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Save articles for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time. Just as you can never be sure how a sporting contest will finish, so you never quite know where you might end up as a sports reporter. Here’s one place: a walled-off patch of incongruously green lawn at the top of the Khyber Pass, the barren landscape falling away in all directions, eating cucumber sandwiches with the uniformed commandant of the Khyber Rifles in their barracks. In 1994, I did that. It was in a break between Test matches. Neither our minibus driver, nor our armed guard with a Kalashnikov on his lap said anything on the way up. But at the top, they shared a couple of big fat joints, which made the return journey terrifying. It was at dusk, down a sinuous mountain road, unlit, unmarked and with no guard rails, but any number of overladen and equally unlit trucks, looming out of the gloom like prehistoric creatures. Greg Baum, pictured in 2005, has been a sports writer for more than four decades. Credit: Sebastian Costanzo Our protectors thought it all uproariously funny, but the AAP reporter sitting behind the rear axle, unsighted and swaying wildly, failed to see the humour. “We’re all going to die,” he shrieked. Fortunately, we survived and in due course, he became a senior backroom boy at the AFL. Our hosts treated us on our return to Peshawar by taking us shopping – in a gun bazaar. Finally, back at our hotel, we hastily retired to a room behind a smoky glass door that did not officially exist: a bar. Dangers lurk everywhere. If not in the lawless North West Frontier Province of Pakistan, then in the stranglehold of Australian wicketkeeper Brad Haddin in a bar in Johannesburg late one night in 2011. Though Australia had won, I wasn’t sure if his hug was meant playfully or murderously. I don’t think he was either. There had been friction. Then there was a small-hours shout with David Boon in a bar off London’s Regent Street. You might think that was as perilous a place as any other I’ve been. But he’d made a big Lord’s hundred and Australia had won handsomely and all was well in the world, or only a little unwell when I woke up later that morning. In Mick Malthouse’s sight line after a loss, beware. In Merv Hughes’ sight line after a win, beware. I also survived a ball from Michael Holding, the West Indian who was not known as Whispering Death for nothing. OK, it was a tennis ball on a beach in Antigua, where Holding had come across a ragtag group of Australian journos, and asked for a bowl, and delivered it with a mercifully gentle roll of his arm, but still ... West Indies great Michael Holding. Credit: Getty As life-threatening experiences go, these pale beside the pickles many of my long-term reporter colleagues in other fields have found themselves in. Apart from anything else, none were life-threatening. My upper threshold is merely hair-raising. There was the time on the back of a motorcycle, clinging to the rider as he swerved through the dusty streets of Gwalior, trying to get me to a post office to plug the modem of my newfangled four-line display computer terminal into a phone before the dying battery carked it. I filed half a story, which was probably plenty enough. It was not unusual at that time to file from laptops by jury-rigging connections between incompatible plugs. Once in Mumbai, my last resort was to hold two bare wires together between thumb and forefinger, close my eyes, pray and press “send”. It worked – and was not the first or last time a story slipped through my hands. The Age’s sports writers Peter Ker, Paul Daffey, Caroline Wilson, Greg Baum and Sebastian Costanzo at the AFL Football Awards in 2003. Credit: Vince Caligiuri The wild frontiers are not all far-flung. In 1990, I found myself on a bus with Collingwood’s newly crowned premiership players, travelling from the Southern Cross Hotel to Victoria Park through backstreets because the main roads were choked with euphoric fans, who mobbed the bus, causing it to rock. Staring through the windows at the sea of supporters stretching off into the dark, coach Leigh Matthews self-mockingly repeated his finals-long mantra: “We’re not talking premierships.” Then he added, sotto voce: “We’re accumulating them.” Another time at Waverley Park, a team manager invited me to step outside to settle some differences. His nickname was Middy, short for Midnight. As it happened, I preferred daylight and quickly put it between him and me. The enmity did not outlive the night. Sports reporting does take you to the damnedest places. At Junction Oval many moons ago, I listened as a podgy young leg-spinner, not yet capped by Victoria, canvassed opinions about what he should