Big bright sun, blue sky, no wind. I am standing on a small bluff overlooking Lake Merced, said lake located between the backside of San Francisco State College and the Pacific Ocean. This is dragon-boat …

‘I’ve been surf kayaking for 12 years,” says Dan Carey, 60, owner of Carlsbad Paddle Sports in Oceanside. “There are guys who have been at it since the 1940s and ’50s. The sport didn’t sweep …

Halloween is the ideal holiday because, at least in this country, it isn’t about anything in particular. You have no obligation to be with family or church. No set rituals that have to be observed, …

Whilst wandering 200 TV channels, I came upon a United Football League game on Versus, which, by the way, is a legitimate sports network (Tour de France, NHL, IndyCar, MMA, second-tier college football, for openers). …

A former executive of the Scottsdale cryonics company where baseball Hall of Famer Ted Williams’s body is frozen launched a pay-per-view website with gruesome decapitation photos to raise money for his legal defense. “To be …

Reading classified ads in the sporting-goods section is like walking through a toxic dump of hope. Every ad is a dream abandoned. Follows are three stories from people who placed ads on sandiego.backpage.com or classifiedads.com. …

The Box has taken the pledge to stop writing Chargers Suck columns, and I think a fair-minded person would have to say I’ve held up my end of the deal. That’s not easy when Norv …

This started out as a hula-hoop column. The primordial hula hoop was a dorky fad of the 1950s. I wondered if the beast still lived, and if so, who feeds it? Onto the internet and …

The Chargers are playing at Oakland Monday night, on the B side of ESPN’s double-header. Normally, I don’t count watching a game that includes the Raiders as more interesting than watching termites colonize the back-porch …

The NFL season is upon us, and fans by the tens of millions are setting aside family time, domestic chores, and community service to meld with their HDTV. Let them — the Box is stalking …

"Do you think there are 1000 active winkers in the country?” I’m speaking to Rick Tucker, 54, collector, historian, webmaster, and former pairs champion of the North American Tiddlywinks Association (NATwA). Said group is holding …

Becky Hurt, 30, is a “Master Teaching Artist” at Eveoke Dance Center in North Park, at present teaching hip-hop dance. She is self-described as having, “naturally brown hair. Also, I’m only 5’ 3”, but I …

Brett Favre can still play in the NFL says the retired quarterback, speaking to the Eupora High School (Eupora, Mississippi) student council. Favre was in town for a press availability, part of his 2009 Whether …

‘We started a month or so ago. Right now we’re running tournaments twice a month. Our first tournament had five teams. Second tournament, seven. We’ve got 10 or 11 teams signed for Saturday.” Speaking is …

Did you see the 2009 Mountain West Conference preseason media poll? TCU is picked to win the conference (a reasonable choice), BYU second, Utah third, and so on down the list — Air Force, UNLV, …

The T.O. Show debuted on VH1 Monday night and was immediately panned by critics. Detractors thought the show was contrived and phony, not like Big Brother, Ghost Hunters, Pimp My Ride, Dog the Bounty Hunter, …

As Wednesday’s morning sun rose over El Cajon’s In-N-Out Burger, Lance Armstrong is holding third place with 11 stages to go in the 2009 Tour de France. For those who don’t follow professional biking (and …

Well, it’s the Fourth of July weekend and you know what that means…that’s right, the Ligue canadienne de football launches its 2009 season. Or, to translate for the English-speaking rabble, the Canadian Football League (CFL) …

‘You sit there with a machine that pumps an Albuturol mist into your lungs.” I ask, “Did you have a mask on?” “No. It’s like a pipe.” Speaking is a woman I’ll call Margaret, an …

An old Vegas friend is on the phone, we’ve been happily slandering a mutual acquaintance. Comes a pause in the conversation, David fills the hole with, “What are you writing this week?” “Trying to find …

The WNBA (Women’s National Basketball Association) is starting its 13th year in business, which makes it the longest-running women’s professional sports league (team-based subdivision) in America over the past 400 years, give or take. That’s …

Regulars will recall Ben Rothman, 25, professional croquet player. I wrote about him in the May 6 issue. I’d not heard of professional croquet and was delighted to learn there was one more sport to …

This is Saturday night, May 23, my birthday. I am celebrating at Jikojim, a Soto Zen retreat center in the Santa Cruz Mountains. The center has a Zendo (meditation hall), a dorm, a residents’ building, …

Did you see the story about college coaches using Twitter to recruit? Twitter, for those doing max time at Pelican Bay, is a social networking stop on the internet inviting passersby to post messages of …

Here’s Ben Rothman, 25, a graduate of UC San Diego in psychology, a waiter, a construction worker, and currently ranked number 2 in the USA and 29th in the world. Two weeks back Rothman won …

