For the second time in four years, the New York Giants have won the Super Bowl. And they couldn’t have done it without a great shortstop. Shortstop? Yes, back when Eli Manning was going through a rough stretch as a rookie quarterback with the Giants, he received a phone call from Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter. […]
A wise man once described the difference between superstition and ritual. Superstition is doing things to avoid something bad. Rituals mean doing certain things to make something good happen. Superstition involves belief in things beyond your understanding and control. Rituals are a way to organize the things that you can control. All this comes to […]
It’s a scene played out all over the country — and even outside the country — during baseball’s off-season. Big-league players make appearances, either for money, as a favor or out of a sense of gratitude. Whatever the reason, you never know what effect these visits can have. It’s like a stone thrown into a […]
Well, it’s headed for 100 degrees here in New Jersey, USA. The heat wave led one radio announcer to say, “It was a rough winter and a very wet spring. No reason to think the summer won’t be extreme, too.” One of my favorite quotes came from the world-class instruction at the Gold Medal Squared […]
What comes first, winning or team chemistry? There will likely never be an answer to that, but baseball writer Joe Strauss takes a close look at the issue of clubhouse dynamics in today’s St. Louis Post Dispatch. On baseball’s Opening Day, Strauss discusses some of the St. Louis Cardinals’ off-season moves through the prism of […]
If nothing else, the Tiger Woods sage proves one thing: No one has it all. Tiger certainly seemed to. He had money, fame and a new family. But now his image is in shambles, and who knows how he will move on from here? Whatever happens, the story brings to mind the two biggest mistakes […]
“Life is not a spectator sport.” Hundreds of thousands of people turned out in New York yesterday to honor the Yankees and their 27th World Series title. They made it a picnic in November, wearing their Yankee gear to the victory parade and maneuvering for a view of their heroes. It was all good fun. […]
“Many of the great achievements of the world were accomplished by tired and discouraged men who kept on working.” — Unknown Last night the Los Angeles Angels beat the Yankees to extend their American League championship Series to a sixth game. The Angels are trying to become the latest team to rebound from a 3-1 […]
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 […]
One play stands out from yesterday’s classic playoff game in which the Minnesota Twins defeated the Detroit Tigers to earn a trip to New York to play the Yankees. Late in the game, a Detroit player tried to bunt. If he had been successful, it might have helped the Tigers build a crucial run. Instead, […]