do with an offer to move to NSW. My two bobs’ worth was that he should do as his heart told him. As it happened, Shane Warne stayed in Victoria, and the rest, you well know. About that time, it fell to me to inform a young NSW cricketer that he had been picked to debut for Australia. Long before mobile phones and the internet, the team was phoned through to my newspaper office and I tracked the NSW Sheffield Shield team down to a restaurant in Flinders Lane. They had been well-beaten by Victoria that day.I was able to lighten the sombre mood, but only after one missed heartbeat. “Are you sure it’s the right Taylor?” the manager asked. Two years previously, when Mark Taylor had been widely expected to be picked, his little-known state teammate Peter Taylor was instead, prompting a Fleet Street newspaper to manufacture a quote from chairman of selectors, Laurie Sawle, admitting to a “clerical error”. Now, though, my notes confirmed that there was no ambiguity, and Mark was on his way to his illustrious career. As you might imagine, nearly all the most improbable places a reporter might find himself are in Asia. There was the night in Sri Lanka when I was in a taxi with some administrators who compared notes about a new concern: match-fixing. One, realising he had spoken carelessly, warned me not to repeat what I’d heard. It corresponded with something I’d heard the previous night from an Indian journalist and punter who’d been cautioned not to waste his money on a certain match. Overhearing this, a Pakistani cricketer nodded mutely. A skeleton was starting to tumble out of a cupboard. But far from home and without internet or mobile phones, I could not add flesh to the bones at that time. In due course, the Herald ’s arch newshound Phil Wilkins did. It was a story that ran for 10 years. The best seat in the house comes in a range. For the spellbinding Freeman night at the Sydney Olympics, my media seat was directly aligned with the finishing line, maybe 15 rows back. I spent three hours in a poolside deckchair alongside Steve Waugh in Bangalore as he contributed generously and thoughtfully to an anatomical dissection of one Test innings; it became a Good Weekend cover. Steven Bradbury’s iconic moment at the 2002 Winter Olympics. Credit: Stephen Munday A hunch led me rinkside at Salt Lake City in 2002 when skater Stephen Bradbury became, as an American commentator put it, a spectator at a safe distance to his freak gold medal. That story was like his skates; it ran and ran. Where else? There was ringside at Festival Hall, looking down at my notebook and finding blood spatters on it. Oh, the glamour. There was the achingly poignant moment in the Bulldogs’ rooms in 2016 as blubbering old men declared they never thought they’d live to see the day – and that was just the preliminary final. The grand final was something again. There was the bus with a police escort at 3am in Colombo in 1996, where I stared silently at the floodlit site of a massive bomb the previous week that had spooked Australia into bypassing their World Cup match there. The bus was carrying the Solidarity XI, a hastily gathered troupe of Indians and Pakistanis who went to play a symbolic match there in lieu. Colombo’s Central Bank, which was destroyed in a 1996 suicide bombing. Credit: AP There was the cockpit of a Trans Australia Airlines plane flown by a cricket contact for a landing in Hobart. Qantas’s Presidents Lounge once, but I can’t tell you where or with whom. There was a desk in a temporarily converted library in Cape Town in 2000 as the King inquiry laid bare the money-grubbing duplicity of South African captain Hanse Cronje and a barrister dismissed Cronje’s upstanding Christian alibi as “theological ventriloquism”. Judge Edwin King barred electronic media from the inquiry, so the world came to learn about each explosive revelation only as quickly as we could tap them into our rudimentary laptops. There was The Lodge. I always knew I’d get there. It was for a PM’s XI reception, but I wasn’t the first or last to make it there without winning the popular vote. Greg Baum interviewing Richmond legend Matthew Richardson in 2013. Credit: Penny Stephens Sportswriters dwell on courage, but generally don’t have to practise it – other than in the form of a question you don’t want to ask, but must. I saw courage of a different order in Pakistan in 1994. During a Test match in Rawalpindi, ABC commentator Peter Walsh’s father died back in Australia. Walshie thought to go home, but after a conversation with his mother decided to stay. This was Australia’s last-ever tour behind closed doors. There was no live broadcast and the internet, as we know it, was still in the future. Fans in Australia could follow