Phelpte revisited: Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte renew rivalry

July 1, 2016

“It’s a great race, it’s a great race, it’s a great race” I kept screaming at the TV as Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte went 1-2 in the 200 IM finals in the Olympic Trials in Omaha.

“Win or lose, we have a good friendship and that’s why it’s a great rivalry,” Lochte said afterward.

Frankly, I thought Lochte, swimming with a groin injury, had Phelps in the final leg, the free, but hand it to Phelps – he has the longer reach and the champion’s ability to close. That takes nothing away from Lochte, who has never been intimidated, never backed down. That’s what makes it a great rivalry. ...

The Cavs beat the best

June 21, 2016

Maybe God was compensating Cleveland for having to host the Republican/Trump Convention.

Just kidding.

The Cleveland Cavaliers overcame a 3-1 deficit in the NBA Finals – the first team to do so – to take the championship from the vaunted Golden State Warriors 93-89. Native son LeBron James was named MVP and will most certainly draw the largest cheers when the team is feted with a parade Wednesday.

As I’ve written in a previous post, the only thing as fascinating as a triumphant underdog is a flawed winner. The Warriors won 73 games in the regular season. Their star, Stephen Curry, was the regular-season MVP. They were a lock, particularly early on in the championship series. ...

Rafa, Sharapova, Exaggerator and an unsettling week in sports

June 12, 2016

Am I the only one to feel as if the past week was something of a letdown?

First, we had a Belmont Stakes finish – Creator over Destin by a nose – that would’ve been thrilling had Exaggerator not finished 11th. That’s right, 11th. The horse that challenged Kentucky Derby winner Nyquist and bested him in the Preakness finished 11th. Something crazy about that.

At least Lani – the Nick Kyrgios of racehorses – has been improving. He finished third. No wonder everyone’s still talking about American Pharoah. Last year at this time, we were floating on the miracle of a rare feat. This year with the upset of Nyquist and then Exaggerator – meh.

The tennis news isn’t that much better. ...

Ole, Nole: Novak Djokovic wins the elusive French Open

June 5, 2016

Congratulations to Novak Djokovic, who finally won the French Open on his 12th attempt, defeating Andy Murray 3-6, 6-1, 6-2, 6-4 Sunday at Roland Garros in Paris.

“It’s a very special day, perhaps the biggest moment of my career,” Djokovic said in French to the Parisian crowd. The win made him the eighth man in tennis history to complete the career Grand Slam and the third man, behind Don Budge and Rod Laver, to hold all four Slam singles titles at once. (Budge and Laver, of course, did it in a calendar year, Laver twice – the last time 47 years ago.)

Murray, who has played his friendly rival since their junior days and is a week older, was classy in defeat. “This is his day today,” the No. 2 seed said. “What he’s achieved in the last 12 months is phenomenal.” ...

In memoriam: Muhammad Ali (1942 -2016)

June 5, 2016

Kings and presidents die, and nobody cares, Muhammad Ali once said. But Joe Louis died, and everybody cried.

Are they crying now for Muhammad Ali, who died Friday in Scottsdale, Ariz. of complications from Parkinson’s disease? No doubt.

Boxers are perhaps the most poignant of athletes, for in a sense, they absorb the blows for the rest of us. Boxing, the novelist Joyce Carol Oates observed in her nonfiction work, “On Boxing,” is “America’s tragic theater.” ...

Will Nyquist conquer a soggy Preakness?

May 21, 2016

Well, experts like Joe Drape and aficionados like Thomas DeChiara will be rooting for Exaggerator – the Andy Murray of Thoroughbred racehorses. But I’m sticking with Nyquist for the Preakness Stakes Saturday at Pimlico Race Course in Maryland (5 p.m., NBC), where the forecast is for rain.

That shouldn’t bother Nyquist. You gotta love a horse that simply will not let anything or anyone get in front of him for too long, a horse that has the will, the sheer grit, the heart to propel himself to the front of the pack. Some animals – some people – simply must be first. ...

Undefeated: tennis gods play Father Time

May 21, 2016

Roger Federer’s out of the French Open with continuing injuries, and already the Mark Antonys are out in force to praise and bury Caesar.

No Fed fan here but, as with Mark Twain, reports of his (tennis) death are greatly exaggerated. Federer will never retire, because being a player on the ATP tour – as opposed to what John McEnroe calls the old fogey’s tour – is at the core of his identity and because Feddy fans, including The New York Times, would have a nervous breakdown. Already the planets are spinning backward with Novak Djokovic’s name being thrown into the GOAT (Greatest of All Time) ring. ...