fr Page 317 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Behold: This Skymall Ad Is The Only Thing That Still Believes In Jeff Francoeur
Your morning roundup for July 31, the day we realized we would never eat again. See anything that might interest us? Email the tips line. Skymall ad via Alan....

All Too Good, And Not Good Enough: What Carlos Beltran Meant To The Mets
Carlos Beltran was not a New York Met. I don't mean this literally — Beltran's Mets career spanned six and a half seasons, from 2005 until yesterday. He was with the Mets almost exactly as long as Keith Hernandez was, and longer than Reggie Jackson was with the Yankees....

BREAKING: Hall Of Famer, Admitted T-Shirt Thief Roberto Alomar Will Return The T-Shirt He Stole
Perhaps you read our story earlier today, of Blue Jays fans Fiyaz Kanji and Owais Farooqui, who made the pilgrimage to Cooperstown this weekend to see Roberto Alomar enter the Hall. But during the parade, Alomar took the $50 t-shirt that belonged to Kanji....

The Bengals Invite Carson Palmer To Retire
Back in January, former No. 1 draft pick Carson Palmer informed the Cincinnati Bengals that he would "contemplate retirement" if ownership refused to honor his request for a trade. At a press conference today, Bengals owner Mike Brown invited him to begin his contemplation:...

Nixon's Nightmare Was Brought To Life At The White House Today
The world champion San Francisco Giants, accompanied by Willie Mays, visited the White House today, in all their scraggly, bearded glory. President Obama made jokes about Brian Wilson's beard ("I do fear it"), his attire ("Now underneath Brian's beard, and the spandex tuxedo, and the sea captain cos...

Qatar Will Soon Host Every Sporting Event
Not content with a World Cup, the Emir of Qatar has set into motion his plans to host the ceremonial first leg of the 2016 Tour De France. While it's not unprecedented to hold the Grand Depart in a neighboring country, it would be something else to stick it in the Middle East, where, as FIFA seems t...

Tour De France, Stage 21: A Bloodless Conclusion To A Bloody Race
The last stage of the Tour de France is designed to make you forget all those times that Grand Tour cyclists come off like persnickety bitches. It's a day of good feelings. A gentleman's agreement obtains whereby no one attacks the yellow jersey, and there's champagne to sip along the first few kilo...

Tour De France, Stage 20: The Aussie Gets His Wings
When last we checked in with the Tour, the race had become a bar fight. Many of the big-name riders were broken. Former champ Alberto Contador was mounting suicidal climbing attacks and punching fans. The French guy was throwing tantrums. It was as if the Tour had become an enormous raw nerve. Favor...

Everybody Feared The Worst When Old Man Brent Musburger Went Rogue In Vegas For A Spell
Your morning roundup for July 23, the day after we learned that high-school tennis coaches really might want to stay away from strip-club ownership....

Tour De France, Stage 19: Like A Punch In The Face
Until yesterday, the 2011 Tour de France had been a bit of a drowsy bore (even Lance Armstrong had admitted as much). Then came yesterday's 18th stage when, like a stag party on Day 3 of a Champagne bender, things lurched inexplicably alive. There was a punishing "stuff of legends" solo attack by ga...

Alberto Contador Punches A Heckler, Tour De France Remains Awesome
The carnage at DeathFrance 3000 is not contained to the riders. Today a spectator dressed as a doctor and carrying a blood bag (A reference to his positive drug test at last year's Tour) joined others in running alongside Contador as he tried to make a last-ditch move on the last day in the Alps. ...

North Carolina Woman Left Paralyzed After Bachelorette-Party Accident Will Get Married Today
Last June, middle-school teacher Rachelle Friedman was preparing to get married. But then, a friend pushed her into a pool. Playfully. With no malice, Friedman says. She hit the bottom awkwardly, though, and the end result was that she was a quadriplegic....

Tour De France, Stage 18: The Day The Sport Lost Its Shit
There are moments when commentary on even the most marginal events rises to such shrieking hyperbole that we're compelled to see what the fuss is all about. Today, Stage 18 of the Tour de France, was one of those days. Total. Freakout. Perhaps this is not unexpected from veteran Versus cycling annou...

K-Rod Is Here To Salute You
Your morning roundup for July 21, the day a shark jumped right into our boat. H/Ts to Jon and Eric. Got any stories or photos for us? Tip your editors....

If The Raiders and 49ers Share A Stadium, Where Should It Go?
No one saw this coming, but the Raiders and 49ers have been talking about the possibility of rooming together. In preliminary meetings, they have floated the idea of building one fancy new stadium, with both teams sharing it. Considering is not the same as committing, and even farther from actually ...

Hey, Kids: If You Sulk On TV, The Giants PR Team Will Reward You
In San Francisco, they make sure the kids develop a sense of entitlement at an early age....

The Say Hey Id: Willie Mays Was A Reluctant Letter-Writer, But He Longed For Love
Here's one of Willie Mays's charming love letters to his then-girlfriend, former beauty queen Gladys Cofield. This would've been in the first half of the 1950s, though the exact date isn't clear. At the time, Mays was smitten with the former Jet covergirl and fawned over the pretty photographs she s...

Hamburger Face Won't Keep This Tour De France Rider Down
Passersby were amazed by the unusually large amounts of blood. Old Onion dummy text, but it might make an appropriate headline for any given day at this year's Tour de France, aka DeathFrance 3000....

Eleven Years Ago, ESPN Gave Rob Neyer A Strange Suspension
Rob Neyer wrote at SB Nation today about a murky imbroglio involving the Elias Sports Bureau, and subsequent discipline, in 2000. "Rob, I have to suspend you for two weeks. Why? Because you criticized ESPN." [SB Nation]...

Rafael Furcal Is Worth One Kitchen And A Swimming Pool, And Other McCourt-Divorce Grotesqueries
These are not happy times for the Dodgers. They're bankrupt and at the center of a hate triangle between the McCourts and Bud Selig. The worst part is how easily this all could have been avoided. While the team is struggling to make payroll from month to month, the McCourts' pre-divorce personal exp...