KCRW's The Score

Huskies Need Rivals

podmaster@kcrw.org (Diana Nyad) — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 19:44:00 EDT

They're touted as a dynasty. One of the greatest teams of any sport, any era. That's women's basketball out of the University of Connecticut, currently on a tear of 72 consecutive unbeaten games. The Lady Huskies won their 16th Big East title last week, whooping West Virginia in a lop-sided score of 60-32. Also last week, #8 in the country Notre Dame went down to UConn by an embarrassing 25. On Sunday the Huskies crushed Syracuse 77-41. The best anybody's done against UConn this season has been the supposedly supreme squad out of Stanford, but the Cardinal's best only brought them to within 12 points of the dominant Huskies...

Soul of Sports

podmaster@kcrw.org (Diana Nyad) — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 19:39:59 EDT

When we talk sports, it's assumed we're talking the crème de la crème, such as the Olympians in Vancouver. There are maybe a dozen figure skaters of each gender, maybe a dozen who can perform those outrageously difficult jumps and spins and execute them artfully. And so it goes with all the sports we watch and cover on a daily basis...

Figure Skating Cheated

podmaster@kcrw.org (Diana Nyad) — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 20:02:10 EDT

I don't get it. Speed skaters, as is true with Olympic swimming and Track & Field, compete for medals at a wide range of distances, from the 500-meter sprint all the way up to the 10,000-meter endurance grind. Perhaps to the lay observer, it looks like they're doing the exact same thing at all these distances....

Vancouver Gold

podmaster@kcrw.org (Diana Nyad) — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 19:44:00 EDT

Vonn Too Special an Athlete for This SI Cover

podmaster@kcrw.org (Diana Nyad) — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 19:44:00 EDT

The skating and skiing of the Vancouver Winter Olympics begin this weekend. The two marquee names among the U.S. athletes in Canada are snowboarder Shaun ?the flying tomato? White and downhill/slalom champion Lindsey Vonn. This is Vonn?s third Olympics but this time she?s at the top of her game and the pressure is great for her to achieve her potential of medals in all five of her events. Unfortunately, she sustained a deep shin bone contusion during a training run last week and is not 100% sure she?ll be able to go full throttle, especially in the slalom events where sharp curves around the markers require the boot to press heavily on the shin area....

Tebow: Wrong Place, Wrong Time

podmaster@kcrw.org (Diana Nyad) — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 20:47:27 EDT

Tim Tebow, University of Florida Heisman-winning quarterback, known as much if not more for his strong Christian faith as his world-class athletic status, will appear in a Superbowl ad that is stirring fervent debate. During her pregnancy with son Tim, in 1987, Pam Tebow was advised by doctors to consider aborting because of complications. She continued to full term and her fifth child, Tim, came into this world as a result of her decision...

Favre, the Man

podmaster@kcrw.org (Diana Nyad) — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 19:44:00 EDT

This weekend, the drama of the last four NFL teams standing unfolds. By Sunday night, February 7's Superbowl will be set and there is no shortage of fans' hopeful predictions....

McGwire

podmaster@kcrw.org (Diana Nyad) — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 20:30:19 EDT

So now Mark McGwire has confessed. On one hand, his opening up seemed inevitable, hardly shocking news. We already knew he had used androstenedione, a steroid precursor with a molecular structure nearly identical to testosterone. We had already observed his bulky, typically steroidal physique. We had clearly read his body language when pleading the 5th Amendment during the 2005 Congressional Hearings. We the public had already felt duped by being swept up in McGwire's then-thrilling home run derby of 1998. And baseball insiders had already expressed their judgment in turning McGwire away from the Hall of Fame each year he has been eligible...

Namath and Lammons, 45 Years Later

podmaster@kcrw.org (Diana Nyad) — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 19:44:00 EDT

During tonight's National Championship college football game, Alabama versus Texas, at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, you will notice as the cameras pan the sidelines two key players from these very same opponents way back 45 years ago. One is more famous, more recognizable, than the other. That's Joe Namath. He quarterbacked the Crimson Tide of Alabama that night in the Orange Bowl, nearly half a century ago. Going up against him was a tight end and linebacker for the University of Texas, Pete Lammons. Tonight Lammons will prowl behind the Longhorns bench while Namath will stick close to the boys of his alma mater, Bama...

Athlete of the Decade

podmaster@kcrw.org (Diana Nyad) — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 19:44:00 EDT

It's that time of year when we kick around the biggest sports accomplishments of the year. And given that we're closing out 2009, this year the discussion broadens out to the top athlete of the decade. To my mind, there have been four athletes this first decade of the 21st century to have achieved such superlative careers that we could rightly describe each as one of those truly rare specimens who come along only once in a lifetime...