ap Page 1137 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Will the Texas Rangers please <i>PLEASE</i> knock off the Astros?
Was it inevitable? One won the American League West, while the other led it for most of the season and was forced to go the wild-card route to make it to this stage. The Texas Rangers and Houston Astros share a state and are bitter rivals and will face each other in the postseason for the first time...

The Colts need to take a chance on Kirk Cousins
If you woke up a little late this morning, you may have missed the announcement out of Indianapolis that Colts rookie quarterback Anthony Richardson was placed on injured reserve. Richardson is scheduled to miss at least four games on IR with a right shoulder injury (AC joint sprain) and could miss ...

Hopefully, Anthony Richardson’s rehab includes a tutorial on how to slide
Anthony Richardson has never been so lucky to get injured in his life. The Indianapolis Colts’ rookie QB has been operating on pure talent and instincts over the first four starts of his career. He’s tallied seven TDs total — tied with C.J. Stroud the lead among all rookie QBs — in essentially 12 qu...

What Travis Kelce and Aaron Rodgers can debate instead of the vaccine
After Aaron Rodgers referred to Travis Kelce as Mr. Pfizer, Kelce fired a return grenade at Rodgers, whose team is owned by a pharmaceutical magnate. Rodgers’ idea to resolve this once and for all was inviting Kelce onto his Pat McAfee Show home turf to debate the vaccine along with Robert Kennedy J...

Now comes the tricky part for the Orioles
It’s awfully easy, and too easy, to point at an up-and-coming team like the Rangers that spent a lot of money to augment the players they developed from within and say that’s the reason they clobbered an up-and-coming team like the Orioles that did the exact opposite, basically only adding the decre...

Here’s why Cristiano Ronaldo is back in court over 2009 sexual assault claim
The next time someone tells you that sexual assault allegations “ruin a man’s career,” you only have to point to Cristiano Ronaldo. It’s been nearly five years since the German outlet Der Spiegel published what it purported were leaked documents between Ronaldo’s attorneys regarding an alleged sexua...

Week 5 NFL Takeaways: The AFC South is entertaining TV
Even though the highly anticipated Sunday Night Football showdown revealed that Jerry Jones’ Dallas Cowboys were no competition for the San Francisco 49ers, the rest of the NFL Week 5 slate was largely entertaining. ...

Behold The Skate Men: NHL Eastern Conference Preview
Like the college kids who crash through the side door into a party with a goofy, boozed-up look on their face, here comes the NHL season as a surprise....

Trade talk is the nadir of sports journalism
Imagine being a Chicago Bears fan — I know empathy is hard, but just try — and going through what they did Thursday only to open ESPN on Friday and see a bunch of misguided, braindead analysts talking about trading Justin Fields. Over his past two starts, the Chicago QB is 43-for-64 for 627 yards wi...

Your MLB team is out, so who do you root for?
Playoff baseball is in full swing. As we move closer to crowning a champion, who do you root for if your team has been eliminated? Do you stick with a club in your favorite squad’s league? Support the underdog? Or just watch football or whatever else is on TV? ...

Did Joel Embiid commit to Team USA just for the tampering?
Apparently, all it takes to convince American hoops players to represent their country is an insult or a loss at the FIBAs. Whether it was Noah Lyles, the B team’s fourth-place finish, or the human instinct to ape the cool kids, Team USA looks to be loaded for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. ...

Lexi Thompson’s PGA Tour debut comes with a chance at history and to pierce through golf’s sexism
In the modern history of golf, no female has made a cut on a PGA Tour event. Only Babe Didrikson Zaharias has done it ever, playing all four rounds at the 1945 Phoenix Open, and Tucson Open. And as Lexi Thompson becomes the seventh woman to play in a PGA Tour event next week, on a sponsor’s invitati...

Here are all the 20+ Wins Seasons, by franchise, in MLB history
Immaculate Grid has been a hit with baseball stat geeks since its launch in April. While the stats puzzle has since expanded to basketball, football, and hockey, it’s still baseball that makes the game what it is. So if you need help filling out your daily grid, give these stats a look....

MLB got what it deserves with its wild-card round
MLB and Rob Manfred don’t really have to care what happens in the wildcard round. Their only aim was to provide more playoff baseball, good or not, because its mere existence netted them more TV cash. So the fact that MLB will get no Game 3s, no interesting storylines, and barely any drama, followin...

Jonathan Taylor and James Harden: Unhappy players in very different situations
So far, James Harden is playing nice for the Philadelphia 76ers at their training camp in Fort Collins, Colo. ESPN’s Tim Bontempts reported that he arrived on Wednesday, the second day of camp, and is “participating in practice.” The 76ers even posted photographs on social media of Harden high-fivin...

NBA Weak Links: Milwaukee‘s 2-guard position could be a sinkhole on their road to a title
A great team is only as strong as its weakest link. At least that’s the consensus among every motivational coach I’ve ever heard. But for the sake of this space, it’s true for NBA contenders as well. I’ll examine the weak spots in some of the most iron-clad lineups in the NBA entering the 2023 seaso...

Tampa Bay Rays fans have plenty of reasons to take a WFH day — even during the playoffs
Call it an all-around epic fail. ...

Anthony Davis says he wants to play all 82 games this season — how long until he sits?
Los Angeles Lakers big man Anthony Davis is ready to rock and wants all the smoke with the defending NBA Champion, Denver Nuggets, and their MVP Nikola Jokić. Davis also claims to have a goal of playing 82 games this season. Neither of those things are likely to end well for the eight-time All-Star....

Here are all the 30+ Save Seasons, by franchise, in MLB history
Immaculate Grid has been a hit with baseball stat geeks since its launch in April. While the stats puzzle has since expanded to basketball, football, and hockey, it’s still baseball that makes the game what it is. So if you need help filling out your daily grid, give these stats a look....

And now, a national moment of silence: The Twins' playoff-win drought is over
Our long national nightmare is over. The Minnesota Twins won a playoff game....