How Do We Describe 2018? Decide For Yourself 
Dodgers Trade with Cincy. Clearing Room for Harper? December 24, 2018
Poor Turner Ward. He's been the hitting coach of the Los Angeles Dodgers for the past three years. Early in this off-season (which was only about six weeks ago), he left the organization to become the hitting coach of the Cincinnati Reds. Perhaps they offered him more money. It was reported at the time that Ward lives in Alabama, so the new job would keep him closer to home. But maybe he took the Cincy gig to get away from Yasiel Puig. If that's the case, he should have stayed where he was...(continued)
New Year's Day is just two weeks away. Of course, New Year's Day in the sports world means college football. The Rose Bowl, the Sugar Bowl, the Fiesta Bowl, and before things got mucked up with a four-team national championship playoff, the Orange Bowl, Cotton Bowl, and a bunch of other games on early in the morning because they can't conflict with ESPN''s exclusivity of those contests. Operating on the theory, though, of there's never too much of a good thing, we get 39 games in 18 days, and that doesn't include the national championship...(continued)
If you live in the Marysville-Yuba City area (I do) and follow sports, you are no doubt familiar with a baseball team called the Gold Sox. If you follow the team and read the paper (I don't), you know that the future of that franchise is in doubt. This news is more than a month old (but news to me). The team is up for sale, and the league that they played in has gone out of business...(continued)
Every Saturday for the last three months, and pretty much every day in between, when ESPN promoted college football and the road to the four-team playoff, they'd end with the question, “Who's In?”. We finally got the answer Saturday, and although no one is really saying the selection committee got it wrong, the fourth and final choice garnered substantial debate...(continued)
Ahh the annual USC-Notre Dame football game. It could be considered the best non-regional rivalry in college football. If you are a UCLA fan, you hate USC, but what if you're not exactly all in on the Fighting Irish, either?...(continued)
It used to be appointment viewing. Part of the cornucopia of the Thanksgiving weekend college football menu. Yeah, there were games like Auburn-Alabama, Texas-Texas A&M, and Oklahoma-Nebraska (if you remember back that far), but the can't miss doubleheader was Ohio State-Michigan followed by USC-UCLA. In some cases, the winners of those two games would play in the Rose Bowl...(continued)
It was a pretty little town east of Chico. Not only did the name give you an idea of what residents thought of their community, but even to get there, the road you took was called the Skyway. I mean how cool is that? About an eight mile trip where you climb about two thousand feet along the side of Butte Creek Canyon, which is pretty impressive, especially when you see it for the first time...(continued)
In getting ready to vote in tomorrow's election, I am reminded of a scene from the 1977 movie Smokey and the Bandit. This probably doesn't apply to most of you, but I am stuck in a little bit of a conundrum. In the scene, Bandit (Burt Reynolds) explains to Sally Field's character that how dumb you are depends on what part of the country you are standing in...(continued)
They were the best team in baseball all year. The 2018 Boston Red Sox won 108 games. They took care of their hated New York Yankees rival three games to one in the Division Series. They de-throned the defending champion Houston Astros four games to one in the League Championship Series, and they unceremoniously dispatched the Los Angeles Dodgers four games to one in the World Series. Crank up Dirty Water by the Standells, and Tessie by the Dropkick Murphys. The Boston Red Sox are the champs...(continued)
There will not be a World Series rematch for the first time in four decades, but for the first time in that same period, the Los Angeles Dodgers have made it to the fall classic for the second consecutive year. Instead of the Houston Astros, the Dodgers will take on the fabled Boston Red Sox, who had the best record in the American League...(continued)
The Dodgers did need four games to dispatch of the Braves and so did the Red Sox to take care of the Yankees. Neither, though, was much of a series. Milwaukee swept Colorado and Houston blanked Cleveland before we could say Nolan Arenado and Corey Kluber. Now, though, going into today, each best-of-seven League Championship Series was tied 1-1, and it looks like we're in it for the long haul...(continued)
This season doesn't have the same feel to it as last year did, but all of a sudden for Dodger fans, World Series fever might be setting in a little bit. There's still a little ways to go, but after two impressive pitching performances at home, this team seems poised to enter the Fall Classic for the second consecutive year. And if they get there, who knows what will happen...(continued)
The Los Angeles Dodgers are no strangers to the playoffs. That means they are no stranger to clinching divisions. Last year, they won 104 games and wrapped things up early. In 2016, they clinched with a week to go, but on the day of the final home game (Vin Scully's sendoff). This year, it came down to the final day, and then a day beyond...(continued)
Ten notes and observations from the last week in sports...(continued)