proceedings only through the scribblings of four print journos and the ABC’s hourly crosses to Walshie. He was a mess, but at the top of the hour would dry his eyes, swallow hard, clamp on his headphones and deliver an update in an unwavering voice, then after switching off the mic dissolve into tears again. He was heroic. The grand Faisal Mosque in Islamabad, Pakistan. Credit: AP Early morning a couple of days later, I found myself in yet another unlikely place, with Walshie and others in the long, cool shadows of Islamabad’s impressive Faisal Mosque. None of us were especially religious, but the place emanated peace. In 2011 in Cape Town, death came closer still. Infamously, Australia had been bowled out for 47 and lost the Test match in three days. On the fourth evening, The Australian ’s Peter Lalor and I were dining on the waterfront when I received a call from the ABC’s Jim Maxwell. There’d been an accident, he said. Peter Roebuck. Come. Only slowly did I realise that Maxwell did not mean that Roebuck was badly injured. He’d gone over a fifth-floor balcony and was dead . This is not the place to revisit all the circumstances , nor to again try to psychoanalyse the complex writer and broadcaster who was also a friend. For a couple of hours, Maxwell, Lalor, Geoff Lawson, Drew Morphett and I sat in the foyer of their hotel near the Newlands ground, trying to make sense of the senseless. The hotel manager dug up some beers, but we hardly touched them. In the very small hours, I caught a taxi back to my hotel and tried to sleep, but was conscious of the time difference and knew all hell would be breaking loose in Australia. In the pre-dawn dullness of my tiny hotel room, I wrote an obit to run on the front page. The next few days were a blur. I was offered the chance to come home, but did not. In a way that’s hard to explain, it made more sense to stay . Lalor, bless him, did the honours at the morgue. A walk up Table Mountain was arduous but cathartic, maybe like that mosque in Islamabad. Jim Maxwell displayed courage, too, paying affectionate tribute to Roebuck in an unfaltering voice at the start of the broadcast of the next Test in Johannesburg a couple of days later. To fill the special comments void, some of us pressmen were drafted in. It was the middle of the night in Australia – who would be listening anyway? Someone was, and on social media bemoaned my mumbling inadequacy beside the great Roebuck. He was right, of course. That was the tragedy. It still is. Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter .Black Ice Studios Partners with Intel Gaming to Debut XeSS 2 Technology in Ashes of Mankind
LOS ANGELES — Shohei Ohtani is keeping elite company. The Japanese superstar caps 2024 by winning The Associated Press Male Athlete of the Year for the third time, tying him with basketball great Michael Jordan. He trails only four-time winners Lance Armstrong, Tiger Woods and LeBron James. "I'm very honored," Ohtani said through translator Matt Hidaka in an exclusive interview with the AP. "Obviously all the hard work has paid off. Maybe next year, I'll get the award again." In balloting by 74 sports journalists from the AP and its members, Ohtani received 48 votes. He previously won the award in 2023 and 2021, when he was with the Angels. "Growing up in Japan, I did follow Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods," he said. "I would see their accolades and how they were successful in the United States." The AP honor has been given out since 1931. Golfer Babe Didrikson won six times, the most by a man or woman. Swimmer Léon Marchand of France, who won four gold medals at the Paris Olympics, was second with 10 votes in balloting announced Monday. Golfer Scottie Scheffler, whose victories this year included the Masters and an Olympic gold medal, was third with nine. The AP Female Athlete of the Year will be announced Tuesday. Moving from the beleaguered Los Angeles Angels to the powerhouse Los Angeles Dodgers, Ohtani won his third Most Valuable Player award and first in the National League, led his new team to its eighth World Series championship and created Major League Baseball's 50/50 club by hitting 54 home runs and stealing 59 bases. Ohtani signed a then-record $700 million, 10-year contract with the Dodgers in December 2023. Already a two-way superstar, he embellished his reputation even further despite not pitching all season while he rehabilitated from a second major right elbow surgery he had in September 2023. Ohtani went wild on offense, making every at-bat a must-see moment. The 6-foot-4 designated hitter batted a career-high .310 while easily surpassing his previous career highs in home runs and stolen bases. In September, he reached the