journalism Page 40 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Pitchers Hooked On Beer, Fried Chicken, And Video Games! Francona On Pills! The <em>Boston Globe's</em> Version Of The 2011 Red Sox Collapse
It took two weeks, but the Boston Globe has produced the definitive grisly autopsy of the 2011 Boston Red Sox meltdown, and it's lurid, all right. (You'll recall that the team collapsed in epic fashion and missed the playoffs.) The Globe's story is full of drink and drugs and player grousing, but th...

It Is Tebow Time O'Clock In Denver
Just a week ago, it was not Tebow time in Denver. It was Orton time. Yesterday, though, the big hand turned during "The Most Exciting Broncos Loss of the 2011 Season." Here is a collection of time-keeping from the Denver timekeepers....

What The Boston-Area Papers Wrote About An Interview In Which Aaron Hernandez Had Nothing To Say Except "Aaaahuuugh"
The above video has been bouncing around because of the obvious silliness of Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez's reaction yesterday to questions about his injured left knee. Hernandez has been out for two games, so his condition is somewhat newsworthy in New England. And after clowning for a bit, H...

Jose Reyes Is A Selfish, Gutless, Stat-Padding Quitter (Just Like Derek Jeter)
From the moment Jose Reyes dropped a first-inning bunt single and then checked out of the season's final game, leaving his average at .337 and all but assuring the Mets of the first batting title in franchise history, it was obvious that people who need something to yell about were going to yell abo...

The Curse Of Dopey "Curse Of The Bambino" References, And Other Dumb Things About The Red Sox's Stretch Run
Harvey Araton of the New York Times, reporting from Baltimore, sets the new/old standard for witless hackery today:...

How Sportswriters Became Obsessed With NCAA Scandals
The following is excerpted from Daniel Libit's story "The Scandal Beat" in the September/October issue of the Columbia Journalism Review. Read the whole thing on CJR.org....

Steve Carlton Really Was A One-Man Team In 1972
Joe Posnanski presents a backhanded defense of the old-fashioned statistic of baseball pitchers' wins today. True, the "winning pitcher" depends on his teammates playing defense and scoring runs for him; yes, great pitchers in bad circumstances can produce feeble win totals, and bad pitchers for gre...

Bruce Feldman On Leaving ESPN: "In The Last Six Weeks, I've Seen What They're Capable Of" (UPDATED)
After 17 years at ESPN, where he was one of the first hires for the WWL's website once upon a time, college football writer Bruce Feldman announced today that he was leaving for a gig at CBSSports.com. He also made an appearance this morning on Dan Patrick's radio show and spoke freely about what w...

The Tulsa Shock Might Not Even Be The Worst Team In The League This Year
The long-suffering Tulsa Shock are now suffering just a little bit less! Since we checked in with them on Friday—when they seemed on track to surpass the 2010-11 Cleveland Cavaliers for the worst losing streak in NBA/WNBA history—the Shock have tripled their win count for the season....

Ric Flair Is Threatening To Sue Grantland Over "Falsehoods" In Their Story, Even Though The "Falsehoods" Came From Flair's Book
WOOOO, boy. TMZ reports that Ric Flair, noted pro wrestler, is weighing his legal options against Grantland, Bill Simmons' sports-prose panacea, after the site published a long piece this week by Shane Ryan on Flair's legal trouble. ...

Brave TV Reporter Gets A Mouthful Of Sewage-Seasoned Sea Foam To Seize The Big Story
Your morning roundup for Aug. 28, the day we give a shout out to aquatic fleas. Got any stories or photos for us? Tip your editors. (Want more Tucker Barnes? Here.)...

Can The Tulsa Shock Become The Worst Pro Basketball Team Ever?
Last night, the Tulsa Shock lost to the Seattle Storm, 74-57. It was their 20th consecutive defeat. Like UConn as it closed in on UCLA's record college-basketball winning streak, the WNBA team is within reach of the longest losing streak in NBA history, 26 games, set by the 2010-11 New Jersey Nets C...

The 27 Hottest Employees Of The Venture Capital Firm That's Investing $22 Million In Bleacher Report: A Slideshow
As you know, Oak Investment Partners is lavishing a large sum of money on Bleacher Report. But what is Oak Investment Partners? Who are these people? Why, they're only some of the hottest hotties venturing capital today. Let's have a look....

Sportswriting's Gonna Be OK, Everybody: Bleacher Report Just Secured $22 Million In Venture Capital
Per Darren Rovell, the funding came from Oak Investment Partners. At Bleacher Report, money DOES grow on trees!...

Dear Grantland: Why Won't You Let Yourself Be Loved?
In the absence of a comment space on ESPN's Grantland website, Deadspin continues to supply a space for Grantland readers to share their feedback. Please send corrections and comments to [email protected], subject "Dear Grantland."...

The Worst Time To Make Up A Quote From A GM Calling One Of His Players Crazy Is Probably In That Player's Obituary
Or, anyway, we think that the worst time you can invent a GM's quote calling a player "crazy" is in that player's obituary....

Jim Thome Is Just A "Big, Friendly Farm Boy," And Other Aw-Shucks Observations
On Monday night, Minnesota's Jim Thome became the eighth player in MLB history to hit 600 career home runs. Sports media has declared that not enough people noticed his feat (to its credit, though, the condom sector did). So let us humbly praise the humble man who is, in the immortal words of Tim Ku...

Care To Read Another Lengthy Evisceration Of Grantland?
"What could have been high-concept—The New Yorker for sports, or something similar but more fun—is instead a cross between kitty litter mags Vanity Fair and New York Magazine at its absolute best and a shitty buddy blog for sports and entertainment at its worst." [BryanJoiner.com]...

Today In <em>The New York Times</em> Answering Questions No One Is Asking
"'Ralph Branca is not a Jew,' said Alan Dershowitz, a Brooklyn-born Dodgers fan, lawyer and Harvard professor." [NYT]...

A Gaggle Of Clever Sportswriters Is Starting A Long-Form Web Concern
The Classical bills itself as "a running, wide-ranging conversation between us and our readers about baseball, basketball, soccer, football and fighting, and about things that aren't sports, too." It'll have long features and blogs, modeling itself after The Awl....