gop Page 6 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
North Carolina Isn't Ready For This, But The GOP Was
Monday night in Durham, well-intentioned protestors tore a testament to the Confederacy down from its perch, sending it tumbling 15 feet to feebly fold over. It was glorious, if long overdue. It was also a glimpse at what the future holds for similar pro-CSA statues littered around North Carolina, t...
Carter Capps Is Back, But He's Not What He Used To Be
For quite a while now, Carter Capps has mattered more to baseball as a symbol for questions about rules (and what they mean and how they’re enforced) than he has as an actual relief pitcher. This is, really, only fair: in the two-and-a-half years since he debuted a quirky but questionably legal deli...
Padres Furious After Anthony Rizzo's "Cheap Shot" Collision At Plate
Since MLB created new rules a few years ago to protect catchers and limit unnecessary hard contact in plays at the plate, we’ve seen fewer and fewer collisions. But we got one tonight, courtesy of Anthony Rizzo and Austin Hedges, and San Diego is steamed about the way it played out....
Look At The No. 3 Overall MLB Draft Pick's Ridiculous Foot
The San Diego Padres had the third pick in this evening’s MLB Draft. They chose MacKenzie Gore, who is a pitcher from North Carolina born in 1999. Gore’s first and last names are both cool, but that’s not why we’re here in this blog post. No, the important thing to note here is his foot. Look at tha...
Rogue Drone Attacks Crowd At San Diego Padres Game
A drone—or, if you wish, a fancy RC helicopter with a camera—flew into the San Diego Padres’ park on Sunday afternoon. It got the attention of the announcers. It also got the attention of the fans....
The Top-Ranked Softball Team In The Country Is Somehow Unseeded In The NCAA Tournament
When the University of Minnesota’s softball team gathered for dinner to watch the NCAA tournament selection show, spirits were high. The Big Ten champs went a school-record 54-3 this season, and were ranked second in the last coaches poll and 11th in the RPI....
Wil Myers Almost Trips On Way To Third While Completing Cycle
The cycle is probably the sports accomplishment with the highest ratio of how excited I get about it to how much it actually matters. It’s a fluke thing, and not really indicative of anything about a player who hits for it (some power and some speed, I guess, but Bengie Molina did it, and you should...
Christian Bethancourt's Season Debut Didn't Go So Well
San Diego Padres catcher Christian Bethancourt made his first pitching appearance of the season today, when he came on in relief with his team trailing the Dodgers 7-1 in the fourth inning. Things went poorly. ...
The Padres Are Barely A Major League Team
It’s opening day! That glorious day, gravid with promise, when every team is in first place and fans around the country can believe, if just for a little while, that their team has what it takes to go all the way. Except for Padres fans. All hope is lost. I’m sorry....
Christian Bethancourt Has Officially Made The Padres' Roster As A Two-Way Playing Experiment
Ten months after Christian Bethancourt notched two outs in a blowout for his first big-league pitching appearance, the San Diego Padres catcher is officially getting his chance to make it as a two-way player. After spending his offseason focusing on his pitching, he was included on the roster announ...
Everybody Hits The Deck As Bees Swarm Spring Training Game
The above is a snapshot from today’s spring training matchup between the Rockies and the Padres. What, pray tell, is going on here? A terrible game of hide and seek? A few guys choosing a weird time to practice their “stop, drop and roll” skills? Nope. Just a good old-fashioned swarm of bees:...
What To Do When An Old Friend Wants You To Join A Pyramid Scheme
Have you ever gotten a weird phone call from your home area code? Or maybe someone you used to know randomly invites you over to dinner, mentioning something about a business opportunity. These are sure signs that someone is trying get you involved in a pyramid scheme, and that’s bad, because pyrami...
In Defense Of Skyline Chili, The Good Kind Of Diarrhea Sludge<em></em>
“You really want the green noodles?” asked the seemingly amazed young man taking my order....
Three Minnesota Football Players Cleared In University Sexual Assault Case
Three football players who were recommended for suspensions as part of a University of Minnesota sexual assault investigation have had those punishments overturned, lawyers for the players announced yesterday. After this latest round of appeals, so far four of the five recommended expulsions in the...
The NCAA Tournament Teams That Can Actually Pull Off Some Upsets
This is the second of three posts that will preview the NCAA tournament. This one is for people who want to know which sleeper teams have the best shot at making some noise. ...
MLB To Carter Capps: Cool It With That Wacky Delivery
MLB and the MLBPA announced a set of new rules today, most of which had been credibly reported on last week. ...
Petco Park Flooded
This seems bad? The Padres say it’s not that bad, but it feels bad. I feel like ballparks shouldn’t flood entirely because...it rained a lot?...
Kei Nishikori Is Shook
Kei Nishikori is the fifth-best tennis player in the world and even his practice sessions get mobbed in his native Japan. His trademark shot is the down-the-line backhand, a smoothly flicked frozen rope. You might have last seen him in January taking Roger Federer to five sets in the quarters of the...
Alexandr Dolgopolov's Best Weapon Is The Screwiest Game In Tennis
One complaint lobbed at today’s game is that everyone is content to play the same style of tennis: Just stand at the back of the court and hit hard topspin groundstrokes over and over until your opponent, who’s attempting the same, can’t keep up. We live in a “power baseline” era, and it didn’t use ...
Jered Weaver And The Padres Are The Perfect Sad Pairing
Jered Weaver has been a punchline more so than an effective pitcher for a while now, going back to about the time his fastball velocity started jumping off a cliff:...