When the Texas Rangers’ Double-A minor league affiliate threw its first pitch in Frisco 16 years ago, it was from the ground floor of an impending phenomenon. In its infancy, Stonebriar Centre offered vacant spaces and ample parking. The “$5 Billion Mile” was just a twinkle in some developer’s eye…
Performing miracles at a rented duplex in Oak Lawn this week, ladies and gentlemen how ’bout a big round of applause forrrr … God? “No, I’m not God,” says Jim Weathers. “Just his big, ugly conduit.” Um, yeah, about that glaring lack of a miracle-worker denial. That’s because Weathers —…
Can’t touch the net, or even dream of dunking. If named head coach, promises the team would have started the season 0-8. Admits to being only a 50 percent free throw shooter. Nine months ago, didn’t know the name Mark Cuban. Despite that flimsiest of basketball résumés, Cynthia “Cynt” Marshall…
In Animal House, John Belushi’s “Bluto” and his fraternity brothers shoot a horse, throw a toga party, commence a food fight, molest an unconscious girl and get placed on double secret probation. In Old School, Will Ferrell’s “Frank the Tank” and his frat boys go streaking, tie cinder blocks to…
His brain was bouncing. Eyes involuntarily darting. Left arm numb, dangling uselessly. Lincoln Coleman was in trouble. But on Thanksgiving 1993 on that memorable, sleet-covered field at Texas Stadium, he stubbornly persuaded himself not to call for medical attention and leave the Dallas Cowboys’ clash against the Miami Dolphins. He…
By the time Luke Laufenberg sat down at Mia’s, his life was destined to get worse before it got better. “I was eating alone, hoping the pain in my bones would just sort of magically disappear,” Luke says of his lunch in December. “But before I could finish, it was…
You know you’re the GOAT when you give a speech at your own funeral. On April 10, the Dallas Mavericks, at the merciful end of the worst season in franchise history, drew their second-largest crowd of the year to American Airlines Center. It certainly wasn’t there to show appreciation for…
In 2013, Kurt Johnsen started Simplified Genetics with $300,000. In 2017, the National Football League generated revenue of $14 billion. When a man sporting five zeroes butts heads with a corporation flexing nine, it’s no surprise who leaves with the migraine. “It’s really a shame,” Johnsen says between sips of…
There he is. Standing on a huge rock. Sitting on top of the world. “I just wanna say that yes, in fact, I do know how lucky I am,” says Wally Lynn, arms and heart wide open as he and his cup of Jack Daniel’s welcome a couple hundred guests…
It’s creepy to write your own obituary. Nonetheless, I’m dead. This truly is Whitt’s End, my final column at the Dallas Observer. While I’m actually alive and relatively well, budget cuts — you’ve heard of those? — have forced the Observer to eliminate its full-time sportswriting position, one of the…
10. As of this morning, the Dallas Observer is out of the sports business, at least on a full-time basis. Though I’m not technically being fired (“laid off” is supposedly less damning), the paper and its owner, Village Voice Media, have decided to eliminate its full-time sportswriting position. It’s called downsizing. And yes,…
[jump] *Michael Young = Rangers’ MVP. Well, isn’t he? *It’s not a three-alarm fire as so far this season Dez Bryant hasn’t made any negative headlines. (I hear there was a verbal skirmish with his live-in girlfriend after a pre-season game and I keep getting reports that he frequents night…
Some are good. Some are getting better. But only a select few are the best. When it comes to our annual Best of Dallas issue I’ve made it easy this year. For those of you too cheap to “buy” a paper that’s absolutely free, just sit back in your boxers and click,…
With the Big 12 seemingly back together since the Pac 12 didn’t want ’em, SMU is back in play as a potential member in the wake of Texas A&M’s expected departure. But before the Mustangs play with the big boys, they need to beat the little ones. They have a…
Mike Modano is on Facebook. And out of hockey. The legendary Dallas Star used social media to announce his retirement from the NHL yesterday, ending a 21-year career as one of the sport’s all-time greatest skaters and its most prolific American-born scorer. Feels like we’ve delivered these eulogies before — remember…
Let’s see: There have been the firing of the hitting coach, the TV play-by-play voice and even the co-owner. A loyal father and fan leaned over a railing in left field and fell to his death. Every time you turn around a player is taking paternity leave. Last week the…
Call it the Pat 12. As in, no thanks to expansion, we’ll stand. As in, the Big 12 — all but buried by a lot of us dorks — remains alive, like the muddy, bony, cob-webbed hand reaching up from the grave to snatch onto life. Again. Because it couldn’t get…
[jump] Underwhelming. Kevin Ogletree — Undrafted free agent. 14 catches in 3 years. Jesse Holley — Reality-show winner. 3 catches in 2 years. Dwayne Harris — 6th-round draft pick. 0 catches in 2 games as a rookie. Laurent Robinson — Cut by Chargers in training camp. 89 catches (4 TDs) in…
10. Only thing funnier than Oakland trusting Rich Harden is Comedy Central’s Tosh.0. 9. Michael Young countdown to 3,000 hits is at 953 … 952 … 951. 25 3-hit games most ever by a Ranger in a single season and the guy most of us thought wouldn’t be a Ranger…
Tony Romo was gutsy last Sunday in San Francisco, but because the Cowboys lost he wasn’t heroic. Jason Garrett should be fired for his insane 3rd-and-2 play call in the final minute that led to the loss to the 49ers. Dan Bailey might be a former NFL kicker. Jesse Holley is just…
It’s not a matter of if, but merely when. The Big 12 is kaput. When the Board of Regents at OU and Texas yesterday empowered their respective school presidents (David Boren and Williams Powers) to explore new conference affiliations, it officially signaled the beginning of the end for the Irving-based…
Nothing like a good baseball pennant race. Too bad this year there ain’t one. No divisional “race” is closer than 5 games in the season’s last week and even the Wild Card is producing nothing more dramatic than a two-game edge. With another Angels’ loss Monday the Rangers inched closer…
