mad Page 63 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Joe Maddon Ordered A Round Of Drinks At His Cubs Press Conference
In a press conference held at a bar across the street from Wrigley Field, the Cubs introduced their new manager, Will Ferrell as Harry Caray Joe Maddon. It ended with Maddon ordering a round of boilermakers for everyone....

25 Dope Pictures Of Muhammad Ali
Over at the ever-amazing Kottke, I found a link to this cool post at the Guardian. ...

James Scores Highlight Reel Goal On The Volley, Puts Real Madrid Up 2-0
It's just another day in La Liga for Real Madrid, which is having an easy time against Granada. Here's a terrific goal from James Rodriguez, a volley over the keeper's head from about 15 yards out....

That Time Joe Maddon Parked His Classic Car In A Handicapped Spot
In Boston, when the manager leaves under contentious circumstances, they smear him by accusing him of being addicted to painkillers. In laid-back St. Pete, they find an old photo of the manager parked in a handicapped spot....

Cubs Fire Rick Renteria After One Season, Admit He Got Fucked
After Joe Maddon unexpectedly left the Tampa Bay Rays, the Cubs worked quickly to cut a deal and bring him on. Current skipper Rick Renteria, a baseball lifer in his first-ever major league managing gig, got the shaft, and president Theo Epstein admitted as much in today's press release....

How Muhammad Ali's Rope-A-Dope Myth Suckered America
Myth now dominates our misunderstanding of Muhammad Ali, who was once the most accessible celebrity in the world. The truth of the man is nearly irretrievable. With Ali having receded into an exile of his own choosing, the jokes and half-truths and outright lies he once told to entertain us have h...

Fanboy Government Agents Illegally Spied On Costa Rican World Cup Hero
Keylor Navas was the best player on a Costa Rica team that exceeded all expectations in this summer's World Cup. Because of the goalkeeper's heroics, neutrals fell in love with him, Real Madrid fell in love with him, and Costa Ricans especially fell in love with him—a little too much, it turns out....

Why Did Madison Bumgarner Get The Save And Not The Win?
Caveat: this couldn't possibly matter less. It's a footnote to a footnote. The win is the most arbitrary and least informative stat in baseball, rivaled only by the save. But the decision to grant Madison Bumgarner a win, and then to reverse course nearly an hour after the final out, is worth examin...

Michael Jordan Keeps It Real, Calls Barack Obama A "Shitty Golfer"
Michael Jordan still doesn't give any fucks, for those wondering. He'll call out Barack Obama for being a shitty golfer and shrug it off, as if Obama were nothing more than another in a long line of LaBradford Smiths....

The Giants' Defense Deserves Some Love, Too
Madison Bumgarner rolled into Game 7 of the World Series like Gozer The Destructor and gave us one of the greatest postseason performances in history, and so you wouldn't be blamed for overlooking the contributions of the rest of the Giants on the field. With that in mind, let's take a moment to t...

Madison Bumgarner's Dad Is The Best Sports Dad
One bizarre side effect of turning in one of the best postseason pitching runs in MLB history is that the New York Times will send a reporter out to North Carolina to interview your dad saying just the dad-est possible things. So meet Kevin Bumgarner, proud father of the reigning World Series MVP,...

Salvador Perez Never Stood A Chance Against Madison Bumgarner
Madison Bumgarner ended the World Series by throwing six straight high fastballs to Salvador Perez, the majority of which were up around Perez's eyeballs. It was the perfect matchup for the series to end on: a guy who works his fastball high in the zone better than any pitcher in the league coming...

Madison Bumgarner Is Tired Now
The greatest moments in baseball tend to possess an element of surprise, deciding a game or flipping a narrative on a single play and in a matter of seconds. The adrenaline spike from a home run or a stellar defensive play is memorable for being unexpected, but the drawback is that you can't, in the...

You Will Never See A Pitching Performance Like That Again
What Madison Bumgarner just did is supposed to be impossible. Every single pitch, every single whip of the arm exerts an extreme amount of pressure on the wrist, elbow, shoulder, and every single joint and muscle in-between. After games you see starting pitchers with giant bags of ice wrapped around...

Giants Win World Series With Five-Inning Bumgarner Relief Performance
The San Francisco Giants won their third World Series in five years thanks to Madison Bumgarner's brilliant five-inning relief performance—one that required him to strand a man on third thanks to some lousy outfield defense in the bottom of the ninth. Here's how the final out sounded; above is Pab...

Madison Bumgarner's World Series MVP Presentation Got Super Awkward
Chevrolet executive Rikk Wilde was tasked with awarding Madison Bumgarner the World Series MVP award, and it was a struggle. "It combines class-winning and -leading, um, you know technology and stuff," Rikk says breathlessly of the truck being awarded to Bumgarner. Poor Rikk and his notecards made B...

Report: Joe Maddon To Manage The Cubs
Well, that happened pretty quickly. It's been less than a week since Joe Maddon left the Tampa Bay Rays in the dust, and he's already found himself a new job managing the Chicago Cubs, according to Jon Heyman of CBS Sports....

The Assassination Of Iker Casillas By The Coward José Mourinho
Real Madrid handily beat Barcelona this weekend, with adulation bestowed upon many of the individual victors for their performance. Isco proved his grit and talent in fighting for a spot on a team lousy with great attacking midfielders and excelling when given the chance. James Rodríguez showed why ...

How Much Madison Bumgarner Are We Going To See Tonight?
It took the Royals about an hour to put away Game 6 last night, leaving us all plenty of time to start thinking about how each team plans to set itself up in Game 7. One question looms larger than all the others: How much is Madison Bumgarner going to pitch?...
