The New Republic

This year’s World Series did not match last year’s in excitement. It was a 4-0 series sweep by the San Francisco Giants over the Detroit Tigers. Only last night’s game, which the Giants won 4-3 in the tenth inning, was a nail-biter, or in the Giants’ vocabulary, “torture.” What was most interesting, however, was that the Giants won at all – and took the Series for the second time in three years. READ MORE >>

I wish we had won—had held on in the ninth; had played Game 1 of the National League Championship Series against the San Francisco Giants last night; had had a shot at the World Series. But as the pain of Friday night subsides and detachment comes more easily, an undeniable fact emerges: the Nationals, and Washington, needed this. In fact, the gut-punch of a loss may have been the best possible thing that could happen to the capital city’s nascent baseball culture. READ MORE >>

Playtime’s over. This week’s roundup of new Congressional and Senate super PACs includes big spenders and big names, like former Newt Gingrich benefactor Sheldon Adelson; Harold Simmons, one of this election cycle’s top donors; a key financier of Jon Huntsman’s presidential super PAC; and Citizens United lawyer James Bopp. Freedom PAC Supports Rep. Connie Mack (R), Florida U.S. Senate candidate READ MORE >>

Since the 1960s, professional football has supplanted baseball as our nation’s favorite sport—generating higher revenue and better television ratings. And, as the past few weeks have demonstrated, college basketball has captured the attention and diminished the productivity of the American workforce in ways baseball does not. But let’s not confuse popularity with superiority. READ MORE >>