I woke in the middle of the night — like, literally, midnight — in the throes of jet lag. I fired up the laptop, and on the New York Times home page I saw two stories, one above the other. Royal baby born! Ryan Braun suspended for rest of season! Guess which one I read […]

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Andy Murray won the “gentlemen’s” singles championship at Wimbledon today, the first Briton to do so since Fred Perry in 1936. Yes. Seventy-seven years ago. And there went another great losing streak. I am on record expressing support for the continuation of all prominent losing streaks. They give context and shape to teams, people and […]

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Since moving to Abu Dhabi, nearly four years ago, I have returned to the U.S. on three occasions. Each of those three times … I saw a baseball game within a few days of clearing customs at LAX. In this case, the Angels and Red Sox, at Anaheim Stadium. As usual, I found it a […]

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They play baseball here. Well, not here here, “here” being Abu Dhabi. To my knowledge, Abu Dhabi has one softball field … zero baseball fields. “Fields” of any sort are at a premium here in the desert, and heavily in demand by soccer players. So we have no ball fields here; none dedicated to baseball, […]

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I have held my tongue for more than 3.5 years. I have been working in the UAE for all that time, and have been immersed in cricket throughout, and I am now ready to say it. Cricket is failed baseball. Baseball’s origins probably were in the British games of cricket and rounders, and all three […]

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As a Dodgers fan since Vin Scully was a young man and the club was still playing in the Coliseum, I have been paying attention from afar to the first week of Yasiel Puig. My appetite for information on him is whetted by his presence (since March) on my fantasy team … a guy I […]

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The news broke today, via ESPN, that Major League Baseball is looking to punish around 20 players connected to a Miami-based performance-enhancing drugs scandal, including Ryan Braun and Alex Rodriguez. Good. If the evidence shows these players are complicit in PED use, suspend them. PEDs have to be run out of baseball, and it’s clear […]

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This is an awful time to be a Los Angeles-area sports fan. It has been mostly dreary since I left the region to live and work in Abu Dhabi, in 2009, but it seems to be bottoming out, the past four or five months. Aside from hockey, which has no significant hold on Southern California […]

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Generally, I believe we should ignore pretty much all dreams. They may tell more about us than we care to know, or to share, certainly. Though, yes, the Bible has a fair number of dreams interpreted. Thinking of Nebuchadnezzar and Daniel, in particular, and also of Joseph and the pharaoh. But this was such a […]

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I am immersed in soccer. Football, as it is known on this side of the Atlantic. I watch a half-dozen matches a week. Sometimes more. I edit soccer copy every day I walk inside the offices of The National. Soccer (or cricket) is on the TV behind me hour after hour. I can tell you […]

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