Hal Phillips

Medieval Politics Suit a World Informed by Watching & Listening

2026-06-06T15:03:41Z

Turns out Moms & PBS were right: Reading is fundamental — to democratic stability. Neo-fascist leaders and their movements are ever more prevalent and powerful in 2026 because so-called low-education voters are ever more prevalent and easily led. These are the constituents famously preferred by Donald Trump. Yet these voters are proliferating worldwide, because the […]

The post Medieval Politics Suit a World Informed by Watching & Listening appeared first on Hal Phillips.

The Celtics should Hire Joe Mazzulla an Offensive Consigliere

2026-06-03T19:41:33Z

BOSTON, Mass. (June 3, 2026) — This column concerns Joe Mazzulla and the Celtics, but bear with me while I use George Horton as a framing device: My very first-ever sports-writing job allowed me to cover Horton’s Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School boys basketball team. That winter of 1986-87, the genial, middle-aged coach had trained up […]

The post The Celtics should Hire Joe Mazzulla an Offensive Consigliere appeared first on Hal Phillips.

The Essential Soccer Book for 2026: Sibling Rivalry now Available, from Bloomsbury

2026-04-05T19:37:38Z

Welcome to HalPhillips.net, where the lede headline remains the March 2026 publication of my new book. My publishers at Bloomsbury issued Sibling Rivalry: How Mexico and the US Built the Most Contentious, Co-Dependent Feud in World Soccer on March 5, 2026. Get your very own copy here, or click that handsome book cover. We recommend […]

The post The Essential Soccer Book for 2026: Sibling Rivalry now Available, from Bloomsbury appeared first on Hal Phillips.

Ernie D Built the Big East, One Local College Basketball Broadcast at a Time

2026-04-15T17:56:49Z

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (Jan. 5, 2024) — It’s never too late to mark and quantify the impact of Ernie DiGregorio. Not in New England. Not when the subject is college basketball. Yet here’s the immediate news peg, the reason to contemplate Ernie D and his attendant rabbit hole early in 2024: It was 50 years ago […]

The post Ernie D Built the Big East, One Local College Basketball Broadcast at a Time appeared first on Hal Phillips.

Pocket Full of Mumbles Ruminate on their Tribute Band Origins

2026-04-14T21:09:13Z

Heartiest New Year’s greetings from the band to everyone out there in Mumbles Nation. We wanted to share some content here and encourage you to monitor this space, as 2026 is shaping up as a busy year on the gig calendar. We should soon have news about a cool April date at a new, prestige […]

The post Pocket Full of Mumbles Ruminate on their Tribute Band Origins appeared first on Hal Phillips.

Golf Wallpaper: Home-Screen Takeaways from Royal Lytham & St. Annes

2026-04-14T21:18:56Z

I tend to spend a lot of time at the computer. In 2025, I started collecting fun golf course images to use as wallpaper on my oversized monitor. The better ones stay in place for several weeks, allowing for detailed scrutiny and study. I decided to share some of the most thought-provoking examples here. 1) […]

The post Golf Wallpaper: Home-Screen Takeaways from Royal Lytham & St. Annes appeared first on Hal Phillips.

Fescue Programs: A Roadside Meditation

2026-04-14T21:23:35Z

Driving home from a dreamy golf excursion, author Hal Phillips noticed wispy grasses glistening alongside a newly widened stretch of a busy interstate. Their presence raised questions about the agronomics of incorporating a linksy feature into inland settings. [Ed. This essay was first published in the November 2026 print edition of Golf Course Industry magazine. […]

The post Fescue Programs: A Roadside Meditation appeared first on Hal Phillips.

Maine Place Names: Observations on visiting, pronouncing Vienna, Madrid, Calais and Peru — while never leaving the 207

2026-04-14T21:38:02Z

Prior to the smartphone era, when folks read mainly in analog fashion, a great many of us kept a Maine Atlas and Gazetteer in the glove compartment of our cars, or the privy. Published by Yarmouth-based mapmaker DeLorme, this oversized, soft-cover booklet neatly divided this Great State of ours into 96 pages, or rectangular quadrants, […]

The post Maine Place Names: Observations on visiting, pronouncing Vienna, Madrid, Calais and Peru — while never leaving the 207 appeared first on Hal Phillips.

Heart-Stopping: My Big Day Out in Spokane

2026-04-14T21:43:17Z

While I’m a “Masshole” born, bred and proud (the word’s now ensconced in the Oxford English Dictionary), I’ve made my home in Maine since 1992, and never has there been a bigger soccer story to hit the Pine Tree State than Hearts of Pine, our first-year entry in USL One. The club’s fairytale run finally […]

The post Heart-Stopping: My Big Day Out in Spokane appeared first on Hal Phillips.

World Series 1975 Revisited: Recapturing an All-time Classic, via iPhone

2026-04-14T22:04:27Z

It’s often argued that the 1975 World Series — contested 50 years ago this month — ranks among the finest in baseball history. In terms of legendary personalities and the competitive iconography that framed them, Game 6 featured enough fairy-tale moments all on its own: a not-yet-befouled Pete Rose bellyflopping into third then popping up […]

The post World Series 1975 Revisited: Recapturing an All-time Classic, via iPhone appeared first on Hal Phillips.