I like to think I'm a good guy. I try to be. In the workplace, I have often been described as 'professional'. I take pride in that. I believe that I work hard, and am nice to people. I'm certainly no Harvey Weinstein, Matt Lauer, Kevin Spacey, Louis C.K., Al Franken, Les Moonves, or anything like how those people are now perceived after allegations of sexual misconduct have destroyed their careers. Here's where I'm going with this...(continued)
What is it about Serena Williams and the US Open Tennis Championships? Every few years we get to see the diva side of the tennis queen, and while some think berating a linesperson or a chair umpire is entertaining, it also reveals a competitor's true character, Interestingly, we saw some maturity (in part) in Williams, as she once again carried on like a spoiled brat...(continued)
When a Major League Baseball season gets underway in April (now late March), it is said that it's too early to tell how good teams are until Memorial Day. As the summer winds down,you know who the contenders are, but the stretch run doesn't begin until Labor Day. If that's true, the Los Angeles Dodgers picked the right time to climb back on top of the National League West. It's Labor Day...(continued)
It's the weekend before Labor Day. There were some good baseball matchups, but television sports was mostly dominated by preseason football. The college headlines are still about what coaches know about spousal abuse but didn't tell anyone, and a major tennis tournament is about to begin, but not yet. The weekend before Labor Day is kind of ho-hum, but that doesn't mean things aren't about to happen...(continued)
It was June 16. Still a month shy of the All-Star Break, not even the halfway point of the Major League Baseball season yet, and it looked like the playoff teams had already been determined in the American League. The Houston Astros and Cleveland Indians had substantial leads in their divisions, the Boston Red Sox had the best record, even though the New York Yankees were right behind them, and the Seattle Mariners supposedly had their wild card ticket already punched. The Oakland Athletics, having lost two more games...(continued)
You hear this all the time in sports, and you hear it because it's true. Athletes are so much better today than they were years ago. No matter what the sport, they focus on it year-round. They come into camp in shape. They eat right, they exercise. They are bigger, stronger, and faster. So if that's the case, why can't a starting pitcher go more than five or six innings?...(continued)
The whirlwind of Major League Basesball trades in the month of July really began with the Dodgers, but acquiring superstar Manny Machado from Baltimore during the All-Star break was just the beginning. They would make moves at the end, too, and so would everybody else...(continued)
The Red Sox got second baseman Ian Kinsler from the Angels. The Braves picked up outfielder Adam Duvall from the Reds. The Astros acquired closer Roberto Osuna from Toronto. The Yankees added Minnesota starter Lance Lynn. The Mariners got two relievers—one from the Twins, and one from the Yankees. And all of that is just tonight!...(continued)
While the greatest players in baseball were on the field in Washington, DC Tuesday night, and the National League was gearing up to lose the mid-summer classic for the 24th time in the last 31 years, something else was abuzz. Baltimore's Manny Machado was taking selfies with the Dodgers' Matt Kemp. You might think now, little did they know they were about to become teammates. They knew...(continued)
If you are one of the tens of Americans who watched soccer's World Cup on Fox and FS1, you know that France won the title on Sunday, defeating tiny Croatia 4-2. If you are a novice or non-regular to the game, you listened intently, and consciously or not, constantly heard soccer terms that are accepted as sport-wide, even though it's really just how things are said and done in England, where, of course, soccer (or football) is king...(continued)
It was a salary dump. All the reporters told you that. You didn't even need for them to tell you that. It just made sense. The Dodgers acquired one-time phenom Matt Kemp from Atlanta in December, and you figured he would be in LA again for about 20 minutes. Now he's an All-Star...(continued)
The first time basketball superstar LeBron James ditched his home town Cleveland Cavaliers for free agency, we had to find out about it in a made for TV special, and the basketball world eagerly watched. That was eight years ago. This time, before the television talkers could even get their summer NBA specials together, he made the announcement, and he's off to LA to play for the Lakers...(continued)
It's been awhile since we used this space to check in on the boys in blue. On May 14, six weeks ago tonight, the Los Angeles Dodgers had just been swept in four games by the Cincinnati Reds at home. A prominent southern California newspaper headline read 'worse than the worst.' The Dodgers were 16-24, and two nights later they would be 16-26. A lot has changed since then...(continued)
Imagine being the prettiest and most popular girl in school (I can't) and not getting invited to the prom. Imagine being a stud athlete (again, I can't), the biggest man on campus, and having that girl turn you down for that date to the prom. Now imagine the most powerful nation on Earth, and one of the wealthiest, good at everything, resources abound, and not even qualifying for the biggest athletic tournament on the planet. Chants of U-S-A, U-S-A, are not being heard this time...(continued)
