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Never a shortage of baseball humor

By Wayne Stewart For the Mirror Any devout baseball fan could sincerely paraphrase a line from a famous sonnet and declare, “How do I love the game? Let me count the ways.” A new book entitled “I Love Baseball” contains 11 chapters which do just that, enumerating a slew of reasons fans adore the sport — from the serious reasons to the humorous. One chapter focuses on the entertaining and unusual promotions and the mascots associated with baseball. Did you know, for instance, that Joe Engel, owner of the Chattanooga Lookouts, once signed a female pitcher named Jackie ...

Prime Video helping fans understand NFL game more

By Joe Reedy The Associated Press CULVER CITY, Calif. — The Los Angeles Rams defense appeared to be content to drop back in coverage and prevent San Francisco’s Brock Purdy from completing a Hail Mary on the final play of their Thursday night game on Dec. 12. The broadcast on Amazon Prime Video saw it differently, though. Before Purdy snapped the ball, a defensive alert appeared on the screen, indicating that Rams inside linebacker Christian Rozeboom could rush the quarterback. Sure enough, Rozeboom came in on a rush and sacked Purdy for a 6-yard loss to end the ...

Rich Rod will fit nicely (back) at WVU

By Ira Kaufman For the Mirror The press conference for Rich Rodriguez’s return to West Virginia last month was epic. I have always loved West Virginia and found the people to be so nice and friendly. The state is beautiful with mountains and valleys. Morgantown is such a fun town, and the bars in the city are legendary. The people of West Virginia are proud of their state and want anyone who comes to West Virginia to love it. I was last there for Penn State’s visit to start this season. Rodriguez grew up in West Virginia, his entire extended family lived in West ...

Final 4 teams are blue-blood programs

By Eric Olson The Associated Press The College Football Playoff expanded to 12 teams to get some new blood. The final four are decidedly blueblood. The semifinals match Penn State vs. Notre Dame at the Orange Bowl on Jan. 9 and Texas vs. Ohio State in the Cotton Bowl on Jan. 10. All four teams are among the eight programs with at least 900 all-time victories. By the NCAA’s count, Ohio State ranks second with 976 wins, Notre Dame and Texas are tied for fourth with 961 and Penn State is seventh with 943. The four teams have combined for 18 national titles since 1936, when the ...

Chiefs’ success is not traced to luck

Labeling a 13-1 NFL team as lucky seems a bit partisan. Through Week 15, Kansas City had been triumphant in an NFL-record 15 consecutive games that were decided by one score, including a 19-17 last-second heartstopper over the Los Angeles Chargers in which the winning field goal first bounced off the left upright. Advancing a popular theme, AthlonSports.com’s Richie Whitt wrote, “It’s been a season accented with luck for the Chiefs, from Week 1’s escape over the Baltimore Ravens by a toenail to Black Friday’s win when the Las Vegas Raiders fumbled away a chance at a ...

Football characters were full of quips

In last month’s column, some of baseball’s funniest and most colorful characters were explored. It’s time to give equal billing to a handful of football’s wild, witty, and wonderful characters. Start with a former Pittsburgh Steeler (1961 and 1962), Pro Bowl defensive lineman Gene Lipscomb. He wasn’t called “Big Daddy” for nothing — he went 6-foot-6, and he made scales groan under his 284 pounds. This was back in an era when players anywhere near 300 pounds were pretty rare. One-time Baltimore teammate Raymond Berry said, “He was quick with great upper body ...