Yesterday, over breakfast, I lingered over the brief piece that appears on Page 44 of The New York Times Magazine: “A Day at the Ballpark.” My 8-year-old son, a baseball fan and aspiring catcher, saw the headline and the illustration — a photo of a well-worn baseball — and asked…
My relationship with Dallas before June 12, 2011, was tenuous. I got tattooed there with Dennis Rodman during the summer of 1994 and stayed for a week, but I was shit-faced the whole time. I visited for a few days during baseball’s winter meetings in 2000, when A-Rod signed with…
Saw a piece in the Penn State paper this morning about how sales for the TicketCity Bowl in the Cotton Bowl are “struggling,” at least when it comes to dispensing with Penn State’s allotment of 6,000 ducats for the January 2 face-off against Houston. So I called over to the…
Longtime Friends of Unfair Park will recall: In early 2009, United League Baseball co-founders John Bryant (yes, that John Bryant) and Byron Pierce said that come time for first pitch 2010, they would have a minor-league ballclub on the banks of the Trinity River. Why, they even rendered us a…
Speaking of local sports venues …A Friend of Unfair Park sends this dispatch concerning FC Dallas’s Pizza Hut Park in Frisco, which will no longer be called Pizza Hut Park. Leigh Anne Gullett, director of public relations for the MLS franchise, confirms: After North Dakota State and Sam Houston State…
Speaking of the Texas League, or, at least, teams once affiliated with the mighty Texas League …The Star-Telegram notes today that come January 3, LaGrave Field and the land around the Fort Worth Cats’ ballpark — valuable land too, as it sits between downtown and the Fort Worth Stockyards –…
Whilst perusing the eBay for some gifts on this here first day of Hanukkah, I came across the portrait you see above — significant for two reasons, I should think. First, of course, is the subject: Dick Burnett, for whom the late, great Burnett Field was named. As I’ve noted,…
In winning the well-publicized bidding for Yu Darvish shortly after 10 Monday night, the Texas Rangers have positioned themselves to sign the famous Japanese hurler to one of the riskiest contracts in baseball history. And unless the 25-year-old right-hander immediately establishes himself among the upper-tier dominant pitchers in the game…
[Editor’s note: For those who might have forgotten, Michael Corcoran is formerly of the Austin American-Statesman and Dallas Morning News, a one-time Observer contributor and one of my favorite writers in the history of ink. This morning, he dispatches this preview of Saturday night’s Cowboys-Eagles match-up and what it could…
Since every Cowboys game is a Game 6 these days, it’s time to look to the 2012 baseball season, when Your Texas Rangers will celebrate 40 years in Arlington. And for those of us who’ve been going to games since first pitch at Arlington Stadium (thanks, Dad), today’s announcement is…
Rob Mahoney runs The Two Man game, an ESPN-affiliated Mavericks blog, and occasionally writes about basketball for Unfair Park. Mark Cuban and Donnie Nelson have never exactly run the Mavericks like an ordinary NBA franchise. They built a team around a gangly German kid, and leaned on a bleached-blonde, seldom-used…
It won’t get the buzz that landing Lamar Odom or Vince Carter will, but last night the Mavericks made what will easily be their most interesting move of this abridged off-season, signing guard Delonte West to a one-year deal. ESPN summed West up as “a tenacious defender,” which is a…
For as much screen time as he gets, and for as much as analysts fawn over his “exotic” blitz packages — He throws everything but the kitchen sink! And sometimes he even throws that! He must be strong! Sinks are generally quite heavy! — Rob Ryan can’t be a very…
Dallas Stars President Jim Lites says: No, this was not his idea. He wants to be clear about that. Interim team president Tony Tavares was already working on a plan to lower Stars ticket prices, Lites tells Unfair Park. But, of course, he could do no such thing — not…
What you see at right is the artwork currently decorating the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim’s website: side-by-side pics of Albert Pujols and C.J. Wilson, both of whom are now Angels. The now-former Cardinal’s deal is for 10 years and worth between $250 and $260 million, and is said to…
Update, 3:42 p.m.: This could get awkward. Yahoo! is now reporting that several sources are saying June Jones will not be ASU’s next coach, because — well, basically because of all those Tweets below, or whatever the big-money-booster equivalent of bitching on Twitter is. Original item: After rescuing the SMU…
Likely bracing for the departure of free-agent hurler C.J. Wilson, the Texas Rangers have already inked former Minnesota Twins closer Joe Nathan to a two-year, $14.5 million contract and announced Neftali Feliz’s move to the starting rotation. But the efforts of general manager Jon Daniels and his staff to improve…
Shortly before word began circulating that the immortal Billy Graham has been hospitalized for the second time this year due to pneumonia, Athletes in Action posted to Vimeo the extraordinary artifact you see above: Graham teasing Explo ’72, which Time called The Jesus Woodstock, that brought some 80,000 Campus Crusaders…
Juan Gonzalez and Rafael Palmeiro made their debuts on the Baseball Writers’ Association of America’s 2011 Hall of Fame ballot — and didn’t even come close to finishing near the Top 10 vote-getters. Raffy, poor Raffy, came closest with 64 votes; Juando trailed just behind Palmeiro with 30, two ahead…
In mid-August, the Texas Rangers said that come Opening Day 2012 the team hoped to have near the Home Plate Gate of the Ballpark in Arlington a statue of Shannon Stone and 6-year-old son Cooper as a tribute to the 39-year-old Brownwood firefighter killed at the Ballpark on July 7…
Editor’s note: Rob Mahoney writes about the Mavericks on his ESPN-affiliated blog The Two Man Game and about basketball for The New York Times’s Off the Dribble blog. Presumably his New York Times bio will henceforth note that he now writes about the Mavericks for Unfair Park. Hark: The NBA…
Almost two months ago to the day, Mike Modano retired from the National Hockey League as a Dallas Star, after a single ill-fated, injury-shortened season with the Detroit Red Wings. So, then: What now? For the longest time he’s made no secret of his desire to move into the front…
