Bob Collins
It’s impossible to grow up in New England and not know the cautionary tale that is Jimmy Piersall’s life. He was a baseball player of enormous talent who suffered from great expectations and mental illness. Read more →
MPR News Reflections and observations on the news
Sports
What’s more rare these days than the Twins staying within 10 runs of their opponents? A triple play. Even better: An around-the-horn triple play.
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Kaylee Gossen, a junior from Marshall, could’ve just kept quiet and she’d be on her way to the state high school golf tournament.
But that’s not the way it works for high school golfers. Read more →
Here’s more proof that when it comes to sportsmanship, the track and field kids are the coolest ones. Read more →
Things worked out fine for the Tampa Bay Rays at Target Field on Friday night. They won 5-to-2 over the local nine.
Not so much, though, for Steven Souza Jr., who just missed catching Kenny Vargas’ fly ball to right field in the seventh inning. Read more →
There were less talented people than Rashad McCants who carved out a nice basketball career in the National Basketball Association, but Rashad McCants couldn’t. Read more →
Enes Kanter is from Turkey, an American ally that has given a despot — Recep Tayyip Erdogan — free rein after a failed coup. Tens of thousands of political opponents and journalists have been jailed.
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Adams Jones, the Baltimore Orioles star who focused attention on racism among baseball fans, has a message today for people who dismiss his claims.
‘Come play centerfield,’ he said in an essay. Read more →
Can one superstar player change a city’s economy?
A Harvard researcher says he/she can, at least if his name is LeBron James Read more →
It’s difficult to imagine a more obvious slight than the one the NCAA tossed on the University of Minnesota women’s softball team, which went 16-3 against other teams invited to the NCAA tournament, won 25 in a row, and finished the season 54-3. For all of that, the tournament committee sent the Gophers in unseeded. Read more →
David Ortiz’ book came out today and Minnesota Twins fans who idolize former manager Tom Kelly may want to skip it.
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Ronnie, whose real name is Ronald Wickers, is one of those fans from yesteryear, which makes sense since he’s 75 now.
He is — as they say — a character, one of those fans who becomes part of the entertainment. Some folks get tired of an old man yelling ‘Cubs…. Woo!’ through the whole game. Read more →
Male privilege is the luxury of sitting at a hockey game, having to go to the bathroom, scooting up the stairs and into the men’s room to do what you’ve got to do, and getting back to your seat before the TV timeout is over.
Ask your female friend if that’s how it is for women at the games. Read more →
Royce White, Hopkins native and a former Mr. Basketball in Minnesota who was drafted in the first round of the NBA despite revealing mental health issues, flamed out in his chance at basketball stardom in the pro game. He and Kevin McHale, then the boss of the Houston Rockets, never saw eye to eye and White’s anxiety issues kept him out of games. Read more →
If you buy season tickets to your favorite NFL team, but sell them all, should you still be allowed to buy them again? Read more →