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2023 MLB HR leaders
This article is based on data from Sportradar. Text was compiled by an AI engine that was then reviewed and edited by the editorial staff....

MLB's final 10 days in the American League will be pure chaos
Entering the penultimate weekend of baseball’s regular season, so much is in flux. The calming part is the National League. Every division race is wrapped up and the Wild Card will become a matter of which pair of teams are the odd ones out between the Arizona Diamondbacks, Chicago Cubs, Miami Marli...

Curses are real. Just ask these NFL teams
Superstition in sports has been around for ages and has only gotten worse....

Coming soon to a city near you: MLB expansion
It’s always been the mantra of Rob Manfred that MLB wouldn’t look towards expansion until the stadium situations for the A’s and Rays were settled. After all, anywhere they’d award an expansion team could still be used as leverage for those teams to wrangle all the tax giveaways and government hando...

The Cubs are doing their best to piss away their wildcard spot
On the morning of September 7th, life was pretty good for the Chicago Cubs. They had just, essentially, ended the San Francisco Giants season by sweeping them in three games at Wrigley, leaving San Francisco 5.5 games behind the Cubs and 2.5 games out of any wildcard spot. The Cubs meanwhile were on...

The Houston Astros don’t deserve a first-round bye
With playoff baseball rapidly approaching and the standings nearly complete, this feels like a good time to point out a flaw in the new six-team format (other than increasing the number of games per round). If you’re going to hand out first-round byes, give them to the two best teams in each league....

Dustin Johnson needs to stop whining and reap what he's sown
You reap what you sow. And Dustin Johnson has no one to blame but himself for not making the United States Ryder Cup team. Once he sold out to Saudi-backed LIV Golf last year for a reported $125 million, his margin for error to make golf’s premier team event became razor-thin. And it shouldn’t be a ...

LeBron James, wife and 2 associates named in federal PED investigation
There hasn’t been a performance-enhancing drugs scandal in basketball. At least, not to the level of, say, the likes of BALCO and Major League Baseball. As close as we came was when the NBA started testing players for HGH before the beginning of the 2015-16 season. The trendy thing to do online at t...

The New York Mets get their guy, now what?
David Stearns coming back to New York to become president of baseball operations for the Mets was about one of the worst-kept secrets in baseball. The Mets asked to talk to him after he stepped down from his post in Milwaukee and were denied access after last season, but it didn’t take a cocaine-add...

Lionel Messi coming to MLS has had the effect you’d think
One of the bonuses for both MLS and Apple TV having an exclusive streaming deal is that they’re not forced to tell us how it’s going. Or they can decide what they want to say. Without usual ratings to gauge how the revolutionary deal is fairing, we’re usually left guessing. There were whispers that ...

Julio Urías wasn’t sorry the first time
Never say never, but in all likelihood, Julio Urías’ 2023 MLB season has come to an end. He most likely will not take the mound in a Los Angeles Dodgers cap again. For the second time in four years, he has been arrested on domestic violence charges. Neither arrest was at his home. Both were in publi...

If you’re not watching Coco Gauff, you’ve got Spectrum
After a week of US Open coverage, two things are apparent: You need to see Coco Gauff and Carlos Alcaraz in person to really appreciate them, and for some tennis fans, that might be the only option. A carriage dispute between Charter Communications and Disney led to the Mouse pulling all its channel...

There is a reason Lionel Messi is tearing apart MLS
It might be hard for most to believe, but Lionel Messi played in his first MLS game Saturday night. I know, I know, you’ve been seeing the highlights and stats before now, but his first steps into the North American game have come in the Leagues Cup, a tournament invented by MLS and Liga MX this yea...

The grunt work for Lionel Messi’s stay in South Beach is about to begin
Lionel Messi’s Major League Soccer debut is Saturday. Since signing for Inter Miami officially on July 15, he hasn’t actually played in a game for the league he intended to play in. The Leagues Cup and US Open Cup have taken his focus. All of the dazzling moments that have taken over North America h...

Alex Cora had himself a night
It’s starting to slip away from the Boston Red Sox. After an excellent July, the Carmines have run to nowhere in August with a 10-10 mark which has left them five games adrift of the last wildcard spot. Which isn’t a huge surprise, given that this team was built to basically win 84 games and give th...
![Wander Franco placed on administrative leave, off Rays roster [Update]](https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/a855aaea87d4b824a75ac8688ae700fc.jpg)
Wander Franco placed on administrative leave, off Rays roster [Update]
UPDATE: Aug. 22, 11:20 a.m.: Franco has been placed on administrative leave by MLB, who issued the following statement:...

USWNT’s treatment is the latest example of right-wing hatred for ‘nasty women’
Indigenous Americans were almost eradicated. Black people were enslaved. Asians are mistreated. Millions still want to “build a wall.” People of color have been oppressed for centuries, and each group has its own plight. But misogyny has stood the test of time. The overturning of Roe v. Wade, the re...

Summer interns lasted longer in New York than the Mets’ free-agency haul
The New York Mets summer internship program is highly recommended. Who wouldn’t want to spend a summer in New York and collect eight figures along the way? This season, the Mets earned their rep as the most chaotic franchise in Major League Baseball by jettisoning Justin Verlander, David Robertson, ...

IDIOT OF THE MONTH: Everyone is dumb and/or evil
Welcome to Deadspin’s IDIOT OF THE MONTH! Ugh!...
