joe Page 74 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
Cool take: Four hours is too much baseball
Ryan Butcher started the 10th inning for the Diamondbacks in their game against the Angels on Friday night, with Jared Walsh serving as the courtesy runner at second base. But it was another of baseball’s unnecessary and irritating new rules that really wound up causing trouble for Arizona....
HEAR ME OUT: The infield fly rule is dumb and needs to be done away with
Last night’s Astros-Red Sox game had everything. There was a divisive fan moment before the game when a kid called Alex Bregman over under the guise of wanting to get a picture only to pull the rug out from underneath him and call him a cheater. There were six lead changes — more than any game since...
What happened to all the NBA’s best playoff heel teams?
The NBA playoffs have featured excellent basketball as players who have been on the rise as stars in the league have battled to grab the spotlight....
Embiid and Simmons remind us, in different ways, why they’re special
Ben Simmons only took three shots in the 34 minutes he played last night, but his defensive impact was a catalyst in the Philadelphia 76ers’ 118-102 win over the Atlanta Hawks in Game 2....
With Harden knocked out early, Nets remind Bucks they’re still stacked
James Harden left Game 1 of the Nets-Bucks series in the first minute, after aggravating the hamstring injury that cost him 21 games during the regular season. Steve Nash doesn’t know whether Harden will be available for Game 2 — either way, the former MVP’s health coming into question reshapes ever...
Daryl Morey tried to recruit Steph Curry and then lied about it...poorly
Even with a banged-up Joel Embiid, the Sixers took care of Russ, Beal, and the Wizards in Game 5 of their first-round series. The team was looking forward to their first game against the Atlanta Hawks. Sixers President of Basketball Operations Daryl Morey, however, was looking forward to the offseas...
MLB doesn’t need a 'face of baseball,' and the proof is in the playoffs
Mike Trout has as many MVP awards as career playoff games played, with three, and for as much talk as there might be in baseball — even from the commissioner — about MLB’s need for the best player of his generation to take on the mantle of the face of the game, no amount of marketing can make up for...
With Mayweather-Paul, Showtime has morphed into Comedy Central
For boxing fans, it must be sad to watch what Showtime has become....
Coach K is retiring — Duke Basketball will be buck wild next season
Bonkers. Crazy. Nuts....
We have more baseball crime-scene clowning
Yesterday, Twins’ backup backup center fielder Rob Refsnyder gave us a blooper that should play in stadiums across American ballparks by... [checks date] tonight....
MLB’s first entry into NFT craze – Lou Gehrig's speech – doesn’t pass the smell test
Add “non-fungible” to the list of words that define 2021....
Twins’ Josh Donaldson says pitchers are cheating – and he's got proof
Three-time All-Star and 2015 AL MVP Josh Donaldson is in year two of a four-year deal worth $92 million with the Minnesota Twins. In just over a year with the club, Donaldson is slashing just .225/.343/.422, for an OPS of .765 with Minnesota — a far cry from the numbers the star third baseman was pu...
Now the Leafs have the calamity they’ve always wanted
Because everything is outsized with the Leafs, the idea that they’ve been coughing up genuine chances at the Stanley Cup year-after-year has grown at the rate and scale of The Blob. Being the Leafs, everything around them is audibly multiplied by at least 12, so the sheer volume that is emitted from...
If it’s not the Leafs this season, which teams have the best (worst?) shot at passing the Rangers 54-year Cup futility?
The New York Rangers are the historic gold standard for futility in the NHL, having gone 54 years without winning the Stanley Cup until finally getting the job done in 1994 (see Mark Messier with the Cup above) — after decades of being taunted with “1940” chants in enemy arenas....
Nature is healing; fans to return to that Fourth of July Hot Dog stuffing mess
What are your summer plans? Going to get back on a plane? Maybe catch a live game or concert? How about those restaurants you’ve been meaning to try? Or maybe you’re one of the thousands of folks who want to return to Coney Island for the Fourth of July hot dog eating contest?...
Seems like old times, eh Leafs?
By now you know the key points. The Toronto Maple Leafs haven’t won the Stanley Cup since 1967, haven’t been to the Final since then either, haven’t beaten the Canadiens in a series since their ’67 title clash, won their first division title since 2000 this season (thanks to being in the all-Canadia...
Last night was an anomaly, but it still shows Nets need more than their big three
If you told me that the James Harden-Kevin Durant-Kyrie Irving trio would combine for 96 points, opposite 50 from Jayson Tatum and only 6 from Kemba Walker, I would’ve thought the Nets won that game by double figures. ...
Hats off to a great deal in Vegas
The Golden Knights traded a couple of draft choices to get Mattias Janmark from Chicago in April, and whatever those picks turn out to be, Vegas can rest easy that it was worth it....
Why is 6-foot-3 Mac Jones suddenly being criticized for his lack of size?
We judge a lot of things based on size: Texas BBQ, television monitors, people’s homes, yadda yadda yadda. NFL quarterbacks are no exception. Everything about them gets judged based on their size. Not even Joe Burrow’s hands were exempt from the harsh eye of NFL media. As OTA’s have kicked off acros...