With a new team, as with any budding relationship, the early days are new and exciting. But during the dog days of an 82-game season, even ardent fans can tire of the day-in, day-out grind. Except when it comes to this season’s Miami Heat. Even as the schedule has stretched on into March, the Heat [...]
Two flat-screen TVs hang black and silent in the North Carolina baseball players’ lounge. An abandoned game of pool sits forgotten in the corner. Twenty Tar Heels bow their heads in unison, as a Southern accent comes from the front of the room. “I want to go ahead and open up with a prayer before [...]
Too many stories that begin like this one end in failure. Hotshot kid goes to college to play for big-time athletics program. But that kid doesn’t play by the rules. Everything always came too easy. There’s friction with the coaches, trouble with teammates, violations of team policy. These stories end in suspensions. Or transfers. Academic [...]
In Duke vs. North Carolina, there is seldom a sure thing. But Saturday’s regular season finale was never in doubt. Duke built a 20-point lead in just 11 minutes and a 30-point lead in 26. After four straight losses to UNC in their own building, the No. 4 Blue Devils took back Cameron Indoor Stadium. [...]
They could always count on the fish to come back. Even after Hurricane Katrina devastated more than 90,000 square miles of Gulf coastline in 2005. Even three years later, when Gustav and Ike tore through the rebuilding efforts. The residents of Venice, La., and surrounding communities in southern Louisiana have survived natural disasters and pieced [...]
Brian Hernandez repeats himself for a third time, struggling to make himself heard above the roar of the team bus and the steady buzz of low-reception cell phone static. It quickly becomes clear that an interview will be impossible to conduct in such conditions. Such is the life of a professional baseball player — long [...]