Free Republic

... SPOTTED: Former President Barack Obama playing golf at Robert Trent Golf Club in Gainesville, Va., Saturday afternoon...

Going viral is good for social media accounts. Just ask Bill Belichick’s dog, Nike, who took the 2020 NFL Draft by storm and now has thousands of followers on Instagram. During the draft, right after the New England Patriots made their first selection — a shocker all by itself — the broadcast went to Belichick’s home where he was doing the draft from what appeared to be his kitchen table. Instead of Belichick sitting there, it was Nike in the chair staring at the computers — setting the NFL world into a frenzy on social media.

The German Bundesliga is poised to become the first sports league I follow to go back to work. In fact, players are already at work. They are practicing in anticipation of matches to be played in early May. When the Bundesliga season came to a halt, teams had nine matches left to play. And, for once, there was a genuine race for the championship. Normally, Bayern Munich has the top spot all but locked up by mid-March. This season, though, three additional teams were in contention. Borussia Dortmund, RB Leipzig, and Borussia Mönchengladbach are all within six points (two games,...

The talk of the first round was Green Bay drafting Utah State QB Jordan Love. I was listening to sports radio and the Packers during the Rogers era has used their first round pick for an offensive player once: OL Brian Bulaga. Among some notable names still available: QB: Jalen Hurts, Jacob Eason, and Janke Fromm. (Given Fromm's lack of physical tools he is more likely a Day 3 pick) RB: D'Andre Swift, JK Dobbins, Jonathan Taylor WR: Michael Pittman, Tee Higgins, Denzel Mims, Chase Claypool, and Laviska Shenault DB: Grant Delpit

It must have been in the Fall of 1960 that I went with some neighbors to watch our local high school football team, Wheaton, play powerhouse Richard Montgomery in the final game of the Montgomery County football season. Wheaton was hoping to gain a share of the County championship with Richard Montgomery. Optimism did not abound. Richard Montgomery had a star running back named Mike Curtis. Rumor had it that he was unstoppable. Curtis must have played on defensive side as well, but it was his ability as a ball carrier that had made him a local legend. If my...

In this post, I identified five great baseball lineups from the period before 1961. Now, I want to recognize some of the great lineups from 1961 until the present. In 1972, the American League brought the “designated hitter” into being. The National League still hasn’t, a good decision in my view. With the designated hitter, American League lineups naturally became more productive, as a rule, than their National League counterparts. Thus, AL teams dominate the top of the charts in terms of runs scored. In identifying great lineups, I have tried to allow for this difference. I’ll start with a...

Everybody wants a baseball season. Nobody knows quite how that will look amid the coronavirus pandemic. Those are the only certainties for a sport that has an unbroken chain of seasons with at least 100 games stretching back to the 19th century. But as more and more hopeful hints have emerged this week — from Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s leading expert on infectious diseases, and from Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York, who both publicly touted the feasibility of playing in empty ballparks — a distressing backdrop still looms: If teams cannot sell tickets, how much will...

The dominoes moved swiftly — instantaneously, really — upon the shutdown’s execution. “When Major League Baseball postponed the start of its season on Thursday, March 12, my phone rang like the ‘Sell!’ scene in the movie ‘Trading Places,’ ” Andrew Levy wrote in a text message, “with just about every client either postponing or canceling the player appearances that had been scheduled.” Without games or group get-togethers, there sure as heck wasn’t a need for your favorite retired ballplayer to liven up an event. Hence this contingent of guys who make a living off their name long after their final...

D’backs 3 – Yankees 2 PHOENIX – This time the late-game magic showed up in the Diamondbacks’ dugout and it tore the heart out of the Yankees. Asked to protect a one-run lead in the ninth, his second inning, Mariano Rivera failed because of an errant throw to second by him and giving up three hits, including a bases-loaded bloop single to left by Luis Gonzalez that carried the Diamondbacks to a pulsating, 3-2, victory in front of 49,589 delirious fans at The BOB. Rivera, who entered the game in the eighth after Roger Clemens and Mike Stanton held the...

For most players and teams, the baseball season ends basically at the end of September. Play 162 games and go home. The Yankees' season, however, is like a run-on sentence; it just keeps going. The Yankees, of course, like it that way. George Steinbrenner pays them well enough to cover the overtime, and if they win 11 games in October (and, for this year only, maybe November), they are champions. They reached the requisite number each of the past three years and four years in the past five. It was that odd year when they fell short of 11 victories...

