The best part of writing about gay athletes is that it makes sports fans uncomfortable. That's always fun. Of course, not all of you. Didn't mean to stereotype.

You might know that Fresno had seven men who went to Chicago to participate in the Gay Games as an indoor volleyball team. There wasn't anything particularly moving or heroic about their story.

Continue reading "In defense of rainbows" »

The Central Valley ESPYs went quite well, in the sense that at no point did a stage light fall on a presenter's head, causing the person to stumble blindly into the whirling blades of an industrial size snow-cone maker.

If that's your standard, then it was as smooth as the Oscars.

Continue reading "Just read the cue cards" »

A while back I wrote a column about the group of women trying to start a roller derby league in Fresno.

I finally tracked down a picture of the team.

Continue reading "Meet your Fresno roller derby team" »

This weekend I had my first genuine celebrity experience since moving to California. It wasn't anything that would make headlines outside of this blog, but still, it's a decent story.

I mean, some brush-with-celebrity stories start with such buildup you figure the person must have went shopping with Angelina Jolie, and then you find out they saw someone at the mall who looked a lot like the principal from "Saved by the Bell."

Continue reading "A brush with "Boston Legal"" »

A lot of people don't know this, but I'm really interested in running. Not because I'm good at it, or because I enjoy it, but because I used to be fat.

Not Star-Jones fat or Vincent D'Onofrio-in-"Full-Metal-Jacket" fat, but chunky. When you're 6-foot-4, you can hide 40 pounds here or there, an extra package around a massive Christmas tree, but when you're 5-foot-6, 40 pounds is the difference between "trim" and "SOMEONE GET A GURNEY!!"

Continue reading "What? No medal for 68th place?" »

I lied. This is another Sunday night update from Fullerton. It's 12:05 a.m., just for the record. OK, I lied again. It's actually Monday now.

When an umpire blows a call as badly as the one that just happened, you have to write about it. The umpire then threw Mike Batesole, the Fresno State coach, out of the game for arguing the call. That's just poor.

Continue reading "Umpire blows it twice" »

Thanks to ESPN, the Fresno State vs. Cal State-Fullerton game didn't start until 9:30 p.m. tonight, and since my deadline is 10:30 p.m., well, you can see how that's a problem.

Here is the update, with a quick catch-up for those of you who don't follow college baseball.

Continue reading "Hanging on in Fullerton" »

So here is what happened to Fernando Cabada.

Or, you could say, what Fernando Cabada did to himself. But first, a little background.

Continue reading "Feel-good story has a splat ending" »

Just saw this piece of sports news today.

Starting next season, If any high school football team in the great state of Connecticut beats another team by 50 or more points, the coach of the winning team is suspended for one game.

Continue reading "Can a coach tackle his own player?" »

I'm on one of those trips where you're going from a city that isn't quite big enough for cheap, convenient travel to another city that isn't quite big enough for cheap, convenient travel.

Continue reading "Out on the open road" »

Just to clear something up: When Mark McGwire and Barry Bonds are alleged to have started using steroids, steroids were not banned by baseball. But they were illegal in the eyes of the law.

Continue reading "Um, you can't take those, sir" »

Classic email today from a reader in Wisconsin, who wanted to correct me on something from my Sunday column.

I began the piece with this line: "Finding an amateur dressage spectator is like looking for a doctorate of molecular physics at a Judas Priest concert. Good luck."

Continue reading "Who knew?" »

Just wanted to give you a little sample of the feedback I've been getting since my Wednesday column, the one where I theorized how many home runs Bonds would have now if he hadn't -- ALLEGEDLY! -- used steroids.

He did admit to the grand jury that he unknowingly used "the clear" and "the cream," two steroids, but we'll keep playing the "allegedly" game if it makes you feel better.

Continue reading "Bonds supporters react" »

OK, here is my first attempt at posting a picture. This is my Dodge truck, which I bought new in 1997 with the help of my parents, who traded in their car for it.

With gas prices at whatever gas prices are at, I decided to sell it.

Continue reading "A picture lasts longer" »

OK, I've been slacking in the blog department, but I'm back. And I have bribes to try to make up for the fact that I haven't been posting regularly, besides a promise that I'll do better.

No. 1: I'm going to try to start posting pictures. "Matt, do you know how to post pictures?" you ask. Of course not. But I'll figure it out, or I'll ask someone who understands how this whole internet thing works.

Continue reading "All in a name" »

Is there anything more pathetic than a dizzy bat race where no one even stumbles?

Between games today at Bulldog Diamond, they had a dizzy bat race, and both girls did that little, half-bent-over, slow turn, rotating at the speed of a clock's second hand, and then both sprinted down the line as sober as Mr. Rogers.

Continue reading "A good race gone bad" »

Never mind. I'm an idiot. Kristin Sylvester just singled in Christina Clark. Game over. Bulldogs win the first one, 1-0.

They will be in first place in the WAC no matter what happens in the second game today.

I am watching what will inevitably be the longest, scoreless softball game in recorded history. It's Saturday afternoon, the bottom of the sixth and the Fresno State Bulldogs lead Hawaii, 0-0.

I say "lead" because they have a runner on second, and in this game, that's progress.

Continue reading "May we purchase a run?" »

To clarify the Fresno Grizzlies mascot situation -- and those are seven words I never expected to type -- Wild Thing is now extinct.

Nothing against Wild Thing. He was a working-class kind of mascot. Fur was a little rough, like he'd performed a rain delay or two. You wondered, perhaps, if he'd been lost in the '70s and experimented, briefly, with intravenous drugs.

Continue reading "Bring on the 'Wild Thing' honeymoon!" »

Got a call from Yoshi Fujii tonight, the Fresno boxer who fought his first professional fight in Lemoore.

He apparently knocked his opponent out in the third round.

Continue reading "Yoshi gets the win" »