JOE PEPITONE Joseph Anthony Pepitone, Brooklyn born and bred. Pepi. What a character! Maybe being shot by a classmate at Manual Training High School–he was 17–the same week his father died at 39, had something to do with that. I doubt it. The first ballplayer with a hairpiece. A nightlife…

JUST FONTAINE Just Fontaine was a French soccer legend. He still holds the record for most goals scored by a player at a single World Cup–13 goals in six games, during the 1958 competition in Sweden. To lend clarity, today Fontaine is tied with Lionel Messi for fourth on the…

LORI LIGHTFOOT Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot lost her bid for re-election this week, ending her historic run as the city’s first Black woman and first openly gay person to serve in the position. She also holds the dubious distinction of being the first Chicago mayor in 40 years to lose…

TIM McCARVER “Get back behind the plate where you belong! The only thing you know about pitching is that you can’t hit it!!” This invective-laced remark spewed from Bob Gibson’s lips when catcher Tim McCarver went to the mound to try and calm him down. Gibby was tough. Also known…

ANDY YOSINOFF There are so many superstar human beings who labor in relative obscurity. Police, fire, nurses, emergency personnel, teachers, coaches etc. immediately leap to mind. There are always those who work behind the scenes, either by design, by choice or due to karma. Some gravitate toward the spotlight; others…

CONRAD DOBLER Conrad Dobler made a clean living being dirty. Filthy. A spit in the face. A hard squeeze of the privates. A crooked finger in the eye. A bite. An elbow to the gut… All under the pile. Where it was hard to see. Virtually impossible, actually. But not…

HENRY MONTGOMERY, CLIFFORD HAMPTON AND ANDREW HUNDLEY Should juveniles be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole? Does skin color matter? Should it? What about wealth? No. No. No. And no. The United States is hardly united on these matters. Approximately 2,600 inmates nationwide serve life without…

KARENNA GROFF Karenna Groff, MIT ’22, was named the NCAA Woman of the Year at the organization’s San Antonio convention in late January. The graduate student in biological engineering is the second ever MIT student-athlete to earn this prestigious award. She is just the sixth Division III athlete to be…

JIM NANTZ…NOT TO BE CONFUSED WITH JIM NANCE Potato, potahto. Tomato, tomahto. Nantz, Nance. Age before beauty… James Solomon “Big Jim” Nance was a force of nature. In 1963 and 1965, competing for Syracuse University, he was the NCAA Heavyweight wrestling champion and received All-America accolades. But football was his…