ben Page 25 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

We have a controversial NCAA baseball call!
This was bad baseball all around, except from home-plate umpire Jeff Head. Almost every bit of the most-important play from the final game of the College Park regional of the NCAA Baseball Tournament was absurd. ...

Anyone who’s still outraged over Draymond Green’s shenanigans this deep into his career just doesn’t get basketball
Let’s get this out of the way first. Any team that strolls into the NBA Finals against the Golden State Warriors and doesn’t expect Draymond Green to pull Draymond Green antics isn’t prepared for the task at hand....

Notre Dame drags fight song into the 21st century
It’s official — 50 years after Notre Dame welcomed the first cadre of female undergraduate students to its campus in 1972, the university has officially changed the fight song, Victory March, to reflect the addition of women....

Jimmy Butler’s superstar card got declined when Miami needed it most
Earlier this month, FS1’s Nick Wright debuted a bit called the Superstar Club. I don’t usually endorse debate show takes, but this was a solid metaphor. Jimmy Butler was depicted standing in line, waiting for entry. In this year’s Eastern Conference Finals against the Boston Celtics, he nearly cemen...

Upcoming sale of the Trail Blazers could partially atone for team not hiring Becky Hammon
If the recent sale of Chelsea FC taught us anything, it’s that sports franchises are as valuable as ever. The English Premier League club sold for $5 billion, and there was no shortage of suitors. That should make Portland Trail Blazers’ fans sleep better in the coming months as a sale of the team i...

International stars are here to stay on All-NBA Teams
Thirty years after the Dream Team introduced the NBA to the world at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, the league has transformed into something that the late David Stern would be proud of. Basketball has truly become an international game....

Not giving Kyrie Irving an extension makes all the sense in the world, except the Nets have little choice
Logically, it makes zero sense to give Kyrie Irving a long-term contract....

Real Madrid have more than just black magic against Liverpool
While four years is a long time in soccer, and teams can greatly transform a couple times in that timespan, Real Madrid and Liverpool look a lot like they did four years ago. Liverpool are still anchored by Virgil van Dijk, Trent Alexander-Arnold, and Andrew Robertson in defense and Sadio Mane and M...

Yankees minor leaguer cut for running alleged memorabilia scam
Can you imagine signing a $597,000 contract to play in the New York Yankees minor league system right out of college, only to ruin it all by scamming fans and stealing bats, gloves and equipment? Jake Sanford, the Yankees third-round pick in 2019, was cut by the club on May 12 for multiple infractio...

The Sacramento Kings will get another shot to blow it in NBA Draft
The Sacramento Kings received another undeserved lifeline during Tuesday night’s NBA Draft Lottery in the form of a three-pick bounce from their projected slot at 7th to the 4th overall pick. Cue the PTSD. The 2022 Western Conference Finals is a testament to how badly the Sacramento Kings have bungl...

Have we learned nothing from Ja’Marr Chase last year?
Before the 2021 NFL season started, before the preseason started, before team minicamps started, from the moment Ja’Marr Chase was drafted, people were calling him a bust. I’m not some saint in this situation either. I wholeheartedly believed that the Bengals should’ve selected Penei Sewell with the...

Joel Embiid is running out of excuses for not getting it done in Philly
Joel Embiid’s MVP-caliber season could come crashing down tonight if he can’t lead his Philadelphia 76ers to a win over the Miami Heat. If Philly gets sent packing in the semifinals again, this will be the fourth time in five years that’s happened. Two things are clear about Embiid’s situation in Ph...

The good, the bad, and the unknown in athlete investments
Whenever I hear about crypto crashing, I think of the Simpsons episode where the tech bubble bursts and a young startup nerd gives Lisa company stock from a spool of toilet paper. (The joke was tech stocks were so abundant and worthless that their only concrete value was using them to wipe your ass....

Jaren Jackson Jr. is showing off his talent on a national stage against the Warriors because, for once, he’s fighting through his biggest weakness
For those who watched the Minnesota Timberwolves vs. Memphis Grizzlies first-round series, their assessment might fall in line with how they feel about The Beatles’ Revolution No. 9. Some people think it’s one of the highest forms of entertainment that a person can consume, exquisite excellence in t...

Why the Baltimore Ravens should be the team to look out for in 2022
The Baltimore Ravens were ravaged with injuries in 2021. So much so that PFF’s WAR-Adjusted Injuries Lost (WAIL) statistic indicates that the Ravens lost about 2.86 wins last season. That would’ve put the team in the playoffs with either a 10-7 or 11-6 record. They possibly would’ve been ahead of th...

Josh VanMeter was forced to catch for the first time in 12 years. It didn’t go well
Ask any Pirates fan and they’ll tell you how bad a second baseman Josh VanMeter is. The 27-year-old is hitting .171 with a .496 OPS in 15 games this season. Well, after today, he’s not only the worst second baseman some Pirates fans have ever seen, but the worst catcher as well. ...

So the James Harden-Ben Simmons trade looks like a dud
Upon hearing the news of any trade, the first reaction is to think about which team won the trade initially. In the NBA court of public opinion, that distinction usually goes to the side that obtains the more prominent name or superstar player. With Ben Simmons (and others) being traded for James Ha...

How do you plan for devil magic?
So Pep Guardiola has to eat shit again. I’ll pause if that sentence makes you giggle (I know I am). Once again, armed with probably the most stacked team in Europe — as he was in Munich, and as he has been in Manchester — and armed with the most cohesive team in Europe, and probably the best team in...

Who's the punk now, Ben Simmons haters?
Former NBA players turned analysts know basketball, but definitely not medicine....
