The opening ceremony of the Paris Olympic Games—a sports festival aimed to unite all nations of the world—created shock and disbelief instead as Catholics around the world felt offended by the parody of the Last Supper, which was part of the opening ceremony.
Sports
Posted inArts & Culture, Dispatches
M.L.B. added Negro League statistics to official record books. Are we finally telling the full history of baseball?
Major League Baseball is finally incorporating stats recorded by Negro League players as part of M.L.B.’s official record books.
Posted inFaith, Podcasts
Meet Steve Javie: Legendary NBA ref and Catholic deacon
Basketball fans know Steve Javie as a longtime N.B.A. referee and a frequent commentator on ESPN and ABC. But for the parishioners at St. Andrew’s Catholic Church in Newtown, Pa., he’s Deacon Steve.
Posted inArts & Culture, Ideas
‘Challengers’ has made tennis cool again. Can today’s players live up to the hype?
Professional tennis in the real world—as opposed to the reel world—is not quite as cool or sexy.
Posted inArts & Culture, Ideas
Ángel Hernández was a terrible umpire. But his retirement gives baseball fans a lesson in mercy.
For us diehard baseball fans, Ángel Hernández’s retirement should not be a moment to revisit his past errors and sneer. Instead, it is a chance to express mercy in a world that, as Pope Francis reminds us, is in dire need of it.
Posted inFaith, Short Take
Harrison Butker deserves an apology—from Benedictine College
Benedictine College should apologize to Mr. Butker for putting him in a position he should not have been in—and which he was not wise or mature enough to avoid.
Posted inArts & Culture, News
Bill Walton—basketball legend, Deadhead and radical optimist—was a model of a life well-lived
“I wanted to be a basketball player, be a hippie, on tour with The Grateful Dead, be an adventurer. I didn’t spend my life trying to be the richest guy on Earth,” Walton once said about himself.
Posted inArts & Culture, Catholic Book Club
Jackie Robinson and the arc of justice in America’s national game
It has been 77 years since Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in Major League Baseball—and led his Brooklyn Dodgers to new heights in their final years in the borough.
Posted inFaith, Short Take
Harrison Butker’s commencement speech and the danger of a Catholic ‘dead traditionalism’
Well, it isn’t the first time that Harrison Butker has missed wide right.
Posted inArts & Culture, Ideas
College basketball is putting women’s sports (and faith) in the spotlight
N.C.A.A. women’s hoops attracted a record number of viewers this season—and made stars of some compelling players and coaches.