After more than six years here at the Idaho Press-Tribune, this will be the final time I occupy this space.

With much thought and debate, my family and I have decided to move on, setting sail for Southern California. I must confess, I'm pretty happy this winter will be my first without shoveling snow.

For those who don't know me well, I moved to Idaho more than nine years ago from Michigan...read more

The Home Run Derby is still pretty cool, but come on MLB, we need a little more fun during All-Star week.

I was listening to the Baseball Today podcast (on ESPN, of course) yesterday as I was riding my mountain bike and they brought up the idea of having an NHL-like skills contest.

I can see it now: Justin Verlander would win the fastest pitch contest, or would he. The Dodgers' Jonathan Broxton...read more

The first "M" in the acronym for MMA may have to be changed to Mainstream.

Mixed martial arts is quickly rising as a must-watch sport. UFC 100 last weekend was proof.

As I write this, highlights on SportsCenter are still playing Monday morning here at the paper.

The fight card Saturday, which was chock-full of A-listers, certainly didn't disappoint.

Though the main event between...read more

We launched our sports Twitter account Wednesday and now we're looking for followers.

The 50th person to follow us will win a pair of tickets to next week's Snake River Stampede.

Click here to follow the idahosportsguys

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The IPT sports staff has finally launched its Twitter page.

Check it out here. We should be tweeting a ton, especially with football season right around the corner. Just one click and you can follow us ...

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I was en route back to the Treasure Valley on Sunday when I got not one, but four text alerts from ESPN.com.

What was all the fuss about?

Soccer! Really!

As many of you read in Monday's paper, the United States team fell short of winning the Confederations Cup. To be honest, I never even heard of the Confederations Cup until late last week.

I think it's great the American sports world...read more

It's a classic case of "he said, she said." For me, it's a classic case of "who really cares."

I understand why Selena Roberts is on the witch hunt to further embarrass Alex Rodriguez, but honestly, what's the point? The fact that he'll be screaming "show me the money" pretty soon my be her motivation.

Will her new book, which is ironically slated to...read more

Baseball season has officially started — at least for the sports staff here at the Press-Tribune.

The official start to the season may still be a few days away — Sunday night to be exact — but for many fantasy baseball fans out there, it started months ago with preparation.

My league held its draft Sunday night, a near four-hour marathon thanks to some technical difficulties. For...read more

Steroids, steroids and more steroids.

Enough already! I've been a baseball fan as far back as I can remember and even after all that has happened on the steroid front the past week — and few years for that matter — I'm still a huge baseball fan.

So A-Rod did 'roids? I wasn't surprised one bit. In my mind, I'm pretty sure at least 50 percent of players did them at...read more

The big joke around the office — OK, my big joke around the office —was how bad would Boise State's softball team be this season?

As many of you know, it's the first year for the team and its coach, Erin Thorpe. As many of you also know, it's not an easy task to start a team from scratch —especially at the Division I level.

I told many of the guys here in the office...read more

The Internet age is truly fascinating, I think we could all agree on that.

For better or worse, we live in a time where any, and just about all, information is one click away within our Web browser.

As a journalist, it’s a great tool — only if used wisely, of course.

But last week, during the frantic chaos created by a few bloggers, the Internet proved, once again, not to believe...read more

Seriously.

As many of you know, I root only for professional teams from my home state of Michigan. And trust me, that’s been pretty hard to do lately.

The Detroit Tigers went out and spent a bunch of money and look what it got them — a last place finish in the AL Central Division.

Only seven other clubs spent more money and only the two teams — both from New York —...read more

... all we do is talk about football, right? Well, not for these few minutes.

I was out for one of my usual mountain bike rides Friday, and I decided I’d finally snap a photo of the new softball field taking shape next to Mountain Cove High School (near the Boise Military Reserve).

I usually head up that way for my rides and have watched the progress at the new field take shape the past few...read more

But don’t think for a minute that these games will be lost in our memory banks anytime soon. After all, these Games may have been the best of all time.

I know a few weeks ago, many people I talked with were simply not interested. I think those people may have had a change of heart considering all the memorable moments that came from the Beijing Games.

There was of course Michael Phelps’...read more

... It's been a few days (more than a week now) since my last post, sorry, but even I have to take a little vacation now and again.

I was sifting through my many e-mails during the past day or so and saw that I really didn't miss too much while I was gone — reason No. 1 to take a week off in early July. That all should change here soon enough with football gearing up in the next few weeks...read more

The results are in and it looks like the National Hockey League still has a pulse.

That’s right, the NHL Stanley Cup Finals were a mild hit on network TV.

That’s big news for hockey fans who still like to see their sport on a TV channel that’s not hovering in the 600s of your Direct TV package.

Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Finals between the Detroit Red Wings and Pittsburgh Penguins registered 6.2 million viewers, while Game 6 was a bit higher at 6.8 million.

Again, that’s great news. But it was likely because the games were shown in prime time on NBC.

During the regular season and throughout the playoffs, most all NHL games are Versus, an up-and-coming sports channel known more for bull riding (Yes, the Nampa PBR was on there) and mixed martial arts.
   
By comparison, the NBA had about 14 million viewers Thursday night for Game 4 of the NBA Finals.
   
But what if the NHL was on all the time like the NBA? Would it get NBA-type numbers? Who knows?
   
The thing I take from this is that the NHL still has a pulse, and despite ESPN trying to bury the league by cutting them loose, it’s not going to die any time soon. ...read more

Let me just get this out there: The NBA Finals this season is way overrated.

I’m sick to my stomach over this new-found Lakers-Celtics lovefest. I’m sick of hearing about how this series has been rekindled. I’m sick about hearing about how it’s the next chapter in the long history between these two storied franchises.

Kobe Bryant is no Magic Johnson, and Paul Pierce is no...read more

The coming out party for mixed martial arts during the past weekend proved to be nothing more than a farce.

Saturday night, MMA made its network debut on CBS, a prime-time event that highlighted Internet sensation Kimbo Slice against a washed-up opponent in James Thompson. Slice won the bout, despite clearly losing during most of it. It had to be stopped prematurely because Thompson’s ear was...read more