It has been remarkably, really. The number of elite European soccer clubs who have been in the U.S. this summer is … astonishing. Real Madrid. Bayern Munich. Manchester United. Manchester City. Liverpool, Arsenal. Atletico Madrid, Roma, Inter Milan, AC Milan, Monaco, Olympiakos. Those names look like most of the final 16 team in the European […]

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Americans travel around Europe or Asia, and they soon discover that U.S. history — and California history, in particular — is nothing, compared to most of Eurasia. Egypt has recorded history going back more than 5,000 years. China can account for 4,000 years. Nearly any country in Europe, even in the north, has history going […]

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A few years ago, I went off on the misuse of the word “surreal” by athletes. It’s one of those Crabby Old Editor things. Most athletes don’t know surrealism from the Man in the Moon. What they mean is “unreal”. And here is another horribly overworked word, these past years: “Icon” … and it’s adjectival […]

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Turns out this is a specialty of the UAE government. The nine-day holiday. For the third time in our five years here, all government workers have off nine consecutive days. Well, actually, one of those previous episodes, in 2009, was 10 consecutive paid days off. And another was six days. Which is mind-boggling, really. In […]

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We hired someone from the San Francisco area to work here in the sports department of The National. Yes. Even though a certain someone in the newsroom is a Southern California guy. We haven’t come to blows yet, but it could happen. The NorCal kid turned around this morning and announced: “Who would have guessed […]

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I love this sort of thing: When reporters interview crabby old reporters, Crabby old reporters are like crabby old people everywhere. Things were so much better in the old days; we were able to deal with athletes on a human level; things have gone to hell. This Crabby Old Reporter Story is a little unusual […]

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As noted a few days ago, when Mike Trout tripled in his first at-bat at the All-Star game, I support the concept that the triple is the most exciting play in baseball. A guy running full speed from the batter’s box to third base while an outfielder or two chases down a ball in the […]

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A week ago, I did a post about the unlikely pairing of the Chilean international playmaker Jorge Valdivia with the little Arabian Gulf League club Fujairah FC. Which was a sensation, in the small world of UAE soccer. At that moment in history, we were led to believe the deal was done. When it was […]

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Not even Brazil lost this badly. Manchester United 7, LA Galaxy 0 — as reported in The National by our correspondent in Pasadena, Gregg Patton. Wow. The Galaxy probably is the marquee franchise of Major League Soccer, with the four MLS Cup championships, and all … but all that was left of them after their […]

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This is my favorite time of the tennis season. July and the first half of August. When the tournament are numerous, not particularly important, often located in exotic lands and liable to produce random winners. Jonathan Raymond of The National’s sports staff addressed that topic today. People named Leonardo Mayer and Mona Barthel won tournament […]

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