history Page 10 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
You Can't Play A World Cup In A Hospital: Brazil 2014, Argentina 1978
On June 30, Brazil dismantled Spain before a rapturous home crowd in the final of the Confederations Cup, the test run for next year's World Cup. The hosts' surprise win—and what it augurs for 2014—temporarily displaced massive protests as the story of the tournament. June saw hundreds of thousands...
Got To Get Over
Over at Nerdtorious, check out this oral history Darondo Fandon....
It's Good To Be The King
From “The Age of Movies,” here’s P. Kael on History of the World, Part I:...
What Boxing Writing Can Teach Us About Everything
Excerpted from his essay for A New Literary History of America, check out this piece by Carlo Rotella:...
A Brief Oral History Of The Best Jump Ball Of All Time
On Tuesday night, Matt Bonner and Zach Randolph combined to create the above piece of comedic gold. I caught up with Bonner, who claimed he still hasn't seen the replay of the play, although he plans to now. "I have a sense of humor," he said. "Someone told me that Jeff Van Gundy was joking about it...
"And That's The Cubs? My Fuckin' Ass!": Lee Elia's Famous Rant Is 30
On April 29, 1983, the Cubs lost by a run to the Dodgers at Wrigley Field, dropping them to 5-14, last place in the National League East. Afterward, a reporter asked Cubs manager Lee Elia a question about fan support. Elia responded with an unrivaled fusillade of profanities....
Here's Vin Scully's Story About His Job Interview With Branch Rickey
Vin Scully's a priceless living baseball artifact for myriad reasons. Not only does he call games in an accessible and enjoyable way—especially for those of us on the East Coast mellowing out after a long day—but he's a constant source of fantastic stories about his early days in the Dodgers organ...
That Famous Jackie Robinson Photo With The Cute Kid? It Was Staged
The photo above, in which Jackie Robinson looks bemusedly at a young autograph-seeker just before stepping onto the field and breaking baseball's color barrier on April 15, 1947, has long been one of the game's most iconic and enduring images. I mean, just look at how cute that kid is! There's only ...
The Story Of "Wrong Way" Willie And The Buzzer-Beater That Lost A Game
It was March 3, 1978, the sectional semifinals of the Indiana high school basketball tournament, in the teeth of what they call Hoosier Hysteria. George Washington was playing Northwest, a team it had already beaten twice that season. Washington was up, 61-60, and had the ball. A second remained. Da...
ESPN Urges Facebook Users To Celebrate Black History Month, With Predictable Results
We don't know why ESPN is posting a plea on Facebook for the celebration of Black History Month. Black History Month is, after all, nearly 75% over. (Maybe ESPN was consumed with celebrating Michael Jordan's birthday.) Also curious is ESPN's use of American sport's most notoriously racist franchise...
There Was A Bat Delay During The Providence-Marquette Game
And now, some Shameful Moments In Bat-Killing History, courtesy of the bat in the Bradley Center during the Providence-Marquette Game:...
A History Lesson For Sacramento: How Kansas City Lost The Kings
The owners insisted they had no plans to move the team. That's what the Maloofs swore, raising their right hand as their left hand worked deals with buyers first from Anaheim, then Virginia Beach, then Seattle. And that's what the owners of the Kansas City Kings maintained 30 years ago, even as they...
How The Song “Seven Nation Army” Conquered The Sports World
This post was originally published on January 13, 2012....
AP: Upstart Regional School Has The Honor Of Playing Notre Dame For A National Title
Yes, there is no higher merriment in college football than making fun of Notre Dame. But let's not overlook the joys of taunting the other side of the BCS championship matchup. If only there had been a giant sphygmomanometer hooked up to the deep Confederacy last night, to record the mass blood-pres...
Marvin Miller, The Man Who Beat Some Sense Into Baseball
He was in the phone book. That's the thing that always got me about Marvin Miller, the former head of the MLB players association and the man who pulled baseball out of its crude prehistory. You expect your heroes to be unlisted. You don't expect to find one of them in the white pages, right there b...
Aural History: How An Old Lady In Brooklyn Ensured That The "Shot Heard 'Round The World" Call Was Heard 'Round The World
It was Oct. 3, 1951, and the New York Giants were about to lose the pennant to the Brooklyn Dodgers two games to one in a best-of-three series. In Brooklyn, a 26-year-old travel agent asked his mother to flip a switch on his reel-to-reel machine, and few moments later at the Polo Grounds in Upper ...
Where Would The NHL Be If Bain Capital Had Bought The Whole League In 2005?
It was March 2005, and the NHL's owners didn't know what to do. It had been six months since they'd locked out the players' union, trying to force concessions, but the players were still refusing to bear the brunt of spending cuts. Two weeks earlier, the league had finally canceled the already-delay...
History Lesson: The Time Dave Stewart Was Arrested For Soliciting A Transvestite Prostitute
An occasional feature in which we recall notable incidents that we would've covered the hell out of had we existed at the time....
"What's This Fucking Song?" How A Yankees Free Spirit Reluctantly Ushered In Baseball's Entrance-Music Era
Sparky Lyle's arrival in New York was nothing to get excited about. On March 22, 1972, the Boston Red Sox traded the good but nondescript lefty reliever to the Yankees for Danny Cater and a player to be named later. Ho-hum. But when he actually came into the games—that was something else. ...
Redskins Quarterback Had A Great Debut
For a bungling NFL franchise looking for a reason to believe, there's nothing quite like a breakout performance by a superstar quarterback. So after years of failure, Washington fans had to be delighted to see the numbers RGIII put up in his first start for the team. When you see a stat line like th...