gift for that special someone who likes to consume sports on the page as well as on …
At a time when diversions from real life seem more welcome than usual, it is a pleasure to announce the start of the NBA season and the return of the Portland Trail Blazers to the Moda Center. Last Friday, the Blazers took on the Sacramento Kings in a tight, high-scoring contest that went into overtime …
Jeanne Clery was raped and murdered in her dorm room at Lehigh University by a fellow student in 1986. Her distraught parents came to believe that Lehigh had not taken sufficient efforts to keep its college campus safe, and lobbied for legislative action. In 1990, Congress passed what is commonly known as “The Clery Act.” …
Last Friday, I watched a bit of the Cubs victory celebration in Chicago. I’m not really a parade person, but seeing it I wished I was there. City says 5 MILLION turned out. I admit I got a little misty seeing the throngs in my various old haunts: Wrigley, LSD, the Boul Mich, Grant Park. …
No, the title is not a misprint. In fact, this post is mostly an excuse to write that line, which has been so long in coming. One person with extra motivation to be happy today is Aroldis Chapman, who escaped by the narrowest of margins the fate of becoming the latest victim of the Billy …
Tickets to the World Series at Wrigley are starting at nearly $2,000 just to get into the park. If you want a place to sit down, start talking at $2,500: http://www.forbes.com/sites/kurtbadenhausen/2016/10/23/chicago-cubs-win-sets-stage-for-most-expensive-world-series-tickets-in-baseball-history/#3f872de55eab For many, the price is worth it. You can hear from some of them here: http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Want-to-see-World-Series-at-Wrigley-It-will-cost-10174338.php If the Cubs win, we may never see …
Who would have thought that Los Angeles Dodger pitcher Clayton Kershaw would show up to Game 6 of the National League Championship Series without his curveball? It didn’t take long for the Chicago Cubs to figure out that he couldn’t throw it for strikes, and they wasted little time in taking advantage, running up a …
For years, Angel Hernández has drawn my score as worst ump in the Majors. I think he may be a rare case where replay has helped the ump. It used to be, any time that a call that he made was questioned and was very close, any argument at all would result in an ejection. …
The ninth inning of last night’s Game 4 of the recently concluded series between the San Francisco Giants and the Chicago Cubs was as brutal a finish to a game as I’ve ever witnessed. Five Giant relief pitchers combined to cough up four runs and render what had been a 5-2 lead into a 6-5 …
It’s a good thing I don’t make my living as a prophet. I expected last night’s Giants/Mets game to go something like this: Madison Bumgarner would give up a run or two early, as he often does when settling into a game, and that would have been the difference as Noah Syndergaard pitched another shutout. …
The San Francisco Giants, as they did in 2014, managed to slip into the very last available postseason spot and earn themselves a road trip for a do-or-die playoff. With five wins out of their last six games, they are looking better of late than for most of the season since the All-Star Break. Even …
Vin Scully, who spent 67 years as the voice of the Brooklyn and Los Angeles Dodgers, announced his last game yesterday at AT&T Park. I’m not sure what is more astounding about his career: that he set an unbreakable record for longevity or that he did so with undiminished sharpness at 88 years old. His …
On Sunday, we got a definitive evaluation of Chip Kelly’s San Francisco 49ers, and the news wasn’t good. Their loss to the Seahawks in Seattle wasn’t nearly as close as the final 37-18 score, since the Niners scored their two touchdowns in what was essentially garbage time in the fourth quarter. The Seahawks, who had …
Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light. –Dylan Thomas The San Francisco Giants’ even-year championship dynasty is coming to an end. It may seem premature to write their epitaph with two weeks left in the season, …