Billy Paultz Reconsidered

The AP story on the Phillies signing Pedro Feliz, written by Rob Maadi, includes the following sentence: “He’s an upgrade over the trio of Greg Dobbs, Wes Helms and Abraham Nunez.”
That’s not a quote. Those words are Maadi’s. How often do you see such straightforward, undisguised opining in a standard, just-the-facts wire story? And if […]

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I’m now going to declare myself a pillar of naivete and gullability: I think Tom Brady is hurt.
There were a couple plays in the AFC championship game when an ankle injury to Brady could have taken place. I thought there were times after those plays when Brady’s mechanics seemed off, and an inability to push […]

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Yes, the game’s nine days away. But you’re better off making a pick before being bombarded with the annual nonsense. If anything, this should have come earlier, especially since it was promised yesterday.
My bad.
My read on the Patriots’ season goes something like this: They stomped out of the gate, whip-cracked by their coach, enraged by […]

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When Payton Manning played brilliantly but couldn’t get his team over the top in big games, the rap was that individual stuff means nothing, wins are the only thing that matters.
When Eli Manning’s team wins three straight road playoff games to get to the Super Bowl, now the wins don’t validate, and everybody wants to […]

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I know he thinks he’s being funny, but still: Terry Bradshaw just picked the Giants because Eli Manning has the same TD/INT ratio as Rex Grossman did a year ago.
And we’re, uh, off…
This morning it was 18 degrees and windy as I walked from a building to my car. Actually ran. It took maybe 20 […]

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From the why we love high school sports dept.: The best two boys’ basketball teams in the powerful Mid-Penn Penn Conference this year have been CD East and Steel-High. Both lost this week to formerly-lowly Bishop McDevitt, which earlier this year lost to Middletown, which lost Saturday night to Elizabethtown, 9-9 overall, 5-7 in very […]

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AFC: Tough to swim against the stream on this one. The Colts were the last best hope for somebody to beat the Patriots. San Diego came up with an heroic effort last week, but it’ll be tougher to play undermanned for a whole game, knowing it going in, than doing it on the fly.
The Chargers […]

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Three posts down there’s a bit on dumb baseball hall of fame arguments, two of which were made, in my view, against Tim Raines’ candidacy, by two venerable baseball writers, Tracy Ringolsby and Gerry Fraley.
A colleague has since written to inform me that he’s worked with Fraley, and considers him one of the best guys and […]

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Here’s a seriously feel-good story: Twenty-two of Michael Vick’s former dogs have been placed here, in what looks like canine heaven.
They’re in a kind of witness protection program (no kidding) in which their identities have been changed, and no information can be released about individual dogs until Jan 25, at which point a relevant court […]

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If Pac Man Jones was a moth, strip clubs would apparently be flame. Why?
He’s a rich NFL player whose life is essentially a gangster rap video. Can’t he see all the naked girls he wants on a freelance basis?

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