sports columns

University of Tennessee Lady Vols coach Pat Summitt, who's probably one of the top five coaches of all time in any sport on any level, won her 1,000th game on Thursday to become the winningest NCAA basketball coach ever.

His followers are "clones." They come from the "SoCal" and "Crackmore" and "C-Town." They are ordered to "have a take and don't suck." If they do "flame," they are cut off with a harsh buzzer and a savage "beat-down." He deals in a world of "smack" and "epic" interviews and "huge calls" of th

Dear Babe: My brother, Ken, was at the dump the other day getting rid of some construction debris from a house he is working on in Shreveport, La. As he was dumping his trailer out he noticed some other debris there that had some very old wood in it. He started poking around and found some newspaper pieces in perfect condition and one piece in particular caught his attention.

The Arizona Cardinals are in the Super Bowl. Repeat that: The Arizona Cardinals are in the Super Bowl. The entire sports world, it seems, has been turned upside down. But it was out of whack before the Cards advanced to the big game Sunday.
We have documented proof. Just talk to any Tampa Bay Rays fan.
Here are other signs that the sports world has gone mad:

The new president has joked that he is going to replace the White House bowling alley with a basketball court, that being his game of preference. Figuring if Barack Obama does for basketball what his predecessor did for cycling, nothing much is going to change.

Maybe it goes all the way back to Joe Louis and Jesse Owens, a beloved heavyweight champion and a proud Olympic hero.
For sure, though, Jackie Robinson made the greatest impact, shattering the color barrier in baseball on that April afternoon in 1947, when the summer game was still our national pastime.

In our post-holiday tradition, here are some young athletes who are just coming onto the scene to watch in 2009. In years past, our lists have included Tim Tebow, Greg Oden, O.J. Mayo and Delmon Young. Last year's list included Terrelle Pryor, who became Ohio State's starting quarterback.
So here are some names we think we will hear for years to come.

The great thing about sports is that what is wrong with sports can be fixed by anyone with a TV, a brain and a backbone, which exempts college presidents, NFL commissioners among others.
So here are my 2009 New Year's Sporting Revolutions:

-- College football

Dear Babe: Last summer I bought a paperbound baseball rule book titled "1877 Constitution And Playing Rules of the National League of Professional Base Ball Clubs,'' published in Chicago by A.G. Spalding. -- Tom Pohrt, Ann Arbor, Mich.

Let's have a look back at the wild, weird and wacky sports stories of 2008.

-- DID HE SAVE THE BEERS? A 21-year-old fan at an Ottawa Senators game fell about 25 feet from the upper deck at Scotiabank Place when he tripped over a purse in an aisle while carrying two beers. He was hospitalized briefly and is okay.