br Page 656 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Brittney Griner Says Baylor Wasn't A Good Place To Be Gay
Brittney Griner came out early in high school, but while being recruited, was concerned that her sexuality would be an issue at Baylor, a Baptist school. "Big Girl, I don't care what you are," Griner said her future coach Kim Mulkey told her. "You can be black, white, blue, purple, whatever. As long...

The Braves Are Getting Racist Hate Mail About Hank Aaron
It's Jackie Robinson Day, a day when baseball takes a moment to recognize the man who broke the sport's color barrier, and the Braves continue to sift through hundreds of letters, many of them littered with racial slurs, bashing Hank Aaron....

Meet An Elite: Gebre Gebremariam
Now that it's cool to care about the Boston Marathon again, Fittish would like to familiarize you with the runners at the front of the pack. Today's elite: Gebre Gebremariam. ...

Chorizo Sausage Eats It During Sausage Race
A reader sends in this front-row view of the Chorizo Sausage eating it during tonight's Sausage Race at Miller Park. ...

Phillies Fans' Reactions To Dan Uggla's Grand Slam Are Amazing
Your most compelling sports video of the year comes from ESPN, which caught these Phillies fans taunting Dan Uggla—then being rudely interrupted by Uggla's grand slam. It was brilliant enough (seriously, great job ESPN) but we took it a bit further with extreme slow motion....

Braves-Phillies Turned Into A Home Run Party
The Braves outlasted the Phillies 9-6 in what turned out to be a surprise slugfest. The game was a 2-1 snoozer until the eighth inning, when Evan Gattis, Dan Uggla, and Andrelton Simmons went back-to-back-to-back for the Braves. Between the two teams, there were five home runs in the final two innin...

This Is The Worst Baseball Column
This has to be a joke, it just has to be. Either it's a joke, or the The Batavia Daily News mistakenly published a Scott DeSmit article on sabermetrics from 2003. There can be no other explanation for this lede: "[c]omputers have ruined baseball and 'Sports Illustrated.'" ...

Revising A Miracle: What if the Mets Had Drafted Reggie?
Dig the 3-part series by Chris and Jon DeRosa. ...

NFL Draft Scouting Has Eaten Itself
We're less than a month from the draft, which means we're at the point where front-office personnel have mostly made up their minds and anything said about prospects is likely to make you demonstrably dumber. To wit:...

Here Are Nebraska Coaches' Talking Points About Unionization
How are other Big Ten schools handling the tectonic movements set off by the Northwestern football players' unionizing campaign? Very, very cautiously, it seems, to judge by the talking points handed down to Nebraska coaches by an associate athletic director....

Is MLB Replay Just Making Things More Complicated?
"It's extremely difficult to have any faith in the process that's being used," Red Sox manager John Farrell said of MLB's new replay review procedure, which went against Boston on consecutive days. "On the heels of yesterday, it's hard to have any faith in the system."...

Martin Brodeur Gets The Bittersweet Goodbye Nobody Wanted
Martin Brodeur's 688th win capped a celebratory and mournful night in Newark, as fans sent off the face of their franchise with a tentative goodbye. Unlike Teemu Selanne, who was in a situation where he could run up the odometer and exit at a time of his own choosing, Brodeur may have just run out o...

It Sucks Being A Catcher, Part 437
After a deflected pitch clipped him on his throwing hand, Yankee catcher Brian McCann's fingers appeared to briefly transform into some kind of horrible jellyfish:...

Justin Johnson Fights The Much Larger John Scott, And Wins
I went to a couple of Manchester Monarchs games while Justin Johnson was on the AHL squad. He was proficient at pummeling dudes, racking up 11 points and 392 penalty minutes in 103 games with Manchester. The Islanders called him up from the Bridgeport Sound Tigers this season, presumably to do simil...

Russell Westbrook Slips And Falls While Blocking A Worthless Shot
Thunder point guard Russell Westbrook has two modes: "on" and "torn meniscus."...

Manny Pacquiao's Mom Wins WBO Welterweight Title Fight
Manny Pacquiao avenged his loss to Timothy Bradley tonight in Las Vegas, earning back the WBO welterweight belt. But the real winner of the match was Manny's mom, whose, uh, enthusiastic praying led many observers to question if she was putting a hex on Bradley....

Bo Pelini Leads His Team Out The Tunnel With A Cat
Nebraska football head coach Bo Pelini walked out of the tunnel with a cat for today's spring game. Even if you don't get the inside joke, it's still pretty funny....

Jeff Teague Crosses Over His Own Brother
If you watched last night's Hawks-Nets game, you witnessed some Teague-on-Teague crime. Atlanta point guard Jeff Teague crossed over on younger brother Marquis Teague so swiftly that those stupid sleeves almost fell off his uniform....

Corey Brewer Puts Up 51 Points, Including A Halfcourt Buzzer-Beater
The gangly Corey Brewer carried the Timberwolves Friday night, scoring 51 points against a Houston squad disinterested in playing defense. Three of those points came from a deep, well-placed halftime buzzer-beater....