da Page 417 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

MLB doesn’t need a 'face of baseball,' and the proof is in the playoffs
Mike Trout has as many MVP awards as career playoff games played, with three, and for as much talk as there might be in baseball — even from the commissioner — about MLB’s need for the best player of his generation to take on the mantle of the face of the game, no amount of marketing can make up for...

Bob Baffert’s attorney gets eviscerated on CNN
After Kentucky Derby winner* Medina Spirit failed his first drug test, his trainer, Bob Baffert, did the media rounds to blame cancel culture and everybody besides himself for his horse’s unusually high levels of betamethasone....

WWE wields the axe again, but at much bigger targets, meaning what?
News of WWE releases have become regular happenings, and yet some of the most anticipated in some ways. That’s because these days, fans can dream of where their favorite, underused, and now free, performers could go to fulfill their promise and have all the creative freedom they lacked with WWE. It’...

HEAR ME OUT: The Lakers need to sit Anthony Davis tonight
Anthony Davis should NOT play in the Los Angeles Lakers’ biggest game of the season....

If only playoff hockey could just be playoff hockey and not these garbage hits
When hockey fans tell you, and they will tell you, that playoff hockey is the best thing in sports, what they’re imagining is that every game, every series, looks like Game 2 of the Avalanche and Knights. The thing is, of course, it doesn’t, and a lot of series are just noisy slogs as coaches really...

Deadspin admires football players legs — you should, too
We’re in that really weird time of the annual football calendar where the only thing football fans can cling to for hope and promise of their beloved sport returning to their screens is pictures and videos of athletes working out in gym shorts. But I’m not judging. In particular, football fans seem ...

Saints’ Michael Thomas is going to prove all his haters wrong in 2021
If you ask a bunch of random people on the street who the best receiver in the National Football League is right now, you’d probably get a wide array of different answers. Green Bay’s Davante Adams would probably get a couple votes. Arizona’s DeAndre Hopkins would as well. Tyreek Hill, Stefon Diggs,...

Damian Lillard is one of the greatest clutch players to touch a basketball
It’s time for us to have an honest conversation about Damian Lillard....

Danny Ainge and Brad Stevens are done — Boston should hire a Black coach – they do well there
Potential is a sly word, as it’s just a nice way to say someone hasn’t done anything yet. It’s a label we attach to people and things that we believe will be able to achieve a certain level of success. Potential is great to have until you don’t do anything with it....

Hear me out: Great as he is, it may be time for Blazers to move CJ McCollum
By now, I’m sure you’ve heard of the otherworldly performance Damian Lillard gave last night in a losing effort — 55 points, 10 assists, six rebounds, three blocks. He’s the first NBA player ever — EVER — regular season or postseason, to post at least 50 points, 10 assists, and 10 three-pointers mad...

Blackhawks sued for endorsing alleged sex assaulter by another victim
First a former player sued the Chicago Blackhawks over alleged sexual abuse from a coach, and now they’re being sued by a former high school player in Michigan where said coach, Brad Aldrich, landed after the Hawks gave him a positive recommendation for the job. The plaintiff is suing the Hawks for ...

Oakland A’s minor league teams postgame meal is straight outta Fyre Festival
You’re a minor league ballplayer. The stadiums may be smaller, the team busses are no private jets, but your physical workload? Well, you’re a professional athlete. That means you probably need to eat a healthy meal after games or workouts. Which… is not asking for a lot. It’s pretty much the bare m...

L.A.’s Game 5 performance puts Laker nation in full meltdown mode
Laker Nation is in turmoil — and it’s absolutely hilarious. ...

I enjoy whatever sport it is Damian Lillard plays
Back when I was in school in Boston in the pre-2004 days (yeah, I’m that fucking old and I don’t need you to remind me), I used to joke with the Red Sox fans in my circle that somehow the fact that the Sox lost the 1975 World Series had been erased from the record books thanks to Carlton Fisk’s home...

Ertz so good, but he’s 31
Philadelphia Eagles tight end Zach Ertz is a 3-time Pro Bowler, Super Bowl champ, and husband to a gold medalist soccer player. Those are some pretty solid accomplishments. Mr. Julie Ertz is just two years removed from a Pro Bowl season in which he caught 88 passes for 916 yards and six touchdowns. ...

The Chicago Cubs are the real-life team from 'Major League'
Now you have to imagine Tom Ricketts in her dress. Have a nice day....

Twins’ Josh Donaldson says pitchers are cheating – and he's got proof
Three-time All-Star and 2015 AL MVP Josh Donaldson is in year two of a four-year deal worth $92 million with the Minnesota Twins. In just over a year with the club, Donaldson is slashing just .225/.343/.422, for an OPS of .765 with Minnesota — a far cry from the numbers the star third baseman was pu...

Now the Leafs have the calamity they’ve always wanted
Because everything is outsized with the Leafs, the idea that they’ve been coughing up genuine chances at the Stanley Cup year-after-year has grown at the rate and scale of The Blob. Being the Leafs, everything around them is audibly multiplied by at least 12, so the sheer volume that is emitted from...

The Top 5 Idiots of May
Welcome to Deadspin’s IDIOT OF THE MONTH, in which we make fun of famous (and non-famous!) people who have done stupid things. And May did not disappoint....

If it’s not the Leafs this season, which teams have the best (worst?) shot at passing the Rangers 54-year Cup futility?
The New York Rangers are the historic gold standard for futility in the NHL, having gone 54 years without winning the Stanley Cup until finally getting the job done in 1994 (see Mark Messier with the Cup above) — after decades of being taunted with “1940” chants in enemy arenas....