Bob CollinsThe Athletic, a $30-a-year service that has operated in six cities in the United States — New York, Cleveland, San Francisco, Chicago, Detroit, St. Louis and Philadelphia — has now added a seventh: the Twin Cities. It’s also adding other NHL cities, scooping up the top hockey writers in several hockey-crazed cities, following a pattern in which it has been gobbling up local papers’ best analysts.
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MPR News Reflections and observations on the news
Sports
Among the many mysteries of life is why some people survive the hand life has dealt them, and some are never able to take a punch. Read more →
Nancy YangThe Yankees are in a funk right now, so their broadcasters need something to talk about, right? Read more →
ESPN says the decision was made “collectively.” Read more →
Being a photographer is hard work. Just ask Tony Capobianco, a newspaper photographer, who was out of the line of fire for the ceremonial first pitch at Boston’s Fenway Park last night. Until he wasn’t. Read more →
We interrupt the ongoing horrible news of the day for the NewsCut version of a hit of oxygen: a story about kids and baseball. And a dangerous city. And a man who tries to make a difference in what is probably a lost cause.
Because what other choice do we really have?
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A report by a law firm hired by the University of Minnesota Board of Regents says the university followed its own rules and the law when it suspended 10 football players last year in a Title IX investigation of the sexual assault of a woman.
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Other than Kirby Puckett, it’s hard to recall a figure in Minnesota sports who crashed and burned as hard as Jeff Dubay, the former sportstalk radio star in the Twin Cities. Read more →
‘It crept in this morning, when I woke up, just thinking about everything that had happened, everything that my family and I had been through,’ Chad Bettis said. ‘I was holding back tears until the start.’ Read more →
The Minnesota Twins threw in the towel on their playoff hopes nearly two weeks ago, trading a starting pitcher it had acquired for a playoff push days earlier, and sending away its All-Star closer. That earned the scorn of local scribes who ridiculed the team for believing it had a chance at the playoffs in the first place. Read more →
There’s a fair amount of theater in matters involving football but University of Minnesota football coach P.J. Fleck, a showman of the first order, provided a genuine moment yesterday when he gave a big nod to a kid who’s been showing up for the team and never played a game. Read more →
Major League Baseball will reach peak silliness later this month when it holds ‘Players Weekend’, outfitting its players in silly jerseys with the nicknames of players on the back.
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We understand the whole ‘tough guy’ thing that dominates football, but Vikings coach Mike Zimmer might be taking things a little too far, elevating the importance of the sport. Read more →
If you’re going to play in a girl’s soccer league in America in 2017, you probably should have long hair, lest you want to get a good look at the wonderful world of adults in organized youth sports.
In Madison, Wis., the girls on one soccer team have been hearing it from opponents because they like to wear their hair short. They’re pushing back, however. Read more →
Don Baylor wasn’t with the Twins very long. He was a late-season pickup (from the Boston Red Sox) for a team trying to win a pennant. He was 38 by then without much left in the tank. He played only 20 regular season games here. Read more →