Sports

We thought the Mavs’ owner was being unusually quiet this time of year. Guess we were wrong. Though, by Mark Cuban’s standards, this seems like pretty lame stuff, no? But is that really worth $200,000? –Richie Whitt…

Went to my 9-year-old son’s baseball game in McKinney last night and came away with two revelations: We really shouldn’t name our sports teams after natural disasters, and people, even coaches, are stupid. You’ve heard all the uproar and NCAA mandates that universities no longer use “Indians” or variations of…

Dirk had best nut up for tonight’s Game 2 against the San Antonio Spurs. Dirk Nowitzki is a great player, but if the Dallas Mavericks star keeps passing up crucial shots, he’ll never be an elite player. Dirk missed eight of 11 shots in the second half of the Game…

The woman’s voice on the other end of the line is strong and perky: “You’ve reached the national headquarters of the Continental Baseball League,” she says, as though you’ve just dialed a proud, tradition-rich enterprise. But at the moment, the Continental Baseball League doesn’t exist apart from its offices on…

When is no news conference news? When the No. 16-ranked high-school basketball prospect in the country decides he isn’t quite ready to tell folks where he’s going to school. (Same thing happened to me; I get it.) That’s what happened today when power forward Darrell Arthur of South Oak Cliff…

Now George Dubya done gone and pissed off a whole new constituency: soccer players (and, of course, their moms). Today’s Los Angeles Times takes issue with something the president told Germany’s Bild am Sonntag newspaper for its Sunday editions. “As a boy, I never even saw a soccer ball,” the…

In case you missed it–and I know you did–the Dallas Stars’ first-round flop is looking more embarrassing by the day. With Mavs-Spurs and the EDS Byron Nelson Classic in our faces this week it’s difficult to think about the Stars. But what’s happening to the team that beat them–the Colorado…

On April 25, the Austin American-Statesman’s Kurt Bohls insisted the annual University of Texas-University of Oklahoma game at the Cotton Bowl was a goner come 2008. (OK, so he reported that someone close to UT and the Cotton Bowl said it was “80-20 that Texas will leave” the Red River…

This Saturday Lone Star Park’s all-time top trainer Steve Asmussen will run two horses in the Kentucky Derby—Private Vow and Storm Treasure—and hope to erase a pretty dreadful record in classic competition. Asmussen, who’s based in Texas, topped the U.S. trainer standings last year in wins and is ranked No…

It’s an annual rite of spring. On April 15–at precisely 11:59 p.m., if you’re like me–we do our taxes and write off the Texas Rangers. This year seemed no different. Before the season even started, prized pitcher Adam Eaton injured his finger. New leadoff man Brad Wilkerson started striking out…

Dallas Cowboys coach Bill Parcells came out of his and Dick Cheney’s spider hole yesterday to attend the Texas Rangers-Baltimore Orioles game at The Ameriquest Ballpark at Arlington Stadium–but, of course, InvisiBill wasn’t much interested in talking football or the draft…or much of anything. He says that’ll change Friday and…

So this old couple buys a house. Not just any couple, mind you. They’re not directly related, but you treat them like family. Check on them almost every day. Make every effort to buy what they’re selling, injecting income and enthusiasm to make their ends meet happily ever after. Not…

If pedigree is any indication, the Frisco RoughRiders baseball franchise is headed in the right direction. The Texas Rangers Double-A affiliate has promoted Scott Sonju to the prestigious role of president/general manager. If that name rings a wind chime in your vast noggin, it should. Scott’s dad is Norm Sonju,…

You heard it here first: Charlie Waters just accepted the job to be the analyst on Dallas Cowboys radio broadcasts for next season. Waters, an All-Pro safety with the team in the 1970s, will be Brad Sham’s partner on KTCK 1310 AM The Ticket beginning with this summer’s pre-season schedule…

That chirping Valley Ranch birdie tells me today that Dallas Cowboys defensive end Greg Ellis is unhappy and skipping off-season workouts in an attempt to force his way out of town. Ellis, the team’s first-round pick in the 1998 draft, doesn’t fit the mold of coach Bill Parcells’ 3-4 defensive…

The mayor of Los Angeles, Antonio Villaraigosa, is in town today, along with some other elected L.A. officials, to meet with 11 NFL team owners who’ve come to Dallas to see just where Cowboys owner Jerry Jones buried coach Bill Parcells. (What? You say he’s still alive? Then just where…

I loves me some Mark Cuban. Those of us who endured the Dallas Mavericks’ failed “Three J’s” era and countless snoozefests at Reunion Arena appreciate the extreme makeover he’s performed on the franchise, on and off the court. The Mavs are on their way to a second-round showdown with the…

Lowndes Shingler. John M. Longmeyer. Lou Cioci. Stop me when you’ve heard of one…Bill Van Burkleo. Sonny Utz. Drawing a blank? Of course you are. Join the clueless crowd. Because despite what geeks like Mel Kiper and Gil Brandt and Norm Hitzges and some eighth-grader with a Web site in…

The old hockey adage is that in the Stanley Cup playoffs, teams need their goalies to play extraordinarily well–to “stand on their heads.” At this point, the Dallas Stars just need Marty Turco to save face. Already down 0-2 to the Colorado Avalanche in their best-of-seven playoff series, the Stars’…

Writing in the Austin American-Statesman today, sports columnist Kirk Bohls says the annual University of Texas-University of Oklahoma game at the Cotton Bowl is damned near a done-gone deal: “‘I think it’s 80-20 that Texas will leave,’ said someone with connections to both Texas and the Cotton Bowl…Barring a change…

It was Don Nelson who set the table and prepared the food for your Dallas Mavericks. But it’s been Avery Johnson who’s taught them how to eat. Johnson, known as the Little General for his short stature and stern disposition, will receive the NBA’s Coach of the Year award before…

News that SMU will hire Matt Doherty to be its next basketball coach comes with a mixed message. Bravo: Doherty is a Dean Smith starter kit who jump-started flatlining programs at Notre Dame and Florida Atlantic. Bullshit: Doherty is a spoiled brat with anger management issues who resigned at North…