I was very sorry to read this upon returning from an afternoon run.

Update: a little more there.

Another update: “The agent for Tiger Woods has told USA TODAY that the golf superstar is fine after crashing his vehicle near outside his Florida home early Friday.”

Somehow our son Nathaniel made the crew team at Boston University. The whole family has come to see his event this morning beginning at 8 a.m.–woo hoo! KSH.

Watch it all.

It all began with pitchers and catchers reporting, then a World Baseball Classic won by Japan, then Opening Day pageantry, then longer pitch counts, then All-Star voting and a Midsummer Classic in St. Louis, then the Trade Deadline moves and those wild pennant races, and then a postseason that everyone watched right down to the very end, when Japan’s Hideki Matsui was a hero and the Yankees were world champs again.

Congratulations to the Yankees–read it all.

There’s an old joke: How do you become a millionaire? Have $1 billion ”” then buy the Chicago Cubs.

But Tom Ricketts, who recently bought the storied franchise and its famous ballpark, Wrigley Field, for almost $900 million ”” the most ever paid for a baseball team ”” says he thinks it’s going to be “a fair investment over time.”

“You don’t buy sports teams just because you’re looking at the investment side of it,” Ricketts tells NPR’s Scott Simon. “We’re fans, too. And we feel the pain of the fans; we understand the magic that is Wrigley.”

Read or listen to it all.

I never thought that I’d be in favor of expanding instant replay for baseball, especially in the sport’s most important games in the postseason. But then I never thought umpiring could get this bad.

It’s time for baseball to seriously consider, and I would strongly suggest that it adopt, the use of instant replay for every postseason game.

No, not on balls and strikes. But there should be an extra umpire in a TV booth who communicates with the chief ump on the field. And that extra ump should have the authority, if he deems it necessary, to review any close or controversial play.

As a perfect illustration, in Game 3 of the World Series here on Saturday night, Alex Rodriguez of the Yankees hit a ball that was originally ruled a double off the top of the right field wall. For now, the only baseball plays that can have instant replay are just such “boundary calls.” The umps assembled, left the field, consulted replay and got the call correct — a two-run homer. But it took a few minutes. With a special-replay ump, the whole process might not have taken even one minute.

Read it all.

“Without Louis Mulkey, I’m not sure A.J. would be here,” said Bulldogs coach Mark Richt.

Mulkey was a fireman who, when he wasn’t at the station, was working as an assistant junior varsity basketball and football coach when he first spotted Green. It was difficult not to notice a 6-foot-1 eighth grader who already could dunk.

Mulkey became a major part of all his young players’ lives because he’d do whatever it took to help them along.

“In my eighth grade year, he sat in my math class. It was crazy. I wasn’t doing too good, was talking and stuff, and he sat through it a couple weeks making sure I was paying attention,” Green said.

Along with Summerville school counselors, this fireman/coach helped Green get through a reading disability and urged him along when there were real questions about whether he would academically qualify for Georgia.

It was Mulkey who drove Green the 275 miles to Athens to attend a Nike camp, the first time he laid eyes on campus. And it was Mulkey who, on little sleep and after loading up the pepperoni rolls his wife packed, brought Green back to Athens his junior year. That was when the young star verbally committed to the Bulldogs.

Posted with special thanksgiving for the life of Louis Mulkey, RIP. Read it carefully and read it all.

America’s pastime (baseball) enters its sprint toward the World Series, and the sport that is America’s pastime in more than just name (football) has fans transfixed from coast to coast.

Anyone who watches pro and college football or follows the drama of the baseball playoffs can’t help but notice something else that often competes for our attention amid the passes, pitches and home runs: religion.

Players point skyward to the Almighty after reaching the end zone or home plate, star athletes voice thanks and praise to their savior after a big win, and sports heroes use their media spotlight to promote the Christian message. (See University of Florida quarterback Tim Tebow and his eye-black, touting Scripture.)These are the outward signs of a faith surge that has made big-time sports one of the most outwardly religious sectors of American culture.

Read it all.

Twins manager Ron Gardenhire had a panicked question for bench coach Steve Liddle in the 12th inning Tuesday night, as he watched Alexi Casilla stroll to home plate against Tigers closer Fernando Rodney.

“He’s got numbers off this guy, right?” Gardenhire barked.

“Yes,” Liddle assured him, “He’s 3-for-5.”

Never mind Casilla’s .202 season batting average. It had been that kind of night. Decisions made on the fly. Little ones, big ones, with nothing but the entire season on the line.

Simply an amazing game. Read it all.

Watch it all–good for them.

Scroll down the [Unity, Oregon, Burnt River] Bulls’ lineup, and all seems typical ”” at the beginning, at least. There’s Caleb Andrews, a senior fullback, from Hereford, Ore. There’s Justus Wise, senior halfback, also from Hereford.

