ned Page 39 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

A Major League Pitcher's Guide To Doctoring A Baseball
The old saying says that it's not illegal if you don't get caught. In baseball, sometimes it isn't illegal even if you do....

Michael Pineda Was Cheating And No One Cares
"It's just dirt, nothing to see here" was Michael Pineda's general reaction to being accused of glopping up the heel of his hand with some unknown substance in a strong pitching performance against Boston last night. It clearly wasn't dirt. But was it cheating? That depends on whether you listen to ...

Michael Pineda's Not Being Discreet About The Pine Tar On His Hand
Yankees pitcher Michael Pineda doesn't seem to be hiding the visible splotch of stuff on his throwing hand. It appears to be pine tar, as NESN color commentator Jerry Remy noted. (Remy wasn't happy.)...

Flowchart: How To Know Which <em>The Returned</em> You Are Talking About
If you want to start a really confusing conversation with someone, ask them if they have ever heard of The Returned....

Which NCAA Scorekeepers Give Out The Most Assists?
Over on FiveThirtyEight, Carl Bialik has an interesting article on how NCAA assist rates vary from court to court, since scorekeepers are given considerable leeway in deciding what counts as an assist and what doesn't. Ken Pomeroy tackled the same subject back in 2007, and both identified Sam Housto...

Ned Yost Lacks Object Permanence
Let's set the scene. Yesterday's Royals-Tigers game, top of the eighth, two outs, and the tying run on second, and Alcides Escobar at the plate for Kansas City. Alcides Escobar was, by multiple respectable metrics, the single worst hitter in baseball last year. Manager Ned Yost allowed Escobar to hi...

Canned Beer Is The Best Beer
Although I've recently moved into an apartment with three ceiling fans, seven windows, and a bedroom door, I do not consider myself a wealthy man. But every Thursday, my wife comes into a little bit of money, and if I time the transaction just right, I can occasionally buy something useful before sh...

Skyline Figures You'd Like Blue Noodles Under Your Diarrhea Sludge
Would you get a load of that horror. I mean lean on in here and get a nice big load of it. That is a pair of tubs of pasta, dyed red and blue by Louisville's Skyline Chili locations as a... what? celebration? like hell! ...of the upcoming Louisville-Kentucky Sