As with Roger Angell (RIP), Retiring Ray Didinger Leaves Behind a Looming Legacy

by gordie | May 29, 2022 | MLB, NBA, NFL

Roger Angell wrote long, long after it was fashionable to do so. Ray Didinger spoke evenly, even as hot takes became all the rage. You wanna call them dinosaurs, fine; have at it. I choose to believe that is true only in the sense that they have left (or are about to...

Jrue Holiday, Jimmy Butler and the Joys of Second-Guess Season

by gordie | May 14, 2022 | NBA, Philadelphia 76ers

One fine night in June 2013, reporters covering the Philadelphia 76ers gathered in the gym at the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine to cover the NBA draft, confident the team would select some serviceable player (or not) and continue to bumble along, as...

Life After Football’s “Expiration Date”: How Former Oregon State Player Kesi Ah-Hoy Has Found a New Direction

by gordie | May 1, 2022 | College Football

Vacationed in Hawaii for the first time recently, with my wife and some friends. Did the luau thing, the whale-watch thing, the beach thing and the volcano thing, and one day did the Oahu thing, too. Flew there one morning from the Big Island and clambered aboard a...

Honey, I Swallowed the Clickbait: Here’s Where the Inquirer’s List of the 50 Greatest Sixers is Lacking

by gordie | Apr 20, 2022 | NBA

Rare is the day when the 76ers don’t give us something to fret about, but here we are. And here they are, up 2-0 against Toronto in their first-round playoff series. Joel Embiid is playing Gulliver to the Raptors’ Lilliputians (while “respectfully” giving Nick Nurse...

A Driven Coach, a Resourceful Star and a Connected Cast: How Lancaster Catholic Ran the Table in 2002-03

by gordie | Mar 7, 2022 | High School Sports

NOTE: With Lampeter-Strasburg 27-0 heading into the PIAA Tournament, here is a look back at the only Lancaster County team to finish as an undefeated state champion — Lancaster Catholic’s 2002-03 club, which went 35-0. This piece originally ran Sunday on...