jmgee.bsky.social

Why don't the Seahawks wear their old school uniforms all the time? Win or lose, they have a dignity their aughts horror show regular colors don't.

Sign of a sportswriter past. I was rooting for Cleveland over Tampa in the ALCS partly because it's a shorter and easier flight between it and Milwaukee. That is nuts. It's not like I'm going. Anyway, Rays vs. Brewers is just as good a World Series matchup for making Rob Manfred sad. Also Fox Sports

Realists (rare in Patriotsland, but they exist) said that if the Pats could go 2-2 in their first four games, they'd be in pretty good shape after that. They did, and it seems as if they are.

The Giants-Commanders game had what I can only call a perfect ending. Neither team deserved to win, and neither did, proving their unworthiness in comical fashion.

One bad loss seldom spoils a long season by itself, but the way the Eagles just lost to the Jaguars (and the way their scattered healthy remnants played the whole game) makes it hard for me to believe they'll do better than 6-11 this season.

I wish the Phillies-Braves game had been this afternoon instead of tonight. I have a busy day tomorrow. But I'll watch, and whatever the outcome, I'll be at peace. If the Phils lose, I'll be sad, but not angry or frustrated. Hard to be mad at a team that did what they did in game two.

The playoffs distill baseball's cruelty to 100 proof. What were problems in July are crises now. See Phillies bullpen, Red Sox offense, and Cubs pitching in general as evidence.

The Phillies won and will make the playoffs after all. The celebration on the mound after the final out was said to be "fairly muted" by ESPN. There was a group hug, but the facial expressions of the "winners" was less "yippee!" and more "hey we might get to leave ballpark alive."

The Patriots never got their asses kicked for 60 minutes last year. The Jaguars did just that this afternoon. Drake Maye had his ass kicked the furthest and highest, but none of his teammates escaped a solid boot, either.

The Steelers are not the worst team in the NFL. But after two games, one a win, and today's loss to the Pats, it is clear they are the league's most unwatchable team by a wide margin. Just the most tedious football imaginable.

A good friend of mine of many year's standing just called to shoot the shit. He said we should get together to watch a sports event. "Gotta be a day game," I said. "You're right," he responded. "They still have those?"

My team the Phillies are in the middle of a West Coast road trip. For fans in the Eastern time zone those are very restful. No matter how much you care, there's zero temptation to try and stay up to follow the game. The incentive is to go to bed before the first pitch.

I'm watching sports online and my grown children are watching "Lantern" on TV. My mind, which can't remember appointments without my calendar, clicked in and I recited Green Lantern's oath flawlessly from memory of comics read at age 9. Is this an achievement or a sign of impending death?

It's been a hot humid summer and you'd think I'd welcome the foreshadowing, but the first NFL exhibition games of the year always make me hunch my shoulders against the cold winds that'll be blowing when the games start to REALLY count.

Adding LeBron James means the Philadelphia 76ers will be an awesome team next season - for the 17 or so games Joel Embiid will be healthy enough to play.

Spain didn't just keep a clean sheet to win the World Cup. They pitched a no-hitter.

Dept. of Bad Timing: My daughter in Bordeaux reports that the city began its Bastille Day fireworks display at the exact moment the final whistle blew in Spain's skunking of France in yesterday's World Cup semi-final.

Do others agree with me that it's very weird senior American political figures (Tom Kean, Mitch McConnell) have been forced to put out proof of life evidence in the last month? People have issues. People get injured and sick. Just say so. Nobody's portfolio rides on either of you.

If there was VAR or its equivalent in international relations, we'd be at about World War 9 by now.

Brad Stevens is on drugs. Or I am. Since Red Auerbach, the Celtic tradition is to swindle the other guys in trades. Stevens has been good at it too -- right until today. The only way the Brown deal makes sense is if Joel Embiid's orthopedist is a Boston secret agent passing on MRI results.

National soccer teams have nicknames. France are Les Bleus, England the Three Lions. Cote d'Ivoire Les Elephants. By common usage, the US team nickname is USMNT. A goddamn acronym. Surely a nation that has spawned so many great college team nicknames (Hokies, Ducks, and Roll Tide) can do better.

Last night at a Cape restaurant, the TV array at the bar was tuned to World Cup soccer and women's golf. The Sox-Yankees game started, no customer said a word. It wasn't until the third inning baseball pinch hit for the LPGA. Cape Cod has many baseball fans. If I owned the Sox, I'd be scared.

Jaylen Brown for Giannis is a talk radio trade, a barroom argument deal. Without getting into the merits of two outstanding players, history suggests such trades don't do well as realities. Basketball teams are complex organisms. Sometimes the new body rejects the transplant.

The Father's Day tradition in our family is that my one wish, that I get to watch the US Open on TV, is foiled by events. This year the culprits are the World Cup and Wyndham Clark. Not his fault, but the only final round drama would be caused by his collapse. That's no fun. Belgium-Iran it is.

Nil-nil is the ultimate boring soccer score. Unless it was Cape Verde-Spain today, in which it was excruciating drama ending in abounding joy for every resident or emigrant from a very small place. So many evil things work to fuck up sports, and FIFA's one of the worst, but they just can't do it.

I assume my grandson George, 3 years old, is all in on Knicks as a Brooklyn resident. But I wonder how his father, a Celtics fans since childhood, thinks about this. PS: I didn't raise him that way, I'm a Sixers fan. Sports can get complicated.

I've played golf in all sorts of weather, but today was new. A pollen storm. At Hyannis Golf Course, wind blew the pine pollen around in actual clouds which at first we thought might be wildfires. It didn't affect play, I was as usual mediocre, but my throat now thinks I've eaten a pack of Luckies.

In our visit to the Perigord region of France we stayed at a small, old-fashioned hotel in the town of Ezyries. Comfortable rooms, a fine restaurant, and singular interior decoration. Highlight was a lobby portrait of a woman. It had eyes that lit up and moved. Part of the Scooby-Doo chain I guess.