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Your morning roundup for Aug. 28, the day we give a shout out to aquatic fleas. Got any stories or photos for us? Tip your editors. (Want more Tucker Barnes? Here.) More »
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Welcome to the second installment of DRURY, our exclusive Little League World Series power ranking and prediction engine. Yesterday's edition was postponed due to the earthquake and lack of interest. The ranking is a composite of the teams' box score statistics and schedule strength—see the original post for more detail. Today's update sees Mexico overtaking the U.S. West team on the strength of their pitching: More »
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It's Aug. 24, the day we were too busy to run for mayor of Wasilla. Click the photo to enlarge. If that doesn't work, click here. Got any stories or photos for us? Tip your editors. More »
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We're a few days into the Little League World Series, which means it's time to unveil our system for evaluating the teams: DRURY, or Determination of Robustness of Undoubtedly Rambunctious Youths. It takes box score statistics from every game, converts them into a composite runs scored and allowed per game (BR/18O and BRA/18O, respectively), and then adjusts those figures for strength of schedule. The final figures are the teams' adjusted Pythagorean winning percentages; they're scaled so that the best team has a DRURY of 1. Without further ado, here's the first batch of rankings, based on games prior to today: More »
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Your morning roundup for August 21, the day you poor suckers got all the RC Cola you wanted. Photo via tipster Connor. More »
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Your morning roundup for Aug. 20, the ninth day that Delonte West will wake up hoping Home Depot calls. Got any stories or photos for us? Tip your editors. (Video from California's 11-0 win over Rhode Island H/T Shaun B). More »
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Your morning roundup for July 30, the day we're provided with living proof that 32-year-old women are, in fact, into 83-year-old men. Got any stories or photos for us? Tip your editors. More »
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What's sadder than being a mascot for a little league team? Not much, actually. But the "Beast From The East" just started 10 years in prison for stealing more than 200 grand from the league. More »
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Japan always seems to win the Little League World Series, and AP writer Genaro Armas is fed up. That or this is a complete accident. I expect a decent comedy pyramid out of this. H/T Bob More »
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Because no one reads the newspaper, and SportsCenter's anchors are too perky for this early in the morning, Deadspin combs the best of the broadsheets and internets to bring you everything you need to know to start your day. More »
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The U.S. has won another LLWS. Let us reflect on the wise words of former attorney general Herbert Brownell: "The young Americans who compose the Little League will prove a hitless target for the peddlers of godless ideology." [AP] More »
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Obviously, reaching the Little League World Series has its perks—new uniforms, free licorice, uncomfortable silences with sportscasters—but there is one greatly overlooked benefit to reaching the heights of pre-teen athletic stardom: Hot and cold running chicks. More »
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Because no one reads the newspaper, and SportsCenter's anchors are too perky for this early in the morning, Deadspin combs the best of the broadsheets and the blogosphere to bring you everything you need to know to start your day. More »
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NYC's "benevolent tyrant," adorned in fine lavender, at the Little League World Series in Williamsport, PA. [Bugs & Cranks] More »
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Anyone turned off by the hype placed on the kids at the Little League World Series might find some solace in this live microphone catching a young hurler asking for permission to hit a batter. Yay, for all-access! More »
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Big league Hall of Famer Jim Rice opened the World Series for Little Leaguers with a fiery speech that even the grumpiest of grumpy old men could appreciate. The message: Don't look up to today's players because they're all bums. More »
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It was close, but Little League baseball did end before Labor Day this year. Waipahu, Hawaii beat Matamoros, Mexico, 12-3, in the title game of the Little League World Series on Sunday; meaning that the two teams were in contention two months longer than the Cleveland Indians. Congratulations, kids. Now go home and get ready for school (Nelson Munce: "Ha, ha!"). So it was fun for awhile, but haven't we just about had it with the LLWS? Here are 10 reasons it should go away. • Flat-brimmed caps. The first minute upon receiving your team hat should be spent creasing the top and rolling the brim, preferably so that the ends almost touch your cheeks. When I played, a cap such as this would have gotten you tied to a tree in the woods for most of the summer. • Giving up home runs to Canada.. Their baseball fields don't completely thaw until late July, and their bat racks contain nothing but hockey sticks, snowshoes and umbrellas. And so scenes such as this are totally unacceptable, even if the opponent is Italy. • The National Anthem on violin. The only thing that could make this worse is if Alfalfa accompanied on vocals. Welcome to a fall and winter of ass beatings, son. • Parents who are way too into it. As we can see, Josh's mom is wearing less than the minimum 15 pieces of flair. I guess she just doesn't love her son very much. • Goodyear Blimp. Good rule of thumb: Any youth sporting event which includes a blimp should be avoided. • Crying in baseball. Capturing tears makes for compelling television ... if it's Adam Morrison or Dick Vermeil. If it's a 12-year-old Little Leaguer who just struck out in front of a national audience, that's child abuse. • Instant replay. Half the fun of being a kid is to argue over whether a ball was fair or foul. How about turning the camera on the crappy umpiring behind the plate? • Old guys who forget how many grandkids they have. Every kid in his section has hit this guy up for snack bar money; some of them twice. The sad part is he thinks he's at the Civil War reenactment. • Dugout, the Little League mascot. Bland, Disneyesque costumed rodent teaches children that imagination is not important; just make sure that our mascot offends absolutely no one. Next year, give me Blowie, or give me death. • Little League pledges. "I won't cheat?" F—- you, Little League Baseball, you pretentious, fascist windbags. I taught my son not to cheat when he was two, so send your patches where they'll do some good ... Bud Selig's office to John Edwards, or the White House. More »