The Yankees maintained their pre-eminence in New York last night, finishing off the Mets in the Subway Series by rallying in the ninth inning of Game 5, and established their place among the greatest baseball dynasties by winning their third consecutive title. Luis Sojo slapped a rolling single off the Mets' starting pitcher, Al Leiter, with two outs in the top of the ninth to score Jorge Posada with the tie-breaking run, and when the throw home bounced off Posada and rolled into the Mets' dugout, Scott Brosius also scored. The Yankees won, 4-2, at Shea Stadium, finishing off a...

NEW YORK, Oct. 27—The New York Yankees finished another season in the only place they feel comfortable. They finished on top of the baseball world, celebrating a 25th championship in a heap of bodies on the pitcher's mound of the game's most hallowed patch of earth. In a season when they faced relentless pressure, were forced to deal with unexpected slumps and personal tragedy, these Yankees, like the Yankees of Ruth and Mantle before them, answered every challenge. They did so again tonight by completing a methodical four-game sweep of the Atlanta Braves with a 4-1 victory in Game 4...

Pelosi showed off her kitchen during an appearance on a late-night comedy show, while Americans form food lines across the country. Pelosi appeared on Monday’s episode of “The Late Late Show” with James Corden, where she slammed President Donald Trump’s handling of COVID-19 and then showed off her ice cream collection. During her interview with host James Corden, Pelosi attempts to show the rest of country that she’s getting through quarantine the way we all are: with a giant freezer full of expensive ice cream. In fact, as Trump campaign rapid response director Steve Guest noted, the speaker is “eating...

The Yankees have been a team greater than the sum of its parts all year, and when they secured their own corridor in history tonight, it was appropriate that a pitcher who had struggled in recent weeks pushed them over the finish line. Andy Pettitte, dropped to the back of the Yankees' rotation for the World Series, applied the final piece to their mosaic tonight, pitching seven and a third shutout innings and outdueling Kevin Brown in a 3-0 victory over the San Diego Padres in Game 4. In achieving their first Series sweep since 1950 and seventh in their...

Ending years of futility and self-doubt, the Yankees defeated the Atlanta Braves 3-2 in a taut thriller last night to win their first World Series title in 18 years. Crowning a magical season of many small miracles, the Yankees dropped the first two games at home and then stormed back to snatch four straight from the defending champions and claim a destiny that once seemed their very birthright. The spellbinding six-game triumph over the Braves bestowed on the Yankees their 23d world championship, by far the most of any team, and perhaps their sweetest. Never since the Yankees began winning...

For my amusement, I’ve been trying to identify great all-time baseball lineups. I thought some readers might be interested in my findings. I’m going to begin with five great lineups from what I call the first half of modern baseball — the period from the formation of the American League at the beginning of the last century until the 1961 expansion. Only readers in the their mid-70s or older might remember any of these lineups, so this post may not be of broad interest. However, I want to recognize these lineups. I did not include any lineups from the dead-ball...

Let me be the first to admit that this is an idea from left field. It won’t happen in the near future. But since gender equality in all things is being demanded what about 50-50 gender in team selection of team sports. I speculate here about it happening in Australia’s most popular spectator sport Australian Rules Football: https://freedom-demokrasi-and-civilised-humanity.com/2020/04/15/gender-balanced-football/ I look forward to Freeper responses.

The 1970 baseball season opened on Monday, April 6, and Tuesday April 7. On the 6th, Washington and Cincinnati held their traditional league openers. The rest of baseball followed on the 7th. Teams normally send out their best pitcher on Opening Day. 1970 was no exception. The following Hall of Famers pitched their team’s opener: Ferguson Jenkins (Cubs), Phil Niekro (Braves), Gaylord Perry (Giants), Bob Gibson (Cardinals), and Tom Seaver (Mets). Other notable aces who opened included Mickey Lolich (Tigers), Chris Short (Phillies), Jim Perry (Twins), Tommy John (White Sox), Dave McNally (Orioles), and Mel Stottlemyre (Yankees). There were twelve...

How dangerous is the COVID-19 coronavirus?   [slightly edited and restructured answer I originally wrote on Quora, to the question, but which summarily deleted by them without explanation] That depends on many factors.The Guardian (March 21) and some other news media stated that about 80% of people who get Covid-19 experience a mild case [WHO said the same] – about as serious as a regular cold – and recover without needing any special treatment.[1]Also, the amount of the coronavirus that you first take in may play a factor in the severity of your symptoms (other aspects being equal).[2]CDC (March...

The most annoying fan bases in sports Ponder this question: When you say you hate a particular team, are you actually talking about the team itself, or its fans? The players are just doing their jobs on the field, and while there are some whose play engenders blind rage from opposing fans, the real bad blood is created by those cheering for them from the stands (or on social media). From college to the pros, let's take a look at the most annoying fan bases across sports.