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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
by gordie | Mar 5, 2022 | College Basketball
In the spring of 1975, Matt Brown was deep into his senior year at York Catholic High School and considering places where he might continue his basketball career. Villanova was recruiting him, he recalled over the phone the other day. Seton Hall, VMI and St. Peter’s,...
by gordie | Feb 26, 2022 | College Basketball
Glenn Stitzel admits to being blissfully unaware during one of the signature moments of his basketball career at Millersville University (then Millersville State College) over a half-century ago. Some context is in order, though. Playing for a team that ran...
by gordie | Feb 21, 2022 | College Basketball
Clearly Riiny Giir, a basketball player of some promise, needs to add weight, needs to carry more than the 185 pounds he currently carries on his 6-8 frame. But if Giir is carrying any additional burdens from all he has experienced in 20 years of life, he seems to...
by gordie | Feb 14, 2022 | NBA
On Sunday night, we were reminded anew of the value of sports franchises taking big swings, when the Los Angeles Rams beat the Cincinnati Bengals to win the Super Bowl. The victory came not quite 11 months after the Rams traded their previous starting quarterback,...
by gordie | Feb 7, 2022 | NBA
Free Ben Simmons. Please, please, please free Ben Simmons. What’s that? You say that Brooklyn Nets coach Steve Nash said Sunday that his team wasn’t going to trade veteran guard James Harden, the Sixers’ apparent target in a Simmons trade? And that ESPN’s Adrian...
