Things are different for Wally Backman in Las Vegas. He still fills out those daily Triple-A evaluations, still informs the New York Mets organization about the progress of its top prospects, still hands out grades as to how guys are performing at this level.
The first car I owned in Las Vegas was a pre-owned 1983 Subaru GL sedan. Its official color was Extra Black. When I signed the cocktail napkin/lease, its unofficial color was Sunbaked Gray. Never buy a car with an Extra Black paint job in the desert.
When we met Saturday, the Turbaned Tornado was wearing a brown sport coat, blue shirt with a paisley pattern, brown paisley tie, brown trousers, brown loafers. A gold wristwatch that the good people of Dubai had given him. And a matching brown turban.
And on the first matchup of a six-fight contract with CBS/Showtime that could earn Floyd Mayweather Jr. $200 million over the next 30 months, we learned a few things:
In those times over the past few years when media from all dots on a global map heard from Robert Guerrero’s people, I would think of the Inyo National Forest, which covers parts of California and Nevada and stretches some 2 million acres.
There are just a few days a year when horse racing is front and center in the mainstream media, and Kentucky Derby day is clearly the grandest of those days.
Whew. I’m sure glad Dr. Robert Voy’s prognosis that day in June 2012 proved wrong. So is boxing.
In the NBA, reputations are made in the playoffs. Carmelo Anthony is an exception because he entered the league with star status and never has lost it despite rarely winning in the playoffs.
It’s coming up on almost three summers since Destry Abbott, the five-time national American Motorcycle Association off-road champion, was riding trails in the Flagstaff, Ariz., foothills with his 12-year-old son, Cooper, and the sunshine on their shoulders that had been filtering through tall pines turned to storm clouds. Which can happen just about any day in Flagstaff during monsoon season.
Larry Brinker has been fishing for Lake Mead’s largemouth bass most of his life, but unlike those anglers who tend to hold their hard-earned knowledge close to their vests, Brinker is one of those rare souls who doesn’t mind opening his tackle box of learning for the next guy.
I no longer have a telephone at the office. I have a telephone line. I’m like Jeff Lynne from Electric Light Orchestra.
This is the way he explained it: There are two major aspects of the gay community — one that is extremely open and doesn’t care how others react to another’s sexuality and those like him who, while not completely in the closet, prefer to be identified solely on how they treat others and their contributions to society.
Maybe the NFL Draft is a dog and pony show, not to mention a showcase for the cartoon character known as Mel Kiper Jr., ESPN’s hair-raising talent evaluator.
Charlie Hans of Middletown, Ohio, was a helluva pool player when he was a young man of 27. One of the better ones in the Cincinnati area, he said with an aw-shucks southwestern Ohio drawl.
Through the years, Jerry Tarkanian has remained steadfast. Unlike Pete Rose, he did not have to apologize. For anything. All that has changed is how the basketball establishment views him.
