dispatches Page 1 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Success Spoiled Golden State Warriors Fans
A year ago, Steph Curry told SLAM how grateful he was that Oakland had embraced him “as one of their own.” He’s done his part, there: tons of local charity work, putting Oakland on a shoe and then giving 30 of them away. All of which is to say that he could likely tell you more about the town other ...

A Calm But Occasionally Perplexing Interview With The Ex-NBA Scout Who Beefed With All His Critics On Twitter
Bryan Oringher, a former video coordinator for the Wizards as well as a former scout for the Raptors and Hawks, has since left the NBA to make a career in public-facing basketball commentary. The one hitch in that plan is that he has struggled to peacefully interface with the public....

I Beat Up My Own Brain At The American Crossword Puzzle Tournament
I once read an essay from which I can remember a single thing: that the author, a white man entering his forties, was no longer afraid to commit acts of minor to moderate civil disobedience in the service of righteous causes, or for just for shits-n-gigs. Send him to jail? Sure. Whatever he had to p...

"Hey Tony Precum": All The Ways Columbus Crew Fans Expressed Their Rage Towards Owner Anthony Precourt<em></em>
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Across the large swath of the parking lot of Mapfre Stadium before the first Columbus Crew home game of the season on March 10, I could see it clearly: Fans duct-taped owner Anthony Precourt to the side of a red four-door pickup truck....

Going Home To Monterrey For Soccer Valhalla
MONTERREY, Mexico — When I left Monterrey in 2004, I didn’t know that I wouldn’t be back for 13 years. I knew we were moving to San Antonio, Texas. I knew that the Harry Potter movie that had just come out, the one directed by a Mexican, was the best one yet. But I could not have known the turn of e...

What I Learned At Phil Knight's Big Basketball Birthday Party
PORTLAND, Ore.—Here is a story from Swoosh: The Unauthorized Story of Nike, J.B. Strasser and Laurie Becklund’s 1993 book about about the company’s early days. In 1975, Nelson Farris, Nike’s first employee—he still works there, “Chief Storyteller” or some such thing—went to a women’s track meet to s...

Greetings From Palau, The Micronesian Archipelago That Baseball Built
KOROR, Palau—What would a country run by baseball players look like? Would it be a sabermetrics-driven technocracy? A clutch-obsessed theocracy? A cup-adjusting macho dystopia?...

How To Attend A Baseball Game That Never Ends
SAN FRANCISCO, Calif.—There were two problems with my trip to the Bay Area....

These Are The Animal Wranglers Behind The Internet's Only Good Twitter Account
SAN FRANCISCO—Alabama Street runs north through the heart of the Mission, from Bernal Heights Park, past the city’s best burrito spot on 24th, all the way up to 16th Street, when its name changes, for one block, and it becomes Rescue Row. The bulk of the city’s animal outreach and rescue organizatio...

Reconsider The Lobster
ROCKLAND, Maine—The New Hampshire/Maine split on I-95 in Portsmouth, N.H., is unpredictable. Sometimes you’re able to breeze through to your final destination—back to your shit hole of a dorm room in Durham, or off to the Kittery Trading Post to buy a crossbow and a bottle of deer piss—but other tim...

Four Days In The Squall Of A Superfight<em></em>
LAS VEGAS, Nev.—“Man, I’m usually in a suit, but it’s too fucking hot today,” a scalper told me a few hours before the big fight. It truly was too fucking hot. A police dog had to wear booties to protect his feet. This particular scalper was forced halfway inside, working the buffer area between the...

Las Vegas Swells Before A Fight
LAS VEGAS, Nev.—“This man needs no introduction,” said Leonard Ellerbe, longtime member of Floyd Mayweather Jr.’s inner circle, before giving a very long introduction, listing off a bill of stats, records, and bona fides of the greatest active boxer. He really didn’t need an introduction, because at...

Justin Gaethje Is The UFC's New Crown Prince Of Violence
LAS VEGAS—The thing nobody tells you about watching fights live is how quiet the arena can get....

The Future Of Innovation Is Innovation: A Day At Stanford's Sports-Business Conference<em></em>
Stanford University in the springtime is immaculate. There are no clouds in the sky and none of the aerated haze of the East Bay or the fog of San Francisco. Off to the west, the Santa Cruz Mountains gently form the outer boundary of Palo Alto. As I got lost looking for the Stanford Graduate School ...

The Long Ride For The First American Team To Race The Tour Of Iran<em></em>
Chris Johnson realized that the Tour of Iran was a different sort of bike race while trying to solve what’s usually a simple mechanical problem. It was Stage 2 of the five-stage race. Johnson was driving Team Illuminate’s official team car toward an approaching dust storm while Edwin Ávila attempted...

Snow Clash: Watching Soccer Get Weird At 5,000 Feet
DENVER— By almost every measure, Dick's Sporting Goods Park in Commerce City, Colo., is a thoroughly modern stadium. Built for $147 million in 2007 and home to Major League Soccer’s Colorado Rapids since then, it seats 18,000 soccer fans just north of Denver. The entire complex contains 24 soccer fi...

The Sports Fan: What I Learned From Three Days Of Watching Baseball With Bill Murray
In 1990, Peter Richmond spent three days with Bill Murray in Chicago, eating and drinking and watching ballgames at Wrigley Field. He wrote about the experience for The National Sports Daily. His story was recently republished on Bronx Banter and appears here with permission....

Soccer In The World's Most Violent City: The Game
Outside Magazine sent Ryan O'Hanlon to San Pedro Sula, Honduras, to cover the United States Men's National Team's first World Cup qualifying match. He's writing a daily dispatch from Honduras, which we will be republishing here....

Soccer In The World's Most Violent City: The Great Mall Of San Pedro Sula
Outside Magazine sent Ryan O'Hanlon to San Pedro Sula, Honduras, to cover the United States Men's National Team's first World Cup qualifying match. He's writing a daily dispatch from Honduras, which we will be republishing here....

Soccer In The World's Most Violent City: A Postcard From Honduras
Outside Magazine sent Ryan O'Hanlon to San Pedro Sula, Honduras, to cover the United States Men's National Team's first World Cup qualifying match. He's writing a daily dispatch from Honduras, which we will be republishing here....