hi Page 1902 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Love Your Local Beer Vendor
We'd never heard of this before, but its existence makes us extremely happy: It's the Beer Vendor Association, consisting (apparently) of only Wrigley Field pourers. They even have their own trading cards....

Teddy Roosevelt's Gonna Do What He Has To Do To Win
So poor Teddy Roosevelt, in the grand president mascot races at RFK, can't catch a break: He didn't win at all last year, and he's resorting to desperate measures ... like, say, rappelling from the roof of the stadium on Opening Day yesterday. Poor guy: He still didn't win. The Bull Moose party, the...

NBA Roundup: The Kid's In The Hall
Phil Jackson, the greatest basketball coach that the state of North Dakota has ever produced, was on Monday sent straight to the Basketball Hall of Fame in his first year of consideration. We assume that it wasn't for his tenure coaching the Albany Patroons. Jackson of course won six titles with the...

Looking To The Past To Overcome The Present
Now that Florida has won its second national title in a row, everybody's an amateur historian — which is good, because sports would be no fun if it has professional historians. The big question: Are the Gators one of the best teams ever? The answer of course is that there is no answer, which is why ...

At This Rate, Florida's Gonna Win An Oscar This Year
It was rather difficult not to admire Greg Oden in this game, but Florida, man, those guys are good. Not the epic game we were hoping for ... but when you go 4-for-22 from the 3-point line, it doesn't really matter if you have a 64-year-old Bill Russell under the basket....

Give Us At Least ONE Shining Moment. One Will Be Fine.
All right, well, we think we can all agree that, as sports fans, we are owed an epic national title matchup tonight. This has been the least memorable NCAA Tournament of the last decade — except for those ones we can't remember — and the only thing that can salvage it is a Connecticut-Duke or George...

WHIP Out Some Bling
We play in far too many fantasy sports leagues — we're a little frustrated that Yahoo hasn't counted last night's game in the Stattracker yet; Paul LoDuca had two painful RBIs for me us — but we've never been in one so dorky that it gives out a championship trophy....

NCAA Championship Game Blogdome: Let's Play Two
What they're saying, blogwise, about tonight's National Championship game ......

This Can't Turn Out Well For Anyone
OK, this is no laughing matter, but Wolverine Nation can't be happy that when this 35-year-old man went out to meet a "kid" he met on the Internet, he decided to wear his lucky Michigan cap. Next to "First down, Troy Smith," the next phrase a Michigan fan does not want to hear is "Hi, I'm Chris Hans...

What A Win Tonight Would Mean: Ohio State
A national title, or a championship in any sport, resonates for years beyond just one small victory for a group of tall men. It stands for something not just in athletics, but for a university as a whole, a matter of civic pride, an achievement disparate groups of people can all stand alongside, joy...

The Crack Of The Bat, The Middle Finger Of Pat Burrell
With the start of the 2007/2008 MLB season just hours away now, everyone's thoughts turn to how beautiful the game can be ... the crack of the bat, the roar of the crowd, the green grass, the fathers and sons in the stands with their mitts, and the asshole in the Phillies dugout gesturing to opposin...

Buckeyes Tend To Look Old
The man on the left, Ohio State head coach That Matta, is two years younger than the man on the right, Florida coach Billy Donovan. There must be something in the water in Columbus that ages people prematurely. At this time next year, Mike Conley Jr. is going to look like Laurence Fishburne....

Ricky Williams Wants Back In Your Life
The ball is rolling for Ricky Williams to get himself back in the National Football League. His agent, Leigh Steinberg, claims that Ricky's in the best shape of his life (though I don't know if an agent has ever said that a client of his wasn't in the best shape of his life) and has passed all of hi...

The Final Four Open Thread
I'm afraid I won't be with you for tonight's basketball festivities — I decided to try actually watching a game without a keyboard in front of me. I don't know what that's going to be like, but I've heard it's wild....

Today In The Premiership...
Liverpool 4-1 Arsenal. It had to be a little difficult for England coach Steve McClaren to watch Peter Crouch notch a hat trick today. Crouch missed the last two England atrocities to have surgery to fix his busted snout, so the three goals he had waiting in the chamber went towards Liverpool's effo...

5, 4, 3... Wheee! Uh Oh...
If you slept at all, chances are, you slept more peacefully than Michael Ruffin last night. Between the guilt, the "Dear God, what have I done" thoughts, and the endless "Thanks a lot, dickhead" phone calls from teammates, Michael Ruffin probably didn't sleep well....

Cultural Oddsmaker: What'll Be The Next Disgusting Act During A Sporting Event?
AJ Daulerio's Cultural Oddsmaker runs every Friday. Email him to let him know what you think....

Your NL Central "Preview"
Look, guys: We didn't pick the Cardinals! (We still think they'll win the wild card.) Yes, our flirtation with the Brewers continues; we actually picked them to win the wild card at midseason last year. So there's that....

Your NL East "Preview"
We should probably warn you: The Phillies are one of those teams we pick to win the National League East a lot. If you haven't noticed, they haven't won the NL East in a long, long time. But we're gonna try again anyway....

NBA Roundup: Yep, Bulls Are In The Playoffs
Notes on Thursday's games in the National Basketball Association ......