Sports

An Indianapolis woman warns propsective Hoosiers that "It only takes once to get hooked on the Indy 500":

Next Thursday is the home opener for the TinCaps at Harrison Square, and I might gently suggest that if you're not going to the game, you stay as far away from downtown as possible:

Please, please, please, don't say it was a mugging. The man wasn't hurt, for goodness sake, so it was just a theft when the mayor of Indianapolis had his cell phone plucked from his pocket by some con artists on his way back to the hotel from the arena where the NCAA finals were played in Detroit. (One man pretended to be having a seizure, then others surrounded the mayor when he stopped to help.)

I always thought "a good blend" was, oh, a Johnnie Walker or Seagram's Seven Crown in which the cheap fillers don't overwhelm the malted grain. But, no, it refers to the mix of the fix for Indianapolis' beleagured sports stadiums:

Indiana's alcohol tax would be doubled and hospitality taxes would be raised again under a Statehouse plan designed to bail out the financially struggling group that runs the professional sports stadiums in Indianapolis.

There may be a worse name that could have been chosen for this fast-growing sport, but, offhand, I can't think of what it would be:

It's OK to send your team to play basketball here, but please quit trying to hijack our tourists:

Tourism boosters from Louisville, Ky., planned to transform Downtown Indianapolis into their canvas today -- by projecting red-tinged laser images and messages on the sides of Downtown buildings.

The light show would have proclaimed why Louisville (with its Sweet 16 hoops team, the University of Louisville Cardinals) is so wonderful.

Anybody who's ever followed a sports team has probably given in at least once or twice to the Evil Ref Syndrome. It always seems -- especially in close games -- that those rotten officials are calling us for fouls we never committed and letting the other side get away with murder! Why, somebody must be paying them off or something! Usually, this is all good, clean fun, emotions getting away from us in the heat of vicarious battle.

We do love our basketball coaches in Indiana, but this seems a bit much:

Elkhart police gave a high school boys basketball coach a lift to a game in Michigan City after he bonded out of jail following an arrest on a charge of driving while intoxicated.

You know, sometimes you decide to help out a relative. But then things go bad, and you're stuck with the troublemaking freeloader forever:

An Indianapolis Capital Improvement Board official is urging the city to take over the cost of operating Conseco Fieldhouse, saying the Indiana Pacers can no longer afford it.

But don't call it a bailout, OK?

The NBA has reportedly borrowed $200 million to distribute to interested teams due to the struggling economy.

[. . .]

The reports said at least 12 teams have requested funds, with as many as 15 wanting money that could potentially help cover losses.