tcraggs22 Page 108 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Why Your Stadium Sucks: Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum
This is a new weekly feature in which I (and maybe you, too, readers) detail the various reasons for hating your ballpark. This week: Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum....

Scott Boras' Land Rover Attacked; Suspects Include Just About Everyone In The World
Someone took an "unknown hard, long object" to Scott Boras' Land Rover while it was parked outside a Newport Beach restaurant. Damage totaled $2,000, but only after bitter negotiations between Boras and his claims adjuster. [Corona Del Mar Today]...

Alexis Arguello's Death, Prefigured
Alexis Arguello, the Nicaraguan boxing legend who was found dead early Wednesday of a gunshot wound to the chest, led a demon-haunted life that he nearly ended by his own hand 25 years ago. From a 1985 Sports Illustrated story:...

New, Fancy-Talking NFLPA Boss Knows His Shakespeare, Young Jeezy
DeMaurice Smith, the rookie executive director of what's left of the NFLPA, is dropping some serious oratory on his constituents these days, name-checking Hamlet, Nicolas Sarkozy, Napoleon, Iran and Young Jeezy, all in one speech. He's the realest!...

Scoring At Home: Your <em>SportsCenter</em> Catchphrase-O-Meter
An occasional feature in which we explain and evaluate a SportsCenter anchor's pet phrase. Today's phrase: "Winner winner chicken dinner."...

Bullrider, 12, Trampled And Killed; Everyone Shrugs And Says It Was "Nobody's Fault"
A 12-year-old Colorado bullrider was killed Sunday when he was thrown from his mount and trampled, rupturing his heart's left ventricle. That's awful enough. Then everyone sprinted through all five stages of grief and headed straight for damage control....

Why The "New" Alleged Steroids List Is A Crock
Yesterday, RotoInfo posted this widely forwarded "rumored 2003 Steroid list," which purported to enumerate the 104 players who flunked baseball's anonymous round of drug testing that year. Don't believe a word of it....

John Feinstein Has Bypass Surgery
Feinstein, author of 4,285 books and a new, now poignantly named blog, writes: "The angiogram showed 'four to six,' blockages in my heart-one of them 100 percent." He went under the knife yesterday. [Feinstein on the Brink]...

Flip Flop Fly Ball: A Site For Four Eyes
If you haven't seen it, Craig Robinson's Flip Flop Fly Ball is a collection of whizbang infographics that look like what you'd get if you mated Edward Tufte with Bill James. It's hardcore gonzo porn for baseball nerds. Some examples....

Brandon Jennings Continues To Offend, Well, Everyone
Any day now, the NBA will teach Brandon Jennings to be studiedly bland and tactful. Until then, let's enjoy the glorious insolence of a 19-year-old rookie who says what we've all thought at one time or another: "Fuck the Knicks."...

Wayne Ellington, His Girlfriend And Grandma: An NBA Draft Tableau
OK, so you've all had your jollies with that photo of new draftee Wayne Ellington and his comely friend. For my money, though, this one right here is vastly more interesting. I mean, just look at it....

Where Awkward Happens: Reading The Body Language Of NBA Draft Picks
The David Stern handshake is a newly drafted player's baptism into the NBA. It is also, often as not, hilariously awkward. We asked body language maven Patti Wood to analyze some of these moments from yesterday's Draft....

Why Your Stadium Sucks: Rangers Ballpark In Arlington
This is a new weekly feature in which I (and maybe you, too, readers) detail the various reasons for hating your ballpark. This week: Rangers Ballpark In Arlington....

Jesus Christ Football Star
How you feel about this account of football-playing home-schoolers will depend largely on your stomach for misspelled signage and sentences like, "Tebow ... demonstrated that a home-schooler could absorb a playbook as well as the Book of Deuteronomy." [NYT]...

Not Feeling Minnesota: Rubio May Stay In Europe, Says Father
My Spanish is a little rusty, but I do believe this translates to, "Get us the fuck out of Minneapolis, Donnie Walsh."...

Michael Jackson Dies. Chad Johnson Says It's "Just As Sad As 9/11."
The LA Times is saying King of Pop Michael Jackson died today after suffering a heart attack. He was 50. Because this is a sports blog, here's a video, via NESW Sports, of Jackson playing one-on-one with Michael Jordan. RIP....

Angles In The Outfield
Slate answers the question we've all asked at one time or another, often while watching those games on television in which Larry Vanover seems to have a mail slot for a strike zone. What's with baseball's crappy camera angles? [Slate]...

Donald Fehr: Unconscionable Villain ... For Being Good At His Job
Donald Fehr ran baseball's players union in an ever more open-shop America and in a sports culture beset by drug panics of one kind or another. The former ensured that he'd be unappreciated; the latter that he'd be vilified....

Weird Details Emerge About Ed Thomas' Accused Shooter
This is Mark Becker, the 24-year-old charged yesterday with killing Iowa coaching icon Ed Thomas in a high-school weight room. On Saturday, he attacked a former classmate's home with a bat and led police on a high-speed chase. [WCFcourier.com]...