She was not quite 4 when her daddy died. Deep in the recesses of her memory, Jessica Waddell Lewinstein, now 30, can still hear his voice. It was a voice that held contrasts: deep but soft, considered but sprinkled with mischief, nuanced with sadness and lilting with joy. Tom Waddell was a star athlete at Springfield College. Courtesy Springfield College Archives She remembers only snippets of conversations. Like the time he sought her advice on the best color for a car he ho

Londell Francis, 8, who has sickle cell anemia, cuts the nets with his LIU-Brooklyn teammates. Courtesy of Long Island University-Brooklyn The Sports Grinch is beaming. And why not? The athletic landscape in early 2013 is a veritable carnival of cynicism. Beneath the pedestals are huge piles of rubble. Hope is dying. To the Sports Grinch, the bad times never seemed so good. Manti Te'o playing his heart out for a dying girlfriend -- but the "love of his life" doesn't even exis

You would have needed a well-sharpened knife to cut through this tension. The smoky air in the basketball arena in Lexington, Ky., was thick with anticipation. All eyes focused on the collision of cultures, the will-he-or-won't-he moment of truth. Celtics president and co-owner Walter Brown (left) welcomes Don Barksdale at the Fargo Building in Boston in November 1953 after Barksdale was acquired from the Baltimore Bullets.  AP Photo Everyone looked at a single bottle of wate

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"I want America to be as good as she imagined it." -- President Barack Obama on Christina-Taylor Green, Jan. 12, 2011 Trinity Gonzales of Twentynine Palms, Calif., is the catcher for the Sparks. Courtesy of Gonzales Family Amid the rolling green hills of Cooperstown, N.Y., 22 diamonds are glittering with children at play. The tunnels of fog from Tuesday night have burned off, opening to a sun-sparkled Wednesday afternoon, Aug. 17, a perfect day for baseball. One-hundred-four

From ESPN Hasenfus has done whatever has been asked of him in making the Springfield College JV team. Asked his 87-year-old father, "Do you think there's any chance you'll get called up to the varsity?"  Ryan Matlack for ESPNBoston.com SPRINGFIELD, Mass. -- The first week of the baseball season can be a time for veteran left-handers to work out the kinks. Last Monday, 48-year-old Barack Obama was high and outside with his presidential first pitch before the Washington Nationa

Mixing memory with desire