Sports Commentary

I have seen many boyfriends, girlfriends, spouses, friends and parents doing their best, with great intentions, to teach those they care about how to play golf.

One prescription for a longer life may be to play Major League Baseball. That was the conclusion of a recent study by Harvard researchers, published in the peer reviewed medical journal JAMA Internal Medicine.

Originally I was quoted as saying I wanted the Top 3 ranked men in the world of tennis to lose early at the U.S. Open, well ... one made it through, Rafa Nadal who defeated Daniil Medvedev in a five-set thriller 7-5, 6-3, 5-7, 4-6, 6-4 for his 19th Grand Slam singles title.

The Sheriff Deputy tried to comfort me, informing me he was trained in search and rescue with the Forest Service. Little comfort, though.

While in Cincinnati, I spent some time talking with Laura Marttinen who was working the booth for a company called “Grand Slam Tennis Tours” that has its main office out of a restored barn in Stowe, Vermont.

Most sports fans are fickle by nature. We cheer for our favorite players and teams when they win and boo them when they lose. But the behavior of some Indianapolis Colts fans when quarterback Andrew Luck announced his retirement was both deplorable and unacceptable.

This is the third of a series to assist you with putting. We will discuss different types of strokes and how to get the most out of your practice putting sessions.

There’s nothing like sitting down at almost court level to get the full impact of how the top tennis professionals are really hitting the ball during a tournament.

My sister-in-law refers to hiking staffs as “magic sticks.” Such creative terms can be misleading, especially if we expect these “sticks” to magically support our weight.

At the Yankees’ home opener in 1973, newly minted owner George Steinbrenner didn’t know his players’ names. But as he watched his players remove their caps for the national anthem, Steinbrenner wrote down a series of numbers on the back of an envelope.

Being from Ohio there’s some extra enjoyment in covering the final Masters/Premier 5 men’s and women’s tournament prior to the U.S. Open - the Western & Southern at the Lindner Tennis Center across the road from Kings Island in Mason, Ohio.

Putting is not a physical science, it is a mental art. Everybody tries to get too technical when it comes to putting. They put way too much emphasis on the mechanics.

When is a “forever” contract not forever? We are about to find out, thanks to a lawsuit involving one of the most popular and recognizable sports mascots of all time.

It was an unusual couple final matches at the Canadian Open, first in Toronto where 19-year-old Canadian Bianca Andreescu won the title from Serena Williams after a 3-1 lead in the first set and Williams retiring from the match. The problem was a muscle spasming upper back that started in Serena’s previous semi-final match.

Let’s break this down, word by word. Pine, coniferous trees. But this is merely the tip of the iceberg. Hiking here since the ‘70s, I consistently come across the most interesting plants, like duckweed. Quite unexpected, even weird. That leads me to the next word.

The biggest mystery of the baseball season may soon be resolved.

Many people don’t realize that the Canadian Open is the third longest running tournament in the world. It began in 1881, not long after the very first U.S. Championships were held in Newport, Rhode Island, that same year.

A putt, even from two inches, counts the same as a booming 300-yard drive. The easiest area of our game (and score) to improve upon is putting.

MLB ballparks are about to become safer for fans.

There are hundreds of tournaments run on a professional basis for both men and women held on every continent around the world that lend to year-round tennis excitement, beginning in January and ending in December.

Alas, biking in to work in Spring Valley from Cordes Jct. along a portion of Big Bug Creek, the flow of water has finally dried up. This is so typical in Arizona. The stream beds are mostly intermittent.

NFL brass have made a proposal that will turn the league into a facsimile of the recently expired Alliance of American Football: short on talent and bereft of credibility.

Every now and then you are thrown an opportunity that you don’t see coming, and when Jack Smith, now former-county supervisor/district 5, stepped down from that position and someone who lived in that area would be appointed, I thought, “Why not me?”

We discussed playing in the wind and now we are in our monsoon season, which means playing in soft, wet conditions. I will share some things that I think are important to playing your best during this time of year.

To get what it wants, the NCAA resorts to threats and intimidation.