k Page 3408 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Better Know An Umpire: Lance Barrett
Welcome to Better Know An Umpire, an effort to educate ourselves on the human elements who have ultimate decision-making power over some 2,500 Major League Baseball games a year. (All cumulative statistics are through the 2011 season, unless otherwise stated.)...

John Cusack In A Goatee? Quoth The Raven: Meh.
John Cusack is one of those actors whom everybody likes. He was a consistently enjoyable presence in '80s films like Better Off Dead and Sixteen Candles, and he won the hearts of a generation of young women by being the most sensitive man ever in Say Anything. Since then, he's been an indie staple (...

Some Dick Prank-Called Mohamed Sanu And Told Him He'd Been Drafted
The Rutgers wide receiver is projected to go in the second or third round, but there's no blaming Sanu for getting his hopes up last night. As Cincinnati prepared to make their pick, someone claiming to be from the Bengals called Sanu and told him they were about to select him 27th overall....

Was This Former Saints Electrician The Source For ESPN's Wiretapping Story?
FOX8 in New Orleans claims to have identified ESPN's source for the Mickey Loomis wiretapping story, and if they're right, it wasn't anyone intimately connected with football operations. Instead, FOX8 (a station owned by Saints owner Tom Benson) claims it was Tim Landry, a sound and electrical worke...

Ad On ESPN Homepage: Nothing Says Mother's Day Like The Gift Of Mel Kiper's Hair
I think the jeweler who bought the ad is going for the compatibility of trying to select a Mother's Day gift at the same time your favorite NFL team is trying to select the right draft pick. Synergy! But, really, Mel Kiper's hair as your pitch-hair? And let's be honest about using the draft as your ...

And Here's The Long-Awaited Unveiling Of Robert Griffin III's Socks
"Go catch your dreams," says RG3, though to his receivers "your dreams" means "my passes."(Click "Expand" for a closer look.)...

This Is Video Of A Pole Vault Competition At The Drake Relays, Which Is Held In A Shopping Mall
And they've been doing it every year but one since 2008. As silly as it looks to see a world-class event taking place as some teenage girl exits The Limited before she makes a stop at Old Navy and heads over to the food court, there's actually something to be said for this....

Do You Deserve That Foul Ball? Consult This Handy Chart
There's some impassioned debate going on in the comments on the post about the couple in Texas failing to surrender a foul ball to the weeping child beside them. What are the real rules, here? Possession is nine-tenths of the law? Children first? What's the right thing to do to avoid the censure of...

NFL Network's Draft Coverage Is Already Hitting Some Technical Snags
In an age of exclusive broadcast contracts, choice in television viewership is a rarity for live sports programming. The NFL Draft is the most prominent remaining event for which viewers can choose—in this case, between ESPN and the NFL Network. The latter's going all-out to try and grab a bigger...

Does A High School Hockey Player Deserve Criminal Charges For This Hit?
The parents of a Massachusetts high schooler, who missed most of the season after suffering a concussion in January, wants an assault and battery charge brought against the player who delivered the hit. They might get their wish: the district court clerk magistrate will review the video tomorrow a...

I Was The Child Star Of A CBS Show Who Had Two Free Throws To Win The Big Game
An occasional series featuring our readers' tales of momentary sports glory. If you've got a video of your own brush with athletic greatness, send it to [email protected], subject: Glory Days. Consider this one a very special episode: a former child star reminiscing about his big sports moment on ...

Better Know An Umpire: Mark Carlson
Welcome to Better Know An Umpire, an effort to educate ourselves on the human elements who have ultimate decision-making power over some 2,500 Major League Baseball games a year. (All cumulative statistics are through the 2011 season, unless otherwise stated.)...

Stanley Kubrick Apparently Rose From The Dead To Direct Nike's Newest Ad
For a commercial that ultimately revolves around the selling of shoes and jerseys, there's a lot going on here: Marshawn Lynch, a wrecking ball, Troy Polamalu, a Larry Fitzgerald-branded sports car, Larry Fitzgerald, burning tires, Marshawn Lynch running, Darrelle Revis, a floating jet engine, an ...

Jack Black Has Overdosed On Himself
There is a moment, I think, when an actor's persona becomes so chiseled and locked-in that it's impossible to accept that person as an actor anymore; he's a movie star now, and that's all he will ever be again. This is not to say this movie star cannot be effective in a film; Tom Cruise hasn't been ...

US Navy Frees Eric Kettani To Play For The Patriots
LTJG Eric Kettani can go back to being FB Eric Kettani. Yesterday, after three years of service on the USS Klakring, Kettani received his release from active duty and will join the New England Patriots for all offseason activities....

Latrell Sprewell Figurine Bought At Antique Store Packaged With Unintentionally Funny Warning Label
A reader named Bryan sent us this photo of a Latrell Sprewell figurine, which we've juxtaposed for you above to highlight the warning label on the bottom right corner of the package. Bryan tells us he recently spent $9 on the mini Spree at an antique store "because of how awesome it is. If only PJ C...

Kobe Bryant Makes Himself Disappear
This happened during the telecast of the Lakers' game at the Warriors last week, but it was just brought to our attention. It's pretty much your standard scene shot of Kobe walking earnestly through the hallway at Oracle Arena, readying himself for ... poof....

Here's How Racists On Twitter Reacted to Joel Ward's Series-Winning Goal Against Boston
Joel Ward is a light-scoring winger for the Capitals, who was in the right place and the right time to put home the overtime series-winner to send Washington past Boston in game 7. Completely unrelated, for most of us, is that Ward's parents were Barbadian immigrants to Toronto. So there were a good...
![Worst People Ever Catch Foul Ball, Refuse To Give It To A Crying Child, Are Vilified By Michael Kay [UPDATE]](https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/Image_Not_Found_1x_qjofp8.png)
Worst People Ever Catch Foul Ball, Refuse To Give It To A Crying Child, Are Vilified By Michael Kay [UPDATE]
An unfortunate scene unfolded in Arlington tonight as a pair of Rangers fans caught a foul ball tossed into the stands by Mitch Moreland in the eighth inning of Rangers-Yankees, then refused to give the ball to the toddler sitting next to them—instead choosing to pose for pictures and generally beh...

Now's Your Chance To Buy The House Rob Gronkowski Grew Up In
The listing describes this "stately colonial" in the Buffalo, N.Y., suburb of Amherst as "fantastic and gracious." The house sits on 5.1 acres and has four bedrooms, three-and-a-half bathrooms, an oversized in-ground pool and hot tub, and tennis and basketball courts. But that's not all! A source te...