baseball Page 88 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Deadspin’s MLB Gambling Guide/Futures Bets to make for the 2021 season
One year ago, as the coronavirus pandemic resided through its infant stages, the baseball world was looking on helplessly and having to wrestle with the thought that there might not be a season....

AL Central Preview: Which is it, Luis Robert?
The White Sox are probably the second-most fascinating team heading into the 2021 season. They haven’t quite cannonballed into the pool and ruined the buffet the way the San Diego Padres have — a team they will always be linked to thanks to Fernando Tatis Jr. and the rampant screen-punching amongst ...

The NFL is poised to be the victory cigar
It was a triumphant day for the NFL, at least the business of the NFL and for its owners. Somehow it always is, even when they’re not playing games. The league announced adding a 17th game officially, even though it doesn’t make sense on any logical level other than owners looking at a pile of money...

AL East Preview: Baseball Royalty? Let's discuss
The American League East is full of baseball history and royalty, with the likes of the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees often reigning from on high. Last year, the Tampa Bay Rays stole that crown, winning the division in a shortened season by a commanding seven games. The Red Sox, contrastin...

NL West Preview: The Rise of San Diego, the reign of L.A.
With Fernando Tatis Jr. and Manny Machado, the Padres have the best left side of the infield in baseball and two MVP candidates to lead their lineup....

NL Central Preview: Smell the glove
The teams in the NL Central seem to be going completely anarchist punk these days. In a league where everyone is trying to hit more homers and amass more power, the top of this division’s strength is going to be defense, the absence of runs and hits, the cooler. When is that the case with one baseba...

Brian Cashman was ‘heartbroken’ about Masahiro Tanaka’s experiences with racism, but such reactions insult people of color
The ability to feign disbelief can be more harmful than the act that caused the initial shock. It’s a skill that some white people are either born with or have acquired over time. It’s a classic argument of nature vs. nurture, and Brian Cashman is the latest example....

NL East Preview: Are the Mets good enough to topple the Braves?
You could make a definitive argument that the National League East is the strongest 1-through-5 division in Major League Baseball, so long as no one fucks this up....

With Francisco Lindor and Anthony Rizzo seeking extensions, it's a tale of two owners
Lindor-palooza has apparently begun. News broke last night that the Mets have offered Francisco Lindor a 10-year, $325 million extension to his deal that ends after the season. Lindor is apparently after a 12-year, $385 million deal. As always, both sides are making noise about negotiations being cu...

The last Opening Day
Of course it’s not the last Opening Day this week. There will be a baseball season after 2021. It’s likely that it will be in 2022. But it could not be! You can’t imagine that MLB owners and the MLBPA would lose a full season and another World Series to a work stoppage. But also, you can’t rule it o...

MLB and MLBPA need to pull All-Star Game out of Georgia after passing ‘Jim Crow’-era voting laws
Major League Baseball should take action....

If white athletes took a knee after mass shootings, we’d have gun reform
The most glaring misconception about white privilege is that some white people believe it angers people of color not to have it. That’s a lie. We’re upset because we have to watch as you waste it, knowing all the good we would do with it if we had it....

Jarred Kelenic reassignment means Mariners aren't even hiding service time manipulation
Jarred Kelenic is a future star for the Mariners, who have not been to the playoffs since 2001. The centerpiece of the trade in which Seattle dumped Robinson Canó’s salary on the Mets, Kelenic came to spring training this year, got a real, not just happy-to-be-in-camp uniform number, 10, and then we...

Mike Bell, of famed baseball family, who scrapped his way to majors, dies of kidney cancer
Without ever having met Mike Bell, who died on Friday at the age of 46 from kidney cancer, the story of his baseball life says a lot....

Jack Leiter nearly twirls second no-no in a row, but (rightly) pulled on pitch count
Tim Corbin is the only person in college baseball who can stop Jack Leiter right now, and on Friday night, he did....

MLB continues to fail at marketing its product
Just a question — do you know when MLB Opening Day is? No, seriously, without looking, when is baseball back? Have you heard or seen any advertising? I sure as hell haven’t. Coming out of a year of isolation and quarantine, where we as the sports fans are clamoring for sports back on our screens, yo...

This week in The Ladies Room: The iconic Claire Smith
Welcome to the Ladies Room - A Deadspin Sports Podcast....

20 years ago, we lost a bird to Randy Johnson’s cannon
There aren’t too many things that startle you while watching a baseball game. Comebacks can take innings to complete, rain delays are in the forecast, home runs carry for a few seconds, and errors happen once or twice a game....

Every scuff you take, every smudge you make, MLB will be watching you
It’s been the dirty little secret in baseball for years. Pitchers were doing something to baseballs to increase spin, which either helped with velocity or movement or both. This has been a factor in the far bigger problem than shifts for baseball, i.e. the inability for anyone to make regular contac...

Scott Servais channels humanity, tells idiotic Trevor Bauer where he can stick it
We’ve said plenty here about Trevor Bauer, mostly about him being a colossal jerk, so “Trevor Bauer is a colossal jerk” isn’t news, especially around these parts....