You know we’re talking soccer, don’t you? Baseball puts up some zeroes, but halfway through a baseball game the odds are really high that someone will have scored. In soccer? Not necessarily. Especially when you are France. Yes, France. World Cup champion in 1998. World Cup runner-up in 2006. Tied 0-0 with Romania at halftime […]

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I did not know this. I am not a huge golf fan. Not even a semi-big one. But I’ve covered a bit of it, and I watch the majors, or at least parts of them. But somehow, I managed not to know this: Tiger Woods can’t control his temper (or his mouth) at golf tournaments.

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Lance Armstrong hadn’t competed on the cycling tour in three-plus years. He is 37, 38 in September, which is easily on the back side of an athlete’s career. Yet he went to the Tour de France and hung around the leaders for nearly three weeks before getting pretty much buried today — though he remains […]

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We tend to divide humanity into segments. By nationality, ethnicity, gender … A grouping that some people don’t always think of quite as readily: Groupings by age. And I now root for old guys. Because I am one and because I understand far better the challenges they face. That’s why I’m a bigger fan of […]

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Today was the day David Beckham deigned to speak with the media after a Los Angeles Galaxy training center at Home Depot Center, and he said the spat between him and Galaxy captain Landon Donovan … is over. Here is a link to a story on espn.com in which Becks says the barbs between the […]

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I know. The story is Roger Federer winning his 15th grand slam event, becoming the first guy with 15 championships in the Big Four tournaments. But I feel badly for Andy Roddick, who played as well as he can possibly play but still lost. Score of 5-7, 7-6 (6), 7-6 (5), 3-6, 16-14. Yes. 16-14 […]

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Uh-oh. This could be awkward. David Beckham is due back with the Los Angeles Galaxy inside of two weeks. Just in time for soccer fans in Los Angeles to have picked up a book (by Sports Illustrated senior writer Grant Wahl) in which it seems clear that Galaxy players don’t believe Beckham is emotionally invested […]

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I always have loved military history. For quite some time I was convinced that the soldiery of a nation or an empire were what made it great. The nuances of economic might or cultural power being too elusive for me to ponder overmuch, certainly before adulthood. Thus,  I always have been appreciative of the huge […]

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I suppose my first inkling came a few years ago, when I was still living in Highland, and a guy I knew along my jog route always seemed to be out puttering in his front yard, and as I chugged past would call out a variation of the same encouragement. “Keep on smilin’!” I remember […]

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This has nothing to do with sports or journalism or sports journalism. Sorry. I just wonder if anyone has an opinion on this. Nicolas Cage seemed to have a lot of promise, back when he began his career. “Leaving Las Vegas,” and all. Into the middle 1990s, he looked like a guy who could amount […]

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