Reaching the quarterfinals of a Fifa tournament is pretty much the definition of success, on the male side of the U.S. national soccer realm, and the Under 17 team just did it, at the U17 World Cup in India. And what does it mean for the senior side to have the kids get to the […]

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Los Angeles Lakers fans presumably saw the stat line from the NBA debut of savior/point guard Lonzo Ball. It was scary. The headline espn.com ran on the Associated Press report began like this: “Deflated Ball”. Couldn’t argue with that. Lonzo was unable to escape the enthusiastic defense of Clippers guard Patrick Beverley and the rookie […]

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The Dodgers will play in a World Series. That was harder than we thought it would be. From 1941 through 1988, the Dodgers were National League champions 16 times in 48 seasons. On average, they were in the World Series every third year, during that era, when they also won the World Series six times. […]

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The New York Yankees and the Los Angeles Dodgers. One of the great rivalries in baseball. To me, it remains the greatest, and only in part because these teams have met in a World Series 11 times, by far the most championship matchups in baseball history. With a 12th Fall Classic pitting them now suddenly […]

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Americans tend to think of Europe as a small place. Physically small. Especially when compared to North America, let alone Asia. And Europe is fairly compact. Especially the western half of it. From Ireland to, say, the borders of the former Soviet Union. But, and it’s big but … Europe is not dinky. If you […]

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Most observers would say the NBA is better than ever. I would say it is worse. Than ever. Certainly, in terms of competitive balance and number of clubs with a shot at winning a championship. Because stars are clustering in a half-dozen teams. Because several NBA teams have little hope of reaching the playoffs and […]

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As recently as the winter of 2013-14, Justin Turner was out of baseball. For the second time. A seventh-round draft pick by the Cincinnati Reds in 2006, out of Lakewood Mayfair High School, Turner had not demonstrated he could hit successfully at the major-league level. At best it looked as if he might be a […]

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A relative brought us a copy of the New York Times. Like every other U.S. newspaper, The Gray Lady ain’t what she used to be. A downsized format, far fewer pages … well, you know the drill. But some of the basics are still there. A stripped down news and commentary package. A weather map. […]

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This is where the general Southern California-oriented blogger writes about the Los Angeles Dodgers, what with the club opening the National League Championship Series at home tomorrow versus the Chicago Cubs. I’ve been thinking about this for a few days, and I’ve got only one contribution to make to the discussion:

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It’s time for a list. A lot of information and opinions banging around out there about the U.S. loss at Trinidad and Tobago, and subsequent failure to qualify for the 2018 World Cup. Let’s see if we can pick out a few of the most interesting notions — and maybe introduce a few new ones.

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