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There’s nothing like the experience of being in stadium on game day

Before I get into all the reasons attending a live sports event is better than watching it on television, please remember that my co-worker is arguing that you should voluntarily stay cooped up in your house where most of you have been trapped for months. If that isn’t the biggest argument to get outside and enjoy sports and life in person once it is allowed, I don’t know what is. Personally, my two favorite professional sports to watch in person are college football and Major League Baseball. I am a Penn State football season ticket holder and have traveled around the country to ...

‘Soft’ spot for tennis going away

The local tennis community will experience a void this summer that unfortunately may become permanent. Matt Stopp, tennis professional at the Gorilla House, confirmed last week that his facility’s outdoor courts will not open this year. There were only two — down from six as recently a ...

Getting sick of greed in pro sports

“Greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right. Greed works.’’ Baloney! What the famous Gordon Gekko character, played by Michael Douglas in the classic 1987 film “Wall Street,’’ tries to sell everyone is a bunch of hogwash. In actuality, greed is bad. Greed is wrong. Greed doesn’t work. It’s selfish, inhumane and even sickening. Greed also is the reason why I find it harder and harder to be a fan of professional sports these days. It’s all about the Benjamins. Not for everyone, of course. But for so many folks involved in pro sports, money is ...

Reminiscing while exercising

While I was out on my daily walk recently pondering how competitive the Blair Regional YMCA 2-mile walks will be after so many people have picked up the hobby during the corona-virus pandemic, I saw a kid at a baseball field. He had just one ball and a bat. During my circle around the outside of the field, he hit the ball, walked out to collect it and returned to the plate to hit it again four times. It made me think of some of the things I used to do to pass the time when I was growing up in Tyrone in between games. The first one I’ll write about does require two people, but ...

NASCAR gives all reason to celebrate

Finally, a reason to cheer. We’ll take it. Even from afar. No doubt, it was downright eerie when Fox came on the air Sunday afternoon for NASCAR’s return to racing, a camera hovering over tens of thousands of empty seats at the enormous, iconic speedway in the backwoods of Darlington, South Carolina. This is the way it has to be until we get to a place — still difficult to see in the age of coronavirus — when it will again be safe to pack our stadiums and arenas and racetracks. The broadcast team of Mike Joy and Jeff Gordon wasn’t even at NASCAR’s oldest ...

‘Tecmo Bowl,’ ‘MVP Baseball’ among all-time faves

We have all been cooped up long enough now that anyone who has an old video game system has probably pulled it out and tried a few of their old games, maybe for the first time with their own children. As a kid who grew up in the late 1980s and early 90s, I got to experience a wide range of video game capabilities, but games have continued to develop far past the time when I spent hours in front of a television screen. My two favorite sports games are from very different eras, and I just can’t make a decision on which one is my favorite. The first one I’ll discuss was one that ...