gi Page 617 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Giants Owner Wellington Mara Dies
Longtime Giants owner — and just about the only sports owner we can ever remember professing affection for, if just because he was old and spindly — Wellington Mara has died at the age of 89. Mara was one of the most influential owners in sports history, pioneering the notion of sharing television...

Could ND's Savior Be Gone After One Year?
The Mighty MJD brings up something we hadn't thought about: Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis, the "savior" of college football's most "sainted" program, has a very cheap buyout clause in his contract that would allow him to go to an NFL team for just $1.5 million. That team would have to offer him a ...

Recruiting Wars Are Always Ugly
We'll confess, the whole notion of recruiting in college athletics leaves us queasy, and we're even more weirded out by fans who are unnaturally obsessed with it. There are countless "recruiting expert" sites that, when you really break it down, essentially make a living by looking at 16-year-old ...

Anybody Recovered From The USC Game Yet?
Honestly, you just know Nick Lachey was wetting his pants in South Bend on Saturday. We still haven't quite come down from the high of USC's thrilling 34-31 victory over Notre Dame, a game that somehow made everyone on both teams into a legend. Most of the Notre Dame fans we know aren't even angry...

Help ND Alums Keep Coach Weis From Dying
If you weren't officially excited enough about the Notre Dame-USC game already, let this wet your whistle: It's WeisWatchers, (another) Irish fans site. (Honestly, Irish fans, they're a little weird. In a good way, don't hate us.) The idea of the site is for all Irish fans in the South Bend area t...

The Great Reggie Miller Corn Maze
Like any good Midwesterners, we've spent more than our fair share of time in corn mazes. For those of you who didn't spent their formative years surrounded by combines and grain elevators, a corn maze is exactly that; an entire cornfield formed into a giant maze, with checkpoints, dead-ends, exits...

The Dirty Sheets Of South Bend
People are so excited about the USC-Notre Dame game this weekend that even travel arrangements are making the news. The fine folks at HotelChatter have taken a look at one of the worst hotels near Touchdown Jesus you could possibly find, the Knight's Inn South Bend, where one guest checked into th...

Will The Boss Rock Touchdown Jesus?
We keep hearing about all these rumors, so since we are who we are, we might as well publish them. Whispers abound all around South Bend that tomorrow's pep rally for the Notre Dame game against the undefeated USC Trojans — recently moved from the Joyce Center to Notre Dame Stadium — will feature ...

Blogdome: Hello, Toronto!
• Toronto: The place where NBA careers go to die. [True Hoop] • When Juan Gonzalez is your main defender, you have problems. [The Sports Frog] • Quien es mas macho? Bruce Weber, or Bill Self? [Illini Wonk] • The key moment in yesterday's Cards-Padres game involved Mark Loretta, Chris Carpenter and a...

Blogdom's Best: San Francisco Giants
More than any other sport, baseball lends itself to individual blog obsession. Every Major League Baseball team has several blogs obsessed with chronicling the ins-and-outs of everything. Deadspin salutes these modem-addled souls and proudly presents Blogdom's Best, given to the most outstanding b...

Jesus Christ, All-Pro
Little Billy was a terror on defense — he had been living in the opponents' backfield all day. But then he took it one step too far. Yes, as you may have guessed from this photo, Billy was penalized 15 yards for "roughing Jesus," an infraction that also carries loss of down, plus possible eternal ...

Harris Interactive Poll Already On Its Death Bed
The Chicago Sun-Times noticed something that we found rather peculiar in college football's new "Harris Poll," designed to replace the Associated Press poll in the so-hated-by-everyone-you-almost-want-it-to-survive BCS standings: The 2-2 Illinois Fighting Illini, a team that lost 61-14 and gave up...

NFL Roundup: Kickers Soak Up All The Drama
• Like everyone else who is prone to breaking their spine whenever there's a stiff wind, we've always had an affinity for kickers. So when Cowboys bully tackle Larry Allen went after former XFL kicker Jose Cortez after he missed an extra point — to be fair, Cortez got a little lipp — we cringed th...

Giants Fans Remain Most Erudite In Sport
We once went to a St. Louis Cardinals-New York Yankees game at Yankee Stadium with a smattering of fellow Cardinals fans. There was a rain delay, and our group — all dressed in loud red, of course — watched the Bleacher Creatures amuse themselves, treating the benches like Slip-n-Slide's and parti...

Derek Jeter ... REVEALED! (Uh, by CBS.)
After its rather incomprehensible look at Miami Dolphins hemp advocate Ricky Williams last week, "60 Minutes" continues to scrape the filthy underbelly of the sports world with a cutting look at Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter. You won't believe the dirt they've uncovered. It's Derek Jeter LIKE YOU'...

Ladies Help Manny Be Manny
More great Webshots searching by On the DL today: The above picture is of Red Sox dingbat Manny Ramirez partying it up with a bunch of ladies he met at a bar earlier that night. (He appears to be teaching them how to "dance.")...

Could Bonds Be The New Karl Rove?
We'd never thought about this before — mainly because politics scares and confuses us — but in a weird way, this kind of makes perfect sense: Barry Bonds is the Karl Rove of sports. Think about it. Bonds sticks to his guns no matter how ridiculous his position; he says he's going to do something, ...

Barry Bonds Ain't Got Nothin' To Lose
Barry Bonds is amazing. Just a couple of days ago, he said he planned on losing a little bit of weight in the offseason, which is kind of like Courtney Love saying, "hey, my behavior is going to be a little erratic in the next few months, but it has NOTHING to do with cocaine. So you know." And no...

The NFL Wouldn't Let Us Give Money
Like all of you, we're sure, we were moved and stirred by the NFL's selfless Katrina Telethon last night. John Elway, answering phones! Frank Gifford! Danny Kanell! We were touched by the willingness of such sainted former football players to roll up their sleeves and pitch in; they were answering...

About Last Night ...
So, once again you've awakened at the bottom of the neighbor's empty koi pond. We'll get you up to speed ... • NFL: Redskins come back to nip Cowboys: Parcells seems like 90 years old, doesn't he? • MLB: Back by popular demand, the Red Sox curse: Yankees cut Boston's lead to a half game. • NFL: Sain...