I am writing this from the terraced bar area of the quirky Bristol Hotel in the little Amalfi Coast town of Vietri. We left Sicily two days early and powered halfway up the Italian boot yesterday. Now, we’re back to overlooking the sea … near the end of our Italian vacation. In a few minutes, […]

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We again interrupt this travelogue to muse about sports events back home, this time the Day of Reckoning at the University of Southern California. Anyone who has been around the American college sports scene for any length of time could see this coming. To spend any time around Heritage Hall at USC was to pick […]

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After traveling all day down the mountain-spackled length of Italy — and no, you can’t find a dozen places flat enough to plow 40 acres anywhere south of Rome — finally some time to do my tiny bit on UCLA basketball coach John Wooden, the most important sports figure in Southern California over the last […]

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Thank goodness I won’t be able to see the Lakers and Celtics. Not that I don’t care. Oh, on the contrary. I care scads. Tons. Oodles. It’s just that I come from that generation of Lakers fans/followers who remember the 1960s … and far too well, when it comes to the Lakers and Celtics. Does […]

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The last time I saw Floyd Landis was at a bike shop in the city of Rialto, California. Might have been late 2007, early 2008. He was the star of a one-man event to tell “his side” of the Tour de France drug-test story. He had been stripped of his 2006 championship after he failed […]

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We interrupt our Abu Dhabi travelogue to strap into the Wayback Machine and check in on Don Markham. For those of you looking for United Arab Emirates material, come back tomorrow. For generic observations about Southern California, same deal. Or maybe the day after. Today, for one day only, we go back to the Inland […]

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Time for a list! I didn’t do a survey on this. This is a hunch sorta thing. Who are the 10 best-known active American athletes in … the United Arab Emirates? Who travels? Who rates? Who stirs interest? Who plays a sport that a country that is mostly Indians, Pakistanis, Arabs, Filipinos and Britons (in […]

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Interesting concept. Landon Donovan returning to Redlands for an episode of an ESPN series entitled “Homecoming with Rick Reilly.” Turns out you don’t just go home … you go home with Rick Reilly, the former Sports Illustrated columnist who is now the “other guy” columnist at espn.com. The other guy to Bill Simmons, that is. […]

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Old guys and their memories. Why don’t they just give it a rest? Because we think our memories are interesting. That’s why. So we just throw some stuff out there, see if anyone cares, and if they don’t, well, go find something else to do, young Mr. Whippersnapper. Thinking, tonight, about two events only a […]

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Really. Why is this? Hertz has Avis. Coke has Pepsi. Adidas has Nike. Ford has GM … and Honda and Toyota and Hyundai, Renault, Volvo, BMW, Fiat, Mercedes … Every great brand name in the world has a rival. Or 50. Why doesn’t Bill Simmons? How is it that one man has been able to […]

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