I love bobbleheads. I have confessed to this several times. At this minute, I have two bobbleheads on my desk at The National, here in Abu Dhabi. Duke Snider and David Eckstein area a little worse for wear, given that late-night cleaners handle them roughly, but they still nod at me, and make me smile. […]

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Consider these two baseball lineups: Gwynn Jr. cf, Herrera 3b, Ethier rf, Van Slyke lf, Sands 1b, DeJesus Jr. 2b, Treanor c, Sellers ss, Capuano p. Sax 2b, Stubbs 1b, Hatcher lf, Marshall rf, Shelby cf, Davis dh, Dempsey c, Hamilton 3b, Griffin ss (Hershiser p). Both are pretty limp collections of players, no? The […]

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The Angels fired hitting coach Mickey Hatcher yesterday. Lots of “oh, what a great guy” stuff out there, particularly from those in the sports journalism community. And I say … bosh!

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After 2.5 years of editing and writing in British English, I am picking up several bad habits. I occasionally want to stick a gratuitous “u” in a bunch of words — colour, labour, honour. I am beginning to use “ae” instead of “a” — aenemic, encyclopaedia. (OK, not really; I’ll never get used to that […]

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This was how it was supposed to work: That weasel Frank McCourt would sell the Dodgers and I would immediately resume a powerful interest in the club. I would again know the identities of every man on the roster, with opinions on all of them, and my moods could be least be slightly brightened or […]

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I find Frank McCourt (and his ex-wife, for that matter) as repellant as just about anyone. I’m confident of that. And my initial reaction to a group “led” (“fronted” is a better word) by Magic Johnson buying the Dodgers was, “Our long baseball nightmare is over!” But the more I read about it … the […]

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I now have an idea of how ridiculous I must have sounded. A couple of years ago, early in my time in the UAE and at The National, I asked a co-worker of Indian origin whether Major League Baseball ought to make a push to penetrate the India market. India is nuts about cricket, and […]

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Someone in the Dodgers marketing department deserves a raise. This is just plain brilliant: A Hello Kitty “mini bobblehead” night at Dodger Stadium.

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Ryan Braun has successfully appealed a positive drug test, and no 50-game ban will be forthcoming for the National League’s 2011 Most Valuable Player. And I feel vaguely nauseated.

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I cannot remember the last time I was paying such close attention to the NBA. And not just the Lakers. The whole league. (And yes, I am the same guy who three months ago wrote on this blog that the locked-out NBA could take the season off, for all I cared.) I am more interested, […]

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