leo Page 75 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Gleeful Avs Announcer Basically Says Injured Kronwall Deserved It
The Avalanche have been so bad for so long, we almost forgot what brutal homers their broadcasters are. Play-by-play man Mike Haynes was there to remind us last night, taking an uncomfortable amount of joy from an ugly injury to Detroit's Niklas Kronwall....

Torres! Torres! Torres!
Apropos of nothing let's take a moment to appreciate Jose Torres. Here is what Leonard Shecter wrote about Torres for Sport magazine back in 1965:...

Steubenville School Official Indicted In Rape Case
The grand jury convened by Ohio's state attorney general to determine whether additional crimes were committed in the notorious Steubenville High School rape case has resulted in the indictment of a school official accused of some sort of cover-up....

The Great Chase
Wladimir Balentien is the new single-season home run king in Japan. Fifty-two years ago, Roger Maris chased Babe Ruth’s home run record here in the States. Of course, he eventually broke it. When he did, this is what the great Leonard Shecter wrote in the New York Post:...

Football Powerhouse Wins With Thrilling Hail Mary
The Fordham Rams (FCS) wrapped up a stunning upset win over the Temple Owls (FBS) with this—there is simply no other word for it—breathtaking hail mary that traveled 125 yards in the air if it went 29. ...

The Better Man: How Sugar Ray Leonard Handled Fear And Marvin Hagler
Originally published in the May 17, 1987, edition of The Washington Post Magazine. Republished here with the author's permission. His postscript follows. For more on Hagler-Leonard, check out Grantland's oral history....

The Time Leo Durocher Beat The Shit Out Of A Heckler
The following is excerpted from The Victory Season: The End of World War II and the Birth of Baseball’s Golden Age, available now on Amazon....

HS Soccer Players Allegedly Raped Fellow Camper With Broomstick
On Monday, we told you about three Massachusetts high school soccer players who had been charged with sexual assault after an alleged incident at a team-building camp. At the time, the nature of the alleged assault wasn't known, but now Boston.com has the grisly details....

Cool Fat City Poster
We've raved about Fat City here before—Leonard Gardner's novel and John Huston's movie. I ran across the Polish poster for the movie at the dope tumblr site, The Wanderlustr. ...

How An ESPNer Found Out The "Battle Of The Sexes" Was Probably Fixed
As usual, this one started with a tip. It came courtesy of Hal Shaw, a 79-year-old man who lived in Florida. ESPN investigative reporter Don Van Natta Jr. knew him. The two had met when Van Natta was researching his 2011 biography of Babe Didrikson Zaharia. Shaw once worked at the country club that...

Deep Cover
That's what J.R. Moehringer went when he wrote this story for the L.A. Times magazine on Pete Carroll, who was still coaching college football at the time. It's a self-aware piece but still intriguing: ...

Battle Of The Sexes
Next month, to celebrate the 40th anniversary of "The Battle of the Sexes," American Masters will premier their show on Billie Jean King. It's the first time in the program's history that a sports figure has been profiled. And this Sunday over at ESPN, Outside the Lines will feature a segment on Kin...

92nd Street Y Interview with Dutch Leonard
Cause we can't get enough Dutch Leonard round these parts here's a treat: a long 1998 interview at the 92nd Street Y. ...

Elmore Leonard Wrote Great Opening Lines. Here Are All Of Them.
Of course I've had Dutch Leonard on the brain since hearing the news that he died yesterday morning. So I called my pal John Schulian and consulted loyal Stacks reader Four Finger Wu, and we assembled a collection of the first lines of Leonard's novels....

"I've Got A Book To Write"
Mike Lupica remembers his friend Elmore Leonard:...

Elmore Leonard's Rules For Writing
The great American writer Elmore Leonard died this morning. He was 87....

The Most Hated Winner In Football: Al Davis In 1969
Originally published in the Nov. 18, 1969, issue of Look magazine. Image by Sam Woolley....

Thinking of Elmore
Elmore Leonard, 87, had a stroke earlier this week. "He's doing better every day, and the family is guardedly optimistic," said Gregg Sutter, Leonard's longtime researcher. ...

Mind The Gap
From the New York Magazine archives, here’s the late, great Vic Ziegel on Ali-Spinks II:...