The healing power of sports, the Denis of tennis & the untruths about Kap

Again: Sports can’t change what Harvey did to Houston. Again and again: Sports can’t bring back the dead, or the lost homes, or get people out of shelters.

Sometimes the best sports can do, and what and the Astros might do, is give a wounded city a chance to cheer for a few hours at a time.

We saw it here with the Yankees in the World Series of 2001.

Saw it right away in Boston, five days after the Boston Marathon bombing, when the Red Sox came back to Fenway. It wasn’t a lot. Certainly did not change anything for the dead or damaged. But it sure was something. Every time I saw the way the citizens of Houston tried to help in any way they could, when we all saw the lines of people looking to volunteer in any way they could, I was reminded of the scenes from old Shea Stadium after Sept. 11 in 2001, the lines of cars trying to get into the parking lot like there was a game going on, there to drop off relief supplies.

I remember and the owners and everybody from the Mets throwing themselves into the relief effort, and offering temporary housing for rescue workers who had come from across the country. That was sports, too. I don’t want you to think that I’m stuck on this, but the guys up front are going to give enough time this season, right?

Is it worse to be a Jets fan at this time, or a Knicks fan? Discuss. Even when it seemed as if the Orioles couldn’t get a starter through the fifth inning, and seemed to have fallen completely out of things, you looked at the batting order and thought that and had to start hitting eventually. And so they have. And have they ever. If you haven’t seen the kid from play yet at the Open, you better.

Because he is, at the age of 19, something to see.

continues to be the unlikeliest current pitching star of the baseball season.

Gives up a leadoff homer to Lindor against the Indians one night, never gives up another hit.

Gives up a run to the Yankees in the first on Friday night, and then doesn’t give them another run through seven.

You know what Fister really did on Friday night?

Pitched the way he did in Game 5 of a division series once, in Yankee Stadium, when he beat the Yankees for the Tigers.

I want to apologize to I know I haven’t been able to focus as much on his situation lately as I should.

It is interesting that the most memorable fight of

career wasn’t against was against

Do you sometimes worry, as I know I do, that the bromance between the 45th President and

might not be forever? Who goes to Houston after Harvey and talks about crowd size? Oh, wait. We already know the answer to that one, don’t we?

We keep hearing and reading about all the things ,it can’t do on a football field.

We hear that this is all about inconsistency throwing from the pocket and all the rest of it, to the point where you start to think that the 49ers must have quarterbacked themselves to that Super Bowl in New Orleans one time.

But if you believe those are the reasons he can’t get a job anywhere, and not Kaepernick being the face of sideline protests in the NFL forever (no matter how many players have followed him), then you also believe this: That pigs can fly. And not the kind he famously had on his socks at the start of this.

In a league where you end up unemployed because of your beliefs.

Boy, does that make you want to jump up and salute the flag.