A Perfect Dodger Game, Minus the Dodgers

For One Weekend a Year, High School Baseball Gets Its Moment on L.A.’s Biggest Sporting Stage

There’s very little iconography around high school baseball games. They lack the under-the-lights, cheerleaders-and-band spectacle of high school football. They have little of the noise and intensity of high school basketball played in the home gym. They are often small events, quiet and pastoral, played on out-of-the-way fields sprinkled with the players’ families and close friends. No one is painted head-to-toe in school colors.

But in Los Angeles, for one weekend a year, high school baseball gets its moment on our biggest sporting stage: Dodger Stadium. Some of the final games …

World Cup Rumble in the Amazon Jungle

Brazil Spent $300 Million to Build a Soccer Stadium in the Rainforest. Now They Have to Prove It Was Worth It.

In a competition for most improbable place to host the World Cup, the city of Manaus would surely make the finals. Its Arena da Amazônia sits in the middle of …

The Arizona Diamondbacks’ Barry Axelrod

A Longtime Sports Agent on Jerry Maguire and How Mortals Can Win at Negotiations

As a longtime sports agent, Barry Axelrod represented baseball players including Jake Peavy, Jeff Bagwell, and Craig Biggio. He is currently a special assistant to the general manager of the …

The Lonely Life of an L.A. Sports Fan

For Decades, Rooting for Southern California’s Teams Was Painful and Even Lonely—but I Persevered

A Los Angeles radio sportscaster who billed himself as “Super Fan” used to end his broadcasts saying, “In the department store of life, sports is in the toy section.” That’s …

Baseball Biographer Jane Leavy

She’s Never Thrown Like a Girl

Jane Leavy is the author of biographies of Sandy Koufax and Mickey Mantle and a baseball novel, Squeeze Play. Before participating in a panel on how drugs have changed baseball, …

Watch Out for the Coyote Near the Ninth Hole!

Quirky Yet Welcoming, the Rancho Park Golf Course Reminds Me Why I Live in L.A.

When I was starting out at my first law firm about two decades ago, I noticed the young male associates were invited to poker games where scotch was consumed and …