Dick Jerardi

Dick Jerardi has been at the Daily News since 1985. Lead college basketball and horse racing writer. Write two columns per week during basketball season. Covered 14 Final Fours, every Triple Crown race since 1987 and every Breeders' Cup race since 1986. Have covered events as varied as the Summer Olympics, the NBA Finals, American League playoffs, NFL playoffs and the Rose Bowl. Write columns, features, game stories and takeouts on topics ranging from how the football betting line is formed to a portrait of the jockey who rode Secretariat.

Email Dick at jerardd@phillynews.com

Villanova is ranked third by Sports Illustrated and appears on one of six regional covers available tomorrow.

No rules needed in NCAA business world

by Dick Jerardi

Posted 11/18/2009

AFTER FOLLOWING college basketball forever and covering it professionally for 2 decades, I have come to the following conclusion: Throw away the manual covering the sport.

Dick Jerardi: At Breeders' Cup, Zenyatta caps perfect career with perfect race

Posted 11/09/2009

ARCADIA, Calif. - It must have sounded and felt like this in 1940 when Seabiscuit finally won the hundred grander. Or in 1955 when Swaps was setting all those world records. Or in the 1980s when ageless John Henry was straining for one more finish line. In Southern California, they fall hard for their equine heroes.

Dick Jerardi: Bettor advice for Breeders' Cup wagers - 11/06/2009: ARCADIA, Calif. - With 149 horses, including nine winners from last year's Breeders' Cup, in 14 races over 2 days on the Santa Anita artificial surface, there is information overload for those of us less concerned about facts and figures and more concerned about bankrolls.
Dick Jerardi: Managers manage to confound with early hooks for starters - 10/17/2009: LOS ANGELES - It is one of those mysteries of the modern game. No matter how well a starting pitcher is throwing (and this goes triple for the postseason) or how few pitches he has thrown, that pitcher almost never is allowed to finish a game, especially if it is close.
White-knuckle time before Phillies cash in - 10/16/2009: By Dick Jerardi

Raul Ibanez got the Phils' second three-run homer of the game, and what looked like white knuckle time turned into an 8-6 win in Game 1 of the NLCS at Dodger Stadium.
Dick Jerardi: College Football Wrap - 09/28/2009: By Dick Jerardi

Around Town Still perfect Villanova's record is perfect through September. Saturday, in crushing Northeastern, 56-7, at Villanova Stadium, the Wildcats played a near-perfect game.
Dick Jerardi: Pennsylvania Derby is lacking in star power - 09/04/2009: THE NOMINATIONS for Monday's $1 million Pennsylvania Derby were tantalizing. The reality of this afternoon's post-position draw at Philadelphia Park will be something less than satisfying.
Dick Jerardi | Too early to tell who will go far in NCAAs - 01/31/2007: Daily News Staff

JUST ABOUT THIS TIME last year, I took a close look at the major conferences, trying to deduce which teams were most likely to make the Final Four. I wrote something brilliant like I don't see any teams from the Southeastern Conference or Pac-10 that are good enough.
Dick Jerardi | HEARTBREAK - 01/30/2007: The valiant fight of the people's horse and his caretakers touched many

Daily News Staff

WHY WERE so many attracted to Barbaro? Why were they so devoted? Why was yesterday a day they feared so much?
Dick Jerardi | - 01/29/2007: Daily News Staff

AROUND THE CITY The Drexel deal Playing without leading scorer Frank Elegar (one-game suspension because he hit Delaware's Sam McMahon with an elbow the previous Saturday), the Dragons did much good against Colonial leader Virginia Commonwealth at the DAC. But they could not stop VCU down the stretch and lost, 75-68.
Dick Jerardi | Valley schools are riding high - 01/24/2007: Daily News Staff

YOU COULD MAKE a pretty good argument that Billy Packer is out of touch with some significant parts of the sport in which he is one of the most recognizable faces. He sort of proved that when he went on his anti-Missouri Valley Conference rant after the 2006 NCAA Tournament field had been announced.
Dick Jerardi | - 01/22/2007: AROUND THE CITY 'Cats get ranked team again As much fun as Villanova's 102-point outburst against Notre Dame was to watch last Wednesday, the way the Wildcats beat Texas at the Wachovia Center is going to pay bigger dividends.