Justin Sharaf

Imagine the best player in the world standing on the 17th tee at Augusta National Golf Club, having just chipped in for a dramatic birdie. Imagine him with a two-stroke lead over his opponent, a man whose putting stroke is called “the claw.” Imagine a father watching from

Tonight’s crowd includes at least two compulsive gamblers, at least one person who picked none of the Final Four teams, and, thank God, no one who thinks UConn and Tennessee are national powerhouses. 9:22 p.m.: The game hasn’t started and already the Roy Williams

Like every year, this year’s tournament has been filled with upset specials. I’ve been watching the tournament for basically my entire life, yet I’m always surprised by the amount of upsets and how they occur. It seems irrational and inconceivable that a double-digit seed

Right now, the NHL needs one of two things in order to salvage not its respect, but its financial future. First, the two sides must come to an agreement as soon as possible, and consider starting the 2005-06 season early to avoid a full calendar year without hockey. Real hockey

The positive changes in the Jeffs’ play has been noticeable in recent weeks, but it was especially evident this weekend as they took on number-one ranked Elmira College Saturday on neutral ice at Williams College. With a hefty 18-3 record entering the game, Elmira could not have foreseen Amherst&

Lefty dominated the field this week at the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, cruising to a four-stroke victory over fellow southpaw Mike Weir despite scoring a final round one-over par 73. Mickelson’s victory was his second consecutive PGA tour win in as many weeks and, despite the fact that

Saturday, the Jeffs took on the sixth-place Bantams, who tied the Jeffs at Orr Rink in the first game of the season. This time Amherst tasted victory, dominating Trinity in a 4-0 win. Sophomores Simon and goaltender Lindsay Grabowski led the Jeffs’ charge. Simon recorded her second career hat

10:55 a.m.: Why did the scheduling gods pick this weekend for a noon women’s ice hockey game? I should not be up at this ungodly hour. 5:21 p.m.: Time for a quick bite at Valentine to hold me over; I’m fairly certain

Before the game, Head Coach Jim Plumer presented the two seniors with flowers, recognizing them for their fine play and overall dedication to the women’s hockey program. “The words that Jim [Plumer] said about me and [co-captain defender] Sarah [Mason ’05] were very touching. I know

When you’re discussing the career of Bonds, there are three directions you can go, all with valid points and counterpoints about his alleged steroid use. Here are the arguments for and against each of those situations. Bonds has never knowingly taken steroids: OK, so this point is probably

Sunday’s game against NESCAC opponent Hamilton College proved how resilient the young Amherst team can be with its back against the wall. After being outshot 39-18 the previous afternoon in a 3-1 loss to the Continentals, the Jeffs found themselves down once again, 3-0, after only 13 minutes

But it was not meant to be. Sure the NBA is receiving more attention than ever before, but for all the wrong reasons. Inquiring (or brainless) minds are the ones watching the NBA now, hoping to see another hard foul, another fight, another brawl in the stands. What happened on

Am I to believe Clarett, someone whose reputation and word is so poor that a perfectly reasonable analyst on ESPN wouldn’t believe him under any circumstance? And if not, how do I ignore the corroborating stories by other former OSU players Marco Cooper, Curtis Crosby and B.J.

This year’s team isn’t expecting to overtake either dynasty just yet, in Head Coach Jim Plumer’s second season behind the bench. However, that doesn’t mean the Jeffs aren’t capable of playing the spoilers in the toughest women’s hockey

So, um, yeah. Where do I begin? Did anyone else see that statistic on Fox Monday night that in the last 48 hours, the average sports fanatic had watched something like 4.5 hours of football, 17 hours of baseball, gotten 14 hours of sleep and had 12.5 hours

Please excuse Justin from all academic requirements for the next three weeks as he and the Boston Red Sox embark upon a long, tiring journey to the promised land. You may be hesitant at first to heed this request, but you must understand that a higher being is at work

Both authors made valid points. Jones was correct in his assessment of Allen Iverson as someone that the United States should be proud of. Sidman was correct in her judgment that the basketball team simply was not as good as the players and coaches had thought. However, my point is

Where is this column going, you ask? Is this space going to be filled with another 900 words of Red Sox ranting and raving, claiming that this is the year and so forth? Nope. In fact, baseball will not be mentioned in this column after this sentence. Now, realize the

And the biggest change, the change that will probably impact your life as much as mine, was the creation of my very own Babbling Bostonian website. The picture of me is terrible, the HTML is brutal, the mailbag is empty, but damnit, the articles are extraordinary! The address is listed

“It was a very successful trip and a great opportunity for our returning players to gain valuable playing experience against strong competition on turf,” said Knerr. “It gave us a great head start on our season and was a wonderful travel experience to share as a group.

If you watched Monday night’s championship game, you probably noticed Okafor’s daunting presence looming in the paint all night. I had watched a few UConn games this season and was impressed by the big man, but not awed. I envisioned him in the NBA as too

Unfortunately, the Jeffs bowed to the Ephs for the third time this season and I was forced to root against Williams rather than for Amherst in the finals. I got some, but not nearly enough joy from watching the Ephs lose on a last-second fadeaway in the finals, but it

Since I’ve been buried in my books all week and weekend, and since there doesn’t appear to be anything pressing that needs to be addressed in this week’s column, I want to babble a bit about some random sports events of the past couple

Come on people, do you think I’ve lost my mind? Of course that first paragraph was bullshit. Do you really think I’d suddenly start praising the former editor-in-chief of the Williams Record just because he acquired the best player in baseball? Hell no! Steinbrenner did what

For Red Sox fans, this victory is a reminder of four years of disappointment since the last time the Sox made it to the ALCS in 1999. However, the Sox will not stop here; their mission is a World Series, and no Red Sox fan will be satisfied with anything

People have been warning me all year, “Don’t say the Sox are going to win the World Series! You’ll jinx them!” Come on guys (and girls), the Sox are already cursed; a jinx couldn’t possibly be any worse. In all seriousness though,

Just as the Lebron James controversy was ending with James’ selection as the number one pick in the NBA draft only weeks after graduating high school, the Clarett controversy began. Clarett, suspended by Ohio State University for the entire 2003-2004 football season, has apparently approached the NFL about entering

“It was one of the first times we were challenged as a team,” said co-captain Kay Bradley ’04. “We have a lot of individual talent; we just need to keep working together.” The Camels jumped out to an early 1-0 lead when sophomore Maggie Driscoll

With that said, I want to flash back to 1993. A very immature and athletically gifted 17-year-old named Allen Iverson is convicted of maiming by mob. He is tried as an adult and sentenced to five years in prison, but only serves four months. The conviction was later overturned, but