That’s the question that producer Doug Tribou and host Bill Littlefield asked me a couple of weeks ago, and over the course of an hour in the NPR studio in New York, I tried to answer it. For obvious reasons, the full hour of conversation didn’t make it into the segment, but some of what…
In a scenario that I’d have thought less likely than my hitting the Kentucky Derby superfecta, NPR’s Only A Game asked me to talk about…Derby Fashion. “For a select not-so-few, the Kentucky Derby is about bringing to the starting gate a horse that, however temporarily, will be a candidate for racing’s Triple Crown. “For the not-so-select many,…
The time to arrive at the race track in Saratoga, N.Y., is 7 a.m. Actual racing won’t commence until 1 in the afternoon, but at 7 you can enjoy a blueberry muffin, strawberries, and coffee beside the track as long-time commentator Mary Ryan describes the passing show…which is horses. After breakfast in the cool of…
I don’t have HBO, so I didn’t see the episode of Costas Now in which noted sportswriter Buzz Bissinger went off on Deadspin’s Will Leitch on the subject of blogging vs. journalism. I did (as who did not?) read/hear about Bissinger’s bizarrely agitated and profane rant, and thus when I was recently catching up on…
I first heard of T.D. Thornton’s Not By A Long Shot last May, a year ago, when it came out; listening to a podcast of the WBUR sports program Only A Game focusing on the Derby, I was captured by host Bill Littlefield’s interview with Thornton. Completely absorbed in the engaging stories Thornton told about…
…to Brooklyn Backstretch, site of a transplanted Saratogian who’s found a new home at Belmont and Aqueduct. What you’ll find here: info that focuses on NY racing with wanderings into other racing news. Not very good handicapping advice. The musings of a long-time race fan whose interest has blossomed into a passion. History of major…
Brooklyn Backstretch 