ing Page 680 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Italy's Most Beloved Cyclist Rode Hard, Died Young, And Might've Lost His Career To A Rigged Drug Test<em></em>
It makes sense that Marco Pantani remains Italy’s most beloved cyclist 14 years after his death. Italy is one of cycling’s most vibrant strongholds, and like Brazilian soccer fans, the tifosi demand not just mere victory, but style. Vincenzo Nibali’s snoozer of a 2014 Tour de France win is fine, but...

Ultrarunner Courtney Dauwalter Explains Why She Runs Through Blindness And Hallucinations
Courtney Dauwalter is a real nice girl, but competitive. She’s 33 now and married, and living in Golden, Colo., but she grew up in Hopkins, Minn. where she was one heck of an athlete—ran track and cross country, did nordic skiing, went to state a few times. One thing led to another, and now she’s in...

The Legend Of Mitch Green
A note before starting: This piece contains a lot of conversations that took place many years ago. They’re not word-for-word quotes, but they are pretty motherfucking close. The phone answering machine messages are exactly what was spoken....

Stephen A. Smith Declares His Love For Asses<em></em>
Stephen A. Smith speaks of his adoration for butts in the way a person would speak of an old friend or an enriching life event. On Snoop Dogg’s YouTube show, Smith discusses asses fondly. They have clearly done so much for him....

Bryce Harper Roughed Up And Bad-Mouthed In Comprehensively Rotten 24 Hours
C.C. Sabathia of the dastardly New York Yankees pegged dear Dinger Lord Bryce Harper in the funny bone in the top of the fifth inning Tuesday, with two men on and the Yankees clinging to a 2-0 lead. Scum! Murder most foul!...

How Well Did The Belmont Stakes Crowd Know Triple Crown History?
The crowd at the Belmont Stakes was an uneven split between people who were just there to party and horse racing die-hards who make up the entire population of the Park the other 51 weekends of the year. On the morning before Justify won, we talked to representatives from both groups....

Students Are Calling Out Texas A&M For How It Handles Reports Of Sexual Assault
Last week, a Texas A&M student tweeted that she had reported to the university that a member of the swimming and diving team had raped her—and that the swimmer was back with the team. These are what she posted, first on June 7....

Never Take Your Kids To A Championship Parade<em></em>
I was not born or raised in the D.C. area but all of my children were, and so I felt it was my solemn duty as a Good Sports Dad to take them downtown for the Capitals’ Stanley Cup parade, the first major title parade to take place here in nearly three decades. This was a celebration that was unprece...


Report: Deontay Wilder And Anthony Joshua Reach Agreement On Heavyweight Unification Mega-Fight
WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder has agreed to terms to fight IBF, IBO, WBA, and WBO champion Anthony Joshua in a highly anticipated and exceedingly rare heavyweight unification bout, to be held in the United Kingdom, according to a report from ESPN’s Dan Rafael:...

High School Pitcher Strikes Out Childhood Friend To Win Game, Immediately Hugs Him
Last Wednesday, an important Minnesota high school baseball game ended with a pitcher rushing home plate, but in a nice way. Mounds View pitcher Ty Koehn struck out Totino-Grace batter Jack Kocon to seal a three-hit shutout and 4-0 victory. Then, the two friends hugged. Aw!...

A Day At The Belmont Stakes
ELMONT, N.Y.—From just about 20 feet back from the track at the Belmont Stakes, watching three year-old thoroughbred Justify and his jockey, Mike Smith, make history mostly looked like outstretched arms holding aloft cellphones with the cameras rolling. A normal-sized woman could look up and see, on...

Did Justify Have Another Horse Blocking For Him In His Belmont Stakes Win?
On Saturday, Justify became the 13th horse in history to win the Triple Crown (and the second in the last four years, which explains the general lack of excitement—these Belmont Stakes drew the lowest ratings for a Triple Crown bid since NBC began broadcasting the race in 2001). Justify is obviously...

Possibly Alexander Ovechkin Might Be Having Too Much Fun, Beer
Last time we checked in on Alexander Ovechkin he was compulsively hoisting the Stanley Cup in various spots around Nationals Park after throwing out a pair of ceremonial first pitches. It was an early afternoon game for the Nats, leaving Ovechkin with a whole evening of freedom. So how’d he spend it...

USC Wins National Championship On Wild 4x400 Comeback As Announcers Declare Them Dead
Coming into the 4x400 meter relay at tonight’s NCAA track and field championships, the USC women had to win to clinch a national title; otherwise, Georgia would win and pull off a rare sweep of the men’s and women’s titles. When USC mangled the handoff on the final exchange (about 2:48 into the vide...

Justify Wins Belmont, Ruins Mystique Of Triple Crown For A Generation
Justify clocked a 2:28 in the mile-and-a-half of the Belmont Stakes today, earning the first Triple Crown since, uh, three years ago, and driving a stake through the heart of mystery that surrounded the feat for millions....

A Good Idea For Getting LeBron James Onto The Celtics
The Boston Celtics showed up, somewhat unexpectedly, on a list Stephen A. Smith made of teams “in the mix” to land LeBron James in free agency this summer (Smith is a dingus, but he was ahead of everyone on LeBron going to Miami in 2010, so his list can’t be summarily dismissed). The Celtics weren’t...

Alex Ovechkin Lets Go Of Stanley Cup Just Long Enough To Botch Ceremonial First Pitch, Drunkenly Sing "We Are The Champions"
Alex Ovechkin brought the Stanley Cup to Nationals Park today, where he threw out the ceremonial first pitch of Saturday’s Giants-Nationals game. Well, okay, the first two pitches—Ovechkin made a funny mess of the first one:...

Cool Dads Stephen Colbert And Patrick Wilson Deliver Surprisingly Earnest National Anthem Performance
You will be forgiven if you look at the seemingly random pairing of Stephen Colbert and Patrick Wilson lining up to perform the national anthem at a Mets game and think “whuh?” Because, like, whuh? A comedian talk show host and the Insidious guy? Turns out, these nerds can fuckin’ sing!...