My 32-year streak is ending. For the first time since I was 11, sitting five rows from the top in Turn 1 and hooting and hollering as Mike Rowe became the first homegrown winner, I will not be in attendance at the HP Hood Oxford 250. I have moved to the great Commonwealth of Kentucky, […]
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The Hot Corner: Age slows some, but was no match for Stenson and Mickelson
So much in life is luck of the draw. Yes, I believe strongly in the presence of a higher power, the benefits of clean living, making good choices and all that. Yet any two people who exhibit the same attitudes and aptitudes may reap entirely different results, and it all happens with a sense of […]
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The Hot Corner: Even from afar, Maine athletes in the spotlight
Some of you might have heard the rumor that I moved to Lexington, Ky. If you’ve been sports-savvy for more than an hour, you probably can guess how the local media invests its time. To wit, whatever a University of Kentucky men’s basketball player eats for breakfast is headline news. Former Wildcats enjoy godlike status […]
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Red Sox earn high marks – so far
It’s the time of year for an exercise most teachers celebrate and some students dread, for all that it represents: the June report card. In Major League Baseball, such a progress report tells the tale neither of a happily elapsed year or a hopelessly lost one. Your Boston Red Sox are merely approaching the halfway […]
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The Hot Corner: Farewell (for now) after 27 years, and change
It makes no sense when you consider the salary and hours, the occupational hazards and reduced life expectancy, but young men and women fresh out of college are engaged in an everyday battle royal to get into this profession. They would be flabbergasted, probably even infuriated, to learn that I stumbled into it while loitering […]
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The Hot Corner: Failure to appreciate Warriors, Bryant is your loss
At some point since the turn of the century, mostly with the help — no, hindrance — of technology, we lost our ability to appreciate great athletic achievement. Our cynicism and our ridiculous rush to be too-cool-for-school have taken over. Post-game interviews aren’t finished and we’re already falling on our asterisk, eager to compare, contrast, clarify […]
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The Hot Corner: No need to mess with the madness, ever
Find something that works, and stick with it. That’s a fine strategy for sportswriters, teachers, salesmen and CEOs. Sure, we all need to adapt with the times, but change for the sake of change: A) Doesn’t always improve your product; and B) Often is a tried-and-true highway to self-sabotage. After living long enough to see […]
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The Hot Corner: Lewiston is cradle of champions, and that’s no joke
Want to polarize a room anywhere in Maine? Figure out someone’s political persuasion in the space of one conversation? Provoke a few cheap laughs in mixed company? Easy as pie. Just say, “Lewiston.” Proven more effective than dropping the names LePage or Trump, the reaction is more immediate and unequivocal. Even apologists groan and smirk […]
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The Hot Corner: It’s the Kalle Awards, without Bim, in black-and-white
The question I heard more than any other during the 12-day adrenaline rush we call the high school basketball tournament: How can I watch the games? I received it by text, by Facebook, by Twitter, by email, and I think at one point by homing pigeon. Clearly y’all need to start reading the paper every […]
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The Hot Corner: Finally, finally, finally, Eddies win a final
AUGUSTA — Buffalo Bills, 1991 to 1994. Boston Red Sox, 1919 to 2003. Chicago Cubs, 1909 ’til all our grandkids are in a nursing home. Lovable losers in sports lore roll off the tongue. Still, an Edward Little basketball fan base that has bitten its bottom lip for decades upon decades probably doesn’t believe it takes […]