Dan Washburn’s Sporting Life

(It’s even harder when you have to say it in Chinese)
July 25, 2002 — Well, I don’t have the plague.
Not yellow fever, psychosis or leprosy, either.
How do I know this, you ask? Did I feel a case of the plague coming on and run off to the doctor?
“Hey, Doc. I think I’m coming down with [...]

April 13, 2002 — My dear old next door neighbor, Nell Thompson, passed away Sunday. And I didn’t even realize it until Wednesday afternoon. I’ve spent the long hours since trying to figure out how that could happen.
I learned of the sad news while reading the newspaper. I saw Nell’s name and face on the [...]

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, [...]

November 6, 2001 — When my beloved New York Yankees lost in Game 7 of the World Series on Sunday, two streaks came an abrupt end. The Yankees’ three-year championship run is done. Finished. Kaput.
So is my reign of baseball bragging rights in The Times newsroom, where tomahawk chops are preferred to pinstripes.
I started writing [...]

This column appeared as part of an in-depth four-day series of stories in The Times entitled “The Cost of Smoking.”
April 2, 2001 — Smokers, I salute you.
It takes [...]

January 23, 2001 — The sharp steel sank inside the soft stump and my soul screamed.
The mountain man inside of me awoke.
I began to second-guess all [...]

Times staff writer Dan Washburn recently spent 24 hours with the crew of Hall County Fire Services Station 7, getting a unique insight into the inner workings of the lives [...]

November 7, 2000 — From the moment I walked into Sweetwater Billiards in Duluth, Jonathan Forrester was all business.
He was sizing me up. He was [...]

October 10, 2000 — There’s just something about little girls and horses, I suppose.
Never has a Sporting Life column spurred more reader reaction than last month’s story about 8-year-old [...]

June 20, 2000 — It was barely light out, not yet 7 a.m., as Team Reality Bikes arrived at the transition area of the Hi-Tec Adventure Race Sunday at Fort Yargo State Park [...]

December 7, 1999 — “You’re in pretty bad shape there,” Jim Jennings said to me matter-of-factly.
He was describing the predicament that lay before me on the green felt of his pool table.
He could [...]

October 12, 1999 — “Hiking,” I mumbled under my breath.
“Hiking?” my teammate responded incredulously. We were warming up before our noontime game of basketball [...]