Tennis is a game of doubles. In the Hitchcock thriller “Strangers on a Train,” the tennis star must confront and overcome his murderous doppelgänger. In Woody Allen’s “Match Point,” the tennis pro is his murderous doppelgänger.
In Nijinsky’s ballet “Jeux,” the male tennis player is involved with two women.
Marshall Jon Fisher’s juicy 2009 book “A Terrible Splendor” (Three Rivers Press) offers a very different pas de trios. ...
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Football is war as theater. Violence is endemic to the sport. So it comes as no surprise that New York Jets’ linebacker Ikemefuna Enemkpali should sucker-punch his teammate, starting quarterback Geno Smith, over a $600 plane ticket Enemkpali purchased for Smith that he has yet to reimburse.
Enemkpali, (in-em-PAUL-ee) who was arrested during his Louisiana Tech days for battery of a police officer, was immediately released by the Jets. Even as NFL altercations go, this hits a new low in stupidity, and, of course, the snarkarazzi was out in force. ...
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Kudos to Ryan Lochte, who became the first man to win the 200 IM four straight times when he took gold in the event Thursday, Aug. 6 – three days after his 31stst birthday – at the 2015 FINA World Championships in Kazan, Russia.
As is usually the case, the event was not without its drama. An Aussie judge had said she would disqualify Ryan for staying on his back and not his belly as he came off the breaststroke phase of the medley into the freestyle.
She, however, didn’t. Good on her.
Ryan’s win, coming off a tough early start to the meet and a difficult year rehabbing his knee (injured when an overly enthusiastic teenage girl ran into him; yeah, I know, only Ryan) prompted one poster to write that swimming fast doesn’t require any brains. ...
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American Pharoah is a gift from God – our own Pegasus, our own wingéd spirit. So when I received an invitation to hear Victor Espinoza speak at Steiner Sports Marketing in New Rochelle, N.Y. on Aug. 3 – well, wild horses couldn’t drag me away.
The “Triple Crown Celebration With Victor Espinoza” was a revelation both for what we amateurs learned about horses and horse racing and the frankness with which Espinoza discussed these subjects.
Looking natty in a gray suit and sky-blue tie, the Mexican-born Espinoza – who guided American Pharoah to the first Triple Crown in 37 years, then capped it with a resounding win in the Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park Aug. 2 – was both humble and humorous as he reflected on a career of more than 3,000 victories. (He doesn’t know the exact number.) He had been to the Triple Crown dance before – aboard War Emblem, with AP trainer Bob Baffert in 2002; and then with California Chrome just last year. Or so Fox 5 New York sportscaster Tina Cervasio – the evening’s expert interviewer – reminded him. ...
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It’s a busy sports month with American Pharoah rolling to victory in the Haskell Invitational; Ryan Lochte hoping to regain swimming glory at the FINA World Championships; Rafael Nadal returning to his winning clay court ways at the Hamburg Open as the Rogers Cup gets underway in Toronto; and Tom Brady moving for a decision on his suspension before the NFL season begins.
But today I want to touch on my first real out-of-town trip with my debut novel, “Water Music” – to the OutWrite Book Festival at The DC Center in Washington D.C. ...
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Tom Brady has lost home-field advantage.
The NFL Players Association had sought to have a union-friendly Minnesota court hear its suit against the NFL over its four-game suspension of Brady. But Judge Richard H. Kyle said, Not so fast. Where’s the jurisdiction?
Uh, precisely. Deflategate took place in Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Mass. The NFL is headquartered in Manhattan and the union, in Washington D.C. This is an I-95 corridor issue.
As it was, the judge kicked it back to New York where the NFL filed its own suit to validate commish Roger Goodell’s right to suspend Brady. So the NFLPA lost whatever chance it had to have its case for an injunction heard in a receptive venue. The thinking was that Adrian Peterson’s case – he was suspended for taking a switch to his 4-year-old – was overturned in Minnesota. So why not go there? But Peterson plays for the – pause for effect – Minnesota Vikings. And anyway, his case turned not on his being disciplined by the NFL but on his being disciplined twice for the same thing ...
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Read MoreWith American Pharoah set to run in the $1 million Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park in New Jersey Sunday, Aug. 2 – the culmination of a three-day “Pharoah Phan Phestival” – New York, home of the Belmont, is once again getting in on the act.
AP jockey Victor Espinoza rides into Steiner Sports Marketing in New Rochelle, N.Y. Monday, Aug. 3 for a “Triple Crown Celebration.” From 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., Espinoza will greet fans and talk about what enabled him and American Pharoah to team for the first Triple Crown victory in 37 years ...
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