By Steve Brady[Editor’s note: In horse racing, a “Derby” is a race set up specifically for 3-year-old colts, and an “Oaks” is restricted to 3-year-old fillies. Every few years, a particularly gifted filly attempts to “take on the boys” in a Triple Crown event. Fillies are traditionally given a five-pound weight break. Rags to Riches beat Curlin in the Belmont two years ago and Eight Belles
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Friday, May 1, 2009
The 2009 Kentucky Derby—90% of Life Is Just Showing (Up)
Posted on 9:57 AM by ergeg
By Steve BradyWoody Allen once famously said that “90% of life is just showing up.” His words have special meaning on the first Saturday in May. As this year’s Kentucky Derby entrants convene on a track that few of them have ever run on—at a distance none of them has been proven at, against competition few of them have ever faced, in a stampede twice the size any of them has ever found themselves
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Kalas and Fidrych: Gone But Not Forgotten
Posted on 10:37 AM by ergeg
Longtime Philadelphia Phillies baseball announcer Harry Kalas passed away yesterday, and by all reports he was a well-liked individual and apparently a very nice man. He collapsed in the broadcast booth at Nationals Park prior to the Nationals-Phillies game in Washington, D.C. Death brings a sense of sadness—and an immediate tendency to reflect on the past. Having lived to 73, and having spent 38
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
New Baseball Prospectus 2009 Tons of Reading Fun, But Could It Help Joe Torre Win a Game?
Posted on 10:24 PM by ergeg
Baseball Prospectus 2009: The Essential Guide to the 2009 Baseball Season (Penguin/Plume, 628 pages, $21.95)This may seem to be a dotty notion, but I’ve long believed that I could manage a major league baseball team. In fact, I think there are a lot of regular guys all over the country who could manage a major league baseball team with some success. Or at least as much success as Manny Acta had
Monday, March 16, 2009
Conference Tournaments Still Blight NCAA Selection Process
Posted on 4:22 AM by ergeg
The message is now clear to every NCAA men’s basketball conference: Get yourself a season-ending conference tournament—and then manipulate the system. Conference tournaments suck. They’re stupid. Their existence invalidates the regular season conference schedule. And they were doubtless founded solely to generate cash. But according to the ESPN news story, Mississippi State, with its victory over
Friday, February 27, 2009
Haynesworth Finds Greener Pastures in D.C.
Posted on 7:16 AM by ergeg
So Albert Haynesworth is gone to the Redskins, who acquire the Titans’ behemoth defensive tackle for $100 million on a 7-year commitment. Haynesworth earns a guaranteed $41 million with the deal. There are two shorthand ways to think about this:1. Haynesworth is a premier defensive talent who is just now entering his prime. The Titans lose the heart of their defense, and the Redskins have
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Da Thom Abraham Show: Nashville Sports Talk Radio’s Answer to Phony Blue-Collar Fandom
Posted on 4:52 AM by ergeg
Thom Abraham’s been on 106.7, the local ESPN outlet, since the summer of 2007. He has a somewhat sketchy resume as a small-market radio host and also as a high school coach, so the Nashville gig is probably a big deal for him. His career has stretched in its previous, various incarnations from upstate New York to Florida and Alabama, which makes you wonder why he sounds like one of the SuperFans
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