as Page 2406 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Mark Cuban's Self Diagnosis
We would like to formally congratuate the Dallas Mavericks and their owner, the billion-dollar penised Mark Cuban, for their convincing Western Conference clinching victory Friday evening. The Mavericks have been the most consistently enjoyable team to watch this postseason, and we are pleased to ...

The Closer: The Cubs; Good For What Ails Ya
Notes from a day in baseball:...

About Last Night ...
What you missed while bribing the punk kids with a bike ... • French Open: An American in Paris. James Blake ousted, leaving Venus Williams as the last U.S. participant. • MLB: Feliz Navidad. Pedro Feliz wins it in 12th for Giants over Mets. • Motor Sports: The Pros From Dover. Kenseth rallies over ...

Accompanying The Heat And Tom Petty To The NBA Finals...
And your NBA Finals are set: It's old school vs. new school. It's a friendly, non-threatening German vs. The Diesel. It's a young, energetic, wide-smiling head coach vs. a crusty old man who hasn't smiled since 1983....

About Last Night...
• NBA Playoffs: Mavericks 102, Suns 93. If Avery Johnson's performance as coach of the Mavs proves anything, it's that no matter how goofy your voice might be... you can still succeed in life. Inspirational. • Tennis: Dinara Safina defeats Maria Sharapova. 7-5, 2-6, 7-5. And thus, I am very angry wi...

Taking Steps Towards Shaq...
A Dallas win tonight could set up a Finals matchup between two of the most media-friendly guys in the league: Shaquille O'Neal and Mark Cuban. I believe it would be the first appearance in the NBA Finals for any team that was owned by a man with his own blog....

About Last Night...
• NBA Playoffs: Heat 95, Pistons 78. It must've been a pretty strange evening in Stan Van Gundy's house. • MLB: Yankees 6, Orioles 5. If he keeps up with this clutch hitting, fans are really going to start liking this Derek Jeter guy. • MLB: Reds 14, Astros 3. Houston starter Wandy Rodriguez watched...

Lamenting The Loss Of Harry, Once Again
For some reason — perhaps it's the Cardinals-Cubs series tonight — but we started becoming rather nostalgic and wistful about Harry Caray today. We're not sure why. Jack Buck was always our favorite announcer anyway. Maybe it's just because we don't have many Harrys anymore; people who are liable to...

Bonds' Anti-Climactic Trip To Shea
We've been fortunate enough, during our time here in New York, to see the Shea Stadium crowd riled up a few times, including our favorite, John Rocker's return to Shea for the first time, in June 2000, since his infamous 7 train remarks. (As was typical at the time, the crowd booed him lustily, an...

Orioles Considering Drafting Blast From The Past
The Major League Baseball draft is next Tuesday and Wednesday, and, as anybody knows, it's the most boring draft of all the professional sports. (And if you sat through any of the NFL Draft beyond the first 10 picks last year, you'll realize what a strong statement that is.) So you end up looking ...

Is It Good To Be Dirk Nowitzki?
We've figured out why Dallas Mavericks star Dirk Nowitzki, despite scoring 50 points in a Game 5 victory of massive import and generally making that leap into alpha dog status that we require of all our superstars, always fails to appropriately inspire us the way that, say, LeBron James, Dwyane Wade...

About Last Night ...
What you missed while rescuing Pete Coors, again, from the mountains ... • The Big Five-O: Mavs' Nowitzki helps put Suns on the brink. • A Mighty Wind: Hurricanes oust Sabres, gain NHL finals. • MLB: Indians' Belliard helps send White Sox packing, 12-8....

Phoenix, Dallas Rev 'Er Up Again
The two guys, in this Associated Press photo taken from Game 2 of the Dallas-Phoenix series, are, according to the caption, examples of how fans "are drawn to intense game situations because of their need for a competitive outlet and get rowdy at games because they want to feel involved, say exper...

Question Seems Perfectly Logical To Us
Former Minnesota Twins Bert Blyleven occassionally takes time out of pleading for Hall of Fame election — justifiably, if you ask us — to broadcast Twins games for Fox Sports. The other evening, he was put in the unfortunate position of having to talk to former "American Idol" contest Ace Young (a...

With Nothing Between Sanity And Madness But A Thin Layer of Polyester
In truth, Kellia Ramares is dangerously obsessed. The middle-aged woman from Berkeley, Calif. has an unlikely fixation on Diamondbacks outfielder Eric Byrnes, in a way that prompted us recently to purchase an extra deadbolt for our back door, for no real tangible reason, just because. But as Ramar...

Sean Taylor Free To Visit All Kinds Of DJs Now
One of our favorite, quietly sublime stories of the last couple months involved Washington Redskins safety Sean Taylor and his battle with a prosecutor who worked as a DJ in his spare time. (His MySpace page included the immortal self-description as a bulging-biceps, headphones-wearing prosecutor ...

Look, Up In The Sky ... It's Our Cleanup Hitter!
This photo, from yesterday's USA Today, features several Colorado Rockies players — including Matt Holliday, our official fantasy baseball find — looking up toward the heavens, saluting the real reason for their surprising play this year: God. (That seems like a good place to look, anyway.) No, se...

About Last Night ...
What you missed while authorities dug for Jimmy Hoffa under your garden shed ... • NBA Playoffs: The moment the Heat lost the Conference Finals to the Pistons. Here's another angle. And another. Sit down! • MLB: Pujols gets 65th RBI to lead Cards over Astros 4-3, as ghost of Hack Wilson begins to ge...