Lex Pryor

Nov 26, 2024 | theringer.com | Lex Pryor

“I am the way into the city of woe, I am the way into eternal pain, I am the way to go among the lost.” —Dante Alighieri, Inferno, 1321 “People either love us or hate us,but the most important thing is to be relevant.” —Jerry Jones, from his helicopter, 2016 About a quarter-mile walk from AT&T Stadium, the Arlington spaceship that the Dallas Cowboys call home, the man I’d been looking for stood in a parking lot hidden beneath shoulder pads, a glittering luchador mask, leather cowboy boots,...

Nov 1, 2024 | theringer.com | Lex Pryor

Getty/AP/Ringer Illustration The topic is foolishness. Men hacking at cork and cowhide with twigs. Who will whiff slightly less often? Who’s missteps won’t lead them to more pitfalls? On the diamond, everyone eventually gets got. Even all-time deities are dispatched more often than not. The winner is the loser who foils enough failure. That’s baseball, Suzyn. A monument assembled in anguish. A perfect joke. One team goes home happy. Many others lose. Few lose in this way, at this stage, with this cast.

Oct 24, 2024 | theringer.com | Lex Pryor

Getty Images/Ringer illustration A man is at the plate. He was closer to a boy when he first started doing this sort of thing on national television, but he is a man now, in form, focus, and faculties. Top of the 10th, tied at two, on the road in Cleveland, Juan Soto is a win away from sending his New York Yankees to their 41st World Series.

Oct 4, 2024 | theringer.com | Lex Pryor

Getty Images/Ringer illustration There’s an old adage, by way of Compton, that on certain occasions you’ve gotta pop out and show people. In baseball, October is one of those times. For six months, ballgames are routine propositions and then, with the change of the foliage, the stakes get tightrope high. That this is the nature of the postseason, the frantic inflection point when the marathon becomes the sprint, is both crucial and contradictory.

Sep 11, 2024 | theringer.com | Lex Pryor

AP Images/Ringer illustration You might not have really known him, but you knew his voice. This is obvious and also essential. That timbre wormed its way into our lives, to the point we forgot the sound of a world without it. Where it came from was another matter. Harder to know and harder to tell. This had the rare effect of fostering both familiarity and remove, making him a presence in a character-hungry world even when he wasn’t.