dor Page 32 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

That Wacky Astros Four-Man Outfield Shift Is Spreading
The defensive shift is having a moment. It’s of course being used more than ever, and now even by certain crotchety types who’d previously resisted it. Royals manager Ned Yost, for example, is skeptical of statistics that support use of the shift, and in fact is vocally in favor of the shift being b...

College Runner Who Almost Burned To Death Reaches NCAA Final Two Years Later<em></em>
Probably the easiest sports story to write is one about a meteoric improvement. The Wow This Person Got A Lot Better At Sports story is one that works in every sport, honestly, but it tends to be most common in ones like running or swimming. (Stories about rapid improvements in those sports generall...

Reds And Rockies Decide To Suck All At Once
Baseball presents its players with infinite ways in which to humiliate themselves, and they often do. But rare is the occasion on which we are given the tasty treat of multiple baseball players embarrassing themselves on the very same play. Take it away, Reds and Rockies:...

Gnarly Rougned Odor Takeout Slide Sparks Benches-Clearing Hullabaloo
Benches cleared for a bustling group therapy session after Rougned Odor tried and failed to break up a game-ending double play Friday night by sliding in wide and with his spikes up on the relay from Andrelton Simmons:...

Doris Burke Was Wrecking Shit In High School Basketball
Before she was Doris Burke, widely beloved NBA analyst for ESPN and ABC, she was Doris Sable, menace in transition with an extremely tight handle. ...

Runners Advance On Umpire's Armpit Catch
Weird stuff happens in baseball. Maybe it’s that there are so many games, and so many repetitions of the same process, that the timeline for seeing every possible outcome is condensed by sheer volume. At any rate, you have probably never seen this one before:...

The First Woman To Do A Triple Axel Is Still Skating
This week, Tonya Harding placed third in the Dancing With The Stars final. As we were reminded throughout the (blessedly) brief season, Harding was the first American woman to land a triple axel in competition, which she did in 1991. But Harding was not the first woman ever to do this jump—that dis...

Worthless Jedi Absolutely Humiliated By Cunning Novice
Astros mascot Orbit, who is also apparently a Jedi, was challenged to a lightsaber duel by Indians shortstop Francisco Lindor on Friday. Gotta say, I am starting to believe more and more in Luke Skywalker’s bitter “actually the Jedi are busters” preachings:...

Jozy Altidore's Foot Surgery Could Put His World Cup In Dange—Oh Wait Goddammit
In a better world, the news that Toronto FC and USMNT striker Jozy Altidore’s underwent foot surgery yesterday would’ve been awful. Oh Christ, you would’ve thought to yourself after seeing the Altidore news in this hypothetical world where the weather’s a little nicer and your parent company is a li...

Padres Rookie Pitcher Can Only Gaze Admiringly At The Grand Slam He Just Gave Up
Every baseball rookie has his “Welcome to the bigs” moment. Padres pitcher Eric Lauer’s would be better characterized as a “You’re playing real baseball now, motherfucker” experience....

A Dumb, Specific Argument About Balks
It doesn’t take long at all for any debate about a balk to feel extremely stupid, or, at least, extremely tiring; this is due, in large part, to the fact that there’s no great shared understanding of what a balk is. Not among fans or broadcasters or even umpires, sure, but not quite among the league...

Javier Báez Came Up With A Novel Way To Prevent Sign-Stealing
Sunday’s game between the Cubs and Rockies was an entertaining one, featuring some stellar defensive plays from Albert Almora, Jr. and a handful of dingers. Also, we have a middle-infielder beef!...

Francisco Lindor Dinged A Homer In San Juan And Everyone Went Nuts
Cleveland and Minnesota are playing baseball in San Juan tonight, which marks Puerto Rico’s first meaningful MLB game since 2010. That makes this otherwise pretty random April match-up extremely meaningful for Cleveland’s most lovable player—shortstop Francisco Lindor. Lindor was born in Caguas, 20 ...

Let's Enjoy Some Pictures Of The Day In Baseball Donnybrooks
Baseball featured one tussle in the afternoon (Padres-Rockies, after a few hit batsmen) and one in the evening (Yankees-Red Sox, after one hit batsman and one hard slide) and, as always, the resulting photographs from Getty and the Associated Press are much more engrossing than any video can be. Her...

The Rockies And Padres Had Themselves A Scuffle
The Padres and Rockies are playing a game in Colorado today, and things really went to hell in the third inning after Padres starter Luis Perdomo threw a fastball behind Nolan Arenado, sparking a benches-clearing fracas....

<i>Denver Post's</i> Guide To Rockies' Stadium Features Big-Ass Photo Of Phillies' Stadium
This is an unfortunate thing that happened in the pages of the Denver Post:...

Rockies Extend Vivacious, Pure, Witty, Suave, Athletic, Cordial, Bearded Strategist<em></em>
The Rockies have extended leadoff hitter Charlie Blackmon with a six-year deal, ensuring that at least one part of the team’s core will be around for the long haul. Blackmon, who was drafted by the club in 2008 and has been with them since, was otherwise set to become a free agent this winter. He wo...

Salvador Perez Sprains MCL Carrying Suitcase Up Steps
Royals catcher Salvador Perez will miss at least the first month of the season after spraining his medial collateral ligament while carrying a suitcase up the steps of his home....

Resourceful Soccer Teen Defends Himself From Angry Opponents By Weaponizing Corner Flag
As they so often do in South American soccer, things turned violent yesterday during a U20 Copa Libertadores match between Independiente del Valle and River Plate. Rather than get whaled on like another South American soccer teen we’ve seen recently, one Independiente player ran over to the corner f...

We Got A Minor-League Hockey Goalie Fight
The Walleye no longer play at the Toledo Sports Arena, but the ECHL action tonight brought back memories of that smoke-filled brawlatorium as tonight’s game against the Kansas City Mavericks got feisty in the third period:...