My SI.com columns show up on this blog in the feed to the right. But my article on Buster Posey that appeared in this week’s Sports Illustrated magazine (cover issue date Sept. 27, 2010) won’t, because it’s old school. Print, that is. I know print is dying, etc. etc. But it’s still a thrill to show up in Sports Illustrated. Unfortunately, the link won’t show the terrific photos from my friend Brad Mangin.

On a related note, I asked Posey if he’d seen the piece. He said yes. Then added, “we spent a lot of time talking. It wasn’t very long.” I explained the editing process at SI. And had to smile. That kid doesn’t miss a trick.

Singletary’s public tantrum this week was a bad look on a lot of fronts.

* If you sit down for a scheduled interview with a TV camera, expect the interviewer to ask relevant questions about what’s going on with the team. Don’t have a hissy fit when someone is simply doing their job.

* This wasn’t exactly the toughest media moment Singletary could face. Pretty soft, actually. But he seemed to crack.

* Singletary sure likes to talk when he chooses to talk. But as the face of the team, he needs to have a better way of answering questions than blustering “I don’t want to talk about that.”

* Singletary said the Yahoo story that started the firestorm about the communications problems on the team was “not factual,” but then went off on a rant about a “rat” and a “coward” in the locker room. If there wasn’t any truth to the story, why the name-calling over the leak?

* I know football coaches are notoriously blindered but it’s a bad look for two men operating in the heart of Silicon Valley – for a team looking to sell corporate naming rights – to have no idea who or what Yahoo is. I’m guessing we won’t see Yahoo Stadium going up in the Great America parking lot.

* Did he really say “We will not try to stop Drew Brees. We will stop Drew Brees. Next question.” ? Is that a guarantee? Take note Who Dat nation…

Had to jump off the conference call with U.S. Soccer president Sunil Gulati this morning before my turn came up to ask a question.  My question would have been this: is having the World Cup in the gigantic U.S. really good for soccer fans?  How can it possibly be made functional, with bid cities scattered from the West Coast to Indiana (because nothing says World Cup like Indianapolis?) to Nashville (really?) to the East Coast?

While it’s nice that all four time zones are represented and that the fancy NFL stadiums will be used, in truth, it will probably stink for fans.

This has nothing to do with a relative indifference – despite the crowds in bars this summer – to the World Cup (key word is relative). It has everything to do with our missing ingredient: a great national transportation system.

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