Kevin Gray: Who's got game? Several candidates

We Granite Staters have seen the candidates in person, heard the debates and taken enough phone calls to sever our landlines.

At this point, I'd rather meet Barack Obama on the basketball court or talk National League baseball with John McCain.

Heck, when Joe Biden made a stop at the New Hampshire Union Leader, he ended up telling me about his days as an athlete. Here was the chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations talking about a ball game he played at old Memorial Stadium in Baltimore.

By now, with our first-in-the-nation primary just two days away, we've collected enough mail to re-write the Wikipedia pages on these guys -- and gal. So let's view the field through the lens of sport. After all, there's much to learn from a game of pick-up basketball.

"There are plenty of character qualities you can pick up," said Obama's brother-in-law, Craig Robinson, men's basketball coach at Brown University. "You can find out if someone's selfish or generous, whether or not they're confident or a team player."

The coach first played hoop with Obama at the request of Robinson's younger sister, Michelle, who'd been dating the future Illinois senator. Obama, a former high school basketball state champion, passed the test and didn't take too many shots or, worse, call cheap fouls.

"It's one of those things where it's self-regulating and guys have to call their own fouls. That talks about a guy's integrity and honor. Anybody who's ever played basketball knows that you hate it when a guy calls a foul, and then doesn't want to give you a foul," Robinson told me last week.

I e-mailed every presidential campaign, attempting to learn more about candidates' backgrounds and sports connections.

Turns out Ron Paul, whose spokesperson promptly answered, usually walks 3 miles per day and bikes another 10 or 15 miles. Paul, I'm told, was a state track champion in Pennsylvania and set NCAA swimming records in college.

A photo at ronpaulsongs.com shows Paul hitting "a home run in a congressional all-star game in the 70's." I believe it, based on the balance and extension of his swing. Now, it appears, the Republican may need a late power surge to knock in more votes.

Republican heavy-hitter McCain is just as comfortable on "The Dan Patrick Show" as he is under "Crossfire" with James Carville. Credit the Arizona senator with strong stances on boxing reform and baseball drug testing.

McCain might get a few more votes from Red Sox fans based on the endorsement of Curt Schilling, who knows a thing or two about performance under pressure.

For what it's worth, most candidates have been endorsed by at least one sports celebrity. Does it help or hurt Mike Huckabee -- whose main athletic claim to fame is that he's completed three marathons, most recently the New York City Marathon in 2006 -- that pro wrestling icon Ric Flair is in his corner?

And whom does Hulk Hogan want to rule the free world?

Martial arts tough guy Chuck Norris has campaigned with Huckabee in New Hampshire. Basketball Hall of Famer Magic Johnson is supporting Clinton, and cycling champion Lance Armstrong is stumping for John Edwards.

As for Edwards, don't think he's too worried about his hair to wear a football helmet. He was captain of his high school football team and played at Clemson as a walk-on -- which takes a certain amount of determination and guts.

He's also completed five marathons, but Edwards considers beating NBA point guard Raymond Felton in a game of H-O-R-S-E his proudest sports achievement.

Fred Thompson played tight end and defensive tackle on his Tennessee high school football team. At 6-feet 5 inches, the future senator also played a key role on the basketball team that reached the coveted state tournament in Nashville.

A few sports questions e-mailed to the Hillary Clinton campaign went unanswered, which is quite unfortunate. I was wondering how much Clinton liked the Yankees before running for the U.S. Senate in New York.

Clinton, a native of Illinois, played tennis as a kid and grew up in the suburbs of Chicago rooting for the Cubs. She later adopted the Yankees as her favorite American League team, though it's unclear when she first donned a Yankee cap.

In 1999, New York manager Joe Torre presented Clinton and her husband with "NY" caps at the White House. The traditional visit by the World Series champs came with curious timing, "only days after Hillary Rodham Clinton announced she was forming an exploratory committee to run for a New York seat in the U.S. Senate," noted the Washington Post.

At least Clinton didn't pull a Rudy Giuliani and embrace the Red Sox while campaigning in New Hampshire. How can a self-respecting Yankees fan root for the Red Sox to win the World Series?

Bill Richardson no doubt had the best fastball in the field. He threw a no-hitter for Middlesex School in Concord, Mass.

"I was unhittable, striking out twenty-seven batters," he wrote in his book, "Between Worlds: The Making of an American Life."

A former pitcher at Tufts University, Richardson played in the prestigious Cape Cod League and fittingly has his own presidential baseball card.

One has to admire the way Dennis Kucinich, left off the depth chart for last night's debate, is going down with a Rudy-esque fight. (And that's a Rudy of Notre Dame reference. Kucinich was a 4-foot 9-inch, 97-pound freshman football player in high school.)

"His campaign is certainly indicative of his sporting nature," spokesman Tom Staudter said. "He is a feisty competitor who will not give up until after the whistle. He'll play right through the whistle."

Mitt Romney, presumably, is the candidate most suited for ripping up the slopes in New Hampshire. No word on whether the former CEO of the 2002 Winter Olympic Games brought a gold medal on his campaign trip to Pat's Peak in Henniker.

Just yesterday, radio show host Russ Francis said Romney "saved the Olympics" in Salt Lake City. And then the former NFL star endorsed McCain for president.

As you see, there's always a connection to sports. Look over your shoulder in the voting booth, and you'll probably see a basketball hoop.

Tuesday, I'll enter the Bow Community Center, eat a couple cookies under a hoop, and vote for Obama. No, not just because the slender shooting forward has game -- though that doesn't hurt his cause.

Kevin Gray is a staff sports writer for the New Hampshire Union Leader and Sunday News. His e-mail address is kgray@unionleader.com.