Sports
October 1, 2022 — Scott Johnson
The Associated Press reports that Japanese wrestler and politician Antonio Inoki has died at the age of 79. I was a high school teacher who paid good money to attend his whatever-it-was with Muhammad Ali televised live from Tokyo’s Budokan over closed circuit at the Minneapolis Auditorium in June 1976. Inoki contended with Ali during most of the 15 rounds by kicking him while positioned on his back. Ali taunted
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September 23, 2022 — Scott Johnson
Ohio Democratic Senate candidate Tim Ryan is a 25-carat phony “moderate.” He had the luxury of running a general election style campaign through the primary season, so he has had the time to perfect his act. In just the past two years, however, “he’s voted to federalize elections, admit Washington, D.C., as the 51st state, impose onerous new background check requirements on gun owners, and grant mass amnesty to millions
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September 12, 2022 — John Hinderaker
Two stories in the news strike a common chord: the need to stop infantilizing minority, especially black, populations. The first comes from the world of sports and involves the familiar racial hate incident hoax. Briefly, the Duke women’s volleyball team played a match at Brigham Young University, and lost. After the match, the godmother of one of the Duke players, who is black, tweeted that someone in the BYU crowd
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August 23, 2022 — Steven Hayward
As you may have heard, Robert Reich, who increasingly looks like a parody of an old man yelling at clouds, is very concerned about equality. Very very concerned. Almost obsessively concerned. Actually, strike “almost” from the previous sentence. His egalitarianism extends to the WNBA. Reich finds it scandalous that WNBA players aren’t paid the same as NBA players. Never mind getting schooled by any libertarian walking down the street, as
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August 15, 2022 — Steven Hayward
As you know, the NFL’s “Washington Football Team” finally settled on a new team name: the “Commanders.” I wonder how many focus groups it took to settle on this. Was it harder than coming up with “Oklahoma is OK”? Is “Commanders” really a good name for a city whose commands to the populace are increasingly resented? (It might help if the team had a commanding record to boast about in
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July 7, 2022 — Steven Hayward
Sensible nominations for the worst recent developments/scandals in sports would surely include the universal designated hitter in MLB, or the runner-on-second-base-in-extra-innings innovation, the continued employment of Angel Hernandez anywhere near a baseball field, or the defenestration of Jack Del Rio for the sin of speaking common sense. But these would all be wrong. The worst sports story of the moment is the LA Dodgers’ suppression of the sportscraft of Roger
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July 3, 2022 — Steven Hayward
Following Edmund Burke’s adage (which was actually first said by Lucius Cary, 2nd Viscount Falkland, in a speech in the House of Commons on 1641, but it is thoroughly Burkean) that “If it is not necessary to change, it is necessary not to change,” we can draw a straight line from this week’s ridiculous decision for USC and UCLA to join the Big Ten to the ruinous decision to institute
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June 6, 2022 — Steven Hayward
As someone who grew up in LA when the Lakers reached their first pinnacle with the great Jerry West/Wilt Chamberlain team that won a record 33 games in a row in the 1971-72 season (by an average margin of 17 points a game), and then to be around for the rise of the “Showtime” Lakers with the arrival of Magic Johnson in 1980, I have been looking forward to the
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May 30, 2022 — Scott Johnson
The Brooklyn Nets came to town to play the Minnesota Timberwolves on January 23. We were in the middle of a below-zero cold snap that did not deter Nets assistant coach Amar’e Stoudemire from seeking out morning services at an Orthodox synagogue in St. Louis Park away from his downtown hotel. He obviously wasn’t just going through the motions. Catching sight of the tall guy at services, my teacher Rabbi
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May 13, 2022 — Steven Hayward
The time has come to introduce Power Line readers to our adjunct sports desk, available on YouTube as “Savage Brick Sports.” Don’t ask me where the adolescent in my household came up with that name, but maybe after he heads off to college at Clemson this fall he can explain it after taking in that professional league known as SEC college football. Click the link above if you want to
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March 13, 2022 — John Hinderaker
After a mere 40 days of retirement, Tom Brady has announced his return to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers: These past two months I’ve realized my place is still on the field and not in the stands. That time will come. But it’s not now. I love my teammates, and I love my supportive family. They make it all possible. I’m coming back for my 23rd season in Tampa. Unfinished business
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January 19, 2022 — John Hinderaker
In recent years, a remarkable amount of attention has been paid to sports teams’ mascots. God forbid that a team be called the Indians, the Redskins, the Redmen or the Fighting Sioux. You can’t be the Bullets, either. But through it all, I have been confident that my home football team’s name, the Vikings, can’t be challenged. Who could possibly complain? I underestimated the Left’s tireless search for micro aggressions.
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January 4, 2022 — Steven Hayward
Did any readers happen to catch the player introductions for Sunday night’s Packers-Vikings game? When Aaron Rodgers came on the screen to name his school, he said, “Butte Community College.” What’s this? Rodgers indeed played for Butte Community College for one year before going on to play for Berkeley, where the team had a winning record. And the rest is Packers history. Turns out he has done this before, but
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December 29, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
Unless the Wuhan coronavirus prevents it (wouldn’t that be poetic justice?), the Winter Olympics will began on February 4, 2022 in Red China. Unless the virus prevents it, U.S. athletes will participate. Joe Biden decided not to call for a boycott of the Olympics by athletes. Instead, our politicians will boycott the games. That’s a rather pathetic response to Red Chinese atrocities, but maybe it’s better than nothing. I would
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December 21, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
It’s been clear for a while that, with the emergence of the omicron variant, pro sports in the U.S. would experience disruption. Last week, it became clear that, under existing protocols, the seasons of sports played in the winter were in serious jeopardy due to the virus. And yesterday, the National Hockey League put its season on hold. I didn’t expect the covid protocols to change, at least not right
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December 16, 2021 — Steven Hayward
Remember how the left not long ago went on and on and on about the supposed “war on women” from the right? The irony is that according to current leftist dogma, women no longer exist. After all, the Biden Administration’s Department of Health and Human Services is insisting in referring to mothers (once understood as a significant subset of beings known as “women”) as “birthing persons,” because current leftist dogma
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December 14, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
As if on cue, American sports leagues are starting to experience game postponements and other disruptions due to the Wuhan coronavirus. The Chicago Bulls have postponed their next two games due to ten players being in health and safety protocols. This is the first time NBA games have been postponed this season due to covid issues. It won’t be the last. Similarly, the National Hockey League has postponed the next
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