Locker Page 37 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Imagine having your parents issue a statement about your rape allegation — really imagine it
I rarely think about the parents when a player gets drafted or signed. We always see the tear-filled interviews, or the wild cheering after a first hit, and I genuinely believe that almost all parents are just genuinely filled with pride and joy and happiness when their children reach sport’s bigges...

The Los Angeles Dodgers, the greatest team of all time
The Dodgers won on Sunday. Which really isn’t news, they do that a lot. Beating the Miami Marlins isn’t really cause for celebration either, as it’s far more of a function than an accomplishment. And yet, zoom out and it is pretty startling what the Dodgers have accomplished....

BYU completely failed at protecting a Black volleyball player from a racist fan
BYU has championed itself as an institution built on honor and virtue. The third bullet point in their Church of Latter Day Saints Educational Honor System demands the respect of others, including the avoidance of profane and vulgar language. On Friday evening, BYU’s athletic department threw blinde...

Reminder: WNBA players are still going abroad to earn a living
It seems pertinent on Women’s Equality Day to mention that there are still WNBA players going overseas to earn more money than they would by playing stateside....

Oh, wow, a sport obsessed with stats finally realizes numbers are marketable
If you’re reading a post about baseball to start your Thursday morning procrastinating there’s a good chance that at some point in your life you’ve been at a bar with one of those punching bag machines. You know what I’m talking about, it looks like a huge speed bag and you put in a dollar or whatev...

The most uncomfortable at-bat ever
I join many others in giving MLB hitters a hard time. The need to lift and drive has added an untenable amount of strikeouts to the game, and it can be frustrating watching guys simply pound contact right into a gaggle of fielders shifted over. But we also try to defend them as best we can, given th...

C.B. Bucknor drags everyone down with him
It was yet another banner day for C.B. Bucknor behind the plate, as we watched in real time while he lost sense of the strike zone and perhaps indeed any sense of direction at all. The plane which the ball must pass through to be called a strike is imaginary, of course, and tough to judge from a pos...

UFC has its moments
I feel like if I ever write about the UFC it’ll be treated like Walter Slobchak dressing down Donnie about walking into the middle of a movie. So when I walked into a friend’s house with a semi serious interest in the Kamaru Usman-Leon Edwards fight, I only knew as much as I gleaned from proofing th...

There are only two faces on this week’s Mount Rushmore of stupidity
Have you ever witnessed an argument so stupid you’d rather not pick a side? I’m sure parents with multiple kids know what I’m talking about, repeating “Leave me out of it” until they inevitably have to intervene because, you know, children. Still, nothing irks a parent like having to rule on who get...

USMNT unveils new jerseys that even the players hate
You know it’s bad when even the players hate the jerseys they’re wearing...

We’re on the precipice of the NCAA's death
Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow. But one day — and one day we’re all likely to still be alive for, depending on your cholesterol and financial status, because as we know, the rich die old and comfortable here. And it won’t be the complete end of the NCAA, as long as it holds the keys to the bask...

Whiny golfer is whiny
Perhaps it’s being too glib about the real-world implications of something like LIV Golf — the insidiousness of a very small and already entitled group of people all too happy to grab a huge bag of money while ignoring the source and results of such a thing is probably exactly how our society ended ...

God bless Johnny Cueto
There’s just something about a veteran pitcher whose stuff isn’t the same and yet finds a way. The joy is in knowing every opposing fanbase is screaming, “HE’S SPINNING IT ON HIS FINGER! JUST TAKE IT!” or some such derivative while he’s on the mound as they watch hitter after hitter be bewitched by ...

The allure of near-perfection
I spend a lot of time, admittedly too much time, writing about everything that’s wrong with baseball. I get crankier and more cynical the more my knees hurt. But yesterday was a reminder of one of the things that make baseball special. No other sport can stop for a day to focus on one spot like on ...

Will Fernando Tatis’ power (and career) go the way of Ryan Braun?
When I think of post-peak steroid era users in baseball, Manny Ramirez, Alex Rodriguez, or Robinson Cano aren’t the first names that come to mind. That dishonor goes to former Brewer Ryan Braun. The 2011 NL MVP began his career by regularly tallying 100-plus RBI, and 30-plus home run seasons. He acc...

Hope your Friday night was better than Zach Wilson’s
Zach Wilson may have avoided serious disaster after leaving Friday’s preseason game with a pronounced limp from a non-contact injury. Head coach Robert Saleh said the franchise’s young quarterback will undergo an MRI today, but sources are saying he reinjured his PCL and could miss only a few weeks....

They could have at least made 'Hologram Harry' drunk off his ass
Overall, the Field of Dreams game is fine. Perhaps teams should be “flexed” into it during the season, so you don’t end up with two Quad-A rosters in the one regular season game MLB gives the network primetime treatment. Though if you’re trying to showcase baseball in 2022, having two teams that hav...

The only thing worse than the owners are their kids
Were you in the mood for a world-class bus-tossing? Did you want to start your day with the sound of an express pulverizing an unsuspecting individual DJ Jazzy Jeff’d into its path? Does the morning need a kickstart with a thunderous “THWACK?” Friendo, you’re in luck:...

Why does Canada get to participate in the World Juniors?
You may have forgotten about hockey’s World Juniors championships. It’s the middle of summer after all, which is supposed to be the definitive dead time for hockey. You’ll probably need a reminder that the WJCs, in their normal slot back in December/January, had to be scrapped thanks to COVID outbre...
