New England Public Radio

Holidays have long been made for sports. Football has all but replaced the turkey as the signature of Thanksgiving. For decades, Memorial Day, the Independence Day and Labor Day meant stadiums filled for baseball double-headers. It’s almost as if games are now an excuse for holidays, rather than the other way around.

So I now wish you a Merry NBA Day! There will be five nationally televised pro basketball games, lasting 13 straight hours, on Wednesday.

Of course, Christmas is of religious heritage, and there are Christians who believe that games have no place on Christmas. This year, the National Hockey League is taking off not just Christmas, but Christmas Eve and Dec. 26, as well.

But nowadays America is both more secular and multicultural, deferring less and less to the Christian calendar. It wasn’t until 1902 that Major League Baseball games were regularly allowed to be played in any major cities on Sundays, and as late as 1934 Philadelphia forbade Sabbath baseball.

As for present-day Christmas basketball, the television ratings are so outstanding that it’s fair to tell NBA players, “Keep on opening those stockings early, because God will not rest ye merry gentlemen anytime soon on Dec. 25.”

Click on the audio link above to hear Deford’s take on this issue.

Copyright 2013 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.

Political innocent I may be, but I find great irony in that while everybody agrees that there is massive inequality in the United States today, it’s now in sports where the American dream still lives — more than ever.

It used to be, when social mobility was at its apex here, that was the reverse in sports. The leagues were invariably dominated by dynasties. The Yankees, of course, were the American pharoahs. The Celtics ruled basketball; the Canadiens, hockey; the Browns and then the Packers, football. Once it got to the top, a team or a franchise tended to stay in the social register. Bad teams, most often in the smaller cities, remained a permament underclass.

But now, with salary caps and benevolent socialism, if a team has wise management, it has a chance — even if it’s a franchise in an itsy-bitsy market. Can you believe that the four teams with the best records in the NBA are Indiana, Portland, San Antonio and Oklahoma City — representing four of the 10 smallest metropolitan markets in the league?

Click on the audio link above to hear Deford’s take on this issue.

Copyright 2013 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.

The Grammy nominations are in, and the talk now is of what actors will be chosen for the Academy Awards, but not once have I heard anyone suggest that any of the singers or actors may not be nominated because of some character deficiency.

Likewise, when it comes to awards in theater or television or dance or literature, I don’t ever recall any candidate losing out because of a personal flaw.

Only sports applies that peripheral off-the-field standard. Most recently, of course, this has come up with respect to Jameis Winston, the star quarterback of the top-ranked Florida State team.

Click on the audio link above to hear Deford’s take on this issue.

Copyright 2013 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.

The Sunday pregame shows feature interchangeable ex-players and ex-coaches saying the same banal things, one after another.

“They’ve got to cut down on turnovers.”

“They’ve got to convert more third-down situations.”

And so on. There’s no human interaction, just mirthless recitations. But on female-centered shows like The View and The Talk, the hosts actually discuss, argue, hash things out, laugh for real and behave like flesh-and-blood human beings. And they dare do it all without a net, before a live audience.

Click on the audio link above to hear Deford’s take on this issue.

Copyright 2013 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.

This is a Thanksgiving story about a horse. Actually, a horse artist. I don’t mean an artist who paints horses, like Degas or Remington, but a horse who paints — and thereby also raises money for less fortunate horses.

Really.

Metro Meteor was a well-bred thoroughbred, foaled in 2003, who specialized in sprints on the turf. He competed at the top tracks, like Belmont and Saratoga, earning just short of $300,000 in purses. He was born with a knee condition, however, and he needed surgery twice to remove bone chips. Each time he came back a winner.

But his knees did him in, and he ended up losing cheap races at a minor-league track named Penn National. At last, the track vet wouldn’t let Metro Meteor back into the starting gate. Gelded, he couldn’t stand at stud and, like a lot of broken-down thoroughbreds, Metro Meteor could have simply ended up as horse meat.

But Ron Krajewski, an artist who lives in Gettysburg, Pa., and his wife, Wendy, adopted him. Soon, though, the Krajewskis found that the horse’s knees were so bad they couldn’t even mount him to ride trails.

Worse, a vet told them that Metro Meteor’s condition was terminal. He had two years, maybe.

But the Krawjewskis so loved their horse. And when Ron noticed that Metro Meteor liked to bob his head up and down, he somehow decided that if he put a brush in the horse’s mouth where a bit used to be, and put a canvas in front of him where a finish line used to be, Metro Meteor could, yes, paint.

And, incredibly, he did. Big, colorful brush strokes. Soon, in fact, the horse was the best-selling artist in Gallery 30 in Gettysburg. With half the money from his paintings, the Krajewskis sought to find a way to save Metro Meteor’s life.

And a young vet, Dr. Kim Brokaw, worked up an experimental treatment that reversed the bone growth. The knees are still a problem, but, thankfully, Metro Meteor can at least walk the trails now and, after all, an artiste has to devote more time to his craft.

And the rest of the money that Metro Meteor makes painting? It goes to the New Vocations Racehorse Adoption Program, which helps retired thoroughbreds find homes and get new careers.

How many old horses can give thanks that an equine pal has donated almost $45,000 from the sale of his works to keep them alive and loved?

Now Metro Meteor has also signed a licensing agreement with Dream Green USA. The decorative pillows are my favorite. And, as Ron Krajewski says, his artist partner is “the unofficial spokeshorse for racehorse adoption.”

So on Thursday, along with the turkey and stuffing, please pass Metro Meteor his favorite treats, oatmeal cookies and Twizzlers — yes, Twizzlers.

Copyright 2013 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.

College basketball seems to get started sooner every year, like puberty in American children. Why does everything have to begin so early now, before you have time to get ready for it?

Things move so fast in college basketball that there are three players this year who are being called “the next LeBron James. ” In the NBA, most of the talk is already about where the superstars will be next season.

Because basketball involves so few players, the hot shots are more valuable, so it’s like the Kardashians — not whom they’re married to now, but whom they’ll be married to next.

Click on the audio link above to hear Deford’s take on this issue.

Copyright 2013 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.