Tim Lincecum start rained out in Arizona

Rain washed out a lot of Cactus League games in Arizona today, including a Giants game in which Tim Lincecum was scheduled to start. The young San Francisco ace brings consecutive National League Cy Young awards into the 2010 season. He and Matt Cain make a fearsome duo to lead the pitching staff, and when […]

From the old Coast League: The story of Spider Baum

Here’s a gem of a slideshow about Charles “Spider” Baum, a member of the Pacific Coast League Hall of Fame who spent his best years pitching for the Sacramento Senators (a.k.a. Solons) and San Francisco Seals. The piece is by my McClatchy Co. colleague Mark Morris, multimedia director of The Sacramento Bee. The presentation is […]

Baseball and the folly of retaliation

[picapp align=”right” wrap=”true” link=”term=barry+zito&iid=5013585″ src=”c/d/d/1/Texas_Rangers_v_d498.jpg?adImageId=11010285&imageId=5013585″ width=”234″ height=”314″ /] The Cactus League season has just gotten under way, and controversy has already come out of the San Francisco Giants’ camp. In a game yesterday, Barry Zito plunked Prince (not Cecil, as I first had) Fielder with a fastball to the back. Although no one has definitively […]

Iconic baseball caps: Chicago White Sox

[picapp align=”right” wrap=”true” link=”term=chicago+white+sox&iid=5050132″ src=”7/0/8/1/Chicago_Cubs_vs_393f.JPG?adImageId=10913160&imageId=5050132″ width=”234″ height=”332″ /] The Chicago White Sox cap has gone through several iterations over the long history of the South Side franchise, and I write tonight to recognize the classy gothic lettering that now adorns the current model (displayed by infielder Gordon Beckham last summer). The script has that old-timey […]

A fond farewell to the Winter Olympics

The Winter Olympics have begun their slow fade into history, and I offer here limited and selective observations. I stress limited and selective because that’s what my experience was with the 2010 Vancouver games. When NBC decided to delay virtually everything to us Americans on the West Coast, I wrote off watching most of the […]

The beauty of the Olympics, in photos

[picapp align=”center” wrap=”false” link=”term=bobsled&iid=8115158″ src=”0/d/2/2/Bobsleigh_Fourman_Heat_2d00.jpg?adImageId=10804546&imageId=8115158″ width=”393″ height=”594″ /] The Olympics, summer or winter, are among the most fantastic events for photos. The settings are beautiful, culturally rich cities in foreign lands, and the competitors are dressed in their national colors. The events themselves are full of motion and emotion, an unbeatable combination. I remember being […]

I’m going to miss curling

[picapp align=”center” wrap=”false” link=”term=Cheryl+Bernard&iid=8057445″ src=”3/0/6/4/Olympic_News_3549.jpg?adImageId=10773868&imageId=8057445″ width=”500″ height=”617″ /] Sweden has just won the gold in women’s curling, and Cheryl Bernard (above) and Team Canada get the silver. There are a couple of rounds of the men’s event to go, but there’s not a whole lot curling left for us American TV viewers to see until […]

USA hockey team shocks Canada

[picapp align=”center” wrap=”false” link=”term=hockey&iid=8043841″ src=”b/4/2/0/Ice_Hockey_7cf7.jpg?adImageId=10602867&imageId=8043841″ width=”500″ height=”333″ /] Yes, the costume mountie hat above is a lot classier than the silly red, white and blue topper the American is wearing. But what matters is the final score: USA 5, Canada 3. Magnificent. As I’ve noted before, I’m a big fan of Martin Brodeur. But he […]

Speedskating helmets are awesome

[picapp align=”center” wrap=”false” link=”term=Ohno&iid=8033831″ src=”4/f/d/9/Olympic_Winter_Games_6fcd.JPG?adImageId=10590158&imageId=8033831″ width=”500″ height=”333″ /] They look like plain-label bicycle helmets, but the helmets worn by the speedskaters at the Winter Olympics have an exceedingly high cool factor. It’s the numbers that make them so. For some reason, to me the helmets evoke memories of old Auto Union Grand Prix race cars […]

The grand sport of curling, and a hat for those who love it

For a brief few days every four years, Americans are reminded that the wacky sport of curling can bring the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat. If it weren’t for the Winter Olympics, most Americans wouldn’t even know the sport exists, except for the hardy few in the upper Midwest and other cold-weather states […]