Locker Page 51 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Scottie Pippen is still angry and bitter, but that doesn’t mean he’s wrong
Scottie Pippen is still angry about that contract. It didn’t take up much time in “The Last Dance,” which is what the released excerpt in GQ of Pippen’s autobiography entitled “Unguarded” focused on, but it’s been the guiding light for most of Pippen’s life. It filters through the article in the New...

Buster Posey goes out like he came in... on top
The “going out on top” card rarely gets played. Mostly, it’s just because there’s too much money to be had for any player that was once great. There’s too much money for really any player to play a game for a living, no matter how physically taxing. Which you can’t blame them for. Unlike most every ...

At least it’s over
The urge after any postseason is over is to draw some overarching narrative out of it. To learn what it means to be a champion in that particular sport in that particular era, or what it means for that sport in general. I’m sure if MLB had any inkling to discover what Team Cheaters vs. Team White Fl...

I don’t like the Chiefs’ new album
You ever get really into a band? Listen to their album for a full week? Buy a T-shirt? Even get to the point where you see them a couple times, maybe in a couple different venues? Maybe after the first album it was in a small club....

Sentient pile of trash enjoys racisming in public
We’re not going to say that Atlanta is continuing the chop just to cater to racists. But the racists sure seem to like it....

The Athletics begin their Major League’ing
The news flashed out of nowhere, which is probably the most worrying thing. The Padres hired Bob Melvin as a manager, which is great for them. Melvin has been making the most out of whatever he’s been given in Oakland for a decade now, and a lot of that time it has been a mishmash of misfit toys. He...

Why do we keep thinking sports is the best of us, when it’s just … us?
Maybe it’s just my misconception of why people watch and follow sports. It seems like they’re held to too high a standard at the worst possible times. Because we’re asking people completely unequipped to deal with serious, life-changing issues… to say and do things that we’d imagine we do if put in ...

Even on MLB’s biggest night, Rob Manfred can’t keep his thumb out of his ass
I understand at the dawn of every league’s championship that the commissioner has to do something of a state of the union. Roger Goodell, Gary Bettman, Adam Silver… they all have a press conference before Game 1 or the Super Bowl. Given the daily nature of baseball, Rob Manfred has to do it on the d...

Before baseball’s grandest show, let’s get one last laugh at the Mets
MLB will showcase, at least in theory, its best for the next week to 10 days. The World Series doesn’t usually pair the two best teams, depending on definition, but it does pair the two that are playing best at the moment. And it’s got all the stakes that matter. Whatever the participants, it’s supp...

It’s time to send Bob Nightengale to a farm upstate
It’s not much of a story that Bob Nightengale was once again spewing out lava of baseball drivel. That’s been his gig for years now, essentially just acting as a conduit for whatever bullshit the powers that be want out there in exchange for his beloved “access.” Access which he’ll use to lord over ...

Fare Thee Well, Penn State, it was’t even fun while it lasted
Penn State has now lost back-to-back games by blowing a two-touchdown lead at Iowa and scoring eight points over the course of nine overtimes at home against Illinois. That’s quite a way to go from being No. 4 in the country to having no hope for the national title whatsoever....

You know how sneaky-annoying auto-renew can be? Well, Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy loves it now
Mike Gundy’s new perpetually renewing contract at Oklahoma State is just another reminder that cancel culture does not exist, and especially does not exist for mediocre rich white men like Gundy....

Sometimes you have to just sit back and appreciate what’s on offer
Perhaps I’m feeling wistful because last October, we didn’t have our normal schedule. There’s a clock to this, a rhythm, that we have spent our entire lives attuned to. Hockey and basketball start during the MLB playoffs. Go a year without it, and suddenly the axis is off, red lights are blinking, t...

What will Dave Roberts’ legacy be?
I know better than to write the Dodgers’ eulogy now. We’re just where we’ve been before. The series should be over, and if it wasn’t for Cody Bellinger guessing right on a high fastball on Tuesday, it would be. The Braves’ 9-2 win in Game 4 only makes it 3-1, which is exactly where they were against...

Finally, one game to unite us all (And no, squids are not involved)
Americans, it’s time to organize petitions, start jogging and go cold turkey on the carbs because you just might be able to compete in the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics if a new sport garners enough of a following. ...

You always want a Laz Diaz show in a League Championship Series, amirite?
I’ll put it right here at the top when discussing the Astros 9-2 win in Game 4 over the Red Sox, because I’ve spent the latter half of my life having Red Sox fans yell at me in some sort of fashion anyway. The non-strike call Laz Diaz came up with on Jason Castro from Nathan Eovaldi’s curve in the n...

Nick Rolovich is the latest to display college coaches’ hypocrisy
More than a few of us wouldn’t have been able to stifle a laugh, or at least a smirk, when it was announced Washington State head coach Nick Rolovich got shitcanned because he wouldn’t get the COVID-19 vaccine. ...

Dave Roberts can’t help himself
The MLB playoffs can get pretty muddled between decisions and results. Rarely do they line up because... y’know, baseball. It doesn’t cooperate. Right decisions, wrong results, vice versa, the throughline is rarely consistent. But Dave Roberts has been at this for years now, so he certainly makes fo...

Dabo must be shaking in his Skechers
The University of Connecticut has won a football game....

Someone get the Canucks an editor stet… err, stat!
When Alex Chiasson played for the Vancouver Canucks in their season opener on Wednesday night in Edmonton, his name was spelled correctly on the back of his jersey....