The narrative reads almost like a cautionary tale that no one wanted to hear. On a Wednesday morning in August of last year, Joy Barbera, 48, entered an outpatient facility in Houston. Her husband was riding a motorcycle through the Rockies the following afternoon when his phone rang with news that no one ever prepares for. Her breathing had stopped. Someone had tried CPR. The voice on the line said that things were not going well. The way it started has a very commonplace quality. a FaceTime conversation before the procedure. A grin. The phrase “I love you.” Like many…
Author: Michael Martinez
When John Kruk isn’t present, a certain silence descends upon a Phillies broadcast. Within an inning or two, seasoned viewers usually notice that the booth feels sharper around the edges and emptier. Fans have noticed more than they would like lately. Due to a recent episode of food poisoning that kept him off the air for a considerable amount of time, comment threads began to fill with the same question: “Where’s Krukker?” in a dozen different ways, all with a hint of mild concern. According to most accounts, the food poisoning was unpleasant but common. A stomach ailment, the kind…
The news came in the manner of these days, with a brief social media post followed by a slower trickle of obituaries that provided very little context. John Force’s eldest daughter, Adria Force Hight, passed away at the age of 56. According to the family, she died quietly in Indianapolis on April 28 while surrounded by family members. They didn’t explain how she got there. And that quiet has been the part that people keep going back to in a sport where practically everything else is loud. If you read the obituary carefully, you get the impression that the family…
Hannah Murray was seventeen when most people first saw her face. She was straying through the first few episodes of Skins as Cassie Ainsworth, a girl who was secretly starving herself in a bedroom in Bristol. Her body was used as a plot device in the show. It turned out that the audience continued to do the same. Murray’s weight is still a topic of discussion nearly twenty years later, and it reveals more about us than it does about her. When you search for her name, you’ll come across an odd archive: 2019 tabloid rumors about whether she was…
Football isn’t the first thing that sticks out about Sunday at Old Trafford. It’s the silence. Before kickoff against Liverpool, an 84-year-old man felt ill somewhere in the tunnel area. A few minutes later, one of the most recognizable figures in football was being escorted out of the stadium where he had built his legend. On his way to the hospital was Sir Alex Ferguson, who has seen more games from those directors’ box seats than most fans have in a lifetime. The throng above was still in the dark. The game had already started when the news began to…
One thing about watching Marion Bartoli on a tennis court was that, for some reason, it seemed like she was wrestling with herself more than her opponent. The baseline bouncing. Between points, the shadow fluctuates. The small customs that no one else dared to follow. She was the exceptional winner who turned the sport into a private negotiation with her own nerves. Thus, it came as a shock when word leaked out in 2016 that Wimbledon, the venue she had so loudly loved, had discreetly informed her that she could not participate in a legends’ exhibition because they were afraid…
When something changed on stage on Saturday night in New Orleans, the majority of the audience initially missed it. Don Henley had already made a small joke about how strange it was to play in the sun after spending so many months at the Sphere, and the Eagles were well into their Jazz & Heritage Festival set. It was the kind of warm Louisiana evening where the air feels heavier than the music. The band then began to reduce the size of their scheduled performance. Then, twenty minutes before anyone had anticipated, they were gone. A medical incident involving the…
To put it mildly, the Celtics’ season ended differently than anyone had anticipated. For the next ten years, there was no defensive collapse or last-second three. As Philadelphia left TD Garden with the series, there was nothing but an empty locker, a folded jersey, and Jayson Tatum sitting in street clothes. A Game 7 loss of 109-100 is the kind of outcome that typically provokes discussion about shot selection or coaching changes. Something completely different was sparked by this one. People keep returning to the injury report. The Celtics had no players listed on Friday. Tatum’s left knee stiffness suddenly…