At some point in my life, long ago, I entertained the notion of how fabulous it would be to work as a traveling baseball writer. One hundred and sixty-two Dodgers games a year, baby! And that’s on top of spring training! Uh, no. You really don’t want that. Unless you’re a freak about ball … […]

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The Dodgers are in the final days of a pennant race here, and they probably are going to win the National League West. And that leaves me, as a lifelong Dodgers fan … supremely disinterested. I’ve been out of the sports journalism business (technically) for six months, so in theory I ought to be reinventing […]

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Maybe I’m reading this wrong, but I have the sense that a lot of sports journalists are very political. And not talking “college football poll” here. I’ve been in press boxes and heard rants from people at both ends of the political spectrum. My theory is that elections are rather like sports, which is why […]

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An interesting dynamic, in Southern California journalism. And this pertains to blogging as well as writing: You have to get your ideas into print/on the web … before the Los Angeles Times does. Or you run the real risk of being seen as a intellectual-property thief. The maddening thing is, it doesn’t work the other […]

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It’s hard to be a good guy and a good reporter. I’ve known more than a few good people, in journalism. But they tended not to be rise-to-the-top reporters or editors, and they often got stepped on during the career scramble. Because “good” held them back. I’ve known some very good journalists. But I don’t […]

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I was about to suggest that it’s interesting, what moments you remember in a three-decade career. Then I considered that we’re talking about a middle-of-the-lineup Angels hitter being shot dead on the streets of Gary, Indiana, and, yes, that probably ought to make for a memorable moment. Doesn’t happen every day. Anyway, that quote came […]

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Remember this? The Seasons in The Sun series … in which I’m trying to write about one former sports co-worker for the 33 years (or parts of years) I spent at the San Bernardino Sun? By no means do all the interesting folks get in. There were too many. Especially during the periods when the […]

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Two of the more deflating experiences of my journalism career were the fortnights I spent covering Wimbledon, in 1985 and 1986. Not because of the tennis. Not because covering the event overwhelmed me. But because of what I was reading in the English newspapers.

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Somehow, they managed it. For the first time since 1975, I had nothing to do with the first weekend of high school football in San Bernardino County, and apparently they played a nearly full schedule. I was hired by the San Bernardino Sun in August of 1976, and my first football game was Pacific at […]

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I did a bit of satire, or thought I did, the other day … based on baseball players’ dunderheaded habit of breaking their own bones while acting out. Punching walls, slapping bats, breaking glass, etc. In the wake of Carlos Quentin, the White Sox most productive hitter, breaking his hand while smacking his own bat […]

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