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Entries from July 2014

Better Players Apart

July 21st, 2014 · No Comments · Uncategorized

Rory McIlroy and Caroline Wozniacki were the sports love couple of the 21st century. With Lleyton Hewitt and Kim Clijsters a distant second. “Wozilroy”, as they were sometimes known, went where Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf and Jimmy Connors and Chris Evert went before them. Where everything they did was seen through the prism of […]

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An Empty Crib

July 20th, 2014 · No Comments · Abu Dhabi, Football, Landon Donovan, NFL, soccer

I was in the gym of our apartment building in Abu Dhabi, doing puny exercise, and the TV up in the corner of the room was stuck on MTV. Not my first choice but my only choice — someone had stripped the batteries out of the remote. And then came a blast from the past. […]

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Adding Another Entry to the Unwritten Rules of Baseball

July 19th, 2014 · 1 Comment · Baseball

This could be the silliest item I’ve come across in weeks. Months. This year. Colby Lewis, the Texas Rangers pitcher, said he “didn’t appreciate” the way Colby Rasmus, the Toronto Blue Jays outfielder, played the game and said he told him so. What offense did Rasmus commit on Lewis? What felony did he perpetrate on […]

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From the World Cup to … Fujairah?

July 18th, 2014 · No Comments · Abu Dhabi, Arabian Gulf League, Brazil 2014, Football, soccer, The National, UAE, World Cup

One of the surest ways to move your soccer career forward is to do a little something with a successful team at the World Cup. Like the one that ended on Sunday. —Luis Suarez scored two goals against England, bit a guy, and got a huge deal to more from Liverpool to Barcelona. —Toni Kroos […]

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My First Pick Among Football Films

July 17th, 2014 · 2 Comments · Abu Dhabi, College football, Football, NFL, UAE

I pretty much hate sports movies, and football movies are a big part of the problem. (Just behind boxing movies, I’d say.) I have never seen a football film that correctly conveys game action, and that lack of verisimilitude kills football movies in the cradle. That, and casting teeny Al Pacino as an NFL coach […]

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Mike Trout, the Millville Meteor?

July 16th, 2014 · No Comments · Angels, Baseball

Came across this yesterday, while looking at the Mike Trout wiki page. ” … nicknamed The Millville Meteor”. What? The Millville Meteor? Mike Trout? Has anyone ever actually called him that? Has any sports writer used it in a game story?  “And then the Millville Meteor laced a three-bagger …” If this were a century […]

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Baseball in the Mind’s Eye

July 15th, 2014 · No Comments · Abu Dhabi, Baseball

Baseball is the best radio sport, is it not? Even if you grew up without Vin Scully. Things happen slowly enough that they can be explained in real time, and even if it gets hectic for a moment, it will settle down in a matter of seconds and then the announcer can tell you what […]

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A Step into the Void

July 14th, 2014 · No Comments · Baseball, Basketball, Brazil 2014, Football, Journalism, NBA, Newspapers, NFL, soccer, Sports Journalism, Tennis, The National, UAE, World Cup

A lot of sports editors around the world today weren’t exactly surprised that, with the end of the World Cup, not a whole lot is going on … but it still represents an unpleasant reality. A limited number of scheduled events in the near future. It is the case in the UAE, and it is […]

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Brazil 2014: This Is the End

July 13th, 2014 · No Comments · Brazil 2014, Football, soccer, The National, World Cup

My three wishes for the World Cup championship match: 1. Someone scores in the first 90 minutes. 2. Argentina scores the goal. 3. Lionel Messi scores the goal, for Argentina. A big 0-for-three. Two topics, out of “Germany 1, Argentina 0” — in 120 minutes:

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We Need This to End in 90 Minutes

July 12th, 2014 · No Comments · Abu Dhabi, Brazil 2014, Football, Journalism, soccer, Sports Journalism, The National, UAE, World Cup

Deadline! Journalists love it and hate it. We love the rush. We hate that it probably will shorten our lives. (Or, less dramatically, get us in trouble for missing it.) We will be dealing with deadline for the World Cup final tomorrow.

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