previously unheard of 50/50 mark in a performance for the ages. Against the Miami Marlins in Florida, Ohtani went 6 for 6 with three homers, 10 RBIs, two stolen bases and 17 total bases. "It wouldn't shock me if he went 60/60 and 20 wins a year from now," Brad Ausmus, who managed the Angels in 2019 during Ohtani's second season in Anaheim, said recently. "This guy is the greatest athlete to ever play the sport of baseball and there's not a close second." Ohtani said he knew the Dodgers' franchise record for most homers in a season was 49. His previous best was 46, set in 2021. "I kind of wanted to get over that bar," he said. "I was pleasantly surprised I was able to pass that record." Ohtani carried the Dodgers offensively during the regular season, and he stayed healthy until Game 2 of the World Series. He injured his left shoulder trying to steal second base against the New York Yankees and finished the Series playing hurt. He underwent surgery a few days after the Dodgers celebrated their championship in early November. "I don't have full range of motion yet, but it feels a lot better," he told the AP. "There's no pain. There's obviously still a little bit of tightness, but slowly but surely it's getting better." Ohtani recently received an updated rehab schedule, and he's focused on the near-term. "It's the small steps that I think are very important to get me to the ultimate goal, which is to just get back healthy," he said. Ohtani is also throwing in the 70 mph range, which is typical for pitchers early in the offseason. "I'm going to continue to ramp up slowly," he said. The Dodgers' rotation for next season is in flux, and Ohtani is waiting to see how it shakes out. "We may go with a five-man rotation with a bullpen (game), which is what we did a lot during this season or we may have a six-man rotation," he said. "But it's all about balancing out when we can get rest and recuperate. We'll see where that takes us along the playoff chase. I've got to obviously pace myself, but again that situation will guide us to how we get there." The Dodgers open the 2025 season in Japan, where Ohtani is even more closely watched. "My personal goal is to be fully healthy by the time the opening games do start," he said. "To be able to pitch and hit would be great, but the situation will kind of guide itself." Each time Ohtani comes to the plate or steps on the mound, there's great pressure and expectation for him to perform spectacular feats. "I just go out there and try to stay within myself," he said. "I can only control what I can control and that's where you trust your teammates. The guys behind me, you trust they're going to make the plays for you. I don't really try to overthink it." Ohtani generated big bucks for the Dodgers off the field, too. Fans traveled from Japan in droves to see him play around the U.S. At Dodger Stadium, they paid extra for tours of baseball's third-oldest venue narrated by Japanese-speaking guides and to be on the field during pre-game batting practice. A majority of the fans bought Ohtani-branded merchandise, especially his No. 17 jersey. Ohtani's presence also helped the Dodgers land a bevy of new Japanese sponsors. Because Ohtani prefers to speak Japanese and use an interpreter with the media, he is shrouded in a bit of mystique. Asked before his first postgame series if he was nervous, he dropped a one-word answer in English: "Nope," which drew laughter. Japanese-born Dodgers manager Dave Roberts observed Ohtani's behind-the-scenes interactions with his teammates, coaches and staff, and came away impressed. "I really do believe that as good of a ballplayer as he is, he's a much better person. He's very kind, considerate, he cares," Roberts told the AP. "I'm just proud of any fame or glory or award that he receives because he just does it in such a respectful and humble way." Ohtani relishes his privacy and rarely shares details about himself off the field. That's why his February announcement via Instagram that he had wed Mamiko Tanaka, a former basketball player, stunned his new teammates and the rest of the world. The following month, after the Dodgers arrived in South Korea to open the season, he was enveloped in scandal when his longtime interpreter and friend, Ippei Mizuhara, was fired by the Dodgers after being accused of using millions of dollars of Ohtani's money to place bets with an illegal bookmaker. His new teammates rallied around Ohtani, who was found to have no part in the wrongdoing, and publicly it didn't seem to affect him even if he was privately distressed by it. By June, the uproar had subsided. Mizuhara pleaded guilty to federal bank and tax fraud charges and admitted to stealing nearly $17 million from Ohtani. The public