John Rawls, one of the greatest American philosophers, was also a pretty serious baseball fan. Still, there are some serious holes in his recently unearthed argument for baseball as "the best of all games." Also, though, there's some basic emotional truth about being a fan.

Mariano Rivera is at the end of a long and consistently dazzling career. We won't be able to remember as much of it as we might want to, but that's the way baseball -- and everything else -- works.

Fans pay serious money and deal with the routine indignities of overbearing stadium security to go to NFL games because they love football. But who is it, exactly, that has made NFL games the way they are, and ensured that the experience is dominated by gargantuan, electricity-chugging HD screens? You already know.

Commentators like Tim McCarver make us wonder why we even need color commentators. Commentators like Sir Ian Darke remind us why we do. In between is... well, a lot.