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Back in the U.K., the names David Beckham, Thierry Henry and Wayne Rooney are household names known by every man, woman and child from London to Edinburgh. But out here, those names — perhaps with the exception of Becks — are pretty much unknown to the majority of the United States. They're footballers, by the way ... no, not NFL players ... English football ... I'll say it, but only this once ... soccer. Instead, names like Tom Brady, Alex Rodriguez and T.O. are the big shots out here. When I first got here, one of the first things I did was go to a baseball game ... and I was pretty much hooked. I started getting into American football, basketball and baseball pretty quick, and for a while, I've been waiting for a day that all the hours I've spent watching ESPN would finally pay off.
Well, they finally did, when I met one of America's best sportsmen of all time: Derek Jeter.
As soon as we arrived, it was clear that this chapter in the 2008 presidential race was already well underway. Lining the side of the road all the way into the city were what must have been hundreds of campaign posters planted in the snow, proudly bearing candidates’ names — and from what I saw, most of them were Barack Obama (who, of course,