inf Page 26 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
Buccaneers Camp Halted By Potential Staph Infection Outbreak
According to ESPN's Chris Mortensen, two Tampa Bay Buccaneers players have been infected with MRSA, an antibiotic-resistant staph infection. Essentially, MRSA is a flesh-eating bacteria that is passed around through skin-on-skin contact. It's some shit you don't want to mess with. Guard Carl Nicks h...
History As Pop As Camp: <em>The Butler</em>, Reviewed.
1. Lee Daniels is a total lunatic of a director, a man who knows nothing of restraint, decorum or moderation. Sometimes this works for him; his Precious was lurid and garish and melodramatic in a way that fit the material, making the protagonist's sufferings feel both pulpy and weirdly real. Mostly,...
Sucking In The Seventies
Over at the great site, In Focus, Alan Taylor takes a look at America in the 1970s. Check out what he's got so far......
What I Learned From A Year Of Watching <em>SportsCenter</em>
Thirty-three years and more than 50,000 episodes on, SportsCenter is less a television show or a convenient way to catch up on the day in sports than a great mechanical contraption gone awry, its parts moving independently not just of one another but of any obvious directing intelligence. ...
Infographic: Every Pitch Of The All-Star Game
The folks at Statlas have put together this visualization of each and every pitch thrown at last night's All-Star Game, broken down by type, speed, and result. You can probably guess who invariably threw the same pitch, at nearly the same velocity, every single time....
Infographic: Where Is ESPN The Magazine Hiding Athletes’ Naughty Bits?
The 2013 Body Issue of ESPN The Magazine hit newsstands last Friday, managing its typical trick of publishing sultry near-nudes while simultaneously patting the reader on the back for admiring the athletic form (just like the ancient Greeks!)....
A Fire On The 7 Train Strands Crowds Leaving Home Run Derby
According to various reports from Twitter users leaving the Home Run Derby at Citi Field, there is a fire somewhere on the 7 train line—initial reports indicate there is an investigation at the 103rd street stop—and it isn't running. The 7 is the only subway that services Citi Field. There are obvio...
What Do Arrests Data <em>Really</em> Say About NFL Players And Crime?
You can find all kinds of data about all the arrests in the NFL; tracking the alleged criminal behavior of football players has become something of a cottage industry unto itself. The San Diego Union-Tribune has a comprehensive database from 2000 to the present. Reddit user Mario Wolf has some chart...
It's What You Do With The Gift That Counts
There was a good story by John Le Carre in theNew Yorker earlier this year (subscription required) about the making of his novel The Spy Who Came in From the Cold. The piece centered on the tense relationship between the film’s director, Martin Ritt, a left-wing Jew who’d been blacklisted, and its s...
NBA Finals Elimination Games, Ranked According To Fun
Note: An earlier version of this post was missing two key elimination games – 1988 Game 7 and 1993 Game 6 – which are now included in the rankings....
Infographics: Where Do Pro Basketball Players Come From?
Depending on whom you ask, the hotbed for NBA talent might lie in D.C., Seattle, Prince George's County (Md.), Baton Rouge, or, uh, Slovenia. Thousands of people have played professional basketball—there are a lot of places vying for the crown. So: Where do most players actually come from?...
Does The Majority Party Have An Advantage In Congressional Ballgame?
Tonight, Congress will once again take part in its annual baseball game, an ultra-American tradition that dates back to 1909. The Democrats, led by Louisiana Ace Cedric Richmond, have won the last four, but Republicans have a new weapon in freshman Rep. Ron DeSantis. Both played serious college ball...
Map: Do You Live In IHOP America Or Waffle House America?
America might be a fast-food nation, but at least it's a rich, greasy tapestry of fast food. In-N-Out Burger is the jewel of the West Coast. Massachusetts seems to breed Dunkin' Donuts franchises the way it used to breed Kennedys. Oklahoma and Wyoming are the only states to have both Hardee's and Ca...
Where Do Singers Screw Up The National Anthem?
Earlier this month, before the first game of the Canadian Hockey League's Memorial Cup, singer Alexis Normand joined a long list of people who have brutalized the U.S. national anthem in front of a large, tense crowd....
The Magic is Back
Well, not yet. But for Greg Prince, co-author of the fine site, Faith and Fear in Flushing, the glass of Mets fandowm is always half-full. Check out this Q&A with Greg as he talks about volume 1 of a 4-part book sereis: The Happiest Recap....
Charting The Decline Of The Black Baseball Player
A few years back, baseball writer and SABR member Mark Armour tracked the integration of baseball from 1947 to 1986, the 40 seasons after Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier. Why 1986? That year would begin a precipitous decline in the number of African Americans, to less than half the high-wat...
Infographic: Is Your State's Highest-Paid Employee A Coach? (Probably)
You may have heard that the highest-paid employee in each state is usually the football coach at the largest state school. This is actually a gross mischaracterization: Sometimes it is the basketball coach....
10 Years Of NBA Fines, Visualized
SeatCrunch has come up with a whole mess of ways to break down and chart all the fines handed out by the NBA over the last 10 seasons. It's fascinating....