Just when I thought it was safe to dip my toes into the turbulent waters of admiring a baseball hero, the “steroids” shark emerged and tried to rip them off once again. Last winter, just after the San Francisco Chronicle printed grand jury testimony about the Balco steroids case, I wrote an article that lamented, after four generations in my

Thousands of 15-, 16- and 17-year-old athletic girls in Middle Tennessee will be devoting countless hours to sharpening their basketball skills over the next few years. Out of the millions of shots, dribbles and rebounds, a few will emerge with skills that will allow them to play college basketball at the highest levels.  A few of them may even have

Completely compelling! That sums up my reaction to the summer Olympics in China so far.  I wasn’t sure whether or not the actual games themselves could possibly live up to the spectacle of the Opening Ceremonies in Beijing, but then, the human drama began unfolding on the international stage. I was particularly taken by the vast difference in population between

Think of all the songs and melodies that have echoed in your mind and wouldn’t go away.  It’s a common experience. The one that stuck in my head over the past few days didn’t even have a melody; it didn’t even have words, just a title: Shani’s Song. Those words have been reverberating in my thoughts recently because a former

It was the most unlikely of places and of circumstances when I experienced the kind of cold chill that comes unexpectedly from a special moment. Standing for the national anthem with friends at the first-ever sporting event held at the new Nashville arena (boxing matches promoted by none other than the wild-haired impresario Don King), the chills came as country

Some of my fondest memories as a kid were when my father took me to major league baseball games.  Though a family of modest means, I was privileged watch and to develop memories of my early heroes: Stan Musial, Jackie Robinson, Bob Feller, Ted Williams and so many more. I knew how to compute a batting average and earned run