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Thom Loverro

Thom Loverro

tloverro@washingtontimes.com

Thom Loverro has been a professional journalist since 1977, working for a number of newspapers, including eight years as a news editor and reporter for The Baltimore Sun, where he covered government, politics, and crime. He moved into sports writing when he joined The Washington Times in 1992. He moved to The Washington Examiner as a sports columnist in 2009 and returned to The Washington Times in 2013, where he is currently the lead sports columnist.

Columns by Thom Loverro

Washington Nationals starting pitcher Joan Adon (60) running after the ball during a game against the San Francisco Giants at Nationals Park in Washington D.C., April 24, 2022. (Photo by All-Pro Reels)

LOVERRO: Start to this season enough to make anyone sick

Washington Nationals third baseman Lucius Fox took a few steps toward the dugout after Joan Adon's second pitch and threw up. Maybe he had a clue what was to come -- a 15-hit, 12-3 beatdown by the San Francisco Giants, sweeping the Nationals for the first time in Washington since 2008.

April 24, 2022
New York Mets catcher Tomas Nido can't tag Washington Nationals' Dee Strange-Gordon as he scores on a bunt by Washington Nationals' Lucius Fox during the eighth inning of a baseball game at Nationals Park, Sunday, April 10, 2022, in Washington, D.C. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

LOVERRO: Nationals save face by avoiding a season-opening sweep

The season may yet slip away, perhaps sometime soon. After all, the power and glory quotient when you walk into that Nationals clubhouse now is much dimmer than it has been in the past decade. But it didn't slip away Sunday. Not yet. Not yet. What the Nationals did show was the kind of emotion and execution you see in those teams that beat the odds.

April 10, 2022
Cleveland Browns new quarterback Deshaun Watson enters a news conference at the NFL football team's training facility, Friday, March 25, 2022, in Berea, Ohio. (AP Photo/Ron Schwane) **FILE***

LOVERRO: Watson, Hill deals showcase true values of Goodell, NFL owners

Two players whose behavior makes a mockery of Roger Goodell's "important values" received $355 million. Let's stop the pretense. The league, its owners, the front offices and the coaches don't really care about standards and responsibilities. They care about football and the money that football generates.

March 28, 2022
Washington Nationals' Josiah Gray pitches during the team's spring training baseball workout, Tuesday, March 15, 2022, in West Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

LOVERRO: Gray wears being a Black starter in majors ‘with pride’

Gray, 24, doesn't presume he has a job in the rotation -- he called it a "potential spot." And there is nothing official yet. But it's likely Gray could be the third or fourth starter in the Nationals' rotation for 2022. If so, he will have the eyes of a city with a strong Black community fixed on him.

March 16, 2022
National League's Juan Soto, of the Washington Nationals, laughs during the first round of the MLB All Star baseball Home Run Derby, Monday, July 12, 2021, in Denver. (AP Photo/Gabriel Christus) **FILE**

LOVERRO: Soto stays grounded as the face of the Nationals’ franchise

It is challenging for Soto to stay grounded as he appears to be, given his rising star status as one of the game's elite players, sometimes compared to Ted Williams. Soto is 23, and there are young players in that clubhouse, some of whom are even older than him, who look at him like that -- a superstar. Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo said it Sunday -- this is Soto's team.

March 14, 2022
Washington Football Team head coach Ron Rivera looks on from the sideline during the second half of an NFL football game against the Dallas Cowboys, Sunday, Dec. 12, 2021, in Landover, Md. (AP Photo/Terrance Williams)

LOVERRO: Countdown on Rivera’s job begins with Wentz trade

You can start the countdown now for Washington Commanders coach Ron Rivera. Start the clock the moment Carson Wentz puts on a Commanders jersey at a press conference and tells everyone how he is looking forward to playing for the coach. Tick, tick, baby -- the job countdown will commence.

March 10, 2022
Washington Football Team safety Deshazor Everett (22) stands on the sidelines during the second half of a preseason NFL football game against the Baltimore Ravens, Saturday, Aug. 28, 2021, in Landover, Md. Baltimore won 37-3. (AP Photo/Nick Wass) **FILE**

LOVERRO: Everett’s future being kept under wraps by Commanders

I didn't learn anything about the only active franchise player, from what I can determine, who has ever been criminally charged with involuntary manslaughter in the 80-year history of the team. I didn't learn why Everett, with Rivera's quest to change the culture, is still on the team.

March 7, 2022
FILE - NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell announces the start of the fourth round of the NFL football draft in Cleveland, in this Saturday, May 1, 2021, file photo. Training camps are opening on time in preparation for the 2021 season after the league navigated through a pandemic to play an entire schedule and the Super Bowl in 2020. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak, File)

LOVERRO: Goodell and the women running interference for the NFL owners

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has recruited another one of his cheerleaders to protect "The Shield" -- former federal prosecutor Mary Jo White -- to investigate the latest sexual misconduct allegations against Washington Commanders owner Dan Snyder that emerged from the recent House Oversight Committee roundtable.

February 22, 2022
The main parking lot at the Los Angeles Angels Tempe Diablo Stadium remains closed as pitchers and catchers are not starting spring training workouts as scheduled as the Major League Baseball lockout enters its 77th day and will prevent pitchers and catchers from taking the field for the first time since October in Tempe, Ariz., Wednesday, Feb. 16, 2022. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin) **FILE**

LOVERRO: Labor strife leaves fans numb to universal DH approval

There was a time when the debate about the designated hitter in baseball was as passionate and bitter as the divide over COVID-19 vaccines. You picked your friends based on whether or not they thought the refusal to adopt the DH by the National League had been handed down from Mount Sinai, or if they looked upon the American League's embrace of the designated hitter as blasphemy.

February 16, 2022