Every broken-down horseplayer has a hero story to tell, and it never hurts to listen. You could be draining an ice-cold martini in the bar at Siro’s, up at Saratoga, when Frankie Bales sits down to describe the time he parlayed the rail speed at Monmouth into a $12,000 pick…
Ask a baseball player why he plays, and he’ll tell you it’s because he loves the game, always has. Football players are usually driven by a passion for their sport, too. “When I stop enjoying the game,” the running back with aching knees will say, “I’ll know it’s time to…
It’s a very long road from the tricky little S-curve at Denver Indoor Kart Racing to the famous Tobacconist’s Corner at the Grand Prix of Monaco. But if passion were the only fuel you needed to make the trip, young Chris Clark would already be there — shrieking through the…
“We are a sports, entertainment and culture company,” said Kroenke Executive Vice President David Ehrlich, who announced details of a ten-year contract. Kroenke Sports Enterprises also owns the Colorado Avalanche, the Denver Nuggets and the Pepsi Center. — from a story describing Kroenke’s recent deal with the Colorado Ballet, Rocky…
Make the odds eight to five that the only decent team playing at the Pepsi Center next season will be armed with those funny sticks with the nets on the end. In its first season, the Colorado Mammoth proved to be a tough-as-nails contender in the indoor lacrosse wars, and…
Every professional athlete and Fortune 500 assistant vice president with a million or two in chump change has a home gym tucked somewhere between the gourmet kitchen and home theater. So you figure a couple of U.S. record-holders for power-lifting would have a pretty sweet set of iron, too. And…
If some of the cowboys wanted him bucked off, they kept it under their Resistols. If there was envy, you didn’t see it. Fact is, in the hours leading up to something called “The Bud Light Million-Dollar Bounty (presented by Ford Trucks)” — aka “The Richest Eight Seconds in Sporting…
As is the case with so many sports stories, the end of this one is the least interesting part. Two months ago, Susan Yemm, who had managed the books for the Boulder Volleyball Club for the past couple of years, was arrested by Lafayette police and charged with embezzling from…
Bobby DeGeorge saw his first Opening Day in 1954, at the age of nine, when his father took him and his brother to New York’s fabled Polo Grounds to watch the Giants play Pittsburgh. DeGeorge doesn’t remember who won. He doesn’t remember what his hero, Willie Mays, just back from…
This past winter, Wendy Hawthorne stopped by the city of Denver’s parks and recreation department, as she does every year. “I’d like to rent a baseball field,” she said. “How old are the boys?” the man asked her. “It’s for women,” she replied. “Then you need a softball field,” he…
Science is a beautiful thing, as any ballplayer with a snootful of ephedra can tell you. Combine the vigor of deep thinking with the dynamics of a free marketplace and there’s no breakthrough our researchers can’t achieve — from genetically altered Brussels sprouts to video games that simulate a nuclear…
For the first three months of their season, the Johnson & Wales men’s basketball squad had a road schedule that made Colin Powell look like a shut-in. The Wildcats started the season on November 1, in Garden City, Kansas. The next nine games were all played in opponents’ gyms as…
Three guys walk into a bar: a shortstop, an outfielder and a pitcher. “What’ll ya have?” the bartender asks. The shortstop is the first to reply. “I’m gonna have a great season,” he says. “I’m gonna have the kind of season where I scoop up every rocket hit within fifteen…
A couple of weekends ago, with war in Iraq looming on the not-so-distant horizon, France, seen as a troublesome impediment to European unity, was isolated by her traditional allies and left to fend for herself. Still, in an eleventh-hour effort to gain a diplomatic foothold, she pleaded with England. Ambassadors…
Andy Pruitt first tended to the aches and pains of athletes in 1965, when he was fifteen years old. He hadn’t intended to be on the wrapping side of Ace bandages. The previous fall, Pruitt was still playing on the school’s football team; in fact, a football injury was the…
Jennifer Johnson is a born fan, and despite her California address, her love for the Broncos has been unwavering. “I wasn’t from Denver,” she says, “so I don’t know why I became such a fan. They weren’t a dirty team, so I just liked them. I’ve been a Broncos fan…
If the president and CEO really wanted to please his 17,483 shareholders Sunday afternoon — and we know he did — he might have jumped up from his luxury box with four minutes to play. Amid a huge burst of fireworks and a brain-numbing blast of heavy metal, he might…
“The main thing you gotta remember,” says Mike Pizzuto, his breath condensing in the frigid air, “is that it’s just like any sport. You gotta keep hydrated. And no alcohol. You can’t be workin’ with chainsaws and ice and drinking alcohol.” You think pro ball players have it rough, with…
It’s strong stuff, especially at seven o’clock in the morning. Coach is unhappy with his players. Unhappy? Hey — to hear him rage, Coach is infuriated by his players, all-out disgusted by his players, and for 22 minutes he lets them have it with both barrels, like a drill sergeant…
If you want to watch some of the most highly compensated athletes in the world compete, don’t waste your time trying to catch the Wizards courtside, scamming a ticket to Augusta or road-tripping it to Arlington, Texas. Compared to these gilded athletes, Mike, Tiger and A-Rod are practically indigent street-corner…
Hey, Bleary Eyes. How you holdin’ up? For connoisseurs of tackle football, the final two weeks of the old year and the first month of the new always provide a festival of violent collision unrivaled by the morning rush hour on I-25 or the running of the bulls in Pamplona…
Imagine a 264-pound panther with the grip of a power wrench, a chess master’s cunning and the smash-mouth instincts of a middle linebacker. Imagine him in a green U.S. Army uniform. Put it all together, and you’ve got Dremiel Byers — the best heavyweight Greco-Roman wrestler on the planet. Never…
