Billy Paultz Reconsidered

The Barnstormers’ season-opening win was impressive for a number of reasons. Two of them: 1. They scored 10 runs while getting nothing from cleanup hitter Matt LeCroy, late of the Minnesota Twins; and, 2. Without overextending starter Zack Parker, who went six innings, they used only three pitchers, all of them effective and none of […]

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I have never seen what others seem to in Don Nelson, the longtime NBA coach regarded by many basketball people as an eccentric near-genius. When Nelson took over the Golden State Warriors last season  and oversaw a modest turnaround and then an impressive defeat of Dallas in the first round of the playoffs, I thought […]

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Since I first-guessed Charlie Manuel the other day about something no one else seemed to notice, I wanted to defend him from some particularly stupid grief he got recently.
This is from the Adam Eaton game with the Reds Saturday. Eaton enters the eighth inning with a 3-2 lead, his pitch count in the 70s. He […]

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One staple of this blog in its original conception was supposed to have been to sit down late in the evening weekdays, with the family in bed, and sort of purge. For a variety of reasons (i.e. my disorganization and sloth) that hasn’t happened much. Tonight the domestic planets are aligned….
I’m doing a column for the […]

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Occasionally someone asks who I think I’m writing for, what I consider my audience to be. OK, very occasionally, but it has happened. The answer is a person who’s interested in sport for its own sake, not because they went to Penn State or their nephew plays for McCaskey, a person who wants to know, honestly, what the […]

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The “controversy” over Brett Myers and not Cole Hamels starting opening day for the Phillies is a good example of why spring training is too long. People have to reach hard for things to write and talk about. No, it doesn’t matter who starts opening day. What’s the over/under on how many regular season days will it take […]

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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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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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So the Patriots got caught cheating three months ago, and their reaction - their coaches’ reaction in particular - was to turn this season into a crusade to stick it to the world and show everybody. This has led to the unsavory spectacle of guys ecstatically spiking the ball after touchdowns that put their team […]

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