Some of us love hockey not just for its ferocity and skill but for its underlying code of civility off the ice.

Sometimes, sport is just plain pleasing to the eye, like watching La Belle France flit by on television during the Tour de France. I can do that for hours.

We all know the Red Sox did not win a World Series for 86 years after unloading Ruth, and the Cubs just might be carrying some heavy weight for past karmic transgressions.

It needs to be said, over and over again, that Stan the Man was voted by 'The Sporting News' as the best baseball player of the postwar decade, from 1946 through 1955.

When I was working on the unauthorized biography 'Stan Musial: An American Life,' which came out in 2011, old opponents recalled how Musial knew their names after they had been in the majors only a few days.

Some people insist that hallowed professional teams should never change their nicknames.

Night tennis began at the United States Open in 1975 with certain stars trying to beg out and certain patrons trying to dump unwanted tickets on scalpers.

In New York, Kid Carter was pure vanilla for a city with stronger tastes.

Some religious guys in sports give the impression, 'I've got something you don't have.'

In the late '60s, Senator Charles E. Goodell, Republican of New York, spoke out against the Vietnam War, bringing on the wrath of the Nixon administration and, as it turned out, the disaffection of conservative voters.

Some great players, like Ted Williams and Stan Musial, had one more great hitting season left around the age of 40.

In August 1945, a former Army pilot with an artificial leg pitched five and a third innings for Washington against Boston. This would turn out to be Bert Shepard's only major league game, and it remains one of the heartwarming moments in baseball history.

In 1949, I saw a World War II veteran named Lou Brissie, who had nearly lost a lower leg in combat, pitch in the All-Star Game in Brooklyn.

Hundreds of ballplayers have performed well after Tommy John surgery, in which an elbow ligament is replaced by material from elsewhere on the body. More and more, athletes will perform with a bit of this or a bit of that in a joint or muscle.

Some of the most inspiring moments in sports have come from players with physical defects. Tom Dempsey, born without toes on his right foot, kicked a 63-yard field goal in 1970, using a straighter, wider shoe.

One of the most beautiful sights in my neighborhood is on High Holy Days when people walk to temple. Not only does this bring the traditional legendary weather, but it gives off a psychic signal to slow down.

Baseball cannot avoid conflicts. Games are played on Good Friday, the most solemn day on the Christian calendar. On Oct. 2, 1978, they played on Rosh Hashana, and Bucky Dent hit one into the screen at Fenway Park. Supply your own moral.

It is hard to imagine the World Series being held in the sweet hazy sunshine of late September rather than the sour night air of late October, but that is precisely what has transpired in baseball over the past 50 years, a deterioration from light to darkness.

Youth sports could not exist without millions of volunteers and modestly paid coaches who teach our children how to skate and catch and dribble and also how to get along with others.

When Casey Stengel was putting his mark on all four New York baseball teams, he came off as many things. I have to admit I never thought of him as anybody's uncle.

Hockey suffers from being compared to itself in ways that other sports are not. Every four years, some of us fawn over Olympic hockey, a great event with bigger rinks, minimal goonishness and national pride in addition to the heightened skills of veritable all-star squads.

Athletes are used to battling. The public would never learn their names if professional athletes had not shown courage at an early age. They learn they can overcome, but sometimes this becomes a false sense of security that leads them to the edge.

No matter how many times it happens, the public always seems to be shocked when an athlete dies young, but the reality is, there are no promises.

I think a coffee table is one of the most important things. It's where everything happens.

I think if people want to have surgery then fine, if it makes you feel better, brilliant. But it does annoy me when you're being accused of it, and it's not nice when people are commenting being like 'Eughh, what has she done to her face?' And I'm like 'Oh my god, I've done nothing, this is actually my face.'

I keep all my Sunday papers out, I keep them all week and then I change them every Sunday.

I try not to engage with those people who leave nasty comments.

I often wonder if my relationships don't work out because I am the more Alpha one and the focus is on me and men don't like that.

I'd like to prove that just because I'm on a TV show about the area that I live in, it doesn't mean that I can't do anything, that I'm not strong - and I really hope that I show that.

I'm very jolly by nature but I get very upset when my skin is bad, I dread leaving the house.

I think you have to have really thick skin to be in politics - which I just lack. I think I'm just too nice!

I get labelled a ditzy, blonde reality TV person, which is fine.

I'm very conscious that I've spent my whole adult life in the public eye.

I've been on freshers' week twice, that's the only degree I have.

I get snappy if I don't eat.

We see acne and spots as an imperfection and I've gone to great lengths to cover it up with lots of foundation. And everyone thinks 'Toff's perfect' but I mask my imperfections.

I wish I could walk around with no make-up on, but I have big angry red marks all down the side of my cheeks. Some people don't understand how badly it affects my confidence and upsets me.

I have my opinions but to go into politics you have to be very clever, which I'm not!

In SW1 you don't really need survival skills, you just exist.

When I walk down the street people shout from their cars and their vans.

I just used to go up to London a lot and hang around SW3.

I am a massive fan of tele. When I have an evening off I just crash in front of the sofa and binge. I love it.

It's important to remember, most people have been bullied, and it makes you a stronger person in the long run.

I love going on dates. They're like social experiments and it's an excuse to get dressed up. Even if you don't get on, it's a funny experience to tell the girls.

I'm so public about my love life I'm really not trying to hide anything.

I think I've been completely underestimated in the past because of my blonde hair.

I've been on a very long, bumpy journey with my skin for over ten years.

People put me in this ditzy, posh and stuck-up category, so it's been nice the public have been able to see the real me.

I'm very lucky I went to a nice school and I live in a very lovely part of London.

Some people are made to be famous and do photo shoots, but I'm not one of them. I'm more comfortable in the library!