aba Page 67 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
CC Sabathia's Mound Visit Made Everyone A Little Nervous
An uneventful All-Star Game had a few nice moments, none more confusing to everyone involved than when AL manager Alex Cora sent out CC Sabathia to talk to Aroldis Chapman after two batters in the ninth. “I thought he was going to take me out of the game,” Chapman said through a translator. “I looke...
The Madman Theory Of The Montreal/Tampa Bay Rays
Any self-respecting student of insane Machiavellian gambits should be familiar with the Madman Theory, Richard Nixon’s self-invented strategy for winning the war in Vietnam. The theory, as recounted by Nixon chief of staff H.R. Haldeman after he got out of jail for his role in Watergate, went like t...
Rays Suggest Playing Half Their Home Games In Montreal: Seriously, What The Hell?
Given all of the problems with the Rays—and there are many—dire situations call for nontraditional thinking. Like hanging out with your friends and smoking a ton of weed and wondering aloud Dude. What if a team could play in two cities? That is probably not how this proposed solution to the Rays’ at...
The NHL Awards Were Worth It Just For One Burn On The Lightning
I’ve historically not been a fan of the NHL Awards being held after the season, rather than before the playoffs. I don’t care, by this point, who won what—the debates have long since cooled, and the regular season feels like something from the distant past— by now we’re already thinking about the dr...
What The Hell Are These Questions From The French Open Pressers?
Today at the French Open, No. 7 seed Sloane Stephens lost her quarterfinal match. She went to press after, only to field this question, as noted by tennis writer Ben Rothenberg:...
The Night Climbers Of Islamabad
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Every night during Ramadan, about a dozen boys meet up in a parking lot that sits near Islamabad’s network of hiking trails to play cricket under the streetlights. You’re likely to see the same scene play out in any well-lit parking lot across the predominantly Muslim city. Bu...
PBA Game Derailed By Nut Shot, Clothesline, Two Dance Interludes
If you’ve been wondering what happened to former Kentucky stud and NBA role player Terrence Jones, buddy, do I have an update for you....
Twins Broadcaster Bert Blyleven Calls For The Destruction Of Tropicana Field After The Park Stole Another Homer From Miguel Sano
While the Rays were unable to stop the red-hot Twins from getting a win on Friday, at least Tropicana Field was once again victorious over Minnesota third baseman Miguel Sano....
The Scummy Bucs Tried To Keep Secret Their Failed Attempt To Get Millions From The BP Oil Spill Settlement
This is old, but so what. The more we can talk about how the Tampa Bay Buccaneers cooked their books in a failed attempt to claim settlement money from a far-off oil spill that didn’t actually affect them, the better. Turns out there’s one more twist to pass along: The Bucs sought to keep from publi...
The Rays Drew Their Smallest Crowd Ever
It’s old hat by now to say the Rays have attendance issues. The stadium’s bad. The location’s bad. Ownership is bad. The region itself might be bad. (Neil deMause ran down each of the theories in turn.) We know all this already. But it’s still news when an MLB team draws under 6,000 people, and ther...
Avisaíl García Had Just The Absolute Dumbest Inside-The-Park Dinger
Avisaíl García, the disorienting ceiling at the Trop, and the atrocious eyesight of Randal Grichuk all combined to give the Rays’ DH an atypical, embarrassing, inside-the-park dong during the Toronto-Tampa game on Tuesday night. In the third inning, facing Clayton Richard, García hit a high fly int...
The Buccaneers Tried Accounting Tricks To Claim Money From The BP Oil Spill
This is something else: A federal appeals court rejected the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ attempt to secure nearly $20 million from a settlement fund designed to compensate victims of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, on the grounds that the Bucs tried to use some shady-ass accounting to justify their ...
Rich Hill, On The Shift: "Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Goddammit! Fuck!"
With two down in the bottom of the first inning of Wednesday night’s Dodgers-Rays game, Rays first baseman Ji-man Choi leaned over and bunted a first-pitch fastball from Dodgers starter Rich Hill up the third baseline for a single. This worked because the Dodgers had shifted their infield to the rig...
CM Punk Got Back Into The Ring, But Does He Want Back Into Wrestling?
CM Punk has been back in the news—or, anyway, back on wrestling websites— this past week for two separate and very different reasons. One of those is fueling giddy speculation about a potential comeback. The other is a bit more complicated....
Sasha Banks And Luke Harper Are Emblematic Of WWE's Talent Mismanagement
Let’s leave aside the draconian contract clauses, and also the sadness of WWE losing one of its best talents and potentially alienating another. The specific failures to get the most out of Luke Harper and Sasha Banks, respectively, are various and complicated, but fundamentally simple at bottom. T...
Sasha Banks And Luke Harper Want Out Of WWE, But That's Easier Said Than Done
On Tuesday, WWE wrestler Luke Harper tweeted a statement saying that he has requested his release from his contract. This was just a week after Sasha Banks, fresh off an abrupt end to her and Bayley’s storyline push as Women’s Tag Team Champions, reportedly asked for her own release from the promoti...
Steve Yzerman Is Coming Back To Detroit, And It's About Friggin' Time!
It’s finally happening! Red Wings legend Steve Yzerman is spurning that lame expansion team in Seattle, and he’s ignoring lost franchises like the Rangers, and—of course—he kicked the Tampa Bay Chokemeisters to the curb, all so he could come home to Detroit. Yes, that thing that I knew in my heart o...
Avisail Garcia Smashed A Dinger Halfway To The Moon That Should Have Counted For Two Runs
Rays manager Kevin Cash sent in Avisail Garcia to pinch hit for Austin Meadows in the seventh inning with the hope that the switch would jumpstart his team’s offense to mount a comeback against the Orioles—Tampa Bay was down 4-2 at the time. Garcia struck out swinging in his first at-bat so Cash’s p...
What The Hell Happened To The Lightning?
Six days in April can change a lot....
The Lightning Should Spend The Entire Summer With Paper Bags On Their Heads
Never has an NHL team had more reason to be embarrassed. First period of Game 1 aside, the Tampa Bay Lightning who won 62 games in the regular season failed to show up in their first-round series against the tremendously underestimated Columbus Blue Jackets, and they paid the price. As the Lightning...