Sports Commentary

This is a great time to focus on your aim and alignment. Most mishits result from improper aim or alignment. Let’s be clear on a few things. Aim involves the clubface and your target.

Sometimes I spend more time on the road, getting to my destination, than on the trail, at my destination. Fortunately, there are quite a few worthwhile hikes “right in our own backyard” across Yavapai County. Trail 95 comes to mind first in this category of nearby hikes.

MLB is discussing ways to shake up the playoffs and some of the proposals are right out of left field.

The USGA just came out with their Distance Insights Report. Anyone who has played this game for forty years or more, realizes that distance is so much more a factor. Face it – the further your shots travel, especially off the tee, the easier it is to score lower.

Jessica Mendoza lost two jobs in one day last week but don’t expect to see her name added to the next unemployment numbers. Mendoza is the former All-American softball player from Stanford who is best known as an ESPN baseball analyst.

Beginning on June 24 at about 4 p.m., back in 2017, the Goodwin Fire began. It eventually swept through Grapevine Canyon on its way to the west side of Mayer.

In December, the Los Angeles Times published a story which claimed the cost of attending a Major League sporting event in the area was unaffordable for the middle-class fan.

Local tennis players Fay Matsumoto and Jan Hasse started off the year not at the Australian Open cheering on the top players in the world, but competing and winning at the “Wilson World Tennis Classic” the world’s largest adult/senior amateur tournament, in Palm Desert, California recently.

Balance, rhythm, tempo and timing are crucial to any golf swing. You cannot be taught these fundamentals, but you can learn them.

Baseball’s Hall of Fame voting has come and gone for 2020 and once again, neither Roger Clemens nor Barry Bonds received sufficient votes – 75 per cent - from the Baseball Writers Association of America for induction.

Air so thick, you could cut it with a knife. As I sailed through Phoenix on I 17, a banner over head reminded me that there was an air quality alert. No kidding! It was a no burn day.

Mel Allen, the longtime play-by-play announcer for the New York Yankees, also hosted a weekly television show titled “This Week in Baseball” from 1977 until his death in 1996.

Last year we saw the modernization of the Rules of Golf. This year amateur golfers will see some changes in their handicap system, with the advent of the new World Golf Handicap System.

A number of business issues will dominate MLB’s off-field headlines in 2020, with the three biggest discussed below.

Tennis comes down to two types of strategy, offense and defense. Which strategy is best for you depends on what weapons you have in your game, your personality type, your physical and mental condition, and one more thing ...the opponent you’re playing.

While desert peaks are great winter destinations, especially if loaded with childhood memories, canyons in Yavapai County might be of greater interest, if for no other reason than they are close by and that’s important during the busy holiday season.

It’s easy to spend money, even easier when the money isn’t yours. Sports fans are notorious for spending other people’s money, constantly urging team owners to increase team payroll and castigating them if they don’t.

Teammates and opponents, coaches and NFL executives, even most fans recognize that Tom Brady has nothing left to prove.

Being the second day of the New Year, many of us have already broken one or more of our resolutions. Here are some (not all) golf resolutions that I think all of us could keep, every day of the year.

Give NBA Commissioner Adam Silver credit. From the day he succeeded David Stern he has been pushing the envelope, proposing one novel idea after another in an effort to keep the league relevant.

It’s the last day of 2019 and yes, it’s winter - but still warm enough to go out in a blaze of glory on the tennis court with a high temperature of around 45 degrees today.

Holidays are filled with memories, good and bad.

Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association have reportedly reached an agreement to remove marijuana from the list of banned substances for Minor Leaguers.

“Twas the day before Christmas”... and this time of year certainly brings all kinds of wonderful memories for everyone, not to mention a New Year around the corner and a new decade to enjoy and plan starting 2020.

We have previously discussed some Christmas gift ideas for golfers, mainly adults. Let’s explore how you can give a child a present that lasts a lifetime and will be one of the most beneficial gifts you will ever give them as a parent or coach or mentor.