These things are fun every long once in awhile. Every long once in awhile has passed. Let the fun begin. Short-Term Memory section, 2008 NFL division. 1. One of these teams won all their home …

It is strange how a housekeeping ritual can grow to such a magical height that a continental gaggle of disparate people, all of whom have no role in the actual ritual, nonetheless make a career …

‘Individual athletes contact me because they may be challenged within their sport, may get frustrated when losing a game and watching their play go downhill. They get upset at themselves — ‘I suck. I’m no …

Back with Pattie Pinkerton, UCSD women’s crew head coach. She did student time at San Diego State in the ’70s, rowed in the USA National Championships from 1975 to ’84, was a competitor at the …

‘I found your bio on a UCSD web page. Do you also play viola for the San Diego Symphony?” “No,” a woman laughs. I’m talking to Pattie Pinkerton, women’s crew head coach for UCSD. Here …

You’ve been waiting for it, and now it’s finally come, the capstone of televised sports: Lumber Liquidators U.S. Open. This is professional bowling at its best and the last of four major tournaments on the …

The Box takes next week off, so regard this column as your March Madness early-bird primer. Clip and save. The 2009 NCAA Men’s Division I Basketball Tournament goes off on March 17 with games scheduled …

The San Diego Bird Festival starts Thursday and continues through the weekend. Aforesaid bird gala can be found at the Marina Village Conference Center on Quivira Way. If you’ve ever been interested in Bird World, …

The World Baseball Classic (WBC) had an uneasy genesis in 2006. A year earlier, baseball, along with softball, was voted out of the Olympics, ordered to make its last appearance at the Beijing Games. Baseball …

The Westminster Dog Show was on TV last week. Here are the facts: Smooth-haired dachshunds have been showing at the Westminster since 1877, and not one — not a single one, zero, zip, nada — …

This is a good day for Jose Canseco. Three of the four lead actors in baseball’s steroid melodrama — baseball commissioner Bud Selig, union boss Donald Fehr, and former senate majority leader George Mitchell — …

Okay, football is over. Now what? Well, pilgrim, can’t you hear the slap of leather and pop of a beer can? Hell, yeah — Padres pitchers and catchers report for spring training next week! Peoria, …

The Box will step aside while the hive swarms toward Super Bowl 43, not wishing to excite the gaggle while it’s feeding. Instead, for your sports-minded consideration, I’ll offer up a column about two merry …

Deep in the fourth quarter, when Donovan McNabb reared back and threw his fourth consecutive incomplete pass, things turned suicidal at NBC headquarters in Manhattan. The hideous stomach-dumping nightmare had become fact. To wit: the …

I spent the morning calling small high schools in East County, asking if our state-budget debacle has affected their sports programs. This led me to Calexico, California, the person of principal Dan Plough, and his …

The Chargers play Pittsburgh on Sunday at their place, Heinz Field. The way San Diego has been playing lately, taking six points is tempting. I was born in Pittsburgh, Mercy Hospital, at 3:06 in the …

Dallas is the great loser. Like a schoolmarm who has run out of patience with the class dullard, Dallas players brought home their message of quit with a slap to the face. The Boys were …

It’s still a Norv Turner team, make no mistake, but in spite of that, the AFC West championship now lies in San Diego’s hands. Or Denver’s, depending on your point of view. If the Chargers …

‘It’s an international organization. We promote the training and ownership of hunting dogs and hunting itself. We go out once a month and do training days and hunt tests. There are 50 members in our …

Gentlemen, please remove your hats. For the first time in Sporting Box history, I am pleased to offer congratulations to the A-R-I-Z-O-N-A C-A-R-D-I-N-A-L-S. Funny how that name rolls awkwardly off the tongue, making a strange, …

Mark ye well, the University of San Diego Toreros men’s basketball team goes up against the (San Francisco) Academy of Art University Urban Knights, 7:00 p.m., December 19, at Jenny Craig Pavilion. This is a …

THANKSGIVING PROCLAMATION, 1676. The Holy God having by a long and Continual Series of his Afflictive dispensations in and by the present Warr with the Heathen Natives of this land, written and brought to pass …

Things are grim in San Diego State football world. Staff is still hungover from Saturday’s 63-14 drubbing at the hands of Utah. That drubbing was worse than the 41-12 drubbing at the hands of Brigham …

‘What kind of repairs do you do? Tune-ups? Rebuilds?” I’m talking to Kris Wells, 37, store manager at the UCSD Bike Shop. “All that,” Wells says. “The big things are the headset [bearing assembly that …

I like sandhill cranes. It’s the pterodactyl in them, the too-long toothpick legs, the Ichabod Crane anatomy, the black beak, and the 1950 Mercury convertible red top that sends me back to those Triassic period …