ew Page 2907 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Won't Somebody Remind A.J. Pierzynski There Are Only Two Outs?
Top of the eighth, none on, one out, and Matt Thornton catches David DeJesus looking for strike three. The White Sox are well on their way to avoiding a sweep. OK. Looks like Starlin Castro is up next, and—hang on. A.J.? Yo, A.J.? What the—where's he going? Hey! Wait. Did everyone forget? Don't they...

Darren Rovell Is Indeed Going To ESPN, ABC News, Reportedly For More Than $500,000 A Year
And it's official: Sports biz guy Darren Rovell is leaving CNBC after six years, having reached an "agreement in principle" with his old home, ESPN. Rovell tweeted this morning:...

If You're In New York City Tonight, Go Listen To Some Fine Writers Praise And Scorn The Yankees
This month's edition of Gelf's terrific Varsity Letters reading series brings together Rob Fleder (he edited Damn Yankees, in which this appeared), Steve Rushin, and our man Alex Belth (who profiled George Kimball here in December), and, if you so choose, you, dear reader! 7:30 p.m. tonight at Pacif...

Carlos Santana Was Out By Six Feet, Except That Umpire Jim Wolf Is Legally Blind
Most of the time, umpiring is really easy, like this play from last night's Reds-Indians game. Joey Votto scoops up the grounder on the first base side and throws it to shortstop Zach Cozart, who's covering second. Carlos Santana basically gives up on sliding into the base, because he recognizes, b...

Brandon Jacobs Pays Back Six-Year-Old Who Mailed $3.36 From His Piggy Bank
When we last heard from six-year-old Joe Armento, he had unsuccessfully attempted to persuade running back Brandon Jacobs, who had just signed as a free agent with the San Francisco 49ers, to stay put in New York. More precisely, he tried to lure him back by enclosing in the envelope $3.36 from his ...

Can Science See Inside An NFL Player's Skull Before It's Too Late?
Chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, is a diagnosis for dead people. Last month, Junior Seau was found in his home in Oceanside, Calif., with a fatal self-inflicted gunshot wound to the chest. A familiar sequence unfolded: His brain was requested by both the Brain Injury Research Institute and ...

There Was An Inferior Substitute To Front-Row Amy At Yesterday's Brewers Game
A few weeks ago, the ever-present Brewers fan Front-Row Amy missed a game. Mavens worried for her health, as a framed photograph of the Milwaukee superfan was in her usual seat. Not to worry, though, as she was back for the next game and looking her usual best....

Todd Helton's Heartbreaking Moment Of Staggering Forgetfulness Leads To Walk-Off Loss
It was a bad night for Todd Helton, the cornerstone of the Rockies for 16 seasons, he of the .321 lifetime batting average and 58.7 WAR (good for 11th among active players and higher than Vlad Guerrero, Ichiro, and a slew of others you'd expect to be above Helton). But tonight in Philadelphia, when ...

Artist LeRoy Neiman, The Ring Announcer From The <em>Rocky</em> Movies, Has Died
To some people, LeRoy Neiman will be better known as the popular artist who helped capture and immortalize moments from five different Olympiads and painted portraits of dozens of notable athletes over the years. Here's a sampling of his work. Chances are you've seen one or 10 of these somewhere....
![Darren Rovell Is Very Likely Going Back To ESPN [UPDATE]](https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/17qel5qm7l0i0png.png)
Darren Rovell Is Very Likely Going Back To ESPN [UPDATE]
Two weeks ago, we revealed that CNBC'S Darren Rovell was duped by a teenager who claimed to have a fake escort service. This evening, ex-Fox Sports PR guy Vince Wladika tweeted this:...

Joe Maddon Vs. Davey Johnson Is A Great Old Man Fight
"The most boring ejection in baseball history?" No way, man. Davey Johnson and Joe Maddon, two feisty and erudite managers representing the oldest of old and newest of new schools, have moved into their second day of sniping after Johnson alerted the umps to some pine tar on Joel Peralta's glove. Th...

Jayson Williams Is Sober, Gunless, Brutally Honest, And Determined Not To Go Back To Prison
When last we saw former NBA All-Star Jayson Williams, he was pleading guilty to aggravated assault in the 2002 accidental shooting death of his chauffeur. That was more than two years ago. Including a separate guilty plea for drunken driving, Williams spent 26 months in jail before being released in...

We Would Pay Good Money To See A Clinton Portis-Joe Biden Buddy Film
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: Portis loves Biden, and Dan Snyder too....

A <em>Big Bang Theory</em> Rerun Outdraws Fox's MLB Game Of The Week And ESPN Sunday Night Baseball, Combined. Last Week's TV Ratings, In Context.
A weekly feature wherein we contextualize TV ratings for national sports broadcasts. Data via Nielsen and Sports Business Daily. Viewership numbers represent the average number of households tuned to a given program; ratings share refers to the percentage of all households using a television who are...

Bristolmetrics: <i>SportsCenter</i> Spent 45 Seconds On The Jerry Sandusky Trial Last Week
When last we met, the Heat got nearly as much coverage as every other sport combined, the NFL doldrums meant the Jaguars were somehow the most talked-about team in football, and the Mets were temporary kings of MLB. What would this week bring? ...

Steve Carell, The Star Next Door
Seeking a Friend for the End of the World is probably the most Steve Carell movie that Steve Carell has ever made. With someone else at the helm, this comedy-drama's quirky/emo storyline—two mismatched East Coast neighbors take a road trip together as the planet is weeks away from destruction—might ...

Here's The Rays' 1979 "Throwback" Jersey
Joe Maddon, you're a damn good sport. (Except when you're calling out the Nationals for a "pussy move" when they bring attention to Joel Peralta's sticky, dripping glove.) Any one of your players could have been the model for the 1979 Rays jersey that never was, but you stepped up and threw on that ...

Race Horses Now Doping By Licking Frogs
There's some weird counter-intuition at play when it's argued that thoroughbred racing has its doping problem under control because there are so many positive tests. But with so much money at stake—much more than in some small-change sport like baseball—there's a secret arms race between the good sc...

Better Know An Umpire: Greg Gibson
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. (All cumulative statistics are through the 2011 season, unless otherwise stated.)...
![Who Is The Miami Heat Cigar Guy? [UPDATE]](https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/17qdqflwgavjnjpg.jpg)
Who Is The Miami Heat Cigar Guy? [UPDATE]
In the closing moments of last night's Game Four, the camera found a curious-looking fellow in the pricey seats wearing a long-sleeved t-shirt, sunglasses, and with a fat stogie in his mouth. It's the second time this week we've highlighted a Cigar Guy, and this one (who bears an uncanny resemblanc...