Ivy colleagues
Padres' Young, Ducks' Parros trace friendship to Princeton
Nov. 21 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
ANAHEIM – Chris Young saw the fight coming before the first face-off. The Padres pitcher has yet to attempt ice skates, but the man knows his hockey.
He knows Donald Brashear by reputation and he has known George Parros since they were Princeton pals nearly a decade ago. So as he stepped out of his limousine Wednesday night at the Honda Center, Young was already anticipating a bout between the two NHL enforcers.
More Tim Sullivan Columns
Nov. 18 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
Struggling Bolts miss key players: The Chargers are essentially the same team that played for a shot at the Super Bowl last January. But not exactly.
Nov. 16 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
SDSU football coach gets another beating in nightmare season: Chuck Long looked like 1-10 feels. Lost and forsaken. Drained and depressed. The San Diego State football coach sat down to review last night's 63-14 loss to Utah like a man dreading an appointment with his parole officer.
Nov. 15 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
Peavy trade winds masked by smoke screens: The next move in the Jake Peavy trade talks is to see who moves next. Padres General Manager Kevin Towers, cornered yesterday between the 17th green and the 18th tee at Torrey Pines South, said he's back to “square one” after a deal broke down with the Atlanta Braves.
Nov. 12 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
Team should have shaped the story: Sandy Alderson is smarter than this. He is too clever to be playing catch-up in his own game, too skilled to be reduced to self-inflicted damage control.
Nov. 10 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
Aggressive mind-set keeps Rivers confident, successful: Philip Rivers called it a “silly throw,” and then he didn't. Two minutes into his post-game news conference yesterday afternoon, the Chargers quarterback was backpedaling rhetorically, adjusting on the fly, searching for the precise phrase for an imprecise pass.
Nov. 8 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
Harsh setup, but local boxer not knocking his opportunity: Ernest Johnson is stepping up in class and moving up in weight. He is fighting on short notice and against a former champion. He will make his television debut tonight at the risk of being typecast as a tomato can.
DANA POINT, Nov. 6 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
Effort to move Peavy an act of deliberation: Kevin Towers' supply of “truth serum” has been depleted. Two bottles of cabernet sauvignon – a Plumpjack 2001 and a David Arthur 2002 – were sacrificed in the name of tongue-loosening late Tuesday in the hotel suite of the Padres' general manager.
Nov. 5 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
Point well taken: Kris Dielman speaks like he blocks: unbridled, unflinching and unrepentant. The Chargers' Pro Bowl guard is a genuine tough guy, as facade-free as a fist to the throat. He is capable of empathy, but not euphemisms, which made him an inspired choice to address Crawford High's winless football team.
Nov. 2 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
Negrete: He's no ordinary freshman: Kyle Negrete does not claim what he can not do. The University of San Diego's freshman punter is an athlete capable of personal hang time, but his dunking ability is clearly delineated.
Oct. 30 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
Hamels needs trophy case for his Series' MVP award: PHILADELPHIA – The bottle in his hand was already half-empty, but Cole Hamels seemed a bottomless source of bubbly.
PHILADELPHIA, Oct. 29 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
Tampa Bay has a ray of hope . . . no Hamels: Cole Hamels is history. Should the clouds part long enough to permit the World Series to resume tonight, Philadelphia manager Charlie Manuel's first order of business will be to select a pinch hitter for his ace pitcher.
PHILADELPHIA, Oct. 28 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
Selig and Co. all wet when it comes to Series scheduling: Well, at least nobody drowned. The World Series was soaked through with chagrin last night, the hapless victim of faulty forecasting, unrelenting rain, progressively unplayable conditions and the permanent state of pandering that exists between baseball's executive branch and its television partners.
PHILADELPHIA, Oct. 27 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
Stage set for 'Hollywood' Hamels: The stage is set. The hour has arrived. The role of a lifetime awaits Cole Hamels, though his baseball life has barely begun.
PHILADELPHIA, Oct. 26 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
Rain adds to splash in title-hungry town: The rains had not yet subsided, but the radar indicated improvement. So 35 minutes into last night's World Series rain delay, an advance team from the grounds crew appeared on the infield tarp, brandishing brooms.
PHILADELPHIA, Oct. 25 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
At last, Moyer steps onto big stage: When we last saw Jamie Moyer, it sure looked like the last time we would see Jamie Moyer. A 45-year-old pitcher who gets shelled in successive postseason starts is lucky to have a locker, much less a future. He's a wobbly old warhorse too slow to be saddled, a ballplayer living on borrowed time with a maxed-out credit limit.
Oct. 24 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
Small ball pays off for Tampa Bay: ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – Never let it be said that all outs are created equal. Never let it be said that “little ball” can't make a huge difference. Never send a slugger up to do a slap hitter's job.
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla., Oct. 23 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
Hamels seemingly immune to pressure: Some day, Cole Hamels is going to look back on all of this with wonder. He's going to learn, eventually, that baseball is a hard game and that its Octobers are piled high with pressure. He will come to appreciate the difficulty of what he's been doing and, just maybe, give himself an ex post facto pinch.
Oct. 22 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
Rays of sunshine: ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – The Tampa Bay Rays have baseball backward. The secret of their success is failure.
Oct. 20 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
Outages, malfunctions reflect play of Chargers this season: ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. – Perhaps it was helium that took all the air out of the San Diego Chargers.
Oct. 19 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
Contract may force Padres to deal Peavy: Jake Peavy is the diamond tiara at the trailer park pot luck. He is the Lamborghini you lease until the market tanks. He is a pricey extravagance by the progressively lean standards of the San Diego Padres.
Oct. 16 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
Ace buries a team he followed as a boy in Rancho Bernardo: LOS ANGELES – By his own count, Cole Hamels pitched for the Dodgers three or four times in Little League. It was his custom to wear the blue cap with the interlocking L and A to school.
Oct. 15 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
Hamels' philosophy: Take it pitch by pitch: LOS ANGELES – Cole Hamels is ready for his close-up. He has the right stuff and the steely sensibilities. The dominant pitcher of this baseball October is a star at ease beneath the bright spotlights on the big stage.
Oct. 14 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
Stairs feels right at home swinging for the fences: LOS ANGELES – Matt Stairs may lead the major leagues in mileage. His single entry in the Baseball Encyclopedia speaks several volumes: 11 big league ballclubs, 11 minor league stops, plus a cup of sake with Japan's Chunichi Dragons.
Oct. 13 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
Plain 'ol victory tops payback for motivation in this game: Revenge is a dish best served second. First, you need nourishment. The Chargers couldn't allow payback to become a priority last night. They couldn't afford to nurse ancient grudges or reopen old wounds. They needed victory more than vindication, though they earned a bit of both during a 30-10 squashing of the New England Patriots.
