The inmates have won again with the resignation of Spruce Mountain High School boys’ soccer coach Larry Thornton after one (ayuh, one) game at the helm. Yes, I know we live in a kids-are-awesome, adults-are-wrong society, and that I shouldn’t be surprised. As someone paid to follow these patterns, however, I can’t help but notice […]
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The Hot Corner: No better time than the present
This business subjects us to tough questions. Sometimes we’re asking them, and sometimes we’re answering them. The most challenging one that’s ever pitched to me — and by far, the one I hear most frequently — is “what’s your favorite sport to cover?” I’ve perfected the copout answer: “Whichever one is in season.” Lame, but […]
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The Hot Corner: Halls purged, but is the rush alarming?
We, meaning the Maine basketball community, wanted answers Thursday after news broke of legendary coach Ordman Alley’s removal from one hall of fame and rescinded invitation from another. That measure of satisfaction arrived within 48 hours. And as is so often customary in controversies that unfold away from the bright lights and bleachers, all it […]
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The Hot Corner: Tragedy we can’t (and shouldn’t) shake
It is the story that won’t go away. Easy in this culture that struggles comically to separate rumor from fact to wish that it would. Failure to learn from the blink of an eye that has linked Tony Stewart and Kevin Ward Jr. for eternity, however, would heap tragedy upon tragedy. Ward’s life inexplicably is […]
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The Hot Corner: Benjamin perfect fit with select company
OXFORD — Geoff Bodine. Ralph Nason. Ben Rowe. Eddie MacDonald. Let’s see: One of the top 50 drivers in NASCAR history; an irascible, indomitable local legend; and two guys who are still winning races and championships by the fistful, fluffing up the engraved writing for their regional hall of fame induction plaques someday. Does Travis […]
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The Hot Corner: It’s Theriault’s turn at 250
I’m the target of much abuse about my Oxford 250 forecast over the years. If I fail miserably, which was mostly the case from 1990 to 2007, I look like a fool. If I hit the winner four consecutive years, instead of being hailed as Nostradamus and Confucius in a blender, I hear that picking […]
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The Hot Corner: Local tradition juices up slow week in sports
This is notoriously the lamest week of the sports calendar year. That the Home Run Derby and ESPY Awards even exist are Exhibits A and B. Baseball’s almost forgotten All-Star Game (motto: “This time, it counts, because the year everybody was honest about the fact that it doesn’t embarrassed the crap out of us”) is […]
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The Hot Corner: Selling the idea of giving up
A holiday weekend worth of independent thinking for your post-Fourth consumption: • If one more person asks whether the Boston Red Sox should be “buyers or sellers” before Major League Baseball’s trading deadline, I’m going to buy one of those swimming pool floats that looks like an oversized pipe cleaner and sell it across the […]
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The Hot Corner: Name needs to go, and it’s on us
Sports are all about debate. Lord knows it has taken the place of actual competition for two-thirds of the broadcast day. Can’t believe, though, that we the people are still having an actual discussion about the relative propriety of the nickname “Redskins.” How is this still in play in 2014? That it’s being used by […]
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The Hot Corner: Game’s changing face drives him batty
Maine high school baseball is in serious trouble. Notice I didn’t use “dying” or something of that alarmist genre. Full seasons and tense playoff games were still play with teams of nine. Trophies were hoisted heavenward. Winning coaches were baptized with whatever was left in the cooler. Top-level talent was on display between April snowflakes, […]