light Page 254 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
Pirates Prospect Starling Marte Made History With His First MLB Swing
On the first swing of his major league career, Pittsburgh's Starling Marte homered tonight to deep left-center field in Houston. He became the first Pirate in 51 years to homer in his first at-bat, as well as the 28th player in MLB history to homer on his first pitch. That ranks just behind perfect ...
Carlos Gomez Completely Rounded The Bases Before Learning His Home Run Sailed Foul
Brewers centerfielder Carlos Gomez had reason to be excited here. Had the ball been fair, it would have been just the third time in his career—and first time in four years—he led off a game with a home run. Apparently no one told him until he was about halfway between third base and home, which gene...
Martin Prado Swings, Misses, Stumbles, Falls On His Ass
No one's going to remember that Martin Prado drew a walk to lead off what turned out to be a scoreless seventh for the Braves last night. What they will remember is the pure slapstick gold that ensued after Prado whiffed at the third pitch he saw from Mike Dunn, complete with the real-life laugh tra...
San Francisco Has The Most Helpful Fans In Baseball
Melky Cabrera made a nice grab in the sixth inning of last night's Giants game, but not as nice as the grab three fans made on Melky. A stylish bow on yet another three-hit game from Cabrera, as the Giants downed the Padres to remain a game-and-a-half up in the NL West....
Walk-Off Home Run From Cody Ross Leaves Hawk Harrelson Silent For Over A Minute
Noted blatherer Hawk Harrelson is really only at a loss for words when the White Sox managed to inexplicably blow a lead late in the game and lose. For example, maybe Chicago is playing at Fenway and about to pull off an efficient 1-0 win thanks to eight solid innings from starting pitcher Jose Qu...
The Steroids Era Was Just Like The Housing Bubble: How MLB Incentivized Widespread Fraud
Excerpted from Twilight of the Elites, available now wherever books are sold....
Rory McIlroy "Nearly Decapitates" Spectator With Errant Drive At 15th Hole
Rory McIlroy's wacky season (claiming the #1 ranking, but missing the U.S. Open cut) continued today at Royal Lytham and St. Annes as he crept his way onto the leaderboard only to find his drive at the par four 15th go far to the right, drilling a spectator in the skull. (Never a publication to en...
Jose Reyes Home Run Drills Wrigley Field Usher In The Back
The Marlins announcers were oddly impressed that Reyes was able to hit one out to right even with the wind at Wrigley blowing in, but a reader named Justin happened to notice where the ball actually lands. The best view is at the end of the clip below, beginning right around the 41-second mark. Yep....
Chipper Jones's Underhanded Throw To The Plate Nearly Lands In The Stands
The ball was flying all over Turner Field last night, what with the Giants and Braves combining for six home runs, including four in extra innings. The Giants eventually won in the 11th thanks to three-run homers by both Brandon Crawford and Gregor Blanco, but they initially took the lead in the 10t...
This Summer League Dunk Required Massive Balls
You may never hear the name Angelo Sharpless again, but for two seconds and an eternity on Youtube, he was The Man. He plays guard for DII Elizabeth City State University, and pulled off this massive throwdown at the Ben Wallace Pro-Am league in Richmond, Va. (Like all summer league dunk videos, i...
Lance Berkman Just Committed One Of The Funniest Errors In His Career
Lance Berkman is still in the majors at age 36, and as a member of the National League Cardinals, gets to entertain us in the field on a daily basis. And entertain he did this afternoon in the first inning of St. Louis' tussle with the Milwaukee Brewers, as what should have been the final out of ...
Reds Prospect Billy Hamilton's Legend Continued After Hitting This Inside-The-Park Homer
The story of this minor league season has been Reds shortstop prospect Billy Hamilton, who after stealing 104 bases in 82 games with the Bakersfield Blaze, earned a call-up to the AA Pensacola Blue Wahoos. (He also turned some heads during the All-Star Break Futures Game along the way.)...
Phillies Minor Leaguer Stole A Home Run With This Incredible Catch
I've watched this video a lot. I don't want to say 100 times, but it's getting close and I'm still not really sure what happened here. In real time, it looks like Jiwan James of the Reading Phillies pulls off some sleight of hand act: his running, jumping, crashing catch has us all tracking the ba...
David Beckham: Still Scoring Masterful Goals, Still Showing Up Stuart Pearce
Amidst an Olympic team snubbing and disinterest in Opening Ceremony involvement L.A. Galaxy star David Beckham's taken his fair share for, most recently, buffoonery and mascot abuse....
San Francisco Giants Almost Give Game Away In One Of The Worst Ways Imaginable
It's the bottom top of the ninth, and San Francisco is protecting a 2-1 lead over the Astros. Two out, 1-2 count, man on second. The Giants' Santiago Casilla gets Chris Snyder to swing and miss. Ballga—woops! The ball got away from Hector Sanchez and so he quickly airmails it to first base, pulling...
Fans, Players, And Broadcasters Alike Freaked Out When Lightning Struck Rangers Ballpark In Arlington
Mother Nature dropped by Rangers Ballpark unannounced last evening, unleashing a thunderclap at the Rangers-Twins game that evacuated the bowels of all in attendance. Twins outfielder Denard Span claimed "That's the loudest noise I've ever heard. I thought Jesus was comin!" on his Twitter account, ...
Padres Fan Gets Hit By Foul Ball Because Of Mark Zuckerberg
All Travis Decker wanted to do was let his friends know he was at a Padres game. Thanks to Mark Zuckerberg, Travis Decker can tell all his friends that he was at a Padres game. Also thanks to Mark Zuckerberg, Travis Decker can upload the picture of the giant welt he will surely have on his clavicle...
This Is The Best Free Kick Goal By An Eight-Year-Old You'll See For Awhile
We have pretty much zero information on this, other than it showed up on YouTube today with comments disabled and in the wrong format. We could ask questions, but it's better to just enjoy what's a pretty outstanding free kick most adults would fail in an attempt....
Here's How You Score On A Bunt With The Bases Empty
Softball's been eliminated from the Olympics (mostly because the U.S. is too good at it) which makes the World Cup Of Softball the sport's premier international event. Last night's 3-0 championship win over Australia continued to prove American dominance in softball, and no play demonstrates it m...
Runner Shoved Mascot (Who May Have Been A 14-Year-Old Girl) After Winning Race
His name is Mahiedine Mekhissi-Benabbad and he won gold in the 3,000 meter steeplechase at the European athletics championship held in Helsinki. After crossing the finish line he stalked over to some tiny mascot, slapped something out of its hands and shoved it out of the way. Information provided...