It sounds like a cool little slogan. Like something ESPN uses when Duke plays North Carolina and Villanova meets Georgetown. Or maybe when it has five of those ridiculous and numerous bowl games in 24 hours. “I know”, they'll say, “let's call it Championship Week.” It's a hook. It's a gimmick. It seems like you always have to have one to hype an event amd make it more than it is. None of that compares to what has happened in the last seven days in the sports world...(continued)
If you are in the news reporting business like I am, it seemed like this day would never come. Not because it's such a momentous occasion, but because we've been talking about it for-ever. Of course, we'll be talking about it afterward, and then will be talking forever about the next one coming up in November. That's just the thing, though. We're always talking. Of course, that's what we do is talk, but at least now we get some results. Tomorrow, voters go to the polls for the June primary election...(continued)
They started as such a cute little story. A major league sports franchise in the middle of gambling country. A hockey team in the middle of the desert. A small city's first foray into bigdom in the sports scene. Funny thing happened. They started winning and didn't stop...(continued)
As sometimes ridiculous as the stuffy hoity-toityness of the British royal family and all of its pomp, circumstance, ceremony, and tradition can be at times, a wedding is a festive occasion, right? It doesn't matter that the guy getting married is sixth in line to the throne. Brits didn't even care that the woman he was marrying was (gasp) an American. The best part, is that no one seems to care that the American woman is bi-racial. It made for a great wedding...(continued)
After losing game one of a four game series at home to the Cincinnati Reds Thursday night, the Friday morning headline in the Los Angeles Times read “Worse than the Worst”. And that was before one of the worst pitchers in baseball one-hit the Dodgers over four innings Friday night, and the Los Angeles lackluster offense and bullpen made its presence known the rest of the way. The 16-24 Dodgers are now playing .400 ball this year, yet it seems they are the worst of the worst...(continued)
The word “history” is thrown around a lot in the world of sports. If something amazing happens, they say it will go down in history. Certainly if something happens that never happened before, it's historical. If something happens that has happened before but not very often, that's up for debate. You can say, though, that the two Major League Baseball teams that represent Los Angeles, made it into the sports history books Friday night...(continued)
Oh boy. Well, there are just a couple more hours remaining in the month of April, and the end of the month couldn't come quickly enough for the Los Angeles Dodgers. The National League champs have struggled out of the gate to begin with, then they lose three out of four in San Francisco in a span of 48 hours. Just 24 hours after that, they've found out that their shortstop is out for the year, and we find out that the reigning Rookie of the Year was benched for allegedly not hustling. But like they used to say in those Ginsu knife commercialS...(continued)
It just goes to show. No matter how much you know about baseball, you know nothing about baseball. On Saturday night, the 9-11 Oakland A's hosted the 17-2 Boston Red Sox. Boston has one of the best lineups in the game, and had their ace lefty Chris Sale on the mound. The A's, who saw a modest four-game winning streak ended by the Red Sox the night before, had a kid with some pretty good stuff as their starting pitcher. The kid wouldn't allow a hit...(continued)
Mother Nature has not been kind to the Upper Midwest so far this year, and now she's battling with the baseball gods. I'm sure if you go to Major League Baseball's website, and enter the promo code 'postponement', there should be some sort of deal for you. And the kicker to this weekend of rainouts, snowouts, and other inclement weather? The Toronto Blue Jays home game was called off today. And they have a roof!...(continued)
It's a boast of the DVR companies and a luxury to have, but who really thought they really needed a machine to record up to four different channels at once. Okay, the definition of 'need' might be loose here, but it was certainly nice to have on Sunday. Especially with a Giants-Dodgers rivalry and Clayton Kershaw on the hill, Japanese sensation Shohei Ohtani making his home pitching debut for the Angels, and the “tradition unlike any other—the Masters” all going on at the same time...(continued)
This was the men's college basketball tournament that would top some of the greatest. This was the year a 16 seed beat a one, that a small school not named Gonzaga or Butler would go to the Final Four. This was the year one of the regions would have its top four teams knocked out early. But with all the upsets, all the bracket busting, and all the Cinderella stories, this turned out to be a year like many others, when a number one seed won the tournament anyway...(continued)
