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Ohtani, Deion are eye catching

By Jim Caltagirone For the Mirror Scoop a cup of water from a freshwater stream and you may see a few random particles floating around. Place a drop of that water under a microscope and you’ll discover a complex world of living organisms. Shohei Ohtani and Deion Sanders are experiencing a metamorphosis that is easy to overlook. Like a precious few in history, they are elevating themselves beyond the relevance of their sport. These men have an aura about them. Babe Ruth had that aura. So, too, did Wayne Gretzky, Tiger Woods, Billie Jean King, Michael Jordan and Bear ...

Rodgers will win MVP No. 5 this year

By Rob Maaddi The Associated Press Patrick Mahomes was the NFL and Super Bowl MVP even without Tyreek Hill. He’s going to need Travis Kelce to have a chance to do it again. The defending champion Kansas City Chiefs got off to a losing start after raising their latest Super Bowl banner. With Kelce sporting a mustache in street clothes on the sideline because of a knee injury, Mahomes didn’t have his usual magic touch in a 21-20 loss to the Detroit Lions on Thursday night. Mahomes threw a pick-6 on a pass that hit Kadarius Toney in stride but bounced off his hands. Toney ...

Mailbag

Both genders deserve level field of play On Sunday, Aug. 27, I heard people who are opposed to biological men competing against biological women called vile names, so I referred to the World Track and Field Championships ending the same day for examples. Let’s start with the 100-meter sprints. The men ran it in 9.83 seconds and the women in 10.65, a difference of .88 seconds. A meter is 1.0936137 yards. At those speeds, the men would beat the women by approximately 9 meters, 9.8425 yards. Next, the 1500-meter run. The men ran it in 3 minutes and 29.28 seconds, the women in ...

A little perspective on three-peats

By Paul Newberry The Associated Press ATHENS, Ga. — When Larry Farmer walked into UCLA’s Pauley Pavilion for the first time, his gaze quickly turned toward the rafters. It was impossible to miss all those championship banners. “I immediately knew that was the standard,” Farmer recalled Friday. “It was right there in plain sight. Second or third wasn’t really the goal.” As Georgia begins its quest for an unprecedented three-peat in college football, those who have been there before can provide some helpful perspective on what it takes to keep winning titles year ...

Technology can’t be sold short

By Jim Caltagirone For the Mirror The U.S. women’s national soccer team was defeated in the Round of 16 of the World Cup by Sweden, but it was knocked out of the tournament by technology. A video review of the decisive penalty kick by Sweden’s Lina Hurtig confirmed that the ball had crossed the goal line before American goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher reached behind to swat away the deflection of her initial block. “Someone said there was a picture of it, and it was off by a millimeter,” Naeher said. “It’s tough to have your World Cup end by a millimeter.” The Video ...

Buyer beware with Ohtani next year

By David Brandt The Associated Press The two-way baseball superstardom of Shohei Ohtani these past three seasons has been nothing short of absurd. Tape-measure homers on the regular. Fastballs that hovered around 100 mph. Sometimes, just a few minutes apart. In a sports world littered with questionable hyperbole, Ohtani’s on-field heroics lived up to every bit of the hype. It’s why there was a palpable sense of melancholy around the sport after the Los Angeles Angels announced that the 29-year-old Japanese sensation has a torn ligament in his elbow and won’t pitch again ...