Back in February, veteran NASCAR driver Jeremy Mayfield invited me into the office of his hauler at the Sprint Cup race at Fontana. We talked for a half-hour or so. He seemed informed, ambitious, confident. He seemed in control of himself and his race team. His English was a bit fractured and backwoodsy, but that […]

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I’ve been in St. Louis since last week, and seen and felt the buildup for the All-Star Game — scheduled to start within the hour. It’s a big deal here. Huge. The locals seem to assume that anybody who has arrived in the city since last Friday … must be here for the game. The […]

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Today was the day David Beckham deigned to speak with the media after a Los Angeles Galaxy training center at Home Depot Center, and he said the spat between him and Galaxy captain Landon Donovan … is over. Here is a link to a story on espn.com in which Becks says the barbs between the […]

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David Beckham back in town, and on Day 1 he vents on Landon Donovan … who vented on him something like nine months ago … and how is this all supposed to work for the Los Angeles Galaxy, exactly? Becks will be around, at least physically, for the final three months of the MLS season. […]

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Lamar Odom’s timing is bad. And not for the first time in his career. It now seems likely that a guy who was a vital cog in the Lakers’ championship run this spring not only will not get a raise … not only will not get some five- or six-year contract … he may be […]

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I’m in St. Louis for a wedding (no, not my own), and I wonder if it can get any better than this: Sitting in Pujols 5, a grill/restaurant in Westport Plaza, just a few feet outside the front door of my hotel, eating the “Albert’s Favorite Salad” and watching Albert Pujols, star of my first-place […]

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Landon Donovan, captain of the Los Angeles Galaxy, told the Los Angeles Times on Wednesday that he will apologize to David Beckham for the manner in which Beckham learned of Donovan’s critique of his play in the 2008 season — but that he does not intend to apologize for the content of the remarks. That […]

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A strike by construction workers in South Africa has people worried about whether that country will be ready for the 2010 World Cup. A legitimate question. Some have worried about South Africa’s ability to pull this off from the moment FIFA awarded its 2010 event to them. South Africa may not be quite as impoverished […]

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A couple of us were waiting for players outside the Los Angeles Galaxy locker room … and a familiar face emerged from the coaches’ office. I looked at him and thought, “Michael Kammarman, media relations officer for the U.S. national soccer team.” He looked right at me. And I said, “How was South Africa?” It […]

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I was at a soccer practice not long ago, and the subject turned (as it so often does in any spare moment at any sports venue), to the print journalism implosion. And all the people who have been fired or will be soon. We were talking about those still getting paid, and how nerve-racking it […]

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