e Page 7754 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Your Heat/Mavericks Game Two Open Thread
The Miami Heat try to retain home-court advantage with a win over the Dallas Mavericks tonight. Nowitzki'll wear a middle-finger splint, so unless he has experience excelling with his middle finger all doctored up, they probably will. Or won't. Most Americans don't seem to care....

Your National Spelling Bee Open Thread
Yeah, this is going to get MURDERED by the Finals tonight. But the Spelling Bee really is the tits. ESPN's coverage is a million times better this year, with Sage Steele instead of Erin Andrews (at least in the early rounds), and now they don't spoil the words for you before the kid starts to spel...

Cubs Pitcher Can't Break A Bat Over His Leg Unless Given Two Attempts
After watching his pitcher lose his shit after a Houston Astro struck him out, Cubs manager Mike Quade compared Carlos Zambrano to Cosmo Kramer....

I've Been Staring At This Bizarre Photo For Almost A Minute And I Still Haven't Blinked (NSFW?)
For whatever reason, a reader named "Adem" sent this pic in an email without any logical explanation. So I leave it up to you people to figure out the sad, mysterious backstory of this screen-capture from what appears to be some sort of hostage situation at an S & M dungeon filled with fast food em...

Tiny Child Inspires Us To Get Up Off Our Asses To Pwactice Widing A Bike
With the way cynicism travels through generations these days, we'll give him about six to eight years before he realizes that compared to the rest of life, riding a bike isn't really a big deal at all. But my god, what good cheer! Consider this cold heart (especially from someone who also struggle...

Watch This Heroic Linesman Valiantly Try To Keep The Portland Timbers Undefeated At Home
Despite the best efforts of its alcoholic fans and a possibly drunk linesman, the Portland Timbers finally lost at home this past weekend. For a while, though, it looked like Portland might steal a victory from visiting DC United. That was because the refereeing crew seemed determined to give the ...

Baseball Gets It Right On Officiating Where The NBA Falls Short
After the shouldabeen perfect game, Armando Galarraga and Jim Joyce wrote a book together. Because they've got a business relationship, says MLB, Joyce would not be allowed to work any games involving Galarraga's teams....

A Brief Interview With An Ohio State Fan Who Named His Kid "Tressel"
Andy Tomcho is a Cleveland native, former Ohio State student, and die-hard Buckeyes fan who, upon the arrival of his first-born son, graced him with the only name that made sense: Tressel Andrew Tomcho. Named, of course, for deified OSU football coach Jim Tressel. This was nearly two years ago, far ...

Big Ten AD Not Named Gene Smith Says You Can Win Without Cheating
Every morning, the fine folks at Sports Radio Interviews sift through the a.m. drive-time chatter to bring you the best interviews with coaches, players, and personalities across the sports landscape. Today: Gene Smith's job is safe. Barry Alvarez takes a stand....

Dirk Nowitzki Is Probably The Only White NBA Player That Two-Thirds Of The Nation Can't Recognize By Name
Dirk Nowitzki is a former league MVP and ten-time All-Star, he's twenty-third amongst the NBA's all-time scoring leaders (third for active players, with 22,792 career points), and he has the waviest wave of any player in the pros. But his name is foreign and his incessant gape doesn't look very good...

Ryan Leaf Used To Be Carried In The Arms Of Cheerleaders, Part 4,397
New blue blood/great white hope beats painkiller addiction, but still ends up with a lumpy tumor on his brain that may require radiation treatment to destroy it. Still, his outlook is serenely positive: "If you deny the fact that things are happening to you, that this is going on, whether it's negat...

An Edmonton Oiler Picked Up A Hitchhiking Bono In Vancouver
As a young driver, they used to tell me: Always pick up hitchhikers. You never know when one of them will be the guy who scored Spider-Man: the Musical....

Why Mike Emrick Is The Best
SI has a nice profile this week of hockey's undisputed signature voice, Mike "Doc" Emrick. The story picked up some of the things that make Emrick a great play-by-player: his research, his enthusiasm, his longevity....

Here's A Taste Of The Child Torture That's Happening Over On ESPN Right Now
This is what happens when a Jamaican kid is given a Sanskrit word, and shipped off back home, never to return....

Guess Which City Is Having A Pearl Jam Bobblehead Night?
The Seattle Mariners are hosting the Rays on Friday evening, and because they already had a bobblehead night for Felix Hernandez, they have no choice but to start honoring local grunge rockers. Friday night is Mike McCready night at Safeco Field, which also happens to overlap with a benefit night fo...

Shane Mosley Wanted To Throw In The Towel Against Manny Pacquiao
Mosley has never quit a fight. Hell, he's never lost a fight without going the distance. But here's Sugar Shane, late in his fight against Pacquiao, begging his corner to throw in the towel. (This Philippine newspaper says it's the tenth round.)...

Confessions Of A Second-Grade Reaganite
Ronald Reagan would have been 100 years old this year, but he's dead now and riding ponies up in heaven or something. I was in second grade in 1984, when Reagan defeated Walter Mondale in the biggest election landslide in American history. And for reasons unknown to me now, I appear to have adored t...

The Justice Department Is Very Interested In The BCS's Legality
As are we all (fans will take the empire crumbling any way they can get it, but the government probably has more say in that than sports writers.) Bill Hancock will meet with DOJ lawyers sometime this summer for what he's calling a "voluntary background briefing." Basically, they want to know how th...

Braves Reliever Peter Moylan Is Ready To Strut
Moylan tweeted a photo of his fiancée in the dress she planned on wearing to the ESPYs. Then he, uh, tweeted a photo of himself ("Thanks for the feedback! I was gonna wear this!! What do u think?") in a dress that showed more tattoos and cleavage than did his fiancée's....

If You Had June 1 In The "Mets Finally Drive Terry Collins Insane" Pool, You Win
Last night's bullpen meltdown wasn't even particularly spectacular, as far as Mets losses go. (And there have been 30 of them already.) But it was the last straw for Terry Collins, who wishes he had less Buffalo Bisons on his team and more Andrew McCutchens....