el Page 1895 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

If You're In NYC Tonight, Come Hear Some Good Writers Talk Boxing And Soccer
It's time for another edition of Gelf's excellent Varsity Letters reading series. This month's slate features former Washington Post staffer and veteran boxing writer William Gildea, the author Theresa Runstedtler (who has written about boxing legend Jack Johnson), and GQ's Mark Kirby, who will disc...

Craig James Is Broke And Asking His Former Campaign Donors For Money
After leaving his cushy ESPN studio job in order to make a quixotic run for the U.S. Senate from his home state of Texas (a senate run, by the way, that featured unapologetic gay-bashing), Craig James is broke and looking for handouts from his former donors....

Visual Confirmation That Mario Seneca Is The Most Sensitive Umpire In Baseball History
Last night, we told you about minor league umpire Mario Seneca, who ejected the music guy/college intern working for the high-A Daytona Cubs for playing "Three Blind Mice" after a questionable call. Today, video of the incident has surfaced (thanks to the Daytona Cubs themselves) and it confirms o...

Olympics Field Guide: Dong Dong, The Master Of Philosophy And Psychological Warfare
Name: Dong Dong. Yes. Ha-ha, very funny....

This Steelers Fan Has A Memorial Sticker On His Car's Rear Window Dedicated To His Foreskin
I don't know if memorial car stickers are a thing elsewhere in the country, but they're popular in Florida. People here regularly attach vinyl stickers to their rear windows in tribute to a beloved who has passed away....

MLS Defender's First Career Score Was This Miraculous, Game-Tying Goal In Injury Time
If anyone ever openly doubts the idea that it's better to be lucky than good, show them this video of Sporting KC defender Kyle Miller, who used his head in a most fortuitous manner Wednesday night, scoring the injury-time equalizer in a friendly against Stoke City of the Premier League. Even bett...

Recruiter In UCF Scandal Tries To Clear His Name With Bizarre YouTube Explanation
The University of Central Florida football and men's basketball teams were hit with one-year postseason bans Tuesday for allegations that both squads conducted under-the-table business, primarily with a man named Ken Caldwell, that basically amounted to shady recruiting tactics between a third par...

How A Career Ends: Dominique Moceanu, America's Youngest Gold-Medal Gymnast
Tell Me When It's Over is an interview series in which we ask former athletes about the moment they knew their playing days were over. Today: Dominique Moceanu, the youngest American, at age 14, to ever win an Olympic gold medal in gymnastics. Moceanu was part of the Magnificent Seven—along with Sha...

Gregor Blanco's Diving Catches Are Becoming Even More Impressive
This is getting to be old hat for San Francisco Giants fans. First, Blanco became a folk hero in SF for saving Matt Cain's perfecto with an incredible late-game diving catch. Blanco put forth a more impressive version of that feat Wednesday night, with less inherent drama but way more bodily extens...

Minor League Umpire Ejects Ballpark Music Guy For Playing "Three Blind Mice"
If there's one thing umpires love more than ejecting players, it's ejecting non-players. That goes for managers but also fans, mascots, and other ballpark patrons. Tommy Lasorda once complained to umpire Bob Davidson that Youppi!, the Montreal Expos mascot, was jumping up and down on his dugout. (Da...

Joe West Gets Clobbered Upside The Head, Starts Bleeding, Does Not Break Into Song
It was a tough night behind the dish for Joe West, who got knocked hard in the ol' noodle by the follow-through of Carlos Lee's swing. The game was delayed for a few minutes while West was attended to by the Braves' medical staff. Sadly, as far as we know, he did not pass the time by humming a few...

NCAA Names Former Sen. George Mitchell As Penn State's "Athletics Integrity Monitor"
The appointment of an Athletics Integrity Monitor (note the capital letters) is part of the oh-so-serious sanctions the NCAA dropped when it smacked Penn State with its shithammer. This is straight from the statement the NCAA issued today:...

This 90-Year-Old Pole Vaulter Is Much Better Than You
The BBC spent some time in Jonesboro, Ark., where 1984 Olympian and USATF hall of famer Earl Bell runs the training program that produced two-thirds of America's pole vaulters in London. Another familiar face around the facility is Earl's father William, who just turned 90, and can still soar with...

NFC East Quarterback Who Has Actually Won A Couple Super Bowls Says His Team Isn't A Dynasty
Leave the dynasty talk for Philadelphia, where they win Super Bowls nearly every summer. Eli Manning was asked on NFL AM (via ProFootballTalk) whether the Giants constitute a dynasty. His response was essentially "aw shucks, you guys."...

Gore Vidal's <em>Myra Breckinridge</em> Became One Of The Weirdest Movies Ever Made
Gore Vidal died yesterday, and though he appeared as an actor in a few movies—he played a professor in With Honors, an evil futuristic fellow in Gattaca and, most memorably, as Tim Robbins' lefty opponent in Bob Roberts—he'll be remembered, in a movie sense, as the guy responsible for Myra Breckinri...

Bristolmetrics: Tiger All The Time
When last we met, Herm Edwards was pretending he was an NFL coach again, Jeremy Lin's Knicks departure dominated the news, and ESPN made a bunch of sick kids happy. What would this week bring?...

Vin Scully Trying To Describe The Twitter Sounds Exactly What You'd Expect It To Sound Like
I love Vin Scully, and he deserves all kinds of credit for doing his darnedest to keep up with the times at age 84. That said, I'd also love to hear how his producer tried to describe Shane Victorino's tweet when the producer suggested Scully ought to read it on the air, which Scully does in the vid...

North Korean Olympians Are "Delighting The Local People While Arousing Public Interest In Sports," Reports North Korea
Come with us on a magical journey through the Korean Central News Agency, the state-run news agency that is often the outside world's only glimpse into the goings-on in secretive North Korea. All's good in the DPRK today, according to stories like "North Koreans mad at South Korea," "Kim Jong Il's w...

Now Jerry Hairston Has The Ball, Now He Doesn't
You really have to watch all of the video below to figure out what the hell happened here. Chris Young led off the Diamondbacks' ninth by blooping a ball down the left field line. Young figured he could make it to second before Jerry Hairston could throw him out, so off he went. But, somehow, the ba...

Bud Selig Pinky-Swears He'll Retire When His Contract Ends In 2014
No one seriously believes that Bud Selig is anywhere close to retiring, because it would be such an unfathomable thought to have a MLB commissioner actually capable of adapting with the times or that anyone would give up such unabated autonomy as the MLB owners have bestowed on him. Nonetheless, The...