league Page 328 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
Dear ESPN: A 77 MPH Little League Fastball Is Not Equivalent To A 100 MPH Major-League Fastball
An email from reader Tommy Leonardi:...
Phillies Prospect Makes Home-Run Robbing Catch
That's Derrick Mitchell of the Triple-A Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs reaching above the wall to take away a home run from Toledo Mud Hens catcher Brad Davis in the eighth inning last night. The Express-Times of Easton (Pa.) said it was one of two outstanding catches Mitchell made during the game. We're...
"Play Hard And Have Fun And Let The Chips Fall Where They May": Little League Manager Fires His Team Up
ESPN caught Indiana's manager Brett Mann firing his little leaguers up in between innings and it's not only awesome, but exactly what you want to see from little league sports. Yes, he wants to win and he's urging them on so they can win, but he's not talking about "glory" or being a "champion" or...
Newcastle's First Goal On The Season Was This Curling Strike From Demba Ba
Demba Ba was slow to start his 2011-2012 campaign and then disappeared entirely from Newcastle United's scoresheet after the month of February. It deprived us glorious goals like this one he scored against Manchester United in February....
The Mariners' Double-A Team, Including Felix Hernandez's Brother, Went Nutso When Felix Finished His Perfect Game
Batting practice for the Jackson (Tenn.) Generals ground to a halt yesterday afternoon, as Felix Hernandez closed in on his first career perfecto. The end of the game was played on the scoreboard, and the Mariners' AA affiliate gathered in left field to watch the final few pitches. When Sean Rodri...
Baseball Game Delayed While Repo Men Attempt To Collect Bats, Gloves, For Team's Unpaid Cleaning Bills
The Worcester Tornadoes, of the independent Can-Am league, couldn't throw the first pitch of last night's game at 7 p.m., as scheduled. They were too busy dealing with police constables sent to enforce a court order to confiscate the team's equipment. Enterprise Cleaning Co. has cleaned clubhouses, ...
New York City Is About To Get A New MLS Team That Might Be Owned By A Rich Dude From Dubai
The New York Post reports today that the city is on the verge of approving a deal for a $300 million stadium that would be little more than a corner kick from CitiField and Arthur Ashe Stadium in Flushing Meadows Corona Park....
Little League Team Advances To World Series On Sketchy Third-Base Appeal
The team from Petaluma, California advanced to the Little League World Series last night after escaping from a sixth-inning rally by their Nanakuli, Hawaii opponents with an appeal to third base that a Hawaiian runner missed the bag. The score was 7-6 Petaluma at the time, with the Northern Calif...
The Baseballs In College Summer Leagues Appear To Be Juiced
A lot of college baseball players don't go home for the summer. Instead, many make their way to tiny dots on the map like Falmouth (Mass.), Celina (Ohio), DeLand (Fla.), or Quakertown (Pa.), to play in one of a handful of summer leagues....
Carlton Banks Makes Appearance At Iowa Minor League Park, Reads "Take Me Out To The Ballgame" From His Phone
Poor Carlton Banks. He went to Princeton, backed by a large family fortune, but that wasn't enough for him. Somewhere along the line he fell on hard times—2008 felled so many titans—and had to resort to doing personal appearances at single-A baseball games in Iowa....
Wait, Did John Feinstein <em>Really</em> Delay A Basketball Game Five Hours For His Book About Selfless Student Athletes?
Tuesday morning, we flagged an article in The Millions called "The Problem with Sportswriting." In it, the author, Sebastian Stockman, having dived 544 pages deep into John Feinstein's navel, resurfaces with a great head-slapper. Stockman writes:...
Columbus Crew Midfielder Kirk Urso Is Dead At 22
Columbus Crew midfielder Kirk Urso is dead, according to a press release from the MLS team. There's no cause announced, and we'll be sure to update as soon as we hear anything else....
Visual Confirmation That Mario Seneca Is The Most Sensitive Umpire In Baseball History
Last night, we told you about minor league umpire Mario Seneca, who ejected the music guy/college intern working for the high-A Daytona Cubs for playing "Three Blind Mice" after a questionable call. Today, video of the incident has surfaced (thanks to the Daytona Cubs themselves) and it confirms o...
Minor League Umpire Ejects Ballpark Music Guy For Playing "Three Blind Mice"
If there's one thing umpires love more than ejecting players, it's ejecting non-players. That goes for managers but also fans, mascots, and other ballpark patrons. Tommy Lasorda once complained to umpire Bob Davidson that Youppi!, the Montreal Expos mascot, was jumping up and down on his dugout. (Da...
Oh Look, Another Awesome Summer League Dunk
This one's from the South Carolina Pro-Am League, where last night UNC-Wilmington product Dominique Lacy just straight pushed some guy's shit in. Lacy last played with the unfortunately named Luxembourgian team BC Mess, so someone please give him a job in America. Is Slamball still around? [Slam]...
Umpire Cancels Little League Game When Coach Won't Stop Arguing
This video, unfortunately, only shows the last few seconds of a little league coach's tirade against the ump. According to witnesses, it went on for a lot longer than this, and included "belittling [his own team] and swearing while describing the way they played." That's an awful lot of buttmad fo...
Shaq Thompson Returns To Football After The Worst Minor League Career Imaginable
There is something unique about hitting a baseball: the assumption of failure. A batter can fail at his job two out of three times, and do it for 15 years, and he'll make the Hall of Fame. Baseball is a sport designed for only occasional success, even for its most skilled practitioners....
Minor Independent League Baseball Is Just The Weirdest
The New Jersey Jackals hosted the Gary South Shore Railcats for a double header yesterday that was suspended due to fireworks. Every Saturday is fireworks night at the Railcats ballpark and it was put into serious jeopardy because of the doubleheader and a local noise ordinance. Rather than run the...
Major League Soccer Wants Nothing To Do With The Boy Scouts Anymore
Just days after the Boy Scouts of America confirmed it was still a haven for the ignorant, Major League Soccer announced that it will not renew its relationship with the badge-obsessed group before the ink could even dry on the agreement. The two organizations announced their relationship, termed an...
Shaq Thompson Update: Shaq Has An At-Bat Where He Doesn't Strike Out!
Red Sox prospect and UW football recruit Shaq Thompson is putting together one of the all-time great stat sheets. Coming into today, Thompson was 0-for-37, with 36 strikeouts in his short career. (He'll start at safety for the Huskies in the fall.) We're committed to providing you the latest Shaq Th...