Violence comes to a head

by Sid Dorfman/The Star-Ledger

Tuesday October 07, 2008, 7:25 PM

So I read where 12 athletes will submit themselves to a study on what football concussions have done to their brains over a period of life.

More than one neurologist over the years has told me, before anything else, that a concussion is damage to the brain. Simple as that. The more concussions, the greater the damage. But the study of the 12 athletes will deal with the nature of the damage years after it has been inflicted.

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Dorfman: Before the Mets, it was the Dodgers

by Sid Dorfman/The Star-Ledger

Tuesday September 30, 2008, 8:55 PM

After all, aren't the Mets the lineal descendants of the Brooklyn Dodgers? And if so, wouldn't there be a genetic explanation for why they left their faithful in copious tears on their final appearance in a junked Shea Stadium? The Dodgers once did the same thing, but the Mets trumped their antecedents in pratfalls. They did it twice in a row.

For those who may not recall, on May 13, 1951, some 57 years ago, the Dodgers of consecrated Ebbets Field charged into first place, and joy was everywhere. Even better, on Aug. 11, with 49 games left to play, the Bums, as they were affectionately known, led the New York Giants by a boring 13½ games.

Boring, but not for long. In mid-August, the Giants swept the Dodgers in a three-game series and then forgot how to lose. They won 16 in a row in August and seven straight ending the season.

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Putting their faith in boxing

by Sid Dorfman/The Star-Ledger

Tuesday September 23, 2008, 7:05 PM

I'm guessing there is a symbiotic relationship between boxing and religion. At least some visible evidence is there.

A kid sitting on the stool before the opening bell more often than not will cross himself, presumably to ward off harm and defeat before swinging into combat. But the kid on the other side of the ring sends the same message to the Great Referee, and the reply from above probably depends on the kid with the best left hook.

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Entering ring piece of cake for rabbi

by Sid Dorfman/The Star-Ledger

Tuesday September 16, 2008, 7:39 PM

He began fighting as a kid on the sandlots of Brooklyn, where the gangs settled their differences. No telling what would have happened to young Bill Horn if the cops hadn't steered him into the Police Athletic League.

Young Bill loved boxing and fought as an amateur, but he also went into show business. He made it to Broadway in a show called "Street Scene." Then came a call from within to enter the rabbinate.

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Phelps' diet is hard to swallow

by Sid Dorfman/The Star-Ledger

Tuesday August 26, 2008, 7:00 PM

"I remember," remembers my friend Stanley, who knocks off a nice repast or two once in a while. "My mother would never let me in the water after I ate a big meal."

Stanley and his mother were not alone. As I remember, it was a common parental restriction, and may still be today. Not that it bothered Stanley much to be restrained. He couldn't swim anyway.

When Michael Phelps ran the table at Beijing, he ignited the current question: Was he the answer to obesity?

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Better than this golf shark? Fat chance

by Sid Dorfman/The Star-Ledger

Tuesday August 19, 2008, 10:40 PM

I had thought here recently that John Montague, the baffling, much-admired golf hustler and trick-shot artist, was one of a kind. But I was a thought short. Martin Stanovich, his successor, was just around the corner, arriving to become one-of-a-kind No. 2.

In the 1930s, John Montague captivated Hollywood and the nation with his act. In the 1940s, Martin Stanovich, known as "The Fat Man," was just as mesmerizing a figure.

Herbert J. Brennan of Hackettstown, who has had an interesting career of his own, reminded me of the Fat Man.

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Balky knee could have detrimental effect on Tiger Woods

by Sid Dorfman/The Star-Ledger

Tuesday August 12, 2008, 11:47 PM

The PGA championship Padraig Harrington of Ireland won over the weekend at storied Oakland Hills in Michigan was as great an exhibition of shot-making as today's pros of the world usually offer in a major golf event.

The series of nerve-racking putts Harrington made to win his second straight major was little short of remarkable. When he sank a 20-footer on the 16th hole, a 12-footer on the 17th to save a critical par, and a 15-footer on the 18th to win, it was reminiscent of what only Tiger Woods would be expected to do, if he were present.

But Tiger Woods was not present. And he was missed.

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