When this happens to the Mets, they use hair dryers. With really long extension cords.

Thanks for posting this. Osaka was a killer in that tournament and that needs to be the focus of the reporting and punditry.

Why was Carlos Ramos refereeing an Appalachian State football game in the first place? They had to know that was inviting controversy.

The coach should be able to signal for, say, a 15-second hold to let NY determine if they’re going to do the replay or not. Not a charged timeout but a few seconds to prevent the other team from rushing the snap just to prevent the replay.

Hmm... I don’t think she initiated it for any ulterior motives. But even in real-time I felt like she saw an opportunity in the crowd reactions and was happy to gin them up in her favor and against Osaka. I’m not a mind reader, so I could be wrong. But I don’t actually give Williams any credit for asking the crowd to…

A third option is that Williams was intentionally ratcheting up the situation in a fruitless attempt to heighten her own level of play and intensity, and to intimidate her young opponent, because those things have worked in the past. They didn’t work yesterday.

Well, he said it out loud to a member of the ESPN announcing crew on live TV and every person who watched the match saw and heard him say it into a microphone: “Yes, I was coaching her.”

That’s just how the rules work. They can’t penalize the coach. They could tell him to leave the venue, I suppose, but the rules say the player gets a warning. The coach should be better at hiding it. 

You’re probably right. But it wasn’t a first violation. It was a third violation. I may be wrong, but I believe in almost any sport, the officials have a shorter fuse about a second or third violation than they do about the first. I don’t mean to minimize the hurdles Serena faces, but that first violation wasn’t…

I was just saying, argue a safe/out call at second? The umpire will give you some latitude. Argue a catch/trap call? Same. Argue balls and strikes beyond a quick comment or in a way that is obvious to the crowd? You’re gone. In tennis, once you’ve moved beyond the warning, whether you know it or like it or not, you…

I agree there are questions of race and sex at play that, in analysis after the fact, have to be considered. But the bottom line is, she didn’t seem to recognize that continuing to argue and accuse the umpire after a point penalty was going to get on his last fucking nerve and he would assess the game penalty for…

Worth remembering this:

The umpire was right on all three of those calls. It sounds like Williams thought the “coaching” warning was rescinded because she told the umpire she’s not a cheater, but of course that’s not how that penalty works. The call is made against the coach (who admitted he was coaching from the stands), so the player can’t…

The highlight reel should only show the cursing done after the player has been assessed one or two violations. What’s rare, even for emotional, aggressive, half-mental men and women in tennis is for those players to continue to push the umpire when they know they’re going to lose a point or game.

Like if Ginger Baker had been a wildly successful NBA coach.

It doesn’t matter who wrote it, and it’s unlikely any one person is responsible for its writing or publication. It’s cowardice by committee.

I hope the Caps repeat, I hope the Mystics win, I hope Scherzer wins the CY, I hope the Wizards and I hope the Terps lose the rest of their games in all sports going forward.

Life is a web of contradiction.

I liked when she was asked what she was thinking at match point and she replied, “Don’t. Double. Fault.”