gi Page 219 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Eat it, Javy Baez! Here’s a Cinderella-saving squeeze-play, a ‘caught stealing/unassisted/by catcher,’ a dinger hitting a moving freight train & a buzzer beater
No unseeded team had ever won its first two games at the Women’s College World Series, so James Madison’s second straight triumph in Oklahoma City was historic in its own right on Friday night....

Devin Booker goes off, joins rarified NBA royalty in slaying L.A.
The NBA has a superstar that not enough people talk about as being in the top tier of league talents, but last night he showcased that he belongs. On the road, to close out the defending champions, Devin Booker went ballistic — he dropped 47 points (a playoff career-high), 11 rebounds, eight three-p...

Meet MLB’s All-'Never-been an All-Star' Team
Nowadays, it seems like every baseball player under the sun has been an All-Star at some point in their careers. In 2019, there were four AL second basemen selected for the Midsummer Classic. FOUR! In total, there were 75 players awarded All-Star recognition in 2019. In 2018, 73 players were named A...

USMNT knocks off Honduras, but doesn’t look so hot
We USMNT fans have been dreaming for a while about what the team could be with the influx of young stars plying their trade in Europe over the past two years. Problem was, it had been more than 500 days since the national team played a game with anything riding on it, thanks to the pandemic. Can’t k...

Alex Nedeljkovic may not win the Calder Trophy, but he’s undoubtedly been the NHL’s most valuable rookie
Earlier today, the three finalists for the 2021 Calder Trophy were named....

Will we actually see an NBA Finals without LeBron?
We might be in store for something very rare in the NBA — a Finals that doesn’t include LeBron James. With the Lakers down 3-2 to the Phoenix Suns, the possibility is becoming more and more likely that the defending champs won’t make it out of the first round. Not seeing Lebron making a deep playoff...

MLB doesn’t need a 'face of baseball,' and the proof is in the playoffs
Mike Trout has as many MVP awards as career playoff games played, with three, and for as much talk as there might be in baseball — even from the commissioner — about MLB’s need for the best player of his generation to take on the mantle of the face of the game, no amount of marketing can make up for...

Bob Baffert’s attorney gets eviscerated on CNN
After Kentucky Derby winner* Medina Spirit failed his first drug test, his trainer, Bob Baffert, did the media rounds to blame cancel culture and everybody besides himself for his horse’s unusually high levels of betamethasone....

Deadspin admires football players legs — you should, too
We’re in that really weird time of the annual football calendar where the only thing football fans can cling to for hope and promise of their beloved sport returning to their screens is pictures and videos of athletes working out in gym shorts. But I’m not judging. In particular, football fans seem ...

Damian Lillard is one of the greatest clutch players to touch a basketball
It’s time for us to have an honest conversation about Damian Lillard....

Hear me out: Great as he is, it may be time for Blazers to move CJ McCollum
By now, I’m sure you’ve heard of the otherworldly performance Damian Lillard gave last night in a losing effort — 55 points, 10 assists, six rebounds, three blocks. He’s the first NBA player ever — EVER — regular season or postseason, to post at least 50 points, 10 assists, and 10 three-pointers mad...

AEW's ‘Double Or Nothing’ showed us all what we’d been missing and what we’ll be getting
It was obvious from the very first shot of the pre-show to AEW’s “Double Or Nothing” pay-per-view on Sunday night. It was the first full-house crowd of any televised wrestling show since the pandemic started (Wrestlemania was half-full both nights), and you could tell the difference in the energy al...

Hear me out, Knicks need to start Elfrid Payton over Derrick Rose to beat Hawks
Knicks fans have been fed up all season with Tom Thibodeau’s insistence on keeping Elfrid Payton in the starting lineup. After two absolutely dismal starts in the playoffs against the Hawks, in which Payton went a combined 0-for-5 shooting with one point, one assist, and one steal in 13 minutes, dur...

MLB’s first entry into NFT craze – Lou Gehrig's speech – doesn’t pass the smell test
Add “non-fungible” to the list of words that define 2021....

We can applaud Naomi Osaka without disparaging the media
Naomi Osaka’s decision to withdraw from the French Open has sparked necessary conversation about athletes and mental health. It was so important to her that she was willing to sacrifice a potential $1.8 million in prize money to put her own peace first. That’s not the act of a so-called diva, or of ...

Twins’ Josh Donaldson says pitchers are cheating – and he's got proof
Three-time All-Star and 2015 AL MVP Josh Donaldson is in year two of a four-year deal worth $92 million with the Minnesota Twins. In just over a year with the club, Donaldson is slashing just .225/.343/.422, for an OPS of .765 with Minnesota — a far cry from the numbers the star third baseman was pu...

Hey, Knicks fans: At least you’re not the Maple Leafs
How bad was the Toronto Maple Leafs’ collapse? It’s better to be a Knicks fan right now....

Top 5 NHL playoff saves of all time
We always remember the goals: Bobby Orr flying through the air, Ray Bourque scoring in the Stanley Cup Finals at 40 years old, and Matteau! Matteau! Matteau! Legendary moments. But what about the goals that didn’t happen? What about the goals that were snagged away with a flash of the leather or a f...

Kristaps Porzingis needs to remember who he is
It’s time for Kristaps Porzingis to start being the guy the Mavs thought he was....

Seems like old times, eh Leafs?
By now you know the key points. The Toronto Maple Leafs haven’t won the Stanley Cup since 1967, haven’t been to the Final since then either, haven’t beaten the Canadiens in a series since their ’67 title clash, won their first division title since 2000 this season (thanks to being in the all-Canadia...