excerpts Page 1 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
The Lost Legend And Secret Legacy Of Table Tennis Master Rong Guotuan
This is an excerpt from Eric Nusbaum’s new weekly Substack newsletter Sports Stories, where he’ll be writing about sports, history, and sports history. He hopes you will subscribe here, and share these stories with your friends, families, and table tennis practice partners. The version of this in t...
Did Bum Phillips Ruin Earl Campbell?
Like most Oilers—or “Earlers,” as they were known as their star galloped his way to Rookie of the Year and two MVP trophies his first couple of years in the league—Earl Campbell loved playing for the cowboy-hatted, easy-going Bum Phillips, who was always easy with a wisecrack. Bum once said of the t...
What Gymnastics Did To Jessica Howard
When Jessica Howard entered the world of gymnastics in 1987, she was three years old and wore a pink leotard adorned with poodles. She would go on to become a three-time national champion and later serve on the board of USA Gymnastics. The experience would nearly kill her....
The NFL Holdout That Caused A Homicide (Justifiable, The Jury Said)
In the 1981 offseason, feeling underpaid and unhappy about Oilers owner Bud Adams’s treatment of former coach Bum Phillips, Earl Campbell asked for a raise. Only a year earlier, at the close of Campbell’s second season, the normally tightfisted Oilers had agreed to restructure Campbell’s rookie cont...
The Night The Dodgers And Pirates Decided To Hold Their Brawl Off The Field
Sagging through the dog days, the Dodgers needed a jolt. Luckily, they had an ideal jolter in their clubhouse. Reggie Smith wasn’t the same player he’d been even recently, his damaged shoulder leaving him unable to throw and limiting him to pinch-hitting duty in every one of his 20 appearances throu...
Jerry Remy On His Son's “Unforgivable” Crime
On August 15, 2013, Jared Remy, a former Red Sox security staffer and son of longtime broadcaster Jerry Remy, fatally stabbed Jennifer Martel, his fiancée and the mother of his daughter. Jared had a history of violence toward women, assault, and steroid use. He is currently serving life in prison wi...
When The Allies Wanted A German Nuclear Scientist Dead, They Sent A Ballplayer To Kill Him
The following is an excerpt from The Bastard Brigade: The True Story of the Renegade Scientists and Spies Who Sabotaged the Nazi Atomic Bomb, by Sam Kean. The book is out today and can be purchased here....
Twenty Years Ago, Bobby Valentine Snuck Back Into The Dugout And Woke Up The Mets
This is an excerpt from Matthew Callan’s book Yells For Ourselves: A Story Of New York City And The New York Mets At The Dawn Of The New Millennium....
Tom Brady’s Shady Guru Alex Guerrero Isn’t Ready To Give Up His Pseudoscience Or His Control
The following is excerpted from No One Man Should Have All That Power: How Rasputins Manipulate the World, by Amos Barshad, out today. Published by Abrams Books....
It Shouldn't Be So Hard To Enjoy The Red Sox's Glory Days
Entering its 24th year of existence, the Baseball Prospectus Annual contains over 2,000 player profiles, advanced statistics and projections, as well as thirty team essays. One of those pieces, an exemplary one written by Boston Globe columnist Chad Finn, is provided here as a sample of the prose an...
It Shouldn't Be So Hard To Enjoy The Red Sox's Glory Days
Entering its 24th year of existence, the Baseball Prospectus Annual contains over 2,000 player profiles, advanced statistics and projections, as well as thirty team essays. One of those pieces, an exemplary one written by Boston Globe columnist Chad Finn, is provided here as a sample of the prose an...
Joe Gibbs's Skins Had A Beer Shed
The players themselves came up with another way of fostering team chemistry: They called it the 5 o’clock club....
It's No Fun To Get Stuck Between Superstars<em></em>
This excerpt from Sam Anderson’s new book Boom Town, a book on the rapid rise of Oklahoma City and its NBA franchise, joins the team at home for Game 46 of the 2012-13 season, and considers the least-heralded member of what looked at the time like a rising dynasty....
Why An NHL Legend Grew Up In A Group Home For The Mentally Ill
Now, let me tell you what it was like growing up in a home for the mentally ill. ...
The Future Of Baseball Won't Look The Way You Expect
Back in 2017, the American League’s top Most Valuable Player candidates were New York’s Aaron Judge and Houston’s José Altuve. Judge, at 6-foot-7 and 280-some pounds and with his ungodly exit velocities and tape-measure home runs, was widely hailed as THE FUTURE OF BASEBALL. In the future, all power...
Why An Ex-Jets Great Wants Nothing To Do With The Jets
Excerpted from Beyond Broadway Joe: The Super Bowl TEAM That Changed Football, now available from Dey Street Books, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers....
Drugs, Dick Injuries, And Liberace's Bodyguard: Just A Normal Season In The Ludicrous And Doomed USFL
Excerpted from Football for a Buck: The Crazy Rise and Crazier Demise of the USFL. Copyright © 2018 by Jeff Pearlman. Reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved....
Roger Goodell Is Every Bit The Overcompensating Dipshit He Seems To Be
Excerpted from Big Game: The NFL In Dangerous Times, out today from Penguin Press....
The Cubs Were Never More Themselves Than In 1979
The following is excerpted from The Chicago Cubs: Story of a Curse, by Rich Cohen....
The Vanderbilt Rape Convictions Bucked The Status Quo
The following is excerpted from Blurred Lines: Rethinking Sex, Power, and Consent on Campus, which is available now....