Dan Washburn’s Sporting Life

June 27, 2002 — In a current television commercial, the main character ends up flat on his back in the middle of a crowded sidewalk. He is motionless.
Another man takes the guy’s arm and sees that he’s wearing a bracelet, kind of like a medical I.D. tag. He flips it over and finds the image [...]

March 28, 2002 — Lacrosse is North America’s oldest sport. You would think, then, that most people would have heard of it by now.
That’s not the case in Northeast Georgia. Even though lacrosse was played religiously here by the Cherokee, Creek and Oconee Indian tribes hundreds of years ago (the town of Ball Ground, in [...]

February 14, 2002 — “Not again!”
Johnson High sophomore Megan Dunahoo was screaming. She lay on the basketball court clutching her right knee. Yes, Megan, again.
For the second time in less than a year — almost a year to the day, in fact — Dunahoo suffered a season-ending torn anterior cruciate ligament in her knee.
This year, [...]

January 24, 2002 — Clinton Howard stood up and screamed: “Ohhhhh! Ohhhhh! Ohhhhh!”
He pointed his finger outward repeatedly at nothing in particular. In several settings, such behavior would merit a trip to the mental ward. But not at a boys high school basketball game between East Hall and Gainesville.
No, at such a slugfest you’re considered [...]

October 30, 2001 — If the madness that surrounds the annual meeting between the college football teams from Georgia and Florida is indeed the “World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party,” then the game itself is simply the excuse for throwing it.
It’s the wedding, the graduation, the reunion, the New Year’s Eve. Just another justification for getting [...]

“You gotta love it,” West Hall High head football coach Tim Marchman says of his job. “It’s just a way of life around here.” Coaching high school football is a year-round [...]

July 10, 2001 — When I walked into Moose’s Poolside Cafe it was lunchtime. Customers sat on stools and enjoyed veggie burgers, cheesesteak sandwiches and waffle-cut french [...]

July 3, 2001 — I believe Wiffle Ball players peak at the age of 12. After that, it’s all downhill.
Perhaps physics has something to do with it. The lighter the bat, the lighter [...]

April 22, 2001 — Paul Newberry looked confused.
The Associated Press sports writer walked into the media area at the Atlanta Falcons complex in [...]

April 8, 2001 — Baseball is big business. Duh.
When Alex Rodriguez signed a contract worth more than the gross domestic product of Micronesia [...]

March 27, 2001 — I wanted to dribble. Or throw the ball down on the ground and kick it.
Moving with the ball in my hand felt awkward, and seemed like it should be [...]

MACON, March 10, 2001 — Coach Seth Vining was smiling. And laughing. And jumping up and down.
His players were, too. Chanting and screaming, the team became one big mass of celebration in the [...]

February 13, 2001 — I would have expected nothing else of a coed volleyball league at Brenau University. The playing field was level, to be sure.
“This is a women’s college,” [...]

December 26, 2000 — Growing up in the small northern Pennsylvania town of Bloomsburg, there were often times when I couldn’t wait to leave. I wanted to get out.
Well, I’m out. I’ve been [...]

December 19, 2000 — If you were wondering, professional athletes don’t necessarily make great bowlers. I learned this last week when I hit the lanes with the Atlanta Falcons.
In all fairness, most great [...]

November 28, 2000 — My first glimpse of football royalty came through the foggy rear window of a red station wagon. I pressed my face to the wet glass and peered in. [...]

November 14, 2000 — You can only run from reality for so long. And last week, I believe reality finally caught up with me.
It’s been nearly a decade [...]

October 31, 2000 — I’m not sure Antonina Grib understood just how bad a tennis player I actually am. Such ineptitude is hard to describe over the phone.
But in person, out there [...]

October 24, 2000 — I remember an episode of “Magnum, P.I.” in which Magnum is forced to tread water for hours and hours and hours. He was lost at sea, fighting for his [...]

August 8, 2000 — Good golfers generally aren’t good miniature golfers, somebody told me recently.
That person was wrong. And so was I, for assuming that the opposite also holds true: That awful [...]