ill Page 598 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Shea Weber's Massive Flyers Offer Sheet Is A CBA-Beating Masterpiece
The Predators have been poking around for weeks, looking to see what they could get in a trade for star defenseman Shea Weber, who's a restricted free agent. The fruitless talks have been maddening for Weber, and for all the teams waiting on Nashville, and last night the Flyers put an end to it all....

Jimmy Rollins: Sass Machine
With a series sweep of the Dodgers an out away and Jonathan Papelbon on the mound, the Philadelphia Phillies might have had their bags mentally packed. But when Matt Kemp beat out a deep infield single—one that drove in the tying run and eventually led to Kemp's walk-off 12th-inning homer—Jimmy Rol...

Will Ferrell, Zach Galifianakis, And Ryan Dempster Ate Pizza Together On The Wrigley Field Mound
Celebrities dropping by Wrigley Field to promote their latest piece of crap is nothing new, though we're not sure if tonight's stunt before the Marlins-Cubs game has ever been done before....

Will Clark Saved The Giants, And I Missed It
The Hall of Nearly Great hits web shelves today, and it's a bargain at $12. It has 42 terrific writers—heavyweights such as Rob Neyer and Joe Posnanski, and Deadspin folks, too: Owen Good and Will Leitch—with essays on the nearly great players they love. You can read about Brad Radke, Andy Messersmi...

In Desperate Bid To Be Down With The Youngs, <em>Sports Illustrated</em> Uses Instagram Photos In This Week's Issue
Oh boy. We've seen this before. Magazines are a bit of a crossroads, so in order to either (a) appeal to a younger audience or (b) to try to "engage social media," or whatever jargon-laden or ham-fisted way they want to describe it, they do little experiments....

Bernie Williams Was Selling Some Cupcakes In Our Neighborhood, So We Stopped By And Said Hello
We got word earlier today that five-time All-Star Bernie Williams was making a charity appearance at Georgetown Cupcakes on Mercer Street here in SoHo and immediately hopped into action. I set out with my fellow intern Isaac to see if we could meet Bernie and purchase some delicious confections. Th...

Even <em>Sports Illustrated</em> Doesn't Want Anything To Do With Joe Posnanski's Paterno Biography
The first review of Joe Posnanksi's Joe Paterno biography is in and it isn't good: Offered first serial rights to a book written by a former Sports Illustrated senior writer, the magazine said no. Assistant managing editor Chris Hunt confirmed to Deadspin that SI passed on running an excerpt. Posnan...

"I Hope Tim Tebow Rapes A Kid" And Other Completely Sane Penn State Fan Reactions To Paternoville's Renaming
Penn State's student campout group for football games announced last night they were changing their name from Paternoville to Nittanyville, and we noted the reaction from the PSU community was swift and uncomplimentary. The Nittanyville Facebook page found itself flooded with "Unlike" comments, but...

Penn State's Student Ticket Campout Group Will No Longer Be Called Paternoville
Penn State students have pitched tents outside Beaver Stadium in order to score the best seats for that week's football game for nearly 20 years. Starting with the 2005 home game against Ohio State, the name of that tent city became known as Paternoville, and it was eventually recognized by the univ...

Red Sox Tell Bill James To Stop Defending Joe Paterno
Bill James, ever the contrarian (he even took a go at disputing climate change a few years back, though later softened his stance), has been taking the unpopular stance on Joe Paterno this week. First it was him saying in an online chat that the Freeh Report made it clear that Paterno did enough to ...

Try To Look Surprised: Ozzie Guillen And Bryce Harper Have Beef
Ozzie Guillen is upset about something or other, bemused sources tell exhausted beat reporters. Also Bryce Harper did something with something and something something professional something something respect for the game....

Reds Prospect Billy Hamilton's Legend Continued After Hitting This Inside-The-Park Homer
The story of this minor league season has been Reds shortstop prospect Billy Hamilton, who after stealing 104 bases in 82 games with the Bakersfield Blaze, earned a call-up to the AA Pensacola Blue Wahoos. (He also turned some heads during the All-Star Break Futures Game along the way.)...

Ozzie Guillen May Wish To Avoid Taking Managerial Advice From Tinfoil Hat Guy
Ever-profane Marlins manager Ozzie Guillen got himself into a bit of hot water Sunday as his gripes about Nats rookie Bryce Harper's bat drew the ire of home plate umpire Marty Foster. Foster told Guillen to shut his trap about what the Miami skipper felt was too much pine tar on Harper's stick, af...

Phillies Minor Leaguer Stole A Home Run With This Incredible Catch
I've watched this video a lot. I don't want to say 100 times, but it's getting close and I'm still not really sure what happened here. In real time, it looks like Jiwan James of the Reading Phillies pulls off some sleight of hand act: his running, jumping, crashing catch has us all tracking the ba...

Bill James: Showering With Boys Was "Quite Common In America 40 Years Ago."
We talked about Bill James being a crazy person earlier this week. Well, Bill James was on Doug Gottlieb's radio show on ESPN yesterday and hopped right on the last train to Nutsville....

Gregg Williams Is Still A Hometown Hero As Far As Applebee's Is Concerned
Former Saints defensive coordinator Gregg Williams has been mostly out of the public eye since he became the poster boy for the NFL's bounty problem. But as host of an annual charity golf tournament, you get to talk to reporters for a little bit. Williams spoke briefly before refusing to comment on ...

Rick Reilly Says He Is A Fool, The Rest Of Us Get The Day Off
Rick Reilly has issued a mea culpa of sorts regarding Joe Paterno. Reilly essentially issued an apology for publishing a 10-page fluff piece on Paterno for Sports Illustrated's Sportsman Of The Year award. For example, paragraph two:...

New Statistics Unveiled, Oddibe McDowell Likely a Hall Of Famer
The fine folks at baseball-reference have this to offer, just below "transactions" and "salaries" on Oddibe McDowell's player page. Don't get too excited though, as with any new stat, only time will tell if the information is complete and accurate, so be sure to read the fine print....

Someone Actually Thinks The Freeh Report Exonerated Joe Paterno, And It's Bill James
Today was rough for anyone even remotely associated with Penn State University, and there are certainly more developments on the way. What you didn't find today, however, were many folks (at least, high-profile ones) defending the actions of Penn State or the conduct of Joe Paterno, as was laid out ...

Last Night's <em>The Franchise: Miami Marlins</em> Distilled Down To Its Motherfucking Essence
The Miami Marlins all-access curse-fest that is The Franchise premiered last night on Showtime, and the first episode made for enjoyable viewing (more enjoyable, at least, than the ESPY Awards, which it ran against). Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria bet the house on the 2012 season, hoping a new stadiu...