This is always a difficult time of year for me. I am never sure which leaves me with a greater numbness of the brain — the NFL draft or grading final exams. This is a question that will have to be resolved by greater minds than mine, particularly in my current mental state. The NFL draft is [...]

Americans may not have realized it before, but Pope Benedict XVI (did the NFL steal this number thing from the Pope?) is a baseball fan. The reason for his U.S. visit is obvious: He came to commemorate the 100th anniversary of “Take Me Out to the Ball Game.” On Thursday the Pope went to the Nationals’ [...]

When dealing with the NCAA, you can be certain that there will never be a shortage of hypocrisy. As March Madness gives way to April Sadness, two wonderful examples came flying out of the NCAA cupboard. The NCAA has, over the years, condemned the practice of scalping tickets at their events. Now the folks at the [...]

Those who experience historic events directly have their own unique memories of those events. As a historian I know the limits of memory and am wary of it. For what its worth these are my memories of Memphis at the time of troubles that reached a climax with the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. ————————————————— It [...]

Have you caught March Madness? The television ratings thus far indicate that there is a greater chance this year than last that you have not. I have. I always do. I can’t help myself. No matter how much I loathe the hyping of March Madness, no matter how mentally disturbed I find many basketball coaches, no matter [...]

It has been about two weeks now since the news came that Ereck Plancher, a University of Central Florida football player, collapsed and died following a grueling conditioning workout leading up to spring football practice. He was 19 years old and had been an honor student in high school. He was just starting his second year [...]

“Nothing succeeds like success.” “Nothing exceeds like excess” (except perhaps avarice and greed). Or in the case of the National Football League: “Nothing succeeds like excess.” As we enter Super Bowl weekend we are reminded of these self-evident truths. Here we are once again at America’s mid-winter festival, the national holiday for the national pastime, Super Bowl XLII, where [...]

I have been distracted for the last few days contemplating the fact that the United States has 2.7 million candy bars in Iraq and 1.6 million cans of soda. Is this “the surge” that has been much discussed over the past few months? Luckily I have more intellectually stimulating things to occupy me because I watched [...]

You could have bowled me over with a Poulan Weed Eater when I realized that I had already missed as many as 10 bowl games. The parade of epic struggles will continue well into the New Year, grabbing the attention of a handful of people beyond friends, relatives and alumni of the concerned teams. Yes, [...]

If you are looking for justice in the Mitchell Report, you’ll find it on page 181: David Justice is named as someone who Kirk Radomski says bought two or three kits of HGH following the 2000 World Series. Radomski, the former Mets clubhouse attendant, says that Justice paid by check although there is no cancelled check [...]