With all of the bracket busting going on, there will still be a number seed in the NCAA men's basketball championship game next week. That said, the opponent could be a team that no one really ever heard of outside of the state of Illinois. If you are a small school from a small conference and win a couple of post-season games to make it to the 'Sweet Sixteen', you are a quite a story. Winning two more to get to the championship weekend is unheard of...(continued)
You knew this was going to happen. Well, maybe you didn't see it happening this year, but it was bound to happen eventually. If you take some basketball team from a Podunk university, and match them up with the big boys, the little guys are bound to win one. You've seen Hoosiers, right? Yes, that was high school in Indiana, and this is the big dance, but give them 136 chances and they'll win one...(continued)
So it turns out Joe Lunardi isn't such an idiot after all. ESPN's so called 'bracketologist', for weeks now, had UCLA and USC on the bubble when it came to qualifying for college basketball's big dance. Fans of the Los Angeles schools knew both teams were well qualified. Television analyst Bill Walton even got on Lunardi's case on the air several times, and they work for the same network. Please (Walton reference). It's also possible that Lunardi got it wrong, and so did the NCAA selection committee. There's lots of griping going on...(continued)
So we're one hour and 35 minutes into a three hour, 48 minute marathon. Host Jimmy Kimmel has offered a jet ski to the Oscar winner with the shortest speech, there's been several montages, cameo appearances by 93 year-old Eva Marie Saint and 86 year-old Rita Moreno. We're waiting for Coco to win Best Animated Feature, and they give an award to Kobe Bryant. Yes, that Kobe Bryant. The basketball player...(continued)
The Olympics are over in South Korea, and while writers and critics mostly thought the first week was boring, the second half really picked up. Russian figure skaters dazzled, the Olympic athtletes from that country that were not allowed to fly their own flag took gold in Hockey, and the American women's hockey and men's curling teams did their part to liven things up...(continued)
How about those Winter Olympics, huh? Did you enjoy it when Norway took gold and silver in the Men's Downhill? How about the unknown Czech snowboarder-turned-skiier who won the Women's Super G? France, Canada, and Kazakhstan collecting the medals in Women's Moguls? Certainly you saw Mikaela Shiffrin take gold in the Women's Giant Slalom and Shaun White and Chloe Kim shred up the halfpipe. If you didn't watch, there are millions of people out there who didn't watch with you... (continued)
The Olympics are known for drama. The luge can be decided by thousands of a second. A one-point deduction in figure skating might mean whether you get to stand atop the podium at the end. The Olympics teach young athletes to “go for it”. The host governments are doing the same, at least for now... (continued)
He threw for 505 yards and three touchdowns. He didn't have any interceptions after putting the ball in the air four dozen times. If you do that in the Super Bowl, you have to figure that you are going to win. This, however, was not Tom Brady's day... (continued)
If you are a professional baseball player and you are 26 years old, you are about ready to test the free agent market. You're hitting the prime of your career. If you are 26 and a tennis player, the best is supposedly behind you. If you are 36 and still playing tennis, it's probably a charity event. Unless, that is, if you are Roger Federer... (continued)
Oh no. Not again. Do we really need this? Of course we weren't expecting anything less, and goodness knows the Jacksonville Jaguars gave it their all. The Pittsburgh Steelers couldn't win a home game, so yes, we get this. Tom Brady and the New England Patriots are back in the Super Bowl...(continued)
It's January. A month for football, college basketball, and even tennis. But with the NFL down to its final four teams, and a play that will go down as the Minnesota Miracle, baseball finally steps up and makes some headlines. Pittsburgh's franchise player is headed west...(continued)
The first sentence by Seth Myers at the 75th Annual Golden Globe Awards was not only the funniest, but set the tone for the entire evening. “Good evening ladies and remaining gentlemen.” While women were celebrated at the first awards show of the year, at least the guys got to see a pretty good college national championship football game tonight, with Alabama beating Georgia 26-23 in overtime, in Atlanta...(continued)
Somehow, this little weakly (weekly) column has just completed its seventh year. In going back and looking at recaps of the first six, for some reason the words 'strange' or 'weird' were used to describe them. I'm not sure what made, say, 2015 stranger or weirder than 2012 or 2011, but those always seemed to be the words I would use. 2017, compared to those others, was no comparison. It's gone. We're glad it's gone, and hopeful we can get back to weird or strange again. Frankly, 2017 sucked...(continued)
Do We Really Need 39 Bowl Games? Of Course Not
December 17, 2018
Gold Sox May Fold After 17 Seasons
December 10, 2018
Playoff Committee Goes With Oklahoma over Georgia
December 3, 2018
Irish Win Means Trojans (and Bruins) Are Done
November 26, 2018
The Most Meaningless USC-UCLA Game Ever?
