baseball Page 307 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
An Atlanta Braves-Themed "Blurred Lines" Parody, Featuring Javy Lopez
This is the work of comedian Aaron Chewning and rapper Jonny Quest, two dudes from Atlanta who are big Braves fans and also apparently friends with Javy Lopez....
Gallery: All The Tacky Crap MLB Teams Gave Mariano Rivera This Season
It's looking pretty likely that Mariano Rivera, the greatest closer and one-pitch pitcher in MLB history, will play his last game this Sunday. He holds the saves record at 652, but this only scratches the surface of his statistical dominance. His 2.21 ERA translates to a park- and era-adjusted ERA+ ...
The Gamer According To Tom Boswell
"Baseball has a name for the player who, in the eyes of his peers, is well attuned to the demands of his discipline; he is called 'a gamer.' The gamer does not drool, or pant, before the cry of 'Play ball.' Quite the opposite. He is the player, like George Brett or Pete Rose, who is neither too inte...
The A's Postgame Celebration Featured A Beer-Drinkin' Baby
For the second year in a row, the Oakland A's have shocked everyone by capturing the AL West title. The team celebrated after clinching the division with an 11-7 victory over the Twins last night (the Rangers helped out by losing 4-0 to the Royals), and everybody had a good time. ...
Look At All Of These Goddamn Bees At Angel Stadium
The Mariners-Angels game was delayed Sunday, on account of bees at Angel Stadium. Thankfully, a Getty photographer documented the bee nuisance....
Exit Light
Today gives Mariano Rivera Appreciation Day at Yankee Stadium. Andy Pettitte makes his final regular season start in the Bronx so it's a sentimental afternoon for an organization that's known to lay it on thick. Still, Rivera is one of my favorite players so I can put up with the schmaltz. I've gone...
Here's Willie Mays, MVP, Eating Breakfast In His Little Apartment
In 1954, Willie Mays was 23 years old. That year he hit 41 home runs, had a .345 average, and was the National League MVP. And here he is, at his rented apartment in a Harlem walk-up with his landlady, one Mrs. Goosby, looking protectively over his shoulder as he eats....
The Wit And Wisdom Of The White Rat
Pat Jordan's 1992 L.A. Times story on Whitey Herzog:...
Bill Murray, The Sports Fan
Since we're talking Chicago this week, it's a good time to revisit Peter Richmond's story about hanging with Bill Murray that we reprinted earlier this year....
Wil Myers And James Shields Are The Wild Card Race's Best Show
It's fitting that Wil Myers and James Shields, the two principals involved in the Royals-Rays preseason trade that launched a thousand articles and blog posts about which team had just committed an unforgivable blunder/stolen a great player, are refusing to give us an easy answer to that debate. Wit...
Playing The Game As If It Were A Form Of Punishment For Everyone Else On The Field
Before Game 7 of the 1971 World Series, Roberto Clemente told Roger Angell, “I want everybody in the world to know that this is the way I play all the time. All season, every season. I gave everything I had to this game.”...
Meaningless, Meaningful September Baseball Is Great Baseball
A few thoughts, in no special order, on a lousy ballgame from the other night:...
The Commissioner's Son
Dig David Kamp's 2006 GQ profile of Paul Giamatti:...
The Great Chase
Wladimir Balentien is the new single-season home run king in Japan. Fifty-two years ago, Roger Maris chased Babe Ruth’s home run record here in the States. Of course, he eventually broke it. When he did, this is what the great Leonard Shecter wrote in the New York Post:...
The Radio Game
Dig this bit from Mark Harris' short essay, “Recalling the Joy of Watching Baseball on the Radio,” which is featured in the collection Diamond: The Baseball Writings of Mark Harris. Most famous for his Henry Wiggens trilogy, Harris doesn’t argue that radio is superior to television, just that they e...
Barry Bonds Has Died, According To This ESPN Typo
Hey, I wonder what Barry Bonds is up to these days. Oh, look at this. It seems that he just had his obstruction of justice conviction upheld by a federal appeals court. Bummer for Barry. But wait, there's more: HE'S ALSO DEAD....
The Veeck Family Business: Make 'Em Laugh
Last month, Michael MacCambridge was good enough to include Tom Boswell's 1981 Inside Sports profile of Bill Veeck to Grantland's stellar "Director's Cut" series....
Alex Rodriguez Is The Hero The Yankees Need But Don't Deserve
Hey, remember Alex Rodriguez? The most evilest, steroid-guzzling clown fraud who just a month ago was at the center of the biggest shit storm of the MLB season? The aged, disgraced slugger that everyone wished would just disappear? Well, his old, flawed team is thisclose to making the playoffs, and ...