Yesterday was Mickey Mantle’s birthday. He would have been 79. Mantle, the glamorous power hitting centerfielder for the Yankees during the 1950s and early 1960s, remains my favorite ballplayer of all time. Despite his power, speed and skill, Mantle never played the role of superstar in the clubhouse. He made a deep impression on his […]
Do sports build character or, as sports writer Heywood Broun said, simply reveal it? Some information suggests that the answer may be neither, and that character may be much more difficult to nail down. In his New York Times column today, David Brooks cites the book “Experiments in Ethics” by Anthony Appiah, which wonders if […]
You’ve heard a batter on a hot streak say that the ball seemed as big as a basketball. Or a batter who’s in a slump sy that the ball looked smaller than a pea. Turns out they’re right. A new study indicates that your success or failure at a skill actually changes the way you […]
Yesterday marked the 20th anniversary of the earthquake that killed 42 people, caused massive damage to the San Francisco Bay area and disputed the 1989 Wold Series. I was in Candlestick Park that night, getting ready to cover Game 3 of the World Series between the San Francisco Giants and the Oakland A’s. I was […]
Elena Della Donne has found happiness on the basketball court again, and as a result, she has made thousands of Delaware basketball fans ecstatic. Della Donne, a prized recruit who walked away from basketball and briefly turned to volleyball, has regained her passion for hoops. She described the process recently in an interview with the […]
The movie “Moonshot” chronicles the first moon landing and the preparation that went into it. In one scene, astronauts Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong emerge from the flight simulator after a series of failed landings. Later, in their quarters, Aldrin is mad at Armstrong, wondering why he ignored instructions and crashed the lander. In contrast […]
What goes into greatness? In this simple speech, you can see what made Alabama football legend Paul “Bear” Bryant so successful. The message comes courtesy of John McCarthy at Montclair State University in New Jersey. I don’t know the original source; if anyone knows, please tell me so I can give credit. Here it is: […]
Now and then someone will give us a glimpse of the impossible. Today’s it’s Ruth Frith, who recently won a title by throwing the shot put 13 feet, four and a half inches. That may not sound like much (the world record for women is 74 feet, three inches), but you must remember that Ruth […]
Brad Lidge threw the last pitch of yesterday’s game between Philadelphia and Colorado, propelling his Phillies to the next round and sending the Rockies home. Lidge had pitched so poorly over parts of the summer that he lost his job, yet he recovered in time to be a factor for the Phillies, who are trying […]
Three of the four baseball playoff series have been decided already, and in all three cases, the losing team lost in part because a late-inning pitching specialist failed to do his job. For the Minnesota Twins, it was Joe Nathan relinquishing a lead to the Yankees; for the Boston Red Sox it was Jonathan Papelbon […]