The Buffalo News : Sports

Lackawanna’s Mark Balen was near 50 when golf grabbed him in its jaws again and wouldn’t let him go. Subtle improvement led to a quest for more greater improvement. Significant strides had friends urging him to take aim at the Champions Tour. And what Balen learned along the way, while recapturing a swing that is legend in these parts, is that, man, golf can be darn addictive. (Updated: 05/24/09 6:07 AM )

He still walks the course while playing a casual round, a carry bag slung over his shoulder, because to motor around in a cart deprives him of some of golf’s simple pleasures. (Updated: 05/20/09 7:43 AM )

Last week I started cleaning out my basement, a project that should be completed by 2012. I came across a pennant from the inaugural Triple-A All-Star Game at Pilot Field, stacks of sports books I’ve been meaning to read, a cap from Athens 2004, which got me to wondering what’s become of all the sporting venues Greece built for its three weeks on the world stage. (Updated: 05/17/09 6:59 AM )

Reports that X-rays of his ailing shoulder have made their way to Minnesota indicate that Brett Favre is contemplating unretiring yet again. Excellent. Here’s hoping he plays until he’s 50. (Updated: 05/14/09 7:02 AM )

One thing we know about the Buffalo Bisons is they’re most assuredly steroid-free. They can’t hit. They don’t run. Heck, they don’t even walk. Nothing in the way they do business indicates performances illegally enhanced. (Updated: 05/10/09 9:15 AM )

During times like these it’s good to have friends in high places in the National Hockey League office, friends such as the commissioner, who realizes the folly in siphoning fans from one hockey market to another. Forget No-Goal. Nothing could be more important to Buffalo Sabres fans than the health of the franchise, a concern Gary Bettman has repeatedly addressed by helping the team through its bankruptcy and protecting its territory from outside invasion. (Updated: 09/02/09 8:29 PM )

The airplane was somewhere between Buffalo and Boston when coach Lou Saban finally decided who would start at quarterback in the most important game in the history of this young Buffalo Bills franchise. (Updated: 05/04/09 7:00 AM )

Twenty-five months ago the Buffalo Bills’ decision-makers were tearing rotator cuffs patting themselves on the back. They had just signed guard Derrick Dockery to the biggest contract in team history and supplemented their euphoria by overpaying for offensive tackle Langston Walker on the free-agent market. (Updated: 04/22/09 7:06 AM )

Fast food for thought . . . (Updated: 04/17/09 7:03 AM )

Kenny Perry never brought it up until he was asked, probably because volunteering the information would have sounded like an excuse, and Perry isn’t one to make excuses. (Updated: 04/15/09 6:32 AM )

AUGUSTA, Ga.—All Kenny Perry had to do was make one more par, just one more par, and the green jacket goes into his closet. With one more par Perry becomes, at 48, the oldest player ever to win a major championship and slays the demons that have haunted him ever since he bogeyed the 72nd hole and lost the PGA Championship in a playoff at Valhalla 13 years ago. Make one par and Perry secures the major title that has eluded him throughout a distinguished career highlighted by 13 career victories and last September’s U. S. win in the Ryder Cup. (Updated: 04/13/09 7:47 AM )

AUGUSTA, Ga.— They think they know the golf course, but they don’t. They think they can beat Augusta National with talent alone, but that’s not the way it works. Just look at the leader board. It tells you everything you need to know. When it comes to the Masters, experience rules. (Updated: 04/12/09 7:19 AM )

AUGUSTA, Ga.—If you’re looking for a rooting interest in the Masters, if you’re unsure who on this eclectic leader board deserves your allegiance, then this is what you do. You cheer like crazy for Kenny Perry, the nicest player never to win a major. (Updated: 04/11/09 7:42 AM )

AUGUSTA, Ga.—Greg Norman’s opening 70 has the dreamers dreaming, wondering if destiny will pay a debt more than a decade in arrears. (Updated: 04/10/09 9:37 AM )

When doctors projected he’d likely take steps someday did they mean within a few short months? When the father said that there’s no quit in the son did he truly comprehend the young man’s depth of determination? (Updated: 03/29/09 6:36 AM )