It’s that time of year again when Pittsburgh faithful are allowed to avert their eyes from the mess that is the Pittsburgh Pirates (looks like what I wrote just a few days ago was overly optimistic -- again) and gaze just beyond PNC Park to Heinz field, toward the six-time [...]

So much is up in the air heading into training camp for the Pittsburgh Steelers this year. Of course, they have to deal with the whole giant f*ckmess created by Ben Roethlisberger who, justifiably, is suspended for the first four games of the season Coach Mike Tomlin will have to deploy [...]

The tragedy of the once-highest paid NFL player (scroll to #14) continues ... The AP reports that gunfire disrupted the wee hours of Mike Vick's 30th birthday party last week. No, the onetime dogfighting 'heavyweight' did not pull the trigger nor receive the bullet; however, the fiasco occurred just outside the [...]

And now, a pause in World Cup coverage for another week of doping headlines, rumors, updates and opinions. For the last few weeks, I've posted stories and updates about the University of Waterloo football steroid scandal. Everybody is weighing in on this. Chris Cochrane with The Chronicle Herald with his thoughts about [...]

Somehow, I neglected to update This Week in Doping last week. Must have been all the excitement of the World Cup and the confusion of the college conference do-si-do. Or maybe I was incapacitated by the vuvuzelas buzzing my head. Be that as it may, neither rain, nor snow, nor [...]

Alternately titled, the BCS conference commissioners and the boosters who love them. This story changes every 15 minutes so it's worth updating my last post about it. I'm exhausted just following the movements. Looks like the Big 12, in the form of 10 teams, is going to survive. All this because [...]

I grew up on comic books. On the back page of most of these comics there was always a cheesy ad. I remember this ad because it dominated my early childhood. It was the Charles Atlas ad featuring a 98-pound weakling being bullied on a beach. Through the miraculous Charles [...]

"As I read the decision by the NCAA … I read between the lines and there was nothing but a lot of envy. They wish they all were Trojans."

via Mike Garrett doesn't back down - latimes.com Facing some of the hardest reprisals in years -- including a [...]

This list turned into such a monster, I had to split it into two parts so for Part I, books 6 through 10, click here. On with the countdown: 5. What a Time It Was - W.C. Heinz. W.C. Heinz, or Bill Heinz, should always be spoken of as the Great [...]

It's not a summer reading list, really, but sports books are light fare, generally speaking. I mean, if you pick one of these up, it's hardly the same as re-reading Proust or even cracking the spine of "Team of Rivals," but still, these are some of the best sports books [...]