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Entries from January 2017

Roger Federer Not Quite Finished, Thank Goodness

January 21st, 2017 · No Comments · Tennis

There were times, more than a few, when I wished Roger Federer would go home to Switzerland and take up yodeling. This would have been during the zenith of his career, which went on for most of a decade, when he hardly gave anyone else in the game room to breathe. It got to be […]

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Donovan and Real Salt Lake: Still on Hold

January 20th, 2017 · 1 Comment · Football, Landon Donovan, soccer

This must be a time of some anxiety for Landon Donovan. The top scorer in the history of the U.S. national team, as well as Major League Soccer, is thought to be on the verge of extending his playing career with MLS side Real Salt Lake. But it has been nearly a month since it […]

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Trying Out ‘Good Morning!’ on Californians

January 19th, 2017 · No Comments · France

A key part of French culture, certainly in small towns, is to greet everyone you encounter while walking or jogging with a hearty bonjour! That is, “Good day!” At first, it struck me as a sort of empty gesture, a cultural tic, probably conveying “we both know we don’t really mean it but it’s the […]

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‘Hall’ Voters Going Soft on Known (or Suspected) PEDs Abusers

January 18th, 2017 · 2 Comments · Baseball

Results of the Baseball Hall of Fame voting were released today, and three players were elected to the Hall: Jeff Bagwell, Tim Raines and Ivan “Pudge” Rodriguez. One of those guys … all for it. The other two … a little creepy, leaving me a lot worried about where this is headed. And here is […]

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’14 and Going on LeBron’ Coaching JV Squad

January 17th, 2017 · No Comments · Basketball

Demetrius Walker ranks high among the sad list of “most abused kiddie hoopsters” who were sucked up by the hype of age-group basketball only to be discarded and largely forgotten before they had turned 21. Much of his early life was exhaustively documented in the 2010 book “Play Their Hearts Out”, which followed the one-dimensional […]

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The Embarrassment That Is the LAX Bradley Terminal

January 16th, 2017 · 3 Comments · tourism, Travel

Summer smog? That’s nothing. Risk of the Big One earthquake? No matter. Thousands of arriving foreign tourists exposed to the chaos of the Tom Bradley Terminal at Los Angeles International Airport? That’s a daily killer to La-La Land’s reputation. Take, for example, a Monday afternoon in mid-January.

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Once-Obscure SoCal School Seeks March Madness

January 15th, 2017 · 1 Comment · Basketball

Which of the following U.S. universities compete in NCAA Division I basketball? Belmont, Binghampton, Bryant, Campbell, Charleston Southern, Detroit Mercy, Elon, Gardner-Webb, High Point, Kennesaw State, Longwood, Mercer, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Oakland, Savannah State, Stony Brook, Towson, Wofford, Cal Baptist. How many D1 basketball schools there? It’s a sort of trick question. Everyone […]

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Marcus Smart and the Blight of NBA Flopping

January 14th, 2017 · No Comments · Basketball, NBA

Americans hate floppers in sports. It’s one reason that it took soccer so long to establish a toehold in the U.S. — all the guys who go down, writhing, grabbing at a knee or an ankle, after little (or no) contact. Dark forces in the NBA have tried to bring those vile tactics into basketball, […]

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Rams Jump the Gun on Coach

January 13th, 2017 · No Comments · Football, NFL, Rams

Sean McVay, is it? All of 30 years old, is Sean? And this is the Rams’ latest great idea? Hiring the youngest head coach in the Super Bowl era? Will it be seen, in a few years from now, as a club blunder right up there with spending six draft picks for Jared Goff or […]

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It’s Official: Chargers Bolt for Los Angeles

January 12th, 2017 · No Comments · Los Angeles Rams, NFL

This nearly happened a year ago, after the NFL’s Rams announced their move from St. Louis back to greater Los Angeles. The Chargers had a chance to leave San Diego then and commit to joining the Rams at their $2.6 billion stadium (and counting) being built in Inglewood … or they could wait a year […]

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