After last night’s Game 5 door slammer against the OKC Thunder, your Mavericks are now 12-3 in the playoffs and awaiting an opponent in the NBA Finals. Not bad for a team that about 50 percent of prognosticators picked would lose to the Portland Trail Blazers in the first round. I…
There’s no game out at the Ballpark today — shame too, since it’s likely The Last Lovely Day before summer slams into high gear. Nevertheless, at 11:30 this morning Nolan Ryan and Texas Rangers manager Ron Washington will find themselves at home plate, where Ryan will give Washington the keys…
We’re rooting for the Chicago Bulls in tonight’s Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals. Right? I know, in the regular season the Mavs were 2-0 against the Miami Heat and 0-2 against the Bulls. But the longer the series goes — it’s currently 3-1 Miami — the more rest the…
10. Much as I’m giddy over the victory and the Mavs’ second berth in the NBA Finals, I’m almost as happy for the way they handled the win. No confetti on the floor. No champagne in the locker room. Not even a drop of celebratory Ginger Ale. Says Dirk Nowitzki,…
OKLAHOMA CITY—Kevin Durant, meet Harold Camping. And Dallas Mavericks, reintroduce yourselves to the NBA Finals. Camping is an 89-year-old scam artist, a religious zealot with a troubling propensity for predicting the end of the world and then living to tell about it. Durant is a 22-year-old NBA superstar, the league’s…
As the Mavs prepare for tonight’s Game 5 clincher at American Airlines Center, a cardiac comparison: Down 15 with 5:06 to play. On the road. Game 4 of the 2011 Western Conference Finals. Or down 6, 1:47 to play. At home (sorta). Game 5 in the first round of the…
Didn’t see this with my own eyes, but apparently around 1 a.m. this morning the Ranger who just spent six weeks on the disabled list with a broken arm suffered in a head-first slide … slid three times head-first in one memorable, moronic trip around the bases in Texas’ weather-ravaged 8-6 loss…
Well, this is certainly is disappointing — there goes my first book. While using the Google Machine to find something Tom Hicks-related this evening, I came across this: a review published two days ago in The Independent of a book called An Epic Swindle: 44 Months With a Pair of…
Tied in the final minute of overtime after erasing a 15-point deficit in the final 5 minutes of regulation. Jason Kidd’s defense on Kevin Durant, leading to a Shawn Marion steal. The Mavericks’ veteran patience, systematically setting up of a Dirk Nowitzki elbow isolation they’ve run a zillion times. Dirk’s aggressiveness…
Yesterday I surmised that the Rangers’ offense would suddenly improve with the returns of sluggers Josh Hamilton and Nelson Cruz. But not me — nor even Texas — thought it would happen that fast. Or that far. Fresh off the disabled list, Hamilton homered in his first at-bat and Cruz added…
A few days ago Erik Clapp, the Fort Worth-based filmmaker who maintains the Bobbie Wygant Archive, sent me the short-short you see on the other side: “Dirk Will Destroy Your Heart.” ‘Round the office it elicits awkward, bemused titters; figured it ever there was an appropriate time to post up…
10. Battle scars. The Mavericks are fueled by them. As of last night, the Thunder now have one of their own. Who feels worse about their closing confidence this morning: Harold Camping and his May 21 oops or Chokelahoma and its 15-point implosion? 9. Whether it was an epic meltdown or…
On July 6, 1947, it was announced that George Herman Ruth would be coming to Dallas on July 9. The occasion: an appearance during a double-header at Rebel Stadium in Oak Cliff on behalf of the American Legion junior baseball program. That Wednesday would be known, according to the ad…
A day short of six weeks after breaking his arm, Josh Hamilton is back. So is Nelson Cruz. And with them, will the Rangers welcome the return of their offense? After a weekend in Philly in which they were outscored only 5-4 over 27 innings of, let’s face it, boring baseball,…
10. Think of the Ford Center Oklahoma City Arena as a ‘roided Reunion. Basketball here is still fresh and, let’s face it, there’s nothing else to do. I was at Reunion in the ’80s and Sacramento’s ARCO Arena with the cowbells in the ’00s, and this place is louder. Says Dirk…
10. You knew the Thunder wouldn’t be content to lose another game of one-on-one with Dirk Nowitzki. They fronted him in the post. They doubled him. They held him to 29 points. Nick Collison, touche. And, you’re right, that’s something I thought I’d never type. 9. Mavs coach Rick Carlisle…
Adrian Beltre got the big hit. Ian Kinsler made the defensive play. And, in a first, Mark Lowe salvaged what Neftali Feliz ruined. The Rangers beat the Royals in extras last night and — pending a weekend visit through Cliff Lee and the formidable Phillies’ pitching staff — might avoid these…
If the Mavs-Thunder somehow doesn’t do it for you, how about some Colonial golf out in Fort Worth or even a basketball game played by football players? After delivering a eulogy for his dear friend Ron Springs at his Carrollton funeral this morning, former Dallas Cowboy Everson Walls will help host…
The Mavs can play better than they did in Game 1 of the NBA’s Western Conference Finals. For the first time in the playoffs they allowed 100 points, 112 to be exact. The Thunder grabbed 11 offensive rebounds and, according to Mavs’ coach Rick Carlisle, corralled 13 of the game’s…
He’ll be here before you know it. Sooner than we all expected. He’s got the above-average arm in the outfield. The plus-speed on the base paths. Immeasurable instincts. That sweet lefty swing. Bat resting anxiously on his shoulder, ready to spray the ball, with power, to all parts of any…
John Blake just sent word: Josh Hamilton will return to the world of the baseball living tonight in Frisco, when he begins a rehab stint with the RoughRiders as Steve Buechele’s second-place squad takes on the Midland Rockhounds. Hamilton, benched with a non-displaced hairline fracture of his right humerus bone…
The Rangers lost a game because Matt Harrison walked two guys and then coughed up a home to the White Sox No. 9 hitter. We’ve dissected Dirk. And the Stars … who knows cares? At least there is news with our Cowboys. Sorta. While the NFL lockout storms toward its June 3 court…
