ball Page 1918 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

The Link Between DeBerry, The Astros And Dubya
Fascinating column on the addictive, compelling site Black Athlete Sports Network comparing the situation involving Air Force coach Fisher DeBerry's comments on black athletes and the Astros' dubious distinction of being the first team since the 1956 Yankees to make the World Series without a sing...

Your World Champion Chicago White Sox
Well, huge congratulations to the Chicago White Sox, winners of the World Series, a sentence that makes us feel crazy just to type it. People — including a few people already on our comment boards — may say that the White Sox caught all the breaks and only won close games, including last night, bu...

Can The White Sox Become All-Time Greats?
Well, as Fear And Faith In Flushing sadly put it yesterday, we've reached that depressing point when we realize the baseball season is almost over. The White Sox could win their first World Series since before the Red Sox began all their suffering, and the Astros, as pretty much headline writer in...

Stat Nerds Now Overtaking The Government
We know we re going all financial on you today over here, but here s something interesting: The new chairman of the Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke, appointed by President Bush, is a, of all things, sabermatrician. Yep: He s a Bill James cultist....

Fisher DeBerry, Racist ... Or Just Evil Devil Spawn?
OK, so we've been watching the video of Air Force coach Fisher DeBerry's comments about African-American players, specifically that ""they run extremely well." First off, DeBerry — who we have a sneaking suspicion would be getting a bit more leeway if his team hadn't lost five games already this s...

Get Your Short, Balding Guys!
A friend of ours — one of those overeducated, statistically minded fellows who believes an MBA, a cellphone and lots of Diet Coke can solve all the world's problems — says that if he were owner of a sports team, he'd pay three times what everyone else pays for high-quality general managers, becaus...

Astros Are Texas Toast
News And Notes From A Crazy, Crazy Game • You know what would have been kind of funny? If Astros manager Phil Garner, just a split second after throwing that chair, realized that Craig Biggio's wife had been standing right behind him. "God-DAMN it ... oh. Uh, sorry, Patty." • Does that home run p...

Previewing The Inevitable Umpiring Fiascos
As mentioned regularly here, we're not that much into gambling, mainly because we find watching sports stressful enough without our parents' rent check riding on it, but thankfully our pals at Oddjack has a stronger taste for vice than we do. And he has unearthed a useful tidbit today, one we've a...

Sad, Drunk Cardinals Fans (Aren't They All?)
As the process of destroying Busch Stadium begins in earnest — that picture was taken yesterday; that large object in the outfield is not, in fact, Larry Walker — a reader sends us this pretty awesome video of two drunken, crying Cardinals fans as they refused to leave Busch Stadium after the NLCS...

You're Crazy, Man ... You're Crazy
The Wizard Of Odds sends us this photo of some chubby fellow streaking down the sidelines at Saturday's Cal Poly-Montana game....

Sky Closing In On Astros
For the first time this postseason, the roof at Enron Field/Dick Cheney Field/Minute Maid Park will be open this evening, and that has just about everyone but the White Sox unhappy. In the other postseason games, the roof was closed, and it made for a deafening atmosphere that greatly benefited th...

That Taste? It's Veggie Deep Dish
In the best response we've seen yet to FOX broadcaster Tim McCarver's ultimate foot-in-mouth moment last evening, the mad, depraved geniuses at Yard Work put on their miner's helmets to figure out what, exactly, that taste was in Brad Lidge's mouth that McCarver declared "not there."...

Could ND's Savior Be Gone After One Year?
The Mighty MJD brings up something we hadn't thought about: Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis, the "savior" of college football's most "sainted" program, has a very cheap buyout clause in his contract that would allow him to go to an NFL team for just $1.5 million. That team would have to offer him a ...

Do Not Taunt Lee Corso
Nothing's funnier than when someone all prim and proper freaks out live on the air, so everyone's buzzing today about ESPN college football analyst Lee Corso flipping out on two Dallas radio hombres....

Recruiting Wars Are Always Ugly
We'll confess, the whole notion of recruiting in college athletics leaves us queasy, and we're even more weirded out by fans who are unnaturally obsessed with it. There are countless "recruiting expert" sites that, when you really break it down, essentially make a living by looking at 16-year-old ...

A-Rod Battles Brutal "Asshole" Allegations
OK, everyone and their mother has been sending this to us this morning, so we might as well do something on it. Apparently, Yankees third baseman/lipstick model Alex Rodriguez made the mistake last week of dining at the same restaurant as a blogger (or a friend of a blogger, anyway)....

World Series Roundup: McCarver's Buckner Moment
We don't mean to shrink last night's Amazing Scott Podsednik Moment into a moment of media criticism, but you're all going to be talking about it this morning, so we might as well lead off with it. Right before — like, a split-second before — Podsednik homered off Astros closer Brad Lidge, Fox bro...

World Series Pants Party: White Sox vs. Astros
Well, someone's going to end a whole lot of frustration in the next week and a half, so even if the folks at FOX probably aren't that happy, the rest of us should have a grand time in the White Sox-Astros World Series. This is one of those great World Series where you can kind of sense that fans o...

Great Weekend For Houston's Foot Fetishists
Nothing more classy than Texans, we tell you. As a show of solidarity with the Astros as they prepare for Game 1 of the World Series tomorrow evening, Houston mayor Bill White is encouraging all local residents to go sockless for Games 1 and 2, calling it a "No Socks Weekend."...

Ozzie Guillen Takes Center Stage
What'd we tell you? White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen has taken a hold of the spotlight and strangled it until it looked like the Smurfs at the end of that UNICEF commercial....