bpl Page 23 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
Last Pitch
A week of Father's Day stories continues. This little gem comes from Glenn Stout:...
Bud Selig Kept Saying "The 2000 First-Year Player Draft" Last Night
Via Larry Brown Sports, here are three of the four times Bud Selig introduced a draft pick last night by referring to the year as 2000. He even did it when the Astros took Stanford pitcher Mark Appel with the No. 1 overall selection. Was it wishful thinking?...
Borne Back Ceaselessly to the Future
Glenn Stout's "Requiem for Fenway"—from the June issue of Boston Baseball, and reprinted on Stout's blog, Verb Plow:...
For Better Or Worse, Barry Zito Is Always There For The Giants
On October 19, Barry Zito took the mound in St. Louis, with his San Francisco Giants trailing the Cardinals three games to one in the NLCS. He was not the pitcher the Giants would have wanted, one game from elimination. Nine days earlier, in his first start of the postseason, Zito had been yanked af...
Sergio Romo Struck Out Miguel Cabrera With The Ballsiest Pitch Of The World Series
When Sergio Romo sealed his team's World Series victory with a strikeout of Miguel Cabrera, it was hard not to wonder what the hell Cabrera was thinking. On a 2-2 count, he watched an 89-mph fastball sail right over the middle of the plate, his season ending with his bat on his shoulder. Wainwright ...
The Giants Sweep The Tigers To Win The World Series
This postseason began with plenty of dramatic games and wild finishes. The World Series had not followed suit, not until tonight, anyway. At least there was finally some back and forth in this game....
A Very Important Prince Fielder GIF
If Fox didn't intend us to use its super slo-mo camera for juvenile purposes, well, they should just shut the whole thing down....
Phil Coke's Story About Striking Out Miguel Cabrera Is Hilarious
Phil Coke jumped squarely into the postseason spotlight when he took over as the Tigers' closer during the ALCS. His newfound notoriety earned him an interview on the MLB Network's Intentional Talk last week, and he took the opportunity to tell a story about having to remind Miguel Cabrera that he...
Dale Murphy Saw Pablo Sandoval's Homers Last Night And Wished He Had Been Fat When He Played
The pudgy Pablo Sandoval spanked lean, mean Justin Verlander during Game 1 of the World Series last night. Fat Ichiro—that's one of his nicknames—hit three home runs. This was improbable. Sandoval hit only 12 all season. Verlander allowed only 19 all year. But Fat Ichiro can do that to you....
That Damn Marlins Fan Was Behind The Plate Again Last Night At The World Series
Perhaps you noticed a douchey-looking gent behind home plate during NLCS Game 7, wearing a bright orange Marlins jersey and Marlins visor worn sideways. If not, you definitely saw him in the same seat tonight, still wearing the Marlins shirt though in a panda hat (that he later changed to a differe...
The Hilarious Greatness Of Pablo Sandoval, As Glimpsed In Three Swings That Shouldn't Have Been
A 95 mph chest-high fastball. Another 95 mph fastball, this one at the knees on the outside corner of the plate. A tumbling breaking ball headed for the dirt. These are the three pitches that Pablo Sandoval hit out of the park last night. It's very likely that no other player in baseball would've hi...
Pablo Sandoval And The Giants Rocked Detroit For A Shocking Game 1 Win
There were many predictions being tossed around in the minutes before Game 1's first pitch, but what most folks generally agreed upon was that Tigers ace Justin Verlander would have little-to-no problem with this Giants lineup. By the same token, there was no chance (right?) that Barry Zito, who ...
The Last Center Fielders Standing Are Two Damn Good Ones
You've assuredly heard lots about the players who will be most important in this World Series. Buster Posey, Justin Verlander, Miguel Cabrera, Prince Fielder, Matt Cain, Pablo Sandoval—they were deserved all-stars in July, and they've been talked to death this October. But why think of the World Ser...
Grantland's Jonah Keri Picks The Giants In Seven; ESPN's Jonah Keri Likes The Tigers In Five
Today on Grantland, a pair of World Series preview pieces: Rany Jazayerli on why the Tigers could win, and Jonah Keri on how the Giants could take home the championship. Both men predict the series will go seven games—Jazayerli takes Detroit; Keri, San Francisco. Also on ESPN.com: a list of experts'...
Someone In Detroit Wants To Trade His House For World Series Tickets
Here are two things that Detroit has:...
The Giants Are Headed To The World Series Without One Of Their Best Players Because They Are Stupid
The San Francisco Giants will play in the World Series with a stupid, self-inflicted handicap. They will be without Melky Cabrera, their best regular-season hitter. Cabrera, whose 50-game performance-enhancing-drug suspension just ended, was left off the Giants' postseason roster for the dumbest of ...
The Giants' Pennant Run Ended Right As Rain
How many LCS clinchers, not involving your team, do you actually remember? Carlos Beltran standing stock-still, Aaron Boone going deep, Sid Bream's slide, Chris Chambliss's homer...and that's probably about it. It's probably fair to add last night's Giants win, a 9-0 drubbing that was decided by th...
"3 words... FIRE MIKE MATHENY": The Best Fans In Baseball Are Having A Major Meltdown
Cardinals fans are known the world over as the best fans in baseball. This is, of course, indisputable but it makes what has to be a fandom-wide psychotic break after watching their beloved Cardinals get shellacked by the Giants in Game 7 of the NLCS troubling indeed....
The San Francisco Giants Are Going To The World Series
The Giants trounced the Cardinals by a score of 9-0, completing an impressive comeback from a 3-1 series deficit and managing to kill the previously immortal St. Louis Cardinals. Even a team as resilient as this Cardinals team can only be carried so far by the likes of Daniel Descalso, Pete Kozma, ...
Hunter Pence Had Three Hits On One Swing
OK, so technically that's impossible, but look at this thing! In the bottom of the third, as Hunter Pence's bat explodes in his hands, the ball makes its way down the barrel of the bat, hopping all the way like some kind of concussed bouncing Mickey Mouse head in a Sing-Along Song. Pence wound up w...