atlanta Page 52 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

The 600 Club
Fun pregame activity for Florida Marlins players: Guess the attendance. Wednesday's opponent at Dolphins Stadium: Atlanta Braves. So Marlins reliever Joe Nelson does a head count and guesses, 418 fans. He was way off. The true count: 600. Each fan had his own personal usher. But was this a record fo...

Value of Euro vs. Dollar Impacting NBA Signings?
In the latest sign of American hoops hegemony showing some weakness, fivetooltool points out that several NBA players are returning to Europe because they can get better contracts there. Why? Partially because of the increasing value of the euro relative to the dollar....

The Politically Incorrect Cow
There's no way we're not seeing that cow in our nightmares. We had no idea he was so ... tall....

Chipper Jones Is Hitting EVERYTHING This Season
And I mean everything. Don't believe me? let's go through the ways. He's hitting for power, hitting for average, hitting lefties, hitting righties, hitting to all fields, hitting fastballs, hitting breaking balls, hitting sideways and slantways and longways and backways and frontways and squareways ...

Larry Wayne Jones Jr. And The Chase For .400
The controversy continues to rage: Should a grown man answer to the name of Chipper? My vote is no, unless you appeared in a '60s sitcom starring Fred MacMurray, or are hitting over .400 in the major leagues. Here's to Chipper Jones of the Atlanta Braves, who is hitting .420 as of Thursday night aft...

Broom With A View
Their logo is politically incorrect, their manager is a noted wife puncher and their broadcasters are notorious homers, and I mean all of that in the nicest possible way. But today there is no denying the unstoppable force that is the Atlanta Braves, who completed a four-game sweep of the New York ...

Baseball Taking Much-Needed Milestone Break
One of our favorite early-season baseball rituals is the old "on-pace-for" game. Unfortunately, it's slim pickings this year; no one's hitting a ton of homers, and there aren't many individuals completely tearing up the league. (It's almost as if they're missing some sort of value-added supplements ...

Time To Panic, Celtics Fans
You know, "panic" probably isn't the right word to use in the headline right there. Panic implies a comprehension of what's happening to you, anticipation of what horrors might be coming. That's not what's happening in the Celtics-Hawks series right now. Everyone — on both teams — seems so shocked ...

1st Round, Third Overall: Falcons Select Matty Ice
The Falcons wish to remain anonymous. After a year of dog torturing and climb-out-the bathroom-window coach quitting, the team would like to return to the quiet old days when David Archer was the quarterback and the average crowd rivaled the turnout on the Asia reunion tour. They hired someone name...

Free Darko On Boston-Atlanta
We're looking at every NBA Playoff series through the eyes of both Free Darko and Basket Bawful. Here's Free Darko's look at the Boston Celtics-Atlanta Hawks series. Your author is Bethlehem Shoals....

Atlanta Versus Boston: The Execution Series
Over the next few days, Basket Bawful and Free Darko will be previewing each NBA Playoff series. Basket Bawful looks at the Eastern Conference today, starting with the series between the Boston Celtics and the Atlanta Hawks, which begins Sunday....

Scott Spiezio Continues To Drown In Boozy River Of Sadness
Former major leaguer Scott Spiezio's tumultuous battle with alcoholism has been marred by some ugly incidents. But even though the 35-year-old Spiezio had some extremely heavy baggage, the Atlanta Braves took a flyer on the guy, hoping he could get his life together and earn a spot on the Braves ros...

Back When Men Were Men, And The Prose Was Purple
Slate's Robert Weintraub, like many of us, loves the old purple prose of early 1900s sportswriting, the Red Smiths, the Grantland Rices, the men who painted epic tales of warriors, grizzled combatants and lardywarks too manly to wear gloves. In an occasional series, Weintraub writes about the week's...

Ron Mexico's Prison Pen Pal
Considering how much Falcons owner Arthur Blank stuck by Ron Mexico for years, before that dog-fighting business, it should perhaps be little surprise that he's still corresponding with Vick while he's in the slammer. How's he doing, anyway? Has he organized a team to beat the prison guards yet?...

Behold Your Nameless Sporting Edifice
There may be no parking and no development around it, but, by cracky, the Lerners got their stadium. And D.C. got to chase all the gay clubs and small businesses away from the Navy Yard. Hooray! Gentrification isn't just for Columbia Heights! America's past pastime gets underway on its own shores an...

Your NL East "Preview"
As mentioned in New York Magazine this week, the Mets have a promotional flyer that says "It's Time For A Little Revenge." As NY Mag pointed out ... hey, you're the ones who choked....

Baseball Season Preview: Atlanta Braves
For the third consecutive season, we are proud to introduce the Deadspin Baseball Season Previews. Yes, baseball is awfully close now; it's spring training, after all....

Michael Turner Is Free To Be Mediocre
Erstwhile Chargers running back Michael Turner, best known to fantasy players as the guy you picked up in a late round in hopes that LaDainian Tomlinson would get injured (BUT NNNOOOOOO HE HAD TO WAIT FOR THE PLAYOFFS FOR THAT), got on the 6-year-deal train which seems so popular this off-season and...

Top 10 Things That Are More Boring Than The Bibby Trade
In case you missed it - and that would have been easy to do - Mike Bibby was traded to the Atlanta Hawks last weekend. I sincerely hope you don't care, but in case you do, the Hawks sent starting point guard Anthony Johnson, 2007 first-round pick Shelden Williams, backup point guard Tyronn Lue, vete...

Beware Mascots Wearing Underwear
General rule about mascots: They should either entirely naked, or fully clothed. Emphasizing that sometimes they might take off clothes, and have a life outside of scaring small children at arenas, is just asking for trouble....