Being an Arsenal fan is the worst idea in sports. Being an Arsenal fan is the greatest idea in sports. No team in the world can look so elegant, so beautiful. And no team of Arsenal’s pedigree can look as shiftless and feckless. Which is by way of introduction to the first Premier League match […]

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On August 17, 1920, Ray Chapman of the Cleveland Indians was struck on the head by a pitch thrown by Carl Mays of the New York Yankees. Chapman crumbled to the ground as Mays fielded the ricochet and threw to first. Chapman seemed to come around for a bit, despite blood coming out of his […]

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This would not be as annoying if it were not about the New England Patriots. Generally, the rest of the National Football League — and their fans – hate the Patriots. Why? For the usual reasons. “They’re better than us” would be the overarching explanation. Most Super Bowl victories (five); most Super Bowl appearances (nine); […]

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Long Beach Poly has one of Southern California’s top prep football programs. The school has won 19 regional championships at the top level of competition and has sent more than 60 players to the NFL and hundreds to college football. But this year Long Beach Poly does not have enough kids out for football to […]

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Asking sports stars of yesteryear what they think about the modern state of their game … more often than not leads to interesting reactions. My experience was that former greats often are eager to answer that question. As if it has been something they have been thinking about and are eager to share with someone […]

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Little towns in the south of France have more spirit and energy than unwitting visitors might expect. Especially if the visitors happened into a village in the winter. Ah, but the summer … A different story.

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I don’t know if this is common, semi-common or weird. I can count while I’m thinking of something else. But only to 100. And as long as I do not think of some other arithmetical concept.

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The NBA has fans outside of North America, but not tons of them. So the stunning similarity of what soccer’s Neymar has done and what the NBA’s Kyrie Irving wants to do may have gone largely unnoticed in the vast realm of global sports. In short, it is this: Each is is a star, each […]

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What were the builders thinking? Why would anyone name (what was then) the world’s tallest residential building … Torch Tower? Was “Flammable Flats” already taken? Did someone have dibs on “Incinerator Manor”? “Ashes Apartments?” Torch Tower has been a self-fulfilling appellation. It seems keen to live up to its reckless name. For the second time […]

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As a boxing fan, I wanted to dislike Wladimir Klitschko. I really did. It seemed as if he and his brother took over the sport of boxing around 2005 — and rode it into irrelevance. But I couldn’t really have an issue with Wladimir … or with Vitaly, his elder brother (and mayor of Kiev). […]

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