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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 ...

Curve franchise future stable, even if 2020 season canceled

These are the most tumultuous times minor league baseball has ever encountered during the modern era, facing not one, but two calamities at once — the threat of missing an entire season, plus the likelihood of severe contraction that will lead to extensive reshuffling of leagues. Let me preface what I’m about to say with old adage “knock on wood,” so as if to not jinx the good news. Here’s the good news, from a local perspective: The Curve appear to be in position to come out of all this in relatively good shape. Not necessarily great shape. No minor league team in the ...

Spitting image may disappear from sports

We come not to praise the loogie, but to bury it. Already banned on sidewalks, outlawed indoors and pooh-poohed by polite society, that gob of saliva and Lord-knows-what-else is done mucking up sports. In the wake of the new coronavirus, teams are revoking the germ-landing privileges that turned dugouts, benches, boxing rings and even grass fields into potential biohazard sites. No sharing towels, hats, bats, gloves or water bottles. Which could mean the golden era of spitting, slobbering, gleaking, glanding, hawking, hocking, venoming and expectorating is about to dry up. Or ...