Jim Brown: Best Runner in Football History

Jim Brown faces Green Bay in his final game, the 1965 NFL Championship
What’s the best team in football history? Who’s the greatest all-time hitter ever? The best boxer pound for pound?
You can spark some lively debates with any one of those questions about sports, or thousands of others like them.
But when it comes to the [...]

The Greatest Game

The greatest game I ever saw was the Yankees-Red Sox playoff at Fenway Park, October 2, 1978.
And somewhere deep in the copy morgue of the Fitchburg-Leominster Sentinel & Enterprise is my page one story on that incredible game in Boston. The lead went something like this: It was a game within a season, and a [...]

Back to the Future Part II

A week or so ago, the SportsLifer went back to the future.
This past weekend the future appeared, in the person of Iona Prep junior running back Jeffrey Mack.
Mack scored seven touchdowns as Iona beat St. Anthony’s, 48-35, in the New York CHSFL AAA finals. Mack scored on runs of 50, 17, 11, 48, 71, 19 [...]

Is This The Year for A Subway Super Bowl?

Maybe, Just Maybe…

New York Giants quarterback Phil Simms was the MVP of Super Bowl XXI.
The Giants, the class of the NFC,  have already proven they can get there — and win. They did it last year, they lead the conference this year.
And if the Jets can knock off the unbeaten Titans on Sunday, then they’ll [...]

Retirement Calls The Moose

What do Henry Schmidt, Sandy Koufax and Mike Mussina have in common?
This unlikely triumvirate comprises the only three pitchers in baseball history to retire following 20-win seasons. Discount  Black Sox Lefty Williams and Eddie Cicotte, who were kicked out of baseball in 1920 following 20 wins.
Schmidt pitched for the Brooklyn Superbas (later the Dodgers), [...]

Back to the Future

Just like the Doc and Marty McFly, the SportsLifer went back to the future.

Went back to the future today. Went back to my old high school.
It was raining, pouring. Almost didn’t make it.
But then I said to myself, did a little rain stop Marty McFly or the Doc?
No. There were no rainouts in Back to [...]

The 49er Who Ate Raw Meat

Two days after Christmas, back when I was a fifth grader, my family moved cross country from suburban New York to Daly City, California, just south of San Francisco.
It was temporary move. My father was an engineer working in Manhattan, and was assigned to put in a data processing system at a Planter’s [...]

Dawgs Howling after Comeback Win

That sound you heard Sunday night about 7:30 was the sound of Dawgs howling.
WOOF! WOOF! WOOF!
How about dem Dutchess Dawgs.
In the Nightcap comeback of the year, the Dawgs rallied from a 31-0 deficit to upend defending champion Ari’s Dealmakers, 91-66, and edge a step closer to their second successive Somers Division crown.
The Dawgs have won [...]

You Have to See This Play

This is worth a click. Junior tight end Philip Lutzenkirchen of the Lassiter High School Trojans (Marietta, GA) tips the ball to a teammate for a touchdown.
Seen this play on the basketball court, but never on the gridiron.
My connection — one of my nieces is a senior at Lassiter.

A Moment for The Ages

I always wondered what it was like in America back during that spring of 1947 when Jackie Robinson broke the “color barrier” with the Brooklyn Dodgers.
Now I think I know, after seeing Barack Obama win perhaps the most historic Presidential election in the history of this country.
Robinson and the President-elect have a lot in common. [...]