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Does this pitcher look 13 to you? Mexico, once again I call shenanigans concerning your birth certificates. Anyway, Jesus Sauceda recorded the first perfect game in the Little League World Series in 29 years, although doing it in the least impressive way possible; in only four innings, and against Italy. The boot-shaped nation had to scour the entire country to find 12 kids who have even heard of baseball, and even then several of them still tried to kick ground balls to first. More »
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I'm wholly in favor of anything that humiliates children. Kids today need as much character as they can get in this bubble-wrapped nation of ours. And nothing builds character like getting one's prepubescent heart ripped out on national television. Just ask Jeffersonville, Indiana's Drew Ellis, who threw a no-hitter, but still gave up three runs to cost his team the game. More »
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Had your fill of kids' baseball for the summer? Jesus, school starts in a week, and we're just now wrapping up. Warner Robins' championship win over Japan was great and all, but don't forget we had to slosh through nearly a month of televised children's programming on to get there; a kind of creepy short-term Sesame Street for sports fans. More »
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As mentioned earlier today, the Little League World Series championship started about an hour and a half ago, and it's Japan vs. Georgia, in an epic battle of which nation's future is brighter. (No, seriously. This game will determine that.) More »
]]> http://deadspin.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=293541&view=rss&microfeed=true According to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Walpole, Mass., outfielder Mike Rando is "with leather." Welcome to the club, Mike. We mentioned it over the weekend, but here's another view of his game-saving catch against Hamilton, Ohio, with slo-motion goodness, but sans perky sideline reporter Sophie Cortina. (She's right here). More »
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SOMEBODY wants to be a bacon pants when he grows up: Thanks to a perfectly timed hop at the fence, Walpole, Mass. center fielder Michael Rando earned himself a place in Little League World Series history. With the tying runner at third, and a high, arcing shot to straightaway center field, Rando kept Hamilton, Ohio from a walk-off victory in the first round of the LLWS. More »
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It seems we have proven once again that, when it comes to baseball, you should probably take what we say and expect the exact opposite. The team from Columbus, Ga. beat Kawaguchi City, Japan, 2-1, on Monday to claim the Little League World Series title, as America finally exacts revenge for the World Baseball Classic. Take that, Hello Kitty! More »
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At first the idea sounds nuts, like barbecuing in the nude, or a Madonna concert. But then when you think about it ... why shouldn't kids get paid for playing in the Little League World Series? In a column on MSNBC's sports site today by Bob Cook, our man claims, only somewhat tongue-in-cheek, that Little Leaguers should reap some of the benefits of their labor. More »
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We know it's somewhat of a popular parlor game to rank the attractiveness of female sideline reporters, and it makes a modicum of sense, considering the job of sideline reporter isn't inherently, you know, demanding. More »
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We knew it would be fun having Staten Island as a representative in the Little League World Series, and indeed, they haven't disappointed. First, the team had a, um, colorful game in pool play on Sunday, which ended with a slap. Then today we learn that Staten Island Little League president Bob Johnson ripped New York Yankees' owner George Steinbrenner — and Alex Rodriguez, of course — for not doing enough in financially supporting the Little League team. Steinbrenner donated $5,000 to the league to help parents with transportation costs, etc., but that wasn't nearly enough, according to Johnson: More »
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As mentioned by MJD over the weekend, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia's Little League all-star team has a 6-foot-8, 256-pound player. That means that if things work out, Aaron Durley could become the tallest major leaguer ever; he should pass Randy Johnson (6-10) sometime around Labor Day, and probably already outweighs him. But there's more. More »
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I'll be honest with you. I'm not going to watch much of the Little League World Series. All the talk about the purity of baseball at this level, the innocence of youth, the true, raw, uncorrupted emotion... it doesn't do much for me. But thankfully, Deadspin reader BL was watching last night, and he caught this gem: More »
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There's been a lot of conflict in youth baseball this week. First, there was the incident where a team walked a good hitter to they could get the final out of the game against a cancer survivor. And yesterday, a team had to forfeit a game that would've landed them in the regional finals for the Little League World Series, because a coach forgot to get one kid an at-bat. And all of this is happening before Skip Bayless's yearly article about how we're harming all of these kids by putting them on TV. Things were so much purer when Harold Reynolds was involved. More »
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Lost in all of the hubbub over Harold Reynolds being dismissed at ESPN is the fact that he won't be in the broadcast booth for the Little League World Series, breaking a nine-year string. It seems especially cruel to cut Reynolds loose on the eve of the biggest event for pint-sized athletes in the world, which starts August 18. Reynolds in recent years was the Little League World Series, participating in clinics, autograph signings, special promotions and other events in Williamsport, Penn., that helped the event grow from a quaint curiosity to one of the big television events of the summer. Last year the LLWS got higher ratings than the College World Series, and it wasn't because of Brent Musberger. More »
]]> http://deadspin.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=189938&view=rss&microfeed=true What you missed while writing a musical based on the movie "Fargo" ... More »
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