I have always liked the notion of a 24-hour race. Le Mans, of course. And here in the UAE, we have the 24 Hours of Dubai. The annual UAE event began today and finishes tomorrow, and we talked in the office about when the toughest part to drive for 24 hours might be … and […]

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A person leaves town … switches states .. crosses an ocean … and eventually his sports preferences morph. It’s one of those things that you don’t realize until you do a sort of internal check. “Which teams’ results do I follow? Which have I stopped tracking? Which teams can make me feel a little better […]

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Absolutely no one was voted into the Hall of Fame today, and that is exactly what needed to happen. I wasn’t sure my former Baseball Writers’ Association of America (BBWAA) colleagues would deliver a message, but they did, and I’m proud of them. Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens each failed to get into the Hall […]

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It is rare to see a woman at a soccer match, here in the UAE. Rarer still, by far, is to see an Emirati woman. A citizen, that is. So the notion that as many as 25 Emirati women took advantage of a chance to fly over to Bahrain (at Football Association expense) for the […]

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Alabama 42, Notre Dame 14, in the BCS title game. For college football. I don’t know what the point spread was, but I would have taken Alabama if they were giving anything less than 17. I’m pretty sure I read this somewhere, that this would be a bad game — oh, yes, on this blog, […]

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So, woke in the middle of the night here — Sunday afternoon in California — and decided to watch some NFL. I didn’t know which game would be on (only insomniacs plan their NFL viewing, in the UAE), but found it on the local Fox Sports network … and there were the Seahawks and Redskins […]

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In my time in the UAE, the senior national soccer team has been, mostly, wretched. The Emirati footballers completed a hapless campaign in the final round of qualifying for the 2010 World Cup just after I arrived in Abu Dhabi, in late 2009, but I heard about it, and the reverberations could still be felt. […]

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This makes me smile. If not laugh. If not snort in derision. I saw the final minutes of the Lakers’ 107-102 loss to the Clippers tonight, and when ESPN went back to the studio, the question was posed: “Is Los Angeles a Clippers town now?” This is how you will know if L.A. has become […]

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This is Leah’s observation, but I believe she nailed it. The happiest place in Abu Dhabi? The bowling alley!

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Read the book. Saw the movie. Read the book. The book is One Shot, the ninth in the Jack Reacher series, written by Lee Child. The movie is Jack Reacher, starring Tom Cruise as the eponymous drifter and former Army MP who deals out rough justice as he crisscrosses America via bus or hitched ride. […]

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