got a glimpse of Ohtani's softer side in August, when his dog Decoy delivered a first pitch to his owner on their shared bobblehead night. The Nederlandse Kooikerhondje exchanged an endearing high-five with Ohtani at the plate. As a result, Decoy became a celebrity in his own right, with his breed (pronounced COY-ker-HUND-che) making the list of the most mispronounced words of 2024. He and Ohtani were mentioned during the telecast of last month's National Dog Show, where the small Spaniel-type breed was among the competitors. "The number of the breed has kind of dwindled, so by him gaining a little bit of popularity hopefully that brings up the number of his breed," Ohtani said. "I do feel like we were able to, in a small way, contribute to the popularity of the dog and I'm sure Decoy himself would be happy about that." Ohtani will be looking to top himself next year while eyeing a repeat World Series title. "It's almost like right now you can lock in the Most Valuable Player in the National League award because no one has that ability or talent," Roberts said. "I'm just excited to see what '25 has for Shohei Ohtani." Subscribe to stay connected to Tucson. A subscription helps you access more of the local stories that keep you connected to the community. Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox!
US stock indices pushed to fresh records Tuesday, shrugging off tariff threats from President-elect Donald Trump while European equities retreated. Trump, who doesn't take office until January 20, made his threat in social media posts Monday night, announcing huge import tariffs against neighbors Canada and Mexico and also rival China if they do not stop illegal immigration and drug smuggling. Both the Dow and S&P 500 notched all-time highs, with investors regarding the incoming president's words as a bargaining chip. "In theory, higher tariffs should not be good news for stocks. But, you know, I think the market's chosen to think of (it) as a negotiating tactic," said Steve Sosnick of Interactive Brokers. "You have bullish sentiment," said LBBW's Karl Haeling. "People are tending to look at things as positively as possible." But General Motors, which imports autos from Mexico to the United States, slumped 9.0 percent, while rival Ford dropped 2.6 percent. Overseas bourses were also buffeted by the news. European stocks followed losses in Asia, despite Trump excluding Europe as an immediate target for tariffs. "These are his first direct comments on tariffs and tariff levels since becoming president-elect, and they have roiled markets," said Kathleen Brooks, research director at XTB trading group, ahead of the Wall Street open. "It is early days, and there are plenty of opportunities for Trump to direct his attention to Europe down the line," Brooks added. The US dollar rallied against its Canadian equivalent, China's yuan and Mexico's peso, which hit its lowest level since August 2022. In other economic news, the Conference Board's consumer confidence index rose to 111.7 this month, up from 109.6 in October, boosted by greater optimism surrounding the labor market. "November's increase was mainly driven by more positive consumer assessments of the present situation, particularly regarding the labor market," said Dana Peterson, chief economist at The Conference Board. Pantheon Macroeconomics chief US economist Samuel Tombs added in a note that the increase in consumer confidence overall "likely was driven by euphoria among Republicans." "The index also jumped in late 2016, when Mr. Trump was elected for the first time," he said. Federal Reserve meeting minutes showed policy makers expect inflation to keep cooling, signaling a gradual approach to interest rate cuts if price increases ease further and the job market remains strong. New York - Dow: UP 0.3 percent at 44,860.31 (close) New York - S&P 500: UP 0.6 percent at 6,021.63 (close) New York - Nasdaq: UP 0.6 percent at 19,174.30 (close) London - FTSE 100: DOWN 0.4 percent at 8,258.61 (close) Paris - CAC 40: DOWN 0.9 percent at 7,194.51 (close) Frankfurt - DAX: DOWN 0.6 percent at 19,295.98 (close) Tokyo - Nikkei 225: DOWN 0.9 percent at 38,442.00 (close) Hong Kong - Hang Seng Index: FLAT at 19,159.20 (close) Shanghai - Composite: DOWN 0.1 percent at 3,259.76 (close) Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.0482 from $1.0495 on Monday Pound/dollar: DOWN at $1.2567 from $1.2568 Dollar/yen: DOWN at 153.06 yen from 154.23 yen Euro/pound: DOWN at 83.41 pence from 83.51 pence Brent North Sea Crude: DOWN 0.3 percent at $72.81 per barrel West Texas Intermediate: DOWN 0.3 percent at $68.77 per barrel bur-jmb/stOhtani wins third AP Male Athlete of the Year award
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