el Page 1943 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Bobby Petrino Admits Having "Inappropriate Relationship," Placed On Paid Administrative Leave
University of Arkansas football coach Bobby Petrino has been placed on paid administrative leave by the university, after he failed to disclose that 25-year-old Jessica Dorrell, a recent hire to the football staff, was his motorcycle companion during last Sunday's crash that put him in a neck brace....

Dodgers Owner Magic Johnson Is Not Thrilled About His Opening Day Seats
Guess you can't tell which one of these gentlemen just made an almost-$1 billion profit by selling a baseball team, and which one just saw his Cy Young Award-winning ace leave the game with the flu....

Better Know An Umpire: Jeff Kellogg
Welcome to Better Know An Umpire, an effort to educate ourselves on the human elements who have ultimate decision-making power over some 2,500 Major League Baseball games a year....

Glory Days: I Went From Fifth To First In The Last Half-Lap To Make States
An occasional series featuring our readers' tales of momentary sports glory. If you've got a video of your own brush with athletic greatness, send it to [email protected], subject: Glory Days....

Bobby Petrino Had A 25-Year-Old Former Volleyball Player On His Motorcycle When He Crashed
The police report for Arkansas coach Bobby Petrino's motorcycle crash on Sunday shows he had a previously unmentioned passenger: Jessica Dorrell, recently named student-athlete development coordinator for football. ...

Mets Announce Largest Crowd In Citi Field History, Apparently Counting Empty Seats As Fans
The Mets' announced attendance of 42,080 is the largest in the three-plus years of Citi Field. This is a stunning turnaround from this morning, when thousands of tickets were still available. And an even more stunning turnaround from earlier in the game, when it sure as hell looked like there were a...

Stay Sober Around Gary Bettman
We missed this when it ran Tuesday, but we'd like to bring to your attention the memoirs of Richard Stursberg, former head of CBC. The excerpt that ran in Maclean's concerns his 2006 negotiations with Gary Bettman over the league's television contract. We pick things up at a chi-chi Italian restaura...

Here's Terry Francona And Bud Selig Arguing Over Who Finished Each Other Off
ESPN's inaugural 2012 baseball broadcast last night didn't exactly go smoothly, what with people flipping off the Baseball Tonight set and cameras catching players pantsless. There was also the issue of Terry Francona's microphone, which had him either sounding like he was broadcasting from a clo...

Rick Telander: Cubs President Theo Epstein Might Walk On Water This Season (Or Something)
Robot-fearing Chicago Sun-Times sports columnist Rick Telander senses a higher power surrounding these 2012 Chicago Cubs. It's something holy and ethereal, or maybe it's grounded in hard, empirical data. Gosh, maybe we'll let him sort this out....

Blake Griffin Returned Pau Gasol To A Very Bad Place With Another Posterizing Dunk
Okay, Blake. We get it. [ESPN]...

Blake Griffin Put Pau Gasol In A Very Bad Place With This Vicious Dunk
Not many people had the chance to see this live, because the Lakers-Clippers game tipped off before the thrilling Thunder-Heat game in Miami had reached its conclusion. So here you are: devastation on a basketball floor as Blake Griffin puts back a miss over the head of Pau Gasol, which may or ma...

ESPN Cameras Caught Rafael Furcal With His Pants Down
With an on-premises pool and the overall clothing-optional vibe of Miami, the new Marlins ballpark is ripe for sighting people without their pants on. We just figured the first person to be spotted sin pantalones would be a spectator, not a player. But ESPN did us right by grabbing this shot of t...

Police Draw Guns On Angels Outfielder Torii Hunter Outside His Home (UPDATE)
Four-time All-Star Torii Hunter was at home this afternoon when his security alarm started going off. The cops showed up, didn't believe he lived there, and actually drew their weapons on him. Hunter relayed the entire ordeal via his Twitter feed:...

If You're In NYC Tomorrow Night, Come Hear Some Good Writers Read To Welcome Baseball Back
This month's edition of Gelf's terrific Varsity Letters reading series focuses on—what else?—baseball. Come hear the Times' Dan Barry, Baseball Prospectus's Jay Jaffe and Steven Goldman, and Glenn Stout, author of Fenway 1912. They're great and so is baseball. 7:30 p.m. Thursday at Le Poisson Rouge...

Better Know An Umpire: Tim Welke
Welcome to Better Know An Umpire, an effort to educate ourselves on the human elements who have ultimate decision-making power over some 2,500 Major League Baseball games a year....

Kaká's Long-Range Finesse Strike Was A Work Of Art
While APOEL's Cinderella run through the Champions League was mostly over before today's return match at Real Madrid even started, Kaká helped slam the door by increasing the aggregate lead to 5-0 when he landed a shot from a position and with a curve more reminiscent of his teammate Cristiano Ro...

Rain Delay Theater: An All-Mississippi Faceoff
Southern Miss and Ole Miss were to meet in a neutral field matchup at the Braves' minor league park in Pearl, Miss. last night, until the rains came. The delay lasted for more than 90 minutes before being called off, giving both teams plenty of time to entertain themselves and the crowd....

Report: The Vikings Are Trying To Hire Bill Parcells
Oh, you thought Bill Parcells was going to babysit the Saints for a year? Not if Zygi Wilf gets his way, says the New York Post:...

Everyone Trying To Undermine Bobby Valentine
Beyond Lester, Beckett and Buchholz, the Red Sox rotation was up in the air. Would it be Daniel Bard, once the closer-in-waiting, now being stretched out to be a starter? Alfredo Aceves, the Yankees cast-off who can start, relieve or close? A guy named Felix Doubront? This being the Red Sox, and thi...

Lebanese Basketball Player Has Career Night, Scores 106 Points Above His Season Average
Mohammad El Akkari is a guard for Moutahed, Tripoli, in Lebanon's Division A League Final 8. He scored 113 points in Tuesday's 173-141 victory against Bejjeh, Jbeil—a slight improvement over his season average of 7.6 points per game. Akkari was 40 of 69 from the field, including 32 of 59 from 3-poin...