The antithesis of the Kingdome: Seattle’s new ballpark

SEATTLE — I paid my first visit June 23 to what is now T-Mobile Park, a delightful place for a baseball game near the shore of Puget Sound. The day was glorious, a Wednesday afternoon in a seam between two heat waves dominating the American West in transition from spring to summer. With the sun […]

Take me out to the ball game, and buy me some ear plugs

Take me out to the ball game, but skip the peanuts and Cracker Jack. I need ear plugs. I’ve made it to four major league ball parks this year, and my ears haven’t stopped ringing. The worst offender was Kauffman Field in Kansas City, where we were seated down range from what I presume was […]

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 […]

A tip of the cap to the Big Unit, Randy Johnson

[picapp align=”center” wrap=”false” link=”term=Randy+Johnson&iid=3277461″ src=”3/6/3/9/Randy_Johnson_51_421b.jpg?adImageId=8809165&imageId=3277461″ width=”500″ height=”336″ /] This is how I’ll remember Randy Johnson – snarling, defiant, dominant. His long hair a tangle, his facial hair prickly, his fastball hurtling menacingly toward the plate from that lanky 6′ 11″ frame. I’ll remember him most in a Mariners’ cap as above, for it was in […]

How to survive over the centuries, media division

Over the course of many years as a bureau chief with The Associated Press, I stamped the AP logo on a wide range of coffee mugs, fanny packs, water bottles, golf balls and other trinkets for the staff and newspaper editors. I’m a sucker for advertising specialty products, and I was always on the lookout […]

Loose on the Palouse with a WSU ball cap

As my wife heads to Portland, Ore., my thoughts turn to: What am I going to eat for the next five days? Hey, I bought a ballcap near Portland a couple of years ago! Not just any ballcap. This was a genuine Washington State Cougars cap, an early 21st Century Nike model with stretch-to-fit elastic […]