It was testing week in karate and, as usual, Big Guy was under the gun. Not as much as he used to be, when he didn’t have a clue and had to frantically cram, but …

I know the folks who are all verklempt because NASCAR driver Brad Keselowski was tweeting Monday night while the Daytona 500 was red-flagged.
There the same ones who were wringing their hands once upon a time …

I knew Big Guy had to be getting better because his belt kept changing colors but I’ll be honest: I hadn’t really noticed.
Despite sitting through almost three  years of the guys’ karate lessons, I still  …

We have a strict 8 p.m. bedtime.
Sort of. Over the past two years it’s morphed to a strict “be physically in the bed by 8 but stay awake and read for a while if you …

In the almost three years since the guys started karate,  the pattern’s persisted.
Blow off practice then get upset when you don’t earn a stripe. Practice your little butt off for the next week or so …

He looked like Michael Jordan’s mini-me – or Kobe Bryant’s, depending on your generation – but with a shade more hair. Possibly with a shade more precociousness, too, since Jordan did, after all, get cut …

You remember the sweet little baby he used to be, and you wonder how it all went sideways.
You tried to raise him right – before he was born you ordered a onsie from your favorite …

Big Guy had just gotten his little butt beaten badly, but he’d come up grinning so it was safe to broach the subject.
“So what did you learn today?” I asked. It’s my standard question when …

Big Guy’s latest trophy is by far his most impressive, though he didn’t grasp that right away. He did notice that it’s the biggest award in a collection that already borders on obscenely large, but …

If there’s an app on my phone Big Guy is going to play with it – especially since I’ve taken the games off my geriatric-by-today’s standards Blackberry so I could install Major League Baseball At …

It took Big Guy all of three minutes after meeting his coach to assess the coming flag football season – not that he’s prone to snap judgments.
“This is going to be fun,” he grinned. “He’s …

The old proverb slipped out of my mouth Friday night before I could stop it, as Spike and Jerry ganged up on Tom during a marathon cartoon session: “The enemy of my enemy is my …

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before:
We’ll leave if you don’t build us a new arena. We’ll go to a city that appreciates us, because we can’t afford to stay here any longer.
If this …

I’ve always said that Boots would be better off in a dance class than on a sports team, because he’s turned every game he’s ever been involved in into a recital. If  I could find …

Having logged more office hours on holidays than I care to count, I get  Phil Jackson and LeBron James when they complain about working on Christmas Day.  Even the Grinchiest of us get a bit …

Mommy I have a goal, Big Guy announced last week.
What is it, I asked, fearing the answer would involve violence and mayhem performed upon his brother.
I want to be a brown belt by this time …

So remember a couple of years ago when I said that I don’t care what the guys do as long as they keep trying to be the best they can be?
I lied. You probably figured …

Just when I thought Kevin Lehman, who advises that you sometimes “pull the rug out and let the little buzzards tumble,” was the ultimate in reality discipline then along comes someone who makes Lehman look …

He was the greatest handler of egos ever.
He was an innovator whose weird ways changed his profession.
He was the poster child for upper management ineptitude.
Everything I ever needed to know about management I learned from …

It was 2002. That’s not so long ago considering that my beloved Reds haven’t made it since 1990, but it terms of life-changing events the eight years since San Francisco has been in the fall …

He’d bought two tickets for a male-bonding weekend with his brother, who’d planned to fly in out-of-state for the race in California.
She’d bought only three tickets, because her husband’s deployment had effectively blocked his participation …

It’s stunning how an organization with enough digital savvy to tweet contests during a game and offer an iPhone app can blow it when it comes to something so basic that most fans would want …

There are more than 17,000 football players each year in the NCAA’s top two divisions. Anyone know how many have been diagnosed in the past year with chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a disease typically found in …

Three things that amuse me about the whole “was Ines Sainz harassed by the New York Jets” controversy:
1. The number of people who start out by saying “I don’t think anyone should be harassed” …

Wear shoes that you can run in on Monday, Big Guy’s soccer coach told me late last week. The parents are going to play the kids during practice.
Me? I asked with mock shock. Oh, I …

How can the kid who can’t find his shoes in the morning lock his eyes onto a soccer ball as if they were guided by a laser?
Why is it that the boy who routinely turns …

So did you learn anything during sparring today, I asked Big Guy after karate class.
“No, not really,” Big Guy replied.
He was lying through his mouth guard.
He’d gone up against The Girl again. The Girl who …

Baseball is my native language, but I’m fluent in basketball, football and figure skating.
I can hold a conversation in NASCAR fake my way through several other sports, including hockey and golf. It’s the equivalent of …