Bob Welch, a fine pitcher for both the Dodgers and the Oakland Athletics died yesterday. Heart attack. He was 57. A personal aside: As you age, in relation to sports figures, you notice two things: one, when you are older than any professional athlete in one of the Big Four sports and, two, you notice […]

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As I have outlined on this blog, I cannot bring myself to support the U.S. team in this World Cup, not while it is run by that Enemy of American Soccer named Jurgen Klinsmann. If you clicked on the first link, above, you may have noted that several commenters on that entry seemed ready to […]

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That is the finding, anyway, of a survey of 8,000 people in 15 countries with teams in the Fifa World Cup. Each person surveyed was given this hypothetical: “Suppose you could sacrifice a sum of money to ensure that your country would win the World Cup. How much would you give up?” The U.S. was […]

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Our friend David sent along an interesting link. Which predicts which teams will get out of the group phase of the World Cup based on … how sharp their uniforms look. And this is courtesy of the uniwatch.com site. Which ranks the 32 teams 1 through 4 in each of the eight groups. Some thoughts.

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For Americans of a certain age … perhaps those born before 1960 … June 6 is an important day. D-Day. In 1944. It is not as important as we thought it was, once upon a time. But significant. It was the day the American, British and Canadian invasion forces landed on the beaches of the […]

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I wouldn’t say I held out high hopes for the Seth MacFarlane movie A Million Ways to Die in the West. Written by Seth MacFarlane, produced by Seth MacFarlane, starring Seth MacFarlane and directed by Seth MacFarlane. Despite one guy holding too many roles, some viewers had hinted that it was Blazing Saddles for a […]

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From the 1994 World Cup through the 2010 edition, the U.S. national soccer team became increasingly American. Played by men born and bred to the game in the U.S. By the time South Africa 2010 rolled around, every man who made the starting XI for any of the four games the Americans played — and […]

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When I was a young, Los Angeles versus New York sports championships happened fairly often. And they were intense. The Dodgers and the Yankees met in the World Series in 1963, 1977, 1978 and 1981. The Lakers and Knicks met in the NBA Finals in 1971 and 1972. (And, a reader reminds me, in 1970.) […]

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This was the idea of one of our graphic artists at The National, Alex Belman. As part of our three-week buildup to the Brazil 2014 World Cup … a five-part, clip-n-save-n-reassemble graphic of the World Cup trophy. You know the one … gold-plated, with all the hands grasping the soccer ball. And today was Day […]

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This occurred to me while reading a long story in The National’s business section about Taco Bell and its apparently new “crispy waffle taco” breakfast item. (The assumption being, on the part of our business staff, that nearly everyone in the UAE knows what Taco Bell is.) So, how is the UAE doing, when it […]

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