Opening day for old Guy Football

It’s opening Sunday for the National Football League, and even better, I survived the first game of the year in the long-running “old guy” touch football game that’s been playing in Princeton since the mid-1990s. In my mid-60s, I was a rookie last season. Now I’m hoping to avoid the sophomore jinx, although I’ll settle […]

How to talk to your kids about Richard Sherman

While trying to keep an open mind, I’ve been watching the arguments unfold the past couple of days in the wake of Richard Sherman’s bombastic remarks after the Seahawks defeated the 49ers in the NFC championship game. Outrage was in abundance that night, with many football fans denouncing Sherman as an ungracious lout and vowing […]

Exit, 49ers, and bring on baseball!

With the 49ers’ overtime loss to the New York Giants still stinging sharply, I turn to my blog and the prospect of another baseball season for solace. As a (baseball) Giants fan, it was weird — and damned annoying — to hear chants of “Let’s go, Giants” ringing out from Candlestick Park after today’s NFC […]

A worthy baseball blogathon

The Ball Caps Blog has been dormant since the passing of the Baseball Solstice, and it stirs to life to today with a recommendation that you check out the blogathon over at Old Time Family Baseball. It’s a fundraiser for Doctors Without Borders, a worthy organization that is even more impressive under its French title, […]

The baseball season ends, and winter begins

It’s no coincidence: The baseball season concluded last night as the Cardinals knocked off the Rangers in St. Louis, and it’s snowing this morning in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and New York. What more do fans of the Phillies, Pirates, Yankees and Mets need to remind them that the 2011 season didn’t go their way? But what […]

Labor troubles, the NFL and a bit of perspective

National Football League owners and the players’ union broke off negotiations today, and a whole lot of stuff I don’t understand will follow. What I do understand is that if the football season is delayed or scrubbed, I will survive and life will go on. That’s a lesson I learned from the long Major League […]

Peering past Super Bowl Sunday to the start of Spring Training

We have one more week of bread-and-circus hoopla leading up to the Super Bowl, and then we can shift our full attention to what really matters: baseball. Spring training is just around the corner. Knowing that pitchers and catchers will soon be breaking out the balls and mitts keeps us going through the cold months. […]

Oakland Raiders cut Cable, and other musings on big-league coaching

Word is out tonight from the Bay Area that Al Davis has given the heave-ho to Coach Tom Cable, who guided the Raiders to an 8-8 record this season, their best in recent years. Evidently improving operations is not enough in Oakland, where it’s “just win, baby.” Or so it’s supposed to be. The Raiders […]

No, thanks. I’ll pass on the chips (Fiesta Bowl 2010)

[picapp align=”left” wrap=”true” link=”term=Boise+State&iid=7455313″ src=”6/1/2/4/Tostitos_Fiesta_Bowl_0155.jpg?adImageId=8797792&imageId=7455313″ width=”234″ height=”317″ /] On my television screen, the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl tonight looked more like the Ugly Uniforms Bowl. As one of my Twitter buddies pointed out, TCU players looked like walking eggplants. And although the pants in this photo appear orange, on my screen the Boise State players looked […]

Farewell to Isaac Bruce, one of the great ones

[picapp align=”right” wrap=”true” link=”term=Isaac+Bruce&iid=7452407″ src=”e/9/8/4/San_Francisco_49ers_b8d2.JPG?adImageId=8781688&imageId=7452407″ width=”234″ height=”324″ /] Isaac Bruce bid farewell to his outstanding NFL career today. He was on the field for one play for the 49ers, who went on to defeat the hapless St. Louis Rams. Bruce spent all but the last two years of his career with the Rams, dating back […]