ac Page 521 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

After 28 years, hockey finally corrects its Habs-Leafs mistake
The NHL has been through so many realignments that sometimes you wonder if it shouldn’t just do a random draw before every season (actually, that’s not a terrible idea). It’s when you get to the real aims of past realignments that things get more interesting. ...

Patrick Mazeika rewrites MLB history books (no, really) with walk-off fielder’s choice
Patrick Mazeika has had an incredible first week in the major leagues. It’s one thing to make history, but quite another to rewrite it entirely....

Rob Manfred isn’t even trying to hide his sniveling evil anymore
I guess it’s something of progress that the news of the Oakland A’s doing the ol’ “starting to look around” thing to get their partner to pay more attention to them was met with a basic shrug by most everyone. Because it’s so familiar, so predictable, all part of the cycle. Whenever a team is lookin...

We are sick of writing about football players’ avoidable deaths
For the third time since February, I’m writing about the death of a former football player from either suicide or substance abuse, and I’m sick of it. First it was Vincent Jackson, then Phillip Adams, now Colt Brennan. Three men, all dead at far too young an age....

Women investing in women's sports is a game changer
There is a new financial model emerging in women’s sports, one that doesn’t depend on the traditional gatekeepers to coverage. ...

Turns out Northwestern’s controversial new AD has close ties to a mega-donor
The calls are growing louder for Northwestern University to reconsider its decision to hire Mike Polisky as athletic director....

Three yards and a cloud of dust won’t cut it in AFC North anymore, and draft proves it
When I think of the AFC North, I think of smashmouth football. I think of Jerome Bettis vs. Ray Lewis. I think of physical, hard-hitting games, ending in scores like 13-9. I think of heavy-set run formations, with three yards and a cloud of dust, accompanied by some of the best defensive players acr...

So is there anything actually wrong with the Dodgers?
No. Of course not. What’re you, new?...

If the Jacksonville Jaguars aren’t on Hard Knocks, HBO should just cancel the series
In 2019, the NFL and Home Box Office – I bet the kids had no idea that’s what HBO stands for – fumbled on the 1-yard line as the ball rolled out the back of the end zone....

Don’t expect the upcoming Lakers docuseries to be the next <em>Last Dance</em>
2022 will be the “Year of the Lakers.” Not on the court, necessarily, but definitely on our television screens....

WNBA has an opportunity to take its league to the next level
The 2021 season will be pivotal for the WNBA....

IOC president cancels Japan trip as COVID cases spike — remind me again how safe the games will be
Well this isn’t the best look....

So Jack Eichel is definitely done in Buffalo
Thanks to the haphazard scheduling of this NHL season and the need to make up games lost to COVID protocols and the virus itself, it’s hard to mark exactly when the season ends for a lot of fans. Some teams are already in the barn, while others still have a handful of games to go. Which leads to pre...

Bob Baffert inexplicably blames ‘cancel culture’ for horse-doping controversy
Trainer Bob Baffert’s horse, Medina Spirit, who won the Kentucky Derby on May 1, tested positive for a banned substance. Apparently, according to Baffert, this happened because one of the groomers decided to take a piss on the hay in the horse’s stall after taking cough medicine, and the horse consu...

If Luka Dončić were Black, he’d be labeled a troublemaker with all his technical fouls
This isn’t a column about Luka Dončić. But it is about how Luka Dončić is covered....

What happens if Medina Spirit is disqualified?
Only one horse has been disqualified for a drug test after winning the Kentucky Derby. That happened in 1968, when Dancer’s Image was DQ’d for testing positive for a banned anti-inflammatory. But Forward Pass, who finished in second was not declared the official winner until 1972....

The Reek in Review: L.A. Dodgers edition
You smell that?...
![Throwing a baseball 101 mph has consequences [Updated]](https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/bb98fed82027bec24c32025a48ba02ad.jpg)
Throwing a baseball 101 mph has consequences [Updated]
Baseball can’t have anything nice. Jacob deGrom, who was doing his best impression of Bob Gibson circa 1968 so far this year, had to leave his start yesterday with discomfort in his side. This was just days after he had a start pushed back because of discomfort in his lat. We don’t know if it’s seri...

Bob Baffert cries wolf again
You have to ask if there’s anything left of horse racing to kill. Perhaps it’s entrenched so deeply into irrelevance, outside of four or five days a year, that just about nothing can make it worse. This is an industry basically surviving on the courtesy of state governments, really....

John Tortorella, a man never of his time
“Safe is death.”...