ja Page 138 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

The warm glow of the MLB Hot Stove is upon us — AL West
Sure, the fans in Houston are still on their celebrations, and maybe Phillies fans are still working their way through the Death Cab catalog. But for the rest of us, the real season begins. Or it would be the real season if MLB owners hadn’t killed the baseball offseason, which should really be like...

The only African-American participants in the World Series were Dusty Baker and the pregame entertainers — baseball is pathetic
When Nick Castellanos fouled out to right on Saturday night during the top of the ninth inning of Game 6 of the World Series in Houston, it meant that the Astros were once again world champions and that Dusty Baker had finally won one as a skipper....

How the mid-2000s Suns f’ed it all up
Everything we love about the current NBA was made mainstream by the “seven seconds or less” Phoenix Suns of the mid-2000s. They mostly ran lineups that went four out, surrounding their All-Star big man, Amar’e Stoudemire, with space to dominate less athletic bigs. In the 2000s, just about every othe...

Even after 100,000 passing yards, Tom Brady really needed a win on Sunday
After the thrilling early games in Week 9, what a dud for the big late-afternoon game to be the Los Angeles Rams vs. Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Two teams with roster deficiencies that haven’t been enjoyable to watch at all this season....

Justin Fields and the Bears’ hibernation is over
A few weeks ago, giving up on Justin Fields as a viable starter would have been warranted. He was abysmal and with a draft stocked with talent at the QB position over the horizon, who could have blamed the Chicago Bears for developing a wandering eye? In the first six games of the season, the Bears’...

The beginning and the end
If the charm, and sometimes the frustration, of baseball is that everyone gets an AB, the big moments can land on anyone, and any player on the roster could etch his name in history, then it feels as if there is a higher power when the best in the game get to write their signature on something that ...

Mikey Williams reaffirms Memphis’ status as college basketball’s Airbnb
San Ysidro teammates Mikey Williams and JJ Taylor’s committing to play for Memphis next season would have been the biggest recruiting heist in college basketball two years ago. But for a variety of reasons, Penny Hardaway’s track record with one-and-done phenoms at Memphis has been worse than the no...

The Brooklyn Nets might be giving up on Ben Simmons already
Welp, that could be it, folks. ...

If you’re gonna have playoffs, make them as drunk as possible
Soccer doesn’t really lend itself to playoffs. It’s why league seasons and cup competitions are generally separate, and the latter are understood to just be goofy, random collections of games where just about anything can happen. As soccer games are still decided on maybe one or two moments, one or ...

We were foolish to think any SEC game could steal the show from Alabama-LSU
While Saturday’s Georgia-Tennessee game was the biggest contest in the history of that matchup and the de facto headliner for Week 10, it was the SEC rivalry that has defined the conference for most of this century that once again stole the limelight. In his first time helming LSU against Alabama, c...

The Brooklyn Nets are the biggest basketball failure of the 21st Century
With Kyrie Irving dominating the news cycle in recent days, now seems like as good a time as any to remind you that even if you take all the Brooklyn Nets’ off-court issues out of the equation, they’re still a really bad basketball team....

History is not on the Philadelphia Eagles' side despite an 8-0 start
Thursday Night Football saw the Philadelphia Eagles win their eighth game in a row, a 29-17 victory over the woeful Houston Texans. While many people have claimed the Eagles are frauds due to their lackluster schedule, it’s hard to deny just how electric their offense has looked and how stout their ...

If athletes are going to take a stand on social issues, they can't also ignore Kyrie Irving, antisemitism
It was one of the rare beautiful things about 2020. It’s a shame it took an event as obviously evil as George Floyd’s murder while in Minneapolis police custody to be the catalyst for such touching moments. Seeing the groundswell of support for the Black Lives Matter movement in the aftermath, and t...

Could this Philly prop bet be the worst bad beat of the century?
Last night, the Philadelphia Phillies dropped Game 5 of the Fall Classic, falling behind 3-2 in the series. It was a better showing than their efforts the game before which saw Rob Thomson’s crew get no-hit, just the second time in World Series history any participant has been held hitless. However...

This is not the year to rely on SEC bias for a trip to the College Football Playoff
College football fans would presume that a one-loss SEC team who doesn’t have to play in the conference title game would’ve lucked out as far as the College Football Playoff is concerned. Georgia made it last year with one loss, as did Alabama in 2017-18. The only one-loss SEC program not to get an ...

Jay-Z is ready for his big piece of the NFL pie
What’s better than one billionaire, partnering up with a wealthier one?...

Justin Verlander didn’t need this, despite what his critics say
It is strange that there was some perception floating out there that Justin Verlander needed a win in the World Series to somehow justify his career. When you’ve got 244 of them — no matter what pitcher wins might mean or don’t mean these days — and another 15 to boot in the postseason, you’d think ...

Thursday Night Football Preview: Can the Philadelphia Eagles run the table?
The Eagles are the only remaining undefeated team in the NFL. With 10 weeks left, though, it seems impossible that the Eagles could remain undefeated through the rest of the year. Then you look at their upcoming schedule....

Hear me out: Cristian Javier should’ve remained in Game 4
Last night, the Houston Astros’ pitching staff combined for the second no-hitter in World Series history. Cristian Javier, Bryan Abreu, Rafael Montero, and Ryan Pressly allowed only three baserunners (all walks) while striking out 14 Phillies en route to evening up the World Series. There were only ...

Can you Phil the love tonight?
Love is certainly not the first thing that comes to my mind when I think about Philadelphia — despite it being called the City of Brotherly Love or having a statue of the word. I don’t care how high of a note Musiq Soulchild hit in his 2000 Billboard Top 100 single....