tom-scocca Page 6 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
Paterno Family Statement Blames Everyone But Joe Paterno, Who Is To Blame
The family of Joe Paterno has released a statement in response to the Freeh Report, declaring (preliminarily, pending a close reading) that the "underlying facts...are almost entirely consistent with what we understood them to be."...
What Is Sadder Than The Lakers' 72-Year-Old Backcourt? Let's Discuss!
So now, having watched a team led by a 27-year-old superstar beat a team led by a pair of 23-year-old superstars in the NBA Finals, the Lakers have produced their own blueprint for returning to championship form: pairing a 38-year-old former MVP point guard with their 34-year-old former MVP shooting...
Meet Your Gold-Medal-Favorite 2012 U.S. Olympic Gymnastic Team (And The Men, Too)
There weren't many surprises in the United States women's gymnastic team that emerged this past weekend from two days of all-around competition at the Olympic trials. This was the set of gymnasts that we seemed destined to end up with for months now, or at least since returning Olympic champion Nast...
What If Joe Paterno Was Innocent? Hypothetical Dialogues From A Dark Time At Penn State
Circumstantially, the Jerry Sandusky case keeps getting worse and worse for Joe Paterno. Circumstantially. This past weekend, CNN described an email that Penn State's now-former athletic director, Tim Curley, allegedly sent to other university officials in 2001, canceling plans to report Sandusky to...
Ann Curry Was Never Going To Carry The Ball Over The Finish Line On The <em>Today</em> Show
So thanks to the Internet I'm looking at the L.A. Times and their "Company Town" thing, all about the Business of Show, because like the Tribune paper in Baltimore, my town, in the IN THE NEWS or HOT TOPICS bar, if you will, across the top of the Web page I saw ANN CURRY, and my first reaction was ...
Dewayne Wise's "Catch": Plucky Gamesmanship Or Low-Down Dirty Cheating? Discuss!
OK, obviously, what happened down the left-field line at Yankee Stadium last night was some ludicrous, amazing bullshit, and umpire Mike DiMuro is a disgrace. But what about Dewayne Wise? By acting as if he had the ball in his empty glove, was he cleverly grabbing any available competitive edge, li...
Abe Sauer Is A Dishonest Cretin: A Note From The Editors Of Deadspin
Yesterday, in a post we published about an unfolding scandal in the Indoor Football League, we inadvertently left out a link, which made it appear that a quote from the Argus-Leader of Sioux Falls had instead come from KELO....
Why MLB Should've Given R.A. Dickey His No-Hitter (And Why MLB Didn't)
Earlier today, Barry argued that a no-hitter has a particular, ineffable importance:...
The Thunder Are A Matchup Nightmare For Copy Editors. So Is The Heat.
Tonight's tipoff between the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Miami Heat is a milestone for American pro sports. For the first time, a major championship is pitting two teams whose names are mass nouns rather than ordinary plurals. The naming fad that gave us the Heat and the Orlando Magic at the end o...
There Is No Best Player In The NBA: The Problem With The Basketball Hero Industry
The most unstoppable player on the winning team in the last Heat-Celtics game wasn't any one player at all. Here's an edited play-by-play:...
There's A Naughtily Named Pitching Matchup In The National League Today
Check it out: Petco Park this afternoon will host a hilarious sadomasochistic pitching showdown between Marquis and Cain! Thwack! You've been very naughty! Double entendres in baseball can't get much saucier than that....
Who Will Speak Up For The Victims Of Flopping? Jeff Van Gundy Will
Jeff Van Gundy was mad enough when Mickael Pietrus stuck Mario Chalmers with a bogus technical foul down the stretch of last night's Celtics-Heat Game 5. But then, as he fumes about the damage a single unjustly awarded free throw could do in a close game, he accidentally sends his partner Mike Bre...
"Athletic" Shawn Johnson Retires: How Gymnastics Talks About Bodies In Code
On Sunday, former world and Olympic champion gymnast Shawn Johnson, 20, retired from gymnastics. Citing a bum knee, she withdrew from this coming weekend's national championships, the first competitive step towards the 2012 Olympic team....
When You Kiss The Ladies, Do It On Camera: How Richard Dawson Beat Bob Barker And Everyone Else
Richard Dawson is not dead. He is available on Television, which is now available on the Internet....
What Compression Gear Will And Won't (Mostly Won't) Do For You
What if pants could make me a better runner? With a half-marathon ahead of me, I decided it was time to try compression tights for training. As I struggled to pull a pair onto my slightly overweight legs, I could feel the skintight fabric transforming them from slack to firm, without any flexing. I ...
The Unappreciated Playground Genius Of The San Antonio Spurs
Last night in San Antonio, the Oklahoma City Thunder were the sum of their parts. It was a pretty good sum, even. The Thunder were solid on the glass against the Spurs; they lit it up from three-point range; they earned plenty of points at the free-throw line. Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, and...
J.R. Smith Arrested For Being Black In Miami Beach
Urban Beach Weekend starts today, but the Miami Beach cops were ready to party last night. Even though the police force has absolutely no quotas about how many young, recreation-seeking black people they're supposed to lock up over the holiday weekend, New York Knick/Zhejiang Golden Bull J.R. Smith ...
Jamie Moyer Has The Oldest Grudges In Major League Baseball, Too
Nobody survives till age 49 in the major leagues without making enemies. Hence Jamie Moyer's dustup with whippersnapper Chipper Jones this weekend. And before that, the middle-aged mushballer talked to Westword for a feature story. In one of the outtakes, he explained that he had come close to signi...
A Reader Reports: The Real Loser Of The Orioles-Red Sox Marathon Was MLB.tv
Time will tell what yesterday's 17th-inning Chris Davis-Darnell McDonald pitching showdown means for the 2012 American League East race. But for the world's scattered Red Sox and Orioles fans, it already proved one thing: MLB.tv can't do the job. Not long after both teams ran out of pitchers, MLB.tv...
In The Realm Of Gambling Message Boards, Anyone Could Be The Next Sarah Phillips
How did a poseur like former ESPN columnist Sarah Phillips get so far in the gambling world, a place where you might expect people to value experience, wisdom, and verifiability above all else? Well, remember where she—and presumably her partner, Nilesh Prasad—got her start: the gambling message boa...