Nelson, Eric

Sports Prophecy by Eric (Spring/Summer 2010)

The baseball world may quickly forget “HGH,” “Canseco” and “Yankee Stadium” in 2010, when “ballparka” becomes the term du jour across the national pastime. A “ballparka,” of course, is the outer jacket one wears to a chilly outdoor baseball game. And come October, fans will need one when the Minnesota Twins and Seattle Mariners square off for the American League pennant.

Sports Prophecy by Eric (Fall/Winter 2010)

P.P. Waldenstrom respected tradition, whether in the hymnal or on the gridiron. At least I suspect the second would be true.

Sports Prophecy by Eric (Spring/Summer 2011)

Giving up professional football could save the average fan 3 to 18 hours per week, depending on the health of your addiction. So the pews may have a few more congregants on fall Sundays, lawns may be mowed and well-raked through autumn, and you may notice another game —which some people also call “fütbol” – on the tube more often.

Sport Prophecy (Spring/Summer 2012)

“I wish Christmas would come more often, don’t you?”

Sport Prophecy (Fall/Winter 2012)

Name Games (Spring/Summer 2013)

It’s difficult enough to predict what athletes will do next, but the real sports guessing game is with the suits.

Give it (and me) a rest (Fall/Winter 2013)

Many of you have been there: a mostly empty stadium, Double A-talent entertaining you for major league prices, a lazy conversation with your ballpark buddy that’s rarely interrupted by a reason to cheer. And you’ve probably — even if you aren’t a Cubs fan — wondered on that dog day in September: “Why am I here?”

Blessed be the poor in team spirit (Spring/Summer 2014)

Seattle’s still basking in the glow of winning the Super Bowl, the city’s first major sports title in decades. The 12th Man has swelled with pride, a victory lap downtown was the largest public event since the 1979 Seattle SuperSonics’ NBA crown, and most importantly, the Lombardi Trophy dropped Seattle’s fans from the list of most miserable.

Blessed be the poor in team spirit (Fall/Winter 2014)

There was a time when “rotisserie” only referred to roasting meat on a spit. As with so much of our society, sports dump-trucked the dictionary and took over the word, and from there only picked up speed.

Watching the clock (Spring/Summer 2015)

Twenty seconds. That’s the count on pitchers in pro baseball’s new pitch clock, this season a minor league experiment to trim game lengths.

Who you calling sport? (Fall/Winter 2015)

A British court recently took up the question of whether the card game bridge should be considered a sport. The outcome of the case determined financing and tax breaks for the English Bridge Union if they can convince the powdered wigs that bridge should have a seat next to track and field or English football.

Enjoy it while you can (Fall/Winter 2016)

A note about the Sports Prophecy: I was too busy watching baseball last fall to write a column, so instead we are reprinting a Sports Prophecy from a 1908 issue of Pietisten. It was written shortly after the Chicago Cubs won the 1908 World Series, and still feels relevant for today’s fan.

Sports Prophecy by Eric (Spring/Summer 2020)

Who would have thought we’d get a March Madness for the ages, a series of records set during just the first week of the major league baseball season and a gallery at the Masters witnessing something that has never happened before in golf history?

Those crazy Kraken (Fall/Winter 2020)

A marine biologist could probably give you a nice lecture on the shared characteristics of the Norwegian Sea and Puget Sound. I’m here to give you one — they both have a Kraken.

Sport Prophecy (Spring/Summer 2021)

The Sports Prophecy has a thing for names. They aren’t any easier to forecast than game outcomes, but guessing what’s coming next happens pretty infrequently. And you have to admit nicknames are fun. Who didn’t want to learn more about the “Kraken” after reading the last installment of the prophecy?

Sport Prophecy (Fall/Winter 2023-2024)

Traditions all have a starting point…and sometimes they come to a close. The tradition of a Rose Bowl football game between the Big Ten and Pac-12 (and their earlier conference iterations) stretches back over 100 years.