baseball Page 484 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Macha Out As A's Manager
Just to show you the magical power of blogging, we are the first people on the Web to break the news that Ken Macha is leaving as manager of the Oakland Athletics. According to Peter Gammons, Macha wanted more money than general manager Smilin' Billy Beane wanted to pay, so he's now a "free agent....

Whose Fans Are The Worst? All Of Them!
Rammer Jammer Yellow Hammer directs our attention to a column by poker dolt Norman Chad who, having decided that life just ain't worth it anymore, decides to rank the baseball playoff teams by their fans. Just a litany of insults all around, and hey, who doesn't like insults? A rundown:...

Playoffs Pants Party: Braves vs. Astros
As Astros blogger Crawfish Boxes points out, the general consensus about the Atlanta-Houston series is that the Astros should win going away. We understand this, somewhat — we begrudgingly picked the Astros to make the World Series, after all — but it seems awfully lopsided, considering the Braves...

Another Freaking GM Who Doesn't Need To Shave
Honestly, at some point, we're gonna end up seeing baseball owners sitting at the bedroom window of high school Strat-o-Matic games, wearing sun visors, peering through binoculars and feverishly scribbling in a notebook. After Rangers general manager John Hart resigned yesterday, the team hired 28...

Live Blog: White Sox vs. Red Sox, Game 1
If you're still stuck at work at 4 p.m., or if you're any further west yonder down the country, we are here to help. After a surprisingly stressful Cardinals-Padres live blog, we're back to do the same for the Red Sox and White Sox. Email us and let us know your thoughts....

Playoffs Pants Party: Angels vs. Yankees
This series will be fun to live in the New York City area during, because tonight's game will surely last past midnight, tomorrow's could last past 2 a.m. and Sunday, if a night game and if played, could turn every sports bar in the city into downtown Baghdad. Of all four divisional series, this i...

Those Racist Cubs Owners
Working presumably from ESPN Page 2 columnist Scoop Jackson's somewhat inexplicable column about racism and Cubs manager Dusty Baker earlier this season, satirical Onion-esque site SportsPickle "reports" that Cubs Management Unsure How To Fire Baker Without Exposing That They're Racists....

Playoffs Pants Party: White Sox vs. Red Sox
We know no one really remembers that the White Sox are actually in the playoffs, but we actually know some White Sox fans, so they do exist, apparently. Most people are giving this series to Boston, which seems odd, considering the White Sox had a better record, home-field advantage and more than,...

Live Blog: Cardinals vs. Padres, Game 1
OK, folks, we are sorry that you're stuck at work all day today, one of the best baseball days of the year. But worry not! We're at home, with vasoline on our fingers and ready to roll. Bookmark this page all day today to check in on the Cards-Padres, inning by inning, fingernail-bite by fingernai...

Pete Rose Spends His Mondays Alone In Vegas
In response to our Pete Rose item yesterday, a reader sends us this missive from Las Vegas:...

Playoffs Pants Party: Cardinals vs. Padres
Well, the playoffs are finally here, which means a month of absolute madness for anyone who dares to root for any of the final eight teams. (To reiterate: As Cardinals fans, October 2004 was the least productive month, professionally and personally, since all 48 months of college.) We at Deadspin ...

Barry Bonds Keeps The Homeland Safe
Well, the regular season is over, which means we have to say goodbye to one of our favorite features: Checking in on Barry Bonds' journal at BarryBonds.com. We love how Barry does "shoutouts" to his corporate sponsors, gives detailed updates on his "rehab" that tend to involve "dropping some weigh...

Pete Rose, Still Around, Still Clueless, Still Doesn't Care
A confession: We can't stand Pete Rose. Ignoring his loutish tendencies in his personal life or his complete lack of understanding of a human being not named Pete Rose — and that includes Pete Rose Jr. — we just can't fathom how anyone could forgive him baseball's one unforgivable sin. Not only sh...

Jim Leyland, America's Role Model
On the list of Baseball Characters, former manager Jim Leyland has to be pretty high up there. As Leyland travels to Detroit to interview for the just-opened Detroit Tigers job, we'd like to hark back to our personal favorite Jim Leyland moment....

Those Raving, Chattery, Jittery Ballplayers
Remember that famous episode of "Family Ties," when Alex P. Keaton, way behind on his studying for his midterms, has to take speed to stay awake and ends up getting addicted? (Our favorite part is when he paints the hallway at 3:30 in the morning and installs an underground sprinkler system.) We'r...

MLB Playoffs: Second Verse, Same As The First
Yesterday was kind of a weird final day of the baseball season; it made us feel sorta dumb for thinking it was such a big deal that we missed most of the early football. The Red Sox "clinched" the wild-card yesterday in the least dramatic way possible, basking in a total choke by the Indians and s...

So Long, Lou Pinella. Let's Forget This Happened
We all knew it was coming, but it's a sad day nevertheless: Lou Pinella has been bought out of his contract by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. The whole Pinella-in-Tampa deal was a quixotic one from the get-go, and, as we all suspected, it seemed to drive Pinella insane. There was the (pictured) dying-o...

Your Weekend Is Already Over
It's pretty clear that those roof gutters aren't getting cleaned this weekend, and the odds are excellent that the kids are missing soccer practice. (Or, if you skew younger, the random woman you met last night with a name that sounds suspiciously like "Steve" is going to have leave your place bef...

White Sox Clinch Playoffs. It's Ozzie Time!
The Chicago White Sox just beat the Tigers 4-2 and are heading to the playoffs for the first time in five years. This means many things, but what's most important is that White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen is about to become a very big, very loud part of every baseball fan's life. So, you know, that'...

What Now, Big Mac?
Tomorrow night, beleaguered former hero Mark McGwire will make his first public appearance since those pesky steroid hearings back in March. At Busch Stadium in St. Louis, former players and various local luminaries — we saw Ray Lankford and Illini basketball coach Bruce Weber earlier this year — ...