Billy Paultz Reconsidered

In 1976 I casually started in on a Sports Illustrated piece about the University of Pittsburgh football team (Tony Dorsett, et al) which ended up that year’s mythical national champion. Not far in, there was that moment when you recheck the byline because it dawns on your you’re reading great writing.
That was the first time […]

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Michael Kinsley blasted the bulls-eye on Iraq in Slate last week. He does that sort of thing a lot. Monster paragraph:
“And consider how modest the administration’s standard of success has become. Can there be any doubt that they would go for a reduction to 100,000 troops—and claim victory—if they had any confidence at […]

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Just watched the second half of the Philly Catholic league girls’ final, Archbishop Carroll vs. Cardinal O’Hara at the Palestra. O’Hara won 48-45. Unless I’m badly missing something (always a possibility), either of those teams would kill any girls’ team I’ve seen this year, both were stocked with non-seniors, and the Catholic League joins the PIAA […]

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It’s been a long day and long week of hoop-related activity, so what am I doing now? Writing about basketball while watching basketball (Memphis-Tennessee) in the newsroom. Envy my life, minions.
Not to step on the quasi-diary of the District 3 high school tournament that will be in tomorrow’s paper, a spare observation or two:
Local teams’ […]

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One problem with Hillary’s “experience” argument vis-a-vis Obama is if she was running against Joe Biden or Chris Dodd (or John McCain), you’d never hear the word come out of her mouth.
But, as George Will points out today, that’s not the only problem:
“Nothing, however, will assuage Clinton supporters’ sense of injustice if the upstart […]

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If Mike Huckabee’s wife blowing into Vegas for a boxing weekend and staying at Hooters doesn’t make you proud to be an American, I just don’t know what to tell you.

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You’ve got to love high school basketball in February. Well, maybe you don’t have to…
We’re at the Giant Center in Hershey for District Three semifinals. Earlier, the Lancaster Mennonite girls destroyed Lampater-Strasburg 59-26. They’ll play Saturday here for the championship against the winner of the Northeastern-Gettysburg semi, which Northeastern leads 29-26 at halftime as we […]

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The Jason Kidd deal is now complete and official, meaning the Mavericks gave up a lot of talent base to get a specific piece. Observations:
Watching a little of the all-star game, I realized I had forgotten what a wonderful player Kidd is - “he makes his teammates better,” has become a cliche, but Kidd is […]

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We are blogging live from the living room, where Roger Clemens is about to testify (not in my living room, on ESPN) and Bob Ley has just assured us “there’s going to be drama.”
9:38- ESPN just reported what was obvious to a lot of people- Andy Pettitte gave new testimony, damning to Clemens, in exchange […]

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Roger Clemens’ team of lawyers and agents released a report last month that purported to prove Clemens’ career arc and late-career success was not that unusual, and do not suggest PED use. In a piece in today’s New York Times some professors from Penn’s Wharton School of Business deconstruct the report and find that, unsurprisingly, […]

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