k Page 3778 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Sad Letter Closes The Door On ESPN Zone
The Times Square ESPN Zone could not even stay open two more days so that I could watch soccer on Friday morning. Pity the Midtown office jockeys who now have to show up to work on time. [Village Voice]...

Your Culturally Insensitive World Cup Goal Roundup For June 16
Day 6 saw a huge upset with the Swiss defeating Spain and Uruguay's Diego Forlan putting two away against an overmatched South Africa. Pretty goals, lucky goals — they're all here to be enhanced with some good old-fashioned cultural insensitivity....

World Cup Sexy Fans: Legit, Or Viral Marketing?
With news that the scantily-clad Dutch blondes were actually models hired for a publicity stunt by a beer company, we thought it would be instructive to look at some of the other attention-grabbing female fans. Real or fake?...

Mike Ditka Gets Annoyed With Idiocy Of Airplane Passengers On Recent Flight (Video)
Story summary: Flight from Pittsburgh takes off, has mechanical trouble, goes back to runway. Passengers told to wait in seats, but some try to de-plane anyway. Da Coach gets frustrated by their inability to listen to instructions. (H/T: Mike.)...

Last Night's Winner: Game 7 Aficionados
In sports, everyone is a winner—some people just win better than others. Like those who aren't ready to resign themselves to soccer and the dog days of baseball season. We still have basketball, for a little while longer....

Alexander Ovechkin Is Enjoying His Summer
Because no one reads the newspaper, and SportsCenter's anchors are too perky for this early in the morning, Deadspin combs the best of the broadsheets and internets to bring you everything you need to know to start your day....

Albert Haynesworth Continues To Out-Haynesworth Himself
It seems that the NFL's most well-paid defensive lineman finds playing defensive lineman to be an unreasonable job requirement and wants to be traded—even though his stupidly gargantuan contract makes that impossible....

North Korean Soccer Fans Are Actually Chinese "Volunteers" (UPDATE)
North Korea's World Cup debut elicited touching stories about the ragtag group of soccer fans "hand-picked" by the Communist regime to support their squad in South Africa. Turns out they were hand-picked for their skill at not being Korean....

Celtics-Lakers Has Competitive Greatness Coming Out The Ass
Quietly, perhaps in a brief moment when floppy Derek Fisher wasn't butoh dancing for the refs, Celtics-Lakers became everything anyone could want in a basketball series....

Your Culturally Insensitive World Cup Goal Roundup For June 15th
Lots of good ones today. The Brazilian goals were nonchalant and North Korea — the Bad Korea — scored on The Selection on a really nice play. Top honors must go to New Zealand's Winston Reid for his stoppage-time equalizer....

Tom Izzo: Spartan "For Life"
That sounds about right. Now ... exhale. [Lansing State Journal]...

The Legend Of Black Superman: Billy Ray Bates, Flying High In The Philippines
In the 1980s, Billy Ray Bates, dubbed "the Legend" by Brent Musberger, washed out of the NBA and onto the shores of the Philippines, where for a few wild years his legend grew, both on the court and in the bars....

Steve Kerr Resigns, Trades Himself Back To Television
Resigns as Suns' GM after four years of overseeing fastfastfastfastfast basketball. [SLAM!]...

World Cup Open Thread: Brazil-North Korea
This one's not even going to be close, Brazil's going to show 'em what's what for kidnapping all those Japanese people....

Intern Horrors: Joe Buck Edition ... With A Response From Joe Buck
We received an intern horror story this week so delicious that it warranted its own post. Our old pal Joe Buck is involved. So is Joe Buck's sweat-soiled napkin. Allegedly. The story — and Joe's response — after the jump....

Remembering The Ill-Fated Yankees Mascot
"Dandy" survived only three seasons, thanks in part to being banned from the field by George Steinbrenner after Lou Piniella's run-in with the San Diego Chicken. And also, because he was a hideous abomination and an affront to sanity. [WSJ]...

Jonathan Toews To Be <em>NHL 2011</em> Cover Boy?
According to this picture, Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews will be the cover athlete for EA's NHL 2011, a year after his linemate, social drinker Patrick Kane, adorned the cover. [Operation Sports, via Puck Daddy]...

NYCers: Come Chat New "Book" With Emeritus
If you happen to be in the NYC area tonight, come to the Barnes and Noble on 86th and Lexington to see me talk about Are We Winning at 7 p.m. Booze and NBA Finals afterward for all comers....

Earthquake Interrupts Padres Game
A 5.7 earthquake struck during the eighth inning of last night's San Diego/Toronto tilt. Guess God isn't a fan of interleague play....

Last Night's Winner: Joe Schadenfreude
In sports, everyone's a winner — some just win better than others. Like Chip Brown of Orangebloods.com, who went sources-against-sources with ESPN's college football show pony, Joe Schad, during the Big 12 realignment saga and won the battle of truth....