Sports Columns
UNLV shouldn’t hire Tim Chambers to lead its struggling baseball program because he is a terrific coach, having built College of Southern Nevada into a junior college power the last 11 seasons.
It was August 1985 when the 15-year-old baseball prodigy with the sweetest baseball swing since Darryl Strawberry (bet you thought I was going to say Ted Williams) barged into the press box at Ricketts Park, home of the Connie Mack World Series in Farmington, N.M., asked if I was the reporter from the local newspaper and, if so, when did I want to interview him?
GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. — They tried everything. They wore eye black down the sides of their faces like him. His brother scrawled No. 34 in dirt behind the pitcher’s mound. One teammate wore his jersey. Another hit a home run and, while crossing home plate, held up three fingers on one hand and four on the other.
GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. — Maturity is a label often assigned Bryce Harper the baseball player. He doesn’t hit like a 17-year-old, doesn’t adjust like one, doesn’t approach pitchers like one, doesn’t look anything like one when standing in a batter’s box.
GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. — What wasn’t expected: The policeman following our rental car for miles through Utah, finally pulling us over and informing us that the license plates were registered to a Chrysler, which I’m sure would interest the boys back in Las Vegas who gave us a Toyota Rav 4.
And with one overhand right, a lummox delivered what might be the most stunning shift of momentum in Ultimate Fighting Championship history.
Jimmy Vasser is not one to cry over spilled milk. So he doesn’t regret that when he had his best opportunity to swig some in Victory Lane at the Indianapolis 500, he was off running in a rival series.
When you grow to this point, from one guy wearing a boxing glove and another wearing a jiujitsu kimono to producing some of the world’s most recognizable fighters, from media gatherings of three reporters asking questions to conference calls with more than 100, from childhood buddies spending $2 million on a struggling company and turning it into a billion-dollar venture, significant moments aren’t lacking.
Nothing about the Phoenix Suns should lead anyone to believe they just suffered a crushing blow, that they are devastated and incapable of fighting back. Not with Steve Nash leading the charge.