balls Page 2 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
There is a reason Lionel Messi is tearing apart MLS
It might be hard for most to believe, but Lionel Messi played in his first MLS game Saturday night. I know, I know, you’ve been seeing the highlights and stats before now, but his first steps into the North American game have come in the Leagues Cup, a tournament invented by MLS and Liga MX this yea...
What if there was a Mendoza Line for other baseball stats?
Mario Mendoza put together nine nondescript major league seasons from 1974-1982 with the Pittsburgh Pirates, Seattle Mariners, and Texas Rangers. He was good for -2.7 WAR and finished with a career .215 batting average....
Deuce Vaughn is proving that size doesn't matter in the NFL
Deuce Vaughn has Mike McCarthy drawing up a brand new offensive playbook...
The Phillies are riding a good wave
The good vibes are starting to spill out of South Philly again. The Phillies might not catch Atlanta, but then they proved last season they don’t really care about that sort of thing. Last night, Michael Lorenzen threw a no-hitter in his second start for the Fightins, and his first at home. It is th...
Once again in MLB, it’s better to be worse
MLB owners have been dead set on rewarding their own mediocrity, because the larger economy and society as a whole has basically been set up to reward shitfucks like them for barely being able to remain upright, and intaking oxygen. The expansion of the playoffs was meant to get more money from TV c...
Luis Arraez is going to put up an eye-popping batting average, but how do we equate it?
Let’s bust some dreams right at the top. Luis Arraez is not going to bat .400. He’s not even there now, and will cross into the second half of the season today at .396, which is still incredible. Very few players even get halfway through the season anywhere near the beyond-mythical mark, and Arraez ...
![Alek Manoah has been so awful the Blue Jays sent him to the rookie circuit [Update]](https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/24a6964601a11ab80c478c4a478a38c6.jpg)
Alek Manoah has been so awful the Blue Jays sent him to the rookie circuit [Update]
A 30,000-foot view of the Toronto Blue Jays so far this season wouldn’t detect any huge problems. The offense, while maybe not tearing a hole in the Earth or indeed time as might have been predicted, is still 11th in MLB in runs. Bo Bichette is second in batting average, Vladito is bashing the shit ...
Jimmer Fredette is still out there nailing jumpers
Former BYU and Shanghai Sharks star Jimmer Fredette will be donning the red, white, and blue this summer. Fredette is a member of the United States Men’s 3x3 team. That team will attempt to win a gold medal in the FIBA 3x3 World Championships. The tournament began on May 30, and a champion will be c...
Ronald Acuña Jr. might be starting his own historic club the way he's playing
Atlanta Braves star Ronald Acuña Jr. is running away in the National League MVP race. He’s tied for first in MLB in runs, third in hits, sixth in batting average, fifth in OPS, and second in stolen bases. He has 11 home runs and 22 stolen bases through 51 games, helping the Braves to run away with t...
IDIOT OF THE MONTH: April was bad
Welcome to Deadspin’s IDIOT OF THE MONTH! We’re here to make you think about death and get sad and stuff....
Hey NBA— stop allowing players to 'defend' with bogus charge calls
I was born decades after the Great Depression, so I never had the opportunity to meet Dr. James Naismith. I know that he wanted a game without contact but to make an honest attempt at that goal, players on defense should not be allowed to slide in front of players on offense whose feet are at most o...
How every NFL team should draft, but won't because GMs are dumb
The NFL Draft is arguably the second-biggest event on the league calendar behind the Super Bowl. Every team participates and shapes its roster for the next season. And every franchise will go into the month of May thinking it has made the right moves to get closer to a championship. But of course, o...
8 Cy Young winners taking the mound on MLB Opening Day
It’s the most wonderful day of the year for baseball fans. Well, it’s one of them I guess — Opening Day! After the World Baseball Classic, the real fun begins, right Keith Olbermann? All 30 teams will have 161 games to go in the regular season after Thursday, with eight former Cy Young winners throw...
If Roy Williams and John Calipari accepted NIT bids, so can Hubert Davis
When college basketball’s postseason officially begins on Tuesday evening — on the men’s side — a familiar face will be missing from the fields as the NIT and the NCAA Tournament will tip off. North Carolina’s season is over. And it’s not just because they weren’t good enough to make the field of 68...
Rutgers is the Cinderella that the NCAA Tournament needs
CHICAGO — In just a few days almost every American will be doing the same thing — filling out a bracket. And as people decide on which 12 over 5 upset they’re going to pick, or what team could make a deep tourney run out of nowhere, I’m here to tell you that the first game of the day on Friday at th...
Nobody in the NBA ever told Giannis about Ricky Davis?
Giannis Antetokounmpo was nine years old in Greece in March 2003, so it’s likely that he didn’t watch too many Cleveland Cavaliers games before the Franchise selected LeBron James with the No. 1 overall pick in the NBA Draft that June. Still, a veteran should have told him the story about Ricky Davi...
Deadspin’s 2023 Men's NCAA Tournament Automatic Bid Tracker
The Men’s NCAA Tournament is just over the horizon and as its 32 automatic bids are earned in rapid-fire over the next week, it can be too much to track on your own. That’s what this space is for. One of these 32 automatic bids from a smaller conference is likely to become a Cinderella, but first ga...
Mid-majors to watch in this year’s NCAA tournament
March Madness is just around the corner. Conference tournaments will be underway and soon enough, we’ll be down from 350-plus teams contending for a championship to 68. The high-level conference teams that’ll compete for a title have been well-documented and we’ll no doubt see some of them make it d...
Tuesday night was the newest episode of the 'Lake Show'
Anybody with a pulse could see the tension following LeBron James’ record-breaking basket passing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as the NBA’s all-time leading scorer. The two men, who have scored more buckets than anyone in association history, came off as extremely awkward next to one another during the cerem...