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AP lifer and New Partisan regular George Zucker looks back on
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Entries in Sports (71)

Saturday
30Jul2005

Why John Pod's Wrong About A Rod & Co.

What’s worse: Barry Bonds’ performance-enhancing creams or Hall of Famer Tris Speaker’s KKK membership? And that’s not to mention the cocaine tooted in clubhouses in the 80s, the long tradition of players tossing a mouthful of uppers before an afternoon game, or Pete Rose ruining Ray Fosse’s career with a gratuitous body slam at the plate during the 1970 All Star game?

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Saturday
16Jul2005

Mid-Season MVPs and Cy Youngs

Clemens has been the best pitcher in the league this year. Besides giving up half as many runs as Martinez, he’s given up one run on the road all year long, and two or fewer runs in 16 of 18 starts. Clemens has a good shot at winning consecutive Cy Youngs in a third decade.

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Saturday
16Jul2005

A New Era for Pro Sports

The hockey owners stood their ground and shut down the industry and waited out the players, which was unprecedented in the past century of North American major league sports. No matter how much he was derided, Commissioner Bettman never wavered from what he set out to do years ago: Change the NHL's economic system.

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Saturday
09Jul2005

Baseball Does the World

 
As good an idea as next spring’s World Baseball Classic is — and it is an excellent one — a good idea poorly executed is worth no more than a bad one and it looks as though the inaugural tournament may prove a disaster.
 

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Saturday
09Jul2005

Doctoroff's Defeat, Philly's Folly and More on the Business of Sports

Do American delegates want cities who already have facilities done or will they trust local politicians and business leaders who promise that they can deliver stadiums, arenas, international broadcast centers, Olympic villages and housing and venues?

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Saturday
02Jul2005

Our Man On Mediocrity, Movie Star Looks, and Other Baseball Conceits

With long, lean limbs and the handsome, slightly weathered mug of a boxer turned movie star, Pavano like someone you’d see in an old photograph with his arm draped over Joe DiMaggio’s shoulder. If he had the same statistics, the same injury history, and the same physical ability, but stood 5 foot 9 inches tall and had a face like a fire hydrant, he would not have been signed to a 4-year, $44 million deal this past winter.

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Saturday
02Jul2005

Two Very Different Drafts

The news that new high school graduates will no longer be eligible to play in the NBA came the same week that the Defense Department began assembling a database on 16- and 17-year-old high school students in the hopes of identifying candidates who might want to join the military when they graduate.

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Saturday
25Jun2005

Is Aaron Heilman the Next Keith Foulke? & Other Baseball Questions

Sorting through players and failed prospects and seeing what’s there is exactly what the Mets should be doing this season; Mets management (and, of course, Heilman himself) should be given credit for putting him in a situation where he can succeed, not damned for holding him back from more four-inning, five-run starts.

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Tuesday
14Jun2005

Willl the Real Carlos Beltran Please Stand Up

Some people claim it's swamp gas, while others say it's the fault of the airport but all agree that down toward the field in Flushing, everything looks as if it's being seen through a haze. Add in the that batters have long complained the batter's eye in center field is inadequately blocked out, and you have an environment that does more than any other in the majors to make it difficult to see the ball.
 

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Tuesday
15Mar2005

Baseball's Mess to Clean

No one would call for a congressional inquiry into the scuffball or into cocaine use in baseball. How is steroid use any different?

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Tuesday
08Mar2005

Senate Steroid Sham

"We can help kids understand that steroids aren't cool," said Rep. Davis, as if kids mainline testosterone for the same reasons they listen to G-Unit. "Steroid use in America is a significant problem," said Rep. Waxman, apparently confusing steroids with crystal meth. This hearing is a hastily assembled farce.

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Saturday
05Mar2005

The Myth of Yankee Class

The Yankess have a long history of class, including Babe Ruth's off-field adventures, Mickey Mantle's sexcapades, George Steinbrenner's two suspensions from the game, drunkard Billy Martin's ignominious death in a ditch, Reggie Jackson's pale imitations of Muhammad Ali and Gary Sheffield's recent criticism of teammate and fellow steroid user Jason Giambi.

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Saturday
05Mar2005

Hands Tied? 

Schuerholz's protestation that he didn't ignore the drug problem because it benefited him doesn't seem to be worth much, especially when contrasted with San Diego GM Kevin Towers's raw honesty.

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Friday
18Feb2005

The Team the Yankees Traded Away

Yhe Yankees have essentially traded away an entire league-average team since 1997.

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Friday
11Feb2005

Yankees Farm System Falters

The 21st-century Yankees don't need to bring up prospects when they can scoop up veterans in the free-agent market or from other teams. But with the farm system in the state it's in, the Yankees are going to have problems making trades.

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Friday
04Feb2005

Cubs & O's Swap Problems

Unlike Ripken, Sosa comes off as a calculating, self-obsessed phony, whose shtick works while he's belting 55 home runs but seems rather contrived when he isn't. You can take this trade as proof.

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Tuesday
25Jan2005

Bigger Than Balco -- Baseball's Unnoticed Revolution

A foundation is being laid with the potential to make the way we follow the game today seem as outmoded as watching men with sticks push figures representing runners around bases on a big board, as was done in the 1920s.

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Thursday
20Jan2005

Two Cheers For MLB's New Steroids Plan

Chemistry is always ahead of enforcement. The only reason anyone knows about THG is because an anonymous person sent a sample of it to an anti-doping group. But basbeball has as last made a good faith effort: there is no mistaking this for another attempt to quiet critics while giving free reign to juiced-up cheats.

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Monday
10Jan2005

Bobby Bonilla V.2?

Following through on a decision doesn't necessarily mean it was a good one.

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Tuesday
28Dec2004

MLB's Daft DC Scheme

By playing at once the con and the mark, MLB has scammed itself out of a gold mine.

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