baseball Page 8 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
Don’t let Michigan and Michigan State’s dramas distract you from Northwestern’s
It doesn’t matter if you love or hate what has become of Michigan football this season, or if the drama around them has made you forget about Mel Tucker and Michigan State, we can all agree that they’ve both been the common denominator of their own drama. But that doesn’t mean they’ve been the only ...
The Phillies are betting on Aaron Nola to bounce back
The numbers add up for the Phillies to hand Aaron Nola a seven-year deal with an average of $24 million or so per year. Losing him would have meant a hole in the No.2 spot of their rotation. at the very least, and the Phillies aren’t chasing down Atlanta (even if at this pace their 40-man roster mig...
Joey Votto deserved better than this
Joey Votto is no longer a Cincinnati Red. Even two weeks later, it feels weird to type. ...
Ron Washington’s hiring is a bizarre move for the Los Angeles Angels
The hiring of Ron Washington is the type of short-term thinking that has come to define the Los Angeles Angels since Arte Moreno officially bought the franchise during the spring of 2003. Those Anaheim Angels were the defending champions. Washington is taking over a club with a hellish trajectory. T...
MLB owners approve team that they will soon hate
It has been said by many more talented and knowledgeable people than me that the biggest problem with MLB owners is all they see is the next dollar, not the five farther down the line they could have, much less the next win. Oh sure, there are exceptions. Philadelphia’s John Middleton seems to get i...
Jerry Reinsdorf has McConnell’d half of Chicago
I and many other Chicagoans used to sit in our simple Midwestern homes, huddled by the coal stove or whatever people picture us doing in the winter (it’s not that far off, it’s just huddled at the bar), and have a good chuckle at how New Yorkers were sentenced to a life with James Dolan. Here was a ...
Shohei Ohtani's most likely landing spot is the NL West
We’ve come to the end of our tour of the islands of every MLB team’s offseason outlook. We wrap up in the NL West, still the favorite landing place for Shohei Ohtani, as two of the rivals here are going to duke it out to bring him either slightly up the coast or six hours up it. One more time…...
If Shohei Ohtani stays in the AL West, it sure as hell won't be with the Angels
We’re almost through it. Today we head to the left coast, where the champs live…well, not actually. They’re in the middle, but they play in the division that’s ostensibly supposed to be about the left coast. Anyway, that’s not why you called! Let’s run through the division that had the best race las...
Will the Texas Rangers please <i>PLEASE</i> knock off the Astros?
Was it inevitable? One won the American League West, while the other led it for most of the season and was forced to go the wild-card route to make it to this stage. The Texas Rangers and Houston Astros share a state and are bitter rivals and will face each other in the postseason for the first time...
What’s to be done with these Los Angeles Dodgers?
You kind of knew it was over for the Dodgers the minute they acquired Lance Lynn. Lance Lynn? This is the Dodgers, for Christ’s sake! When they need help in the rotation, they go get Zack Greinke, or Yu Darvish, or Max Scherzer. They shop at the supermarket that plebs like you and I aren’t even allo...
In a move that shocks no one, Kansas barely gets a slap on the wrist from the NCAA
Did anyone expect a different result? ...
Tuesday night should’ve been only celebratory for this Texas Rangers fan. It wasn’t
Last night should’ve been pure, unadulterated joy. I haven’t been shy when it comes to the Texas Rangers and writing about my favorite baseball team. It swept the 101-win Orioles and advanced to the American League Championship Series for the first time in a dozen years. I was a sophomore in college...
Michigan TV network fires sports director for Mel Tucker ‘analysis’ that read more like PR work
Last Thursday, sports reporter Audrey Dahlgren had a very bad day, by journalistic standards. After attorneys for Mel Tucker, the recently fired head football coach at Michigan State, released 98 pages worth of text messages sent by Brenda Tracy — an anti-rape advocate who filed a Title IX complaint...
Now comes the tricky part for the Orioles
It’s awfully easy, and too easy, to point at an up-and-coming team like the Rangers that spent a lot of money to augment the players they developed from within and say that’s the reason they clobbered an up-and-coming team like the Orioles that did the exact opposite, basically only adding the decre...
This is part of Clayton Kershaw's legacy, too
Clayton Kershaw is the best pitcher of the 21st century. This much isn’t really in dispute. A career 2.48 ERA and 2.82 FIP over 16 years is unimpeachable. There’s three Cy Youngs to go with it, and an MVP in 2014 when he had a 1.77 ERA and a 0.857 WHIP, which is beyond stupid. He probably should hav...
The Miami Dolphins and San Francisco 49ers can afford to gamble
A couple of early season behemoths in the NFL rolled the dice with house money Friday as the San Francisco 49ers’ defense got scarier with the addition of edge rusher Randy Gregory, and the Miami Dolphins’ offense folded Chase Claypool into a ridiculously talented group of skill players. The two tra...
MLB got what it deserves with its wild-card round
MLB and Rob Manfred don’t really have to care what happens in the wildcard round. Their only aim was to provide more playoff baseball, good or not, because its mere existence netted them more TV cash. So the fact that MLB will get no Game 3s, no interesting storylines, and barely any drama, followin...
It shouldn't be this funny to see a tennis player mistakenly hit an umpire in the face. But it is
I’m told tennis is up there with golf on the list of leisure activities that aren’t as calming as they’re intended to be. While any miscue during a round of 18 is technically an unforced error, they’re documented in tennis, and there is a cumulative effect as the slight screwups can build to a momen...
Tampa Bay Rays fans have plenty of reasons to take a WFH day — even during the playoffs
Call it an all-around epic fail. ...
Randy Arozarena’s mom’s opening pitch was straight gas
A player’s mom throwing the first pitch at an MLB game, what a sweet story. Add to it the fact that her day at the mound is the first time that she has seen her son play in the big leagues, the story is worthy of a tissue dab to the corner of both eyes. Randy Arozarena’s mom, Sandra Gonzalez, turned...