November 19, 2018
Paradise Gone: Fire Levels Entire Town of 26-Thousand
November 12, 2018
My Vote Makes Me Feel Like a 'Frog Out of Water'
November 5, 2018
The Best Team Won—Red Sox Dump Dodgers in Five
October 29, 2018
Dodgers Return to the Series—This Time vs. Boston
October 22, 2018
Now the Playoffs Have Some Drama
October 15, 2018
Dodgers Beat Braves in Four, Face Brewers Next
October 8, 2018
Two #163s! Dodgers Win Sixth Straight Division Title
October 1, 2018
A's Clinch, Browns Win, Rams-Chargers Play
September 24, 2018
#MeToo: What Are the Good Guys Supposed to Do?
September 17, 2018
Osaka Surprise. Serena Melts Down (Again) at Open
September 10, 2018
Kemp, Dodgers In First on Labor Day
September 3, 2018
A Quick Breather Before the Sports World Heats Up
August 27, 2018
A's Are For Real, Tied For First in AL West
August 20, 2018
For Heaven's Sake, Let Starters Throw More Pitches!
August 13, 2018
Dodgers Deal for Dozier on Dizzying Deadline Day
August 6, 2018
Everybody's Dealin'. Harper, McCutchen Next?
July 30, 2018
LA Lands Machado; NL Loses All-Star Game Again
July 23, 2018
Why Do Us American Chaps Have to Anglicize Soccer?
July 16, 2018
Matt Kemp: From All Done to All-Star
July 9, 2018
LeBron Taking His Talents to Southland
July 2, 2018
Seven Solo Shots Sink Mets; Dodgers Climbing Back
June 25, 2018
Mexico Stuns With World Cup Win; USA Watches
June 18, 2018
Cup, Crown, and Title Mark True Championship Week
June 11, 2018
Little County Tries Big New Way to Vote
June 4, 2018
Can (Should) Expansion Knights Win Stanley Cup?
May 28, 2018
A Royal Wedding With Soul
May 21, 2018
Dodgers Swept in Four By Worst Team in League
May 14, 2018
Four Dodgers No-Hit Padres; Pujols Reaches 3000
May 7, 2018
Dodgers Lose Seager; Skipper May Have Lost Bellinger
April 30, 2018
Oh My Manaea! A's Pitcher Throws No-Hitter
April 23, 2018
'Play Ball'? More Like 'Game Called!'
April 16, 2018
Ohtani, Kershaw, and Masters Give DVR a Workout
April 9, 2018
Memorable Tournament Has Lackluster Conclusion
April 2, 2018
Cinderella Loyola Dances Into Final Four
March 26, 2018
Tourney: 16 Seed Makes History; Finally Beats a One
March 19, 2018
NCAA Tourney: USC Barely Out, UCLA Barely In
March 12, 2018
Wait. Kobe Won an Oscar? What?
March 5, 2018
Top 12 Moments From Pyeongchang Winter Games
February 26, 2018
Korean Olympics: Nobody's Watching, Nobody's Going
February 19, 2018
A Unified Korea; If Only For One Night
February 12, 2018
Eagles Super in Big Game Win Over Brady
February 5, 2018
Ageless Federer Wins 20th Major
January 29, 2018
Brady's Bunch Back In Big One
January 22, 2018
This Just In: 'Cutch to 'Frisco
January 15, 2018
'Bama, Oprah Raise the Roof This Weekend
January 8, 2018
Let's Face It. 2017 Sucked
January 1, 2018