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If you spent the last three days unplugged from the world of sports, recharge your knowledge here:

The aftertaste of 28-year-old Brooks Koepka’s second straight U.S. Open triumph, this one at Shinnecock Hills in New York, is a strange one. The course was “cooked” on Saturday, resulting in eight players shooting 80 or worse, including Phil Mickelson having a “moment of madness” (in the words of his playing partner, Andrew Johnston) where he hit a moving ball on the 13th green that was about to roll off. Mickelson says he knew he would get a two-stroke penalty for the move, face a DQ by flaunting the rule and making a statement against the USGA, but he only embarassed himself more than anything. (“This was Mickelson’s attempt to be the smartest guy in golf once again,” wrote AP reporter Tim Dahlberg. “Mickelson should know there’s no place for that kind of behavior on any golf course.”) What was he thinking? Only he can answer it. The next day, someone named Tommy Fleetwood almost sets a record for lowest round in a major, missing a birdie putt on 18 that would have given him 62. For contest, Fleetwood shot a 78 the day before. And then there was Paulina Gretzky celebrating as if the father of her kids just won the event. That kind of summed it up.

Continue reading “06.18.18: Five things you need to know from this past weekend” →

It was our pleasure to have former Dodgers GM Ned Colletti visit The Drill and sit in one of our big chairs for an extended interview today.
We covered all sorts of things from the current status of the Dodgers, a deeper dive into his book “The Big Chair,” and a few quick hits on the news of the day.
Enjoy.

So we’re sitting around at the Fox Sports Studios in Century City back in early December. The sun has barely risen on a Friday morning call for all soccer hands on deck – particularly Southern California residents Landon Donovan and Alexi Lalas.
They wanted to be there, and maybe they didn’t, as the draw for the 2018 World Cup was taking place live in Russia and carried on FS1. A 2 1/2 hour show was devoted to the selection of the 32-team bracket.
The buzz in the air was interesting – anticipation for the announcement, but deflation knowing the U.S. isn’t one of them.
Team America, f*%# no.
Continue reading “Sports media notes 06.12.18: How Fox falls forward with a U.S.-empty World Cup and Telemundo turns up the flame with a Mexico-charged Copa de Mundo” →

For about a year now, there’s this little green book we’ve kept nearby – on the night stand, in the backpack, next to the throne in the guest bathroom. It’s called “What We Think About When We Think About Soccer” by social philosopher Simon Critchley. (Here is a review by SoccerAmerica.com) We pick it up, read some chapters, ponder, and put it down. Wait’ll the World Cup starts, we say. Then it will become more important. Critchley calls soccer (or football, if you will) “a working-class ballet.”  “Why is it beautiful and in what does its beauty consist?” he writes about the sport on page 15 in a chapter titled “Socialism.” It continues: “I will use the method of what philosophers call phenomenology to try and give some kind of answer to these questions. Phenomenolgy is a philosophical tradition that beings in the early twentieth century in the writings of Hurrerl and finds its decisive existential elaboration in the work of Heidegger, Sartre and Merleau-Ponty. It is a very simply: Phenomenology is the description of what shows itself to us in our everyday existence. … (it) is relearning to see the world… My hope is that this approach will enable the reader to see the beauty of football with slightly different eyes.” You’re already kinda lost but intrigued at the same time. Time’s up. The World Cup in Russia begins Thursday, and Mexico plays its first game of its group against Germany on Sunday morning (8 a.m., Channel 11), and maybe by the time you digest all this until the final scheduled for July 15, you’ve got just a good a shot of reading this book, feeling a little more superior in a group of friends, and then forgetting all of it when someone asks, “Why didn’t the U.S. qualify again?”At the very least, recalibrate your cognitive dissonance meter.

Continue reading “06.11.18: Five things you should plan for the week ahead based on unscientific evidence of guaranteed importance” →

If you spent the last three days unplugged from the world of sports, recharge your knowledge here:

If you strip down the Dodgers’ season to this point, Ross “Boss/Chicken Strip” Stripling might be their only thrower worthy of NL All-Star team consideration. And Max “Headroom” Muncy is making himself a candidate for the NL roster as a super utility man. Stripling, the 28-year-old wearing No. 68, tied the MLB high this season with his fifth straight victory during a 7-2 win over Atlanta at Dodger Stadium on Sunday. Muncy, the 27-year-old sporting No. 13 who admits he still pays rent on a place with some teammates at Triple-A Oklahoma City,  homered in his third straight game to give him 12 (tied with Cody Bellinger for the team lead) in just 44 games and 125 at bats for a team-best 1.011 OPS. Stripling (5-1, 1.65 ERA) has 49 Ks and five walks in his seven starts and he’s third in the NL in ERA (minimum 50 innings pitched) behind Justin Verlander and Jacob deGrom. The Dodgers’ overall look: A 6-2 record in June and 33-32 overall.
Continue reading “06.11.18: Five things you need to know from this past weekend before you stumble back to work Monday” →