baseball Page 472 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Home Run No. 715 — Welcome to Thunderdome
It's out there somewhere, tucked into a box with several of its brethren, sitting in an equipment room somewhere in a National League City — just chilling. It's the baseball that will eventually be hit by Barry Bonds to pass Babe Ruth's career home run mark, and shouldn't we stop for a moment to i...

Team USA Gets Extra Week Of Spring Training
The wailing and gnashing of teeth, the rending of garments, is upon us: The United States has been eliminated from the World Baseball Classic. The team finished 3-3 for the tourney, and some people are screaming that Team USA was a "debacle" and that it's a shame that the "world has passed the cou...

Cuba Crashes Everybody's Party, And It's Awesome
As usual, we had trouble sleeping the night before the NCAA tournament started, so we revved up our MLB.tv last night and watched both World Baseball Classic games. They were, both, amazing. The second game was the one most important to Americans, with Korea winning an extremely tense 2-1 game, le...

Four Tiny Tidbits On: The Pirates
We re only a couple of weeks from Opening Day, so it s time to start previewing the season. Inspired by an old feature on The Black Table, we re going team-by-team and distributing Four Things You Don t Know about them. If you have suggested oddities on your team, send them to us at tips@deadspin....

The End Of Team USA Is Nigh
Amidst all the "The WBC Is So Much Better Than We Thought!" stories, the performance of Team USA continues to be blasted by anyone with a laptop. As much fun as it might be to see A-Rod lose, we can't quite get behind the "they're spoiled athletes!" maxim that people are always applying to nationa...

We've Established What You Are. We're Just Haggling On Price
At first, when we heard about Fan For Hire, we yawned a bit. At first glance, it's just another sports fan trying to make a bit of cash by "auctioning off" his "loyalty." We have no problem with this — there are so few opportunities sports fans have to actually make money rather than, you know, sh...

The Tao Of Zach Duke
The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review is running a spring training journal by Pirates' pitcher Zach Duke, but it's not your typical "Today they served lasagna for our post-game meal" type of offering. Oh, no. Zach is, as your kid's first grade teacher would say, "A very interesting child." Excerpts from h...

The Pitch That Wasn't There
The pitch is called the Gyroball. It's the subject of a book called, translated from the Japanese, "The Secret of the Miracle Pitch." And no one knows if anyone actually throws it....

Four Tiny Tidbits On: The Brewers
We re less than a month from Opening Day, so it s time to start previewing the season. Inspired by an old feature on The Black Table, we re going team-by-team and distributing Four Things You Don t Know about them. If you have suggested oddities on your team, send them to us at [email protected]. ...

ESPN's Barry Bonds "Scoop"
Remember last week, when we were pointing out that ESPN seemed to be underplaying the Barry Bonds steroid revelations? Some of you thought ESPN was protecting Barry because their upcoming reality show with him, while others defended the network, saying that it was merely reflecting the opinion, "Hey...

Now Playing First Base, Bugs Bunny. Second Base, Bugs Bunny. Shortstop ...
We mentioned this yesterday, but it got us to thinking: What was the greatest baseball game ever played? Game 7 of the 1960 World Series between the Yankees and the Pirates? Bobby Thomson's "Shot Heard 'Round the World" that gave the Giants the 1951 pennant over the Dodgers? Well, no such discussion...

The Befuddling Nature Of Hee Seop Choi
Well, it probably won't come as much solace to the Paul DePodestas of the world, but for one week, anyway, the stat nerds have been vindicated; the much maligned Hee Seop Choi is beating the piss out of the world's pitchers. Last night he hit a three-run homer off Team USA's Dan Wheeler — wait ......

A New Definition Of Charlie Hustle
Did anyone else catch Pete Rose on Real Time with Bill Maher this past week? Appearing on the show via remote from whatever Las Vegas casino in which he is now employed as a greeter, Rose did a bizarre five minutes in which he:...

Four Tiny Tidbits On: The Mets
We re less than a month from Opening Day, so it s time to start previewing the season. Inspired by an old feature on The Black Table, we re going team-by-team and distributing Four Things You Don t Know about them. If you have suggested oddities on your team, send them to us at [email protected]. ...

For Those Of You Who Care About The WBC
We fairly certain you weren't watching it — because it was, inexplicably, programmed opposite the release of the bracket yesterday — but Team USA beat Japan in the World Baseball Classic 4-3 on a game-winning hit by Alex Rodriguez, of all people....

Sports Bras Of An Entirely Different Nature
The Japanese are just so far ahead of us in their ability to turn seemingly innocent things into something naughty. First Hello Kitty, and now this. Our national pasttime has become a theme for their undergarments. I have some baseball glove conditioning oil, and I'm willing to help break it in....

More Reasons To Watch The WBC
One of the anti-Castro protesters at the WBC has posted his first-hand account of the incident here. This guy had a sign that said "BASEBALL PLAYERS YES, TYRANTS NO" that he held up to the Cuban baseball players about an hour before the game. He says the sign drew a chuckle and a thumbs-up from o...

Mexican Beans Sold Separately
Fantastic find from The Wade Blogs: Currently up for auction is a wristband worn by Barry Bonds in 1987 for the Pirates that says "Say No To Drugs."...