But after that, the Burnt River lineup turns into a trip around the globe ”” Kan Bakai Uchkun Uulu, left guard from Kyrgyzstan; Szu-Yao Su, quarterback from Taiwan; Jovan Radakovic, left end from Serbia. Not to mention Ju Hyoung Park, right end from South Korea; Cem Erdogdo, right guard from Germany; and Ban Du, center from China.

Six foreign exchange students have turned the Burnt River Bulls into a virtual United Nations in helmets and pads.

These 15- to 17-year-olds plopped down in the Eastern Oregon town of Unity, population of about 120, for a crash course in rural America. Like a lot of remote areas, Unity brings in exchange students to increase funding for schools ”” and for the cultural give-and-take with the locals.

Read or listen to it all.

And the moral of the story is–Dads are not in charge. But you knew that–right? Watch it all–KSH.

So maybe it’s not swine flu, but the nation seems to have come down with a serious case of impulse control disorder.

Symptoms include (but are not limited to) Kanye West snatching Taylor Swift’s moment at MTV’s Video Music Awards; Serena Williams threatening, with expletives, to cram her ball down a lineswoman’s throat at the U.S. Open; and Rep. Joe Wilson’s inability to contain the urge to denigrate President Obama while the president was in the middle of addressing the nation on a topic of critical importance.

Wilson’s House colleagues formally chastised the South Carolina Republican on Tuesday.

In the wake of these high-profile outbursts across disciplines — politics, entertainment and sports — many Americans have found themselves asking what is going on. To some, it’s not a coincidence but rather the manifestation of a deepening social dysfunction.

“It’s extremely regrettable, but not shocking,” said Pepper Schwartz, a University of Washington sociologist. “And there is a viral element to it. It’s like Malcolm Gladwell’s book ‘The Tipping Point.’ You get to a critical mass of something and it spreads like wildfire.”

Read it all.

Wow.

The confrontation distracted from one of the hallmark victories in Boise State’s history. The No. 14 Broncos defeated the No. 16 Ducks, 19-8, a victory that is likely to place them in the top 10 next week and make the team a serious contender for a Bowl Championship Series game. The Ducks, meanwhile, face difficult games against Purdue and Utah the next two weeks. Blount struggled against Boise State, finishing with minus-5 yards on eight carries. Boise State’s Billy Winn had the night’s defensive highlight when he slammed Blount into the ground for a safety in the second quarter.

After the game, Winn called Blount’s punch a “cheap shot,” adding: “Their actions speak for their team. Something like that shows you what they’re being coached. If they were coached better than that, he wouldn’t have thrown that punch.”

William Friday, a longtime critic of the commercialization of college sports and the founding co-chair of the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics, said the altercation showed something else. “What you’re seeing here is an example of the pressure and the stress that comes in when you get this kind of tinder box,” he said. “It’s the pressure of winning at almost any price.”

Read it all.

I think I saw it about 12 times on SportsCenter during the morning run–it never got old. Wow–KSH.

Watch it all.

“We were walking down No. 1, he just turned around and said, ”˜Hey, I didn’t tell you, but thanks,’….I said, ”˜For what?’ He said, ”˜For coming.’ That was pretty cool. He didn’t have to say that, but he did. Pretty cool.”

—Lucas Glover speaking about Tiger Woods in Saturday’s New York Times.

Watch it all.

David Ortiz, the greatest single-season home run hitter in Red Sox history, yesterday acknowledged testing positive for a performance-enhancing drug in 2003 as he launched his golden era as one of the game’s premier power hitters.

Manny Ramírez, with whom Ortiz formed a fearsome 1-2 punch that helped catapult the Sox to world championships in 2004 and ’07, also tested positive for performance-enhancing substances in ’03, The New York Times reported.

Ortiz and Ramírez became the first Sox stars identified as purported drug cheats in a decades-long scandal that has sapped the integrity of the national pastime. Ortiz said he was unaware of the positive test until a reporter informed him an hour before yesterday’s game between the Sox and Oakland A’s at Fenway.

“The news blindsided me,’’ Ortiz said in a prepared statement after he hit a three-run home run to propel the Sox to an 8-5 victory.

Read it all.

John Buehrle, Mark’s father, was on Comcast SportsNet later, saying he phoned his son.

“I called him after, just like I have every game since he’s been in baseball, and left him a little personal message,” said Buehrle’s dad, who has a pacemaker in his heart and said he needed it during the ninth inning. “And I said, make sure to give Mr. Wise a hug for me.”

When the game ended, naturally I called my boys.

“Wise should stay on the Sox for the rest of his life,” said the one with the Buehrle poster over his bed.

“That was the greatest catch I’ve ever seen in my life,” said the other.

They’re only in 8th grade. They’ll see other catches, other games. But this one will always be perfect.

Read it all .

Watch it here.

It’s grown men in brightly colored underwear on bikes.

–Neil Everett of ESPN’s SportsCenter describing the Tour De France

This one made me weep like a little boy–wonderful stuff.

–Watch it all–KSH.

They are still playing in the fifth set–amazing. I turned on the BBC on the way home and caught live coverage and almost drove off the road.