ill Page 564 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

You Can't Go Home Again
John Ed Bradley's memoir of playing football at LSU, It Never Rains in Tiger Stadium, is one of the finest sports books ever written. If you've never read it, do yourself a favor a pick up a copy. It's a beautiful book. ...

No One Notices The Spurs Because No One Notices San Antonio
Here's a working barstool-grade theory as to why, during its dynastic run to four (perhaps soon five) titles since 1999, America still embraces the San Antonio Spurs with a yawn and a why are you still here? squint. This phenomenon has flustered if not baffled sports cognoscenti for years. But they ...

Serena Williams Just Won the 2013 French Open
Top-seeded Serena Williams just beat Maria Sharapova in straight sets, winning 6-4, 6-4, to clinch this year's French Open. It capped a ridiculous tournament for the 31-year-old champion, who mowed down her opponents en route to the second French Open win in her career....

My Dinner With Ali
Adapted from the original, which was published in 1989 in the Louisville Courier-Journal Magazine. Footnotes from the author (as told to Tommy Craggs) are included throughout the story, and a postscript from Glenn Stout, editor of Houghton Mifflin’s Best American Sports Writing series, follows. The ...


Serena Williams Is Destroying Everyone In The French Open
It's time to talk about Serena Williams. ...

Steve Phillips And Brooke Hundley: A Romance Told Through Filthy Sexts
You can head over here and read the long version of the affair between then-ESPN baseball analyst Steve Phillips and then-ESPN production assistant Brooke Hundley. Or you can get a pretty good idea of their very brief romance by reading their text messages. As the full story points out, this was a m...

The Mostly Sexless Sex Scandal That Shook ESPN
A few hours after the 2009 Home Run Derby, Steve Phillips bought Brooke Hundley a drink. They were at the bar of St. Louis's Millenium Hotel, a block from Busch Stadium, where more than a dozen ESPN staffers had gathered after wrapping up another day's work during MLB's extended All-Star weekend. Hu...

Ump John Hirschbeck Gets Drilled With Fastball, Crew Still Blows Call
Umpiring comes with all sorts of occupational hazards, not the least being that a catcher might just whiff on a 93-mph fastball, allowing it to connect directly with one's bare hand. ...

Here's A Radio Stunt Involving Spilled Piss
Want to make watching a radio show on television interesting? Spill urine all over one of the hosts (maybe)....

Chandler Parsons Sent A Girl To Prom On A Party Bus
What does chill bro and Houston Rockets forward Chandler Parsons do when he gets asked to prom by one of his fans? He politely declines, and then sends her a bitchin' party bus....

Gentlemen, Start Your Coffins
Another good one—Rick Reilly's 1986 SI tribute to the columnist Jim Murray—"King of the Sports Page":...

Domonic Brown Is Your New Favorite Slugger
If you haven't been paying attention to what Phillies left fielder Domonic Brown has been doing this season, now is the time to start. In the first inning of yesterday's game against the Brewers, Brown hit the absolute bejesus out of a Mike Fiers pitch, depositing the ball into the second deck in ri...


Reporter Gets In A "Tongue Twat" Trying To Congratulate Cliff Lee
Cliff Lee recorded career strikeout number 1600 yesterday, and Philadelphia reporter Sigourney McCreaf wanted to relay some fans' congratulations to Lee on the Phillies postgame show. Unfortunately, she got her tongue all twatted up. ...

The Independent Review Into PAC-12 Referee-Bribing Allegations Is In
And it makes no sense. The PAC-12 "engaged" the oddly-named firm Ice Miller, LLP to conduct an independent review into allegations that former head of officiating Ed Rush bribed game officials into T'ing up Sean Miller for disputing a call at the end of Arizona's semifinal loss to UCLA in this year'...

Does Jaden Smith, <i>After Earth's</i> Uncompelling Star, Really Want This?
When film critics talk about a star's performance, they usually resort to clichés. The actor always "lights up the screen" or "disappears into a role," and watch out, because "you can't take your eyes off him." The reason why writers (and audiences) recycle those old saws is because they're standar...

Gordon Gee Joked That Catholics Can't Be Trusted, The SEC Can't Read
Ohio State President Gordon Gee, the man who expensed more than $64,000 worth of bow ties, has stuck his foot in it yet again, getting recorded making a few innocuous jokes about Notre Dame, Louisville, and the SEC. Some of them were legitimately funny!...

Bill Simmons Thinks Memphis Fans Get Tense Because MLK Was Shot There
For many years now, Bill Simmons has positioned himself as a kind of ULTRA fan. He's not simply the voice of the fan anymore. He is more fan than you. He understands fandom in a way that you could not possibly understand. He understands that when fans get loud, things are going well! And when fans ...

He Punches like a Fucking Mule Kick
Here is a good story from "Second Wind: Memoirs of an Opinonated Man," by Bill Russell with the historian Taylor Branch (1979, Random House; currently out-of-print). It’s about Russell’s grandfather and his mule, Kate. Russell’s family was from Monroe, La., and he lived down there until he was about...