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Keeping their memories alive

By Paul Newberry The Associated Press There’s been a lot of talk about the mental health struggles that many young athletes face, the pressures and expectations that can seem overwhelming — especially to those who feel compelled to shield their pain from the outside world. Let’s keep the conversation going. There’s so many more to reach, so many more who need to know they’re not alone. Sadly, it won’t come soon enough to help three female college athletes who took their own lives in the past two months, leaving behind unbearable grief for their family and friends ...

Mailbag

Giger’s story takes Altoona back in time I have never written about anything, but I wanted to commend Cory Giger for the great article in Thursday’s Mirror on the Mountain City’s professional baseball team in the late 1880s. I am 71 and have lived in Blair County all my life but never heard of them. I love to hear about and celebrate people that helped shape our area. I encourage more of these segments. Dave Helsel Altoona Shorter spring training showing its effects I watched the Los Angeles Dodgers lose their eight-game winning streak to the Atlanta Braves, 3-1, the ...

Ukraine’s athletes deserve support

By Jim Caltagirone For the Mirror Despite the well-intentioned missions of the United Nations and International Olympic Committee, the innocents who are still sheltering in Ukraine awake every morning not knowing if they will live to see another dawn. Among them are 26 members of the country’s men’s national soccer team, which clings to the hope of qualifying for the World Cup in November. Russia’s invasion forced a postponement of Ukraine’s playoff qualifier against Scotland in Glasgow on March 24. That match has been rescheduled for June. The 11 other members of ...

Officials flee youth sports over reports of increasing abuse

By Paul Newberry The Associated Press ATLANTA — When one looks at the ugly bruise encircling Kristi Moore’s left eye, it’s not surprising so many refs and umps are hanging up their stripes. Why put up with incessant taunts and threats from out-of-control parents? Why fret over potential violence — even the chance of losing your life — because someone thinks you blew a call at a 12-year-olds’ softball game? America is facing a crisis in prep and youth sports, where fewer and fewer people are willing to take on the thankless job of officiating games. “The veterans ...

Mailbag: Augusta can’t match St. Andrews

Masters Week just passed, and with it came many memories of victorious thrills and agonizing defeats. No doubt this golf major and its timing in early spring, when many of us are just finding our “golf legs” on the area’s courses, make it special. Rory McIlroy was trying to compare Augusta National to St. Andrews. Both can be considered hallowed grounds to any golfers who have followed the sport. But there is a vast difference in the two places, and that is simply 99.9% of golfers will never get to play Augusta National due its exclusivity. Many have reveled in ...

Meet the PGA’s new sheriff, Scottie Scheffler

Forty years ago, iconic comedian Eddie Murphy made his acting debut opposite Nick Nolte in the movie “48 Hours” by delivering the now epic boast, “There’s a new sheriff in town and his name is Reggie Hammond.” After a near wire-to-wire performance at this year’s Masters tournament Scottie Scheffler can now stake his own claim as the PGA Tour’s newest young gunslinger as the former Texas Longhorn standout’s start to the 2022 campaign has been hotter than an Amarillo fire pit in August. Scheffler seized control after his second round 67 at Augusta vaulted him ahead of ...