The National Football League season kicks off Thursday night, and thank God and Vince Lombardi, because I was beginning to think gridiron news never would overwhelm our airwaves again. Yes, that was sarcasm, just as it would have been if I said I’m floored that the game’s fearless leader, Roger Goodell, won’t appear at the […]
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The Hot Corner: No more degrees of separation for Glen Luce
OXFORD — Perhaps you’ve played the game: Connect Kevin Bacon to any actor or Babe Ruth to any baseball player in six steps or less. Glen Luce, despite projecting a rugged look and an attitude younger than his 48 chronological years, is that guy at Oxford Plains Speedway. Former son-in-law of Mike Rowe, who won the […]
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The Hot Corner: Sweetser’s fame was the same without playing the game
Contributors aren’t given much love at hall of fame induction ceremonies. They’re the reason we have “lifetime achievement” awards. Or sometimes they are given their own, dusty wing in whatever building houses the hallowed history of that game. It is a blessing, I suppose, because it keeps their lack of star power from becoming too […]
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The Hot Corner: Feasting on Lobster leftovers
Didn’t have much time to breathe while typing two fingers at a time after Saturday night’s Maine Shrine Lobster Bowl, much less contemplate what I had just watched. One friendly member of the clean-up crew confirmed that the senior football all-star game will revert to the traditional 4 p.m. start time next summer. I hope […]
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The Hot Corner: Senior moments trigger full range of emotion
For all the days, nights, concession-stand meals and deadline drama that we devote to the basketball tournament and football championship Saturday, there’s no time of year so rewarding as the months of May and June. You chuckle, because maybe I’m just guilty of being glad the season is almost over, and that I can work […]
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The Hot Corner: Special section for the ages not without phantom panic
So, true confession: I dreaded our Muhammad Ali-Sonny Liston project, with the same fear and anxiety that accompany a root canal or aversion therapy that involves reptiles or rodents. Overreact much? Probably. The golden anniversary of this infamous shindig coming to Lewiston was worthy of hip-hooray and ballyhoo, of course. But there’s a diminishing returns […]
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The Hot Corner: Boxing is dead; long live boxing
Boxing is reborn. Boxing is dead. Boxing merely exists. It won’t be as prolonged as the hype, mercifully, but part of the legacy of Saturday night’s Floyd Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao welterweight championship fight is examining what it did for a sport that has been rendered irrelevant. My kneejerk, morning-after suspicion, admittedly clouded by staying up until […]
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The Hot Corner: Red Sox shortcomings no big deal, for now
Are they good, or do they stink out loud? That is the question. OK, perhaps that query lacks the Shakespearean, roll-off-the-tongue appeal to catch on. For our purposes, it conveys the point, which is that April has been a month of mixed reviews for the Red Sox. Heading into Sunday’s finale at Camden Yards (it’s […]
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The Hot Corner: Seasons change. No, really, I think they might
Wake me up when the spring high school sports season arrives. You got that? No, don’t tell me it’s already here. I spoke with one high school baseball coach this week who told me in hushed, defeated tones that the pitcher’s mound was the only visible patch of earth on his low-lying diamond. I knew […]
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The Hot Corner: Maine youth sports calendar needs some work
Can’t vouch for any scientific method of quantifying it, but I’m certain I’ve heard multiple mental health professionals proclaim March “the most depressing month to live in Maine.” Most of us didn’t require such a revelation, of course. I celebrated Friday’s alleged first day of spring by thawing a frozen pipe underneath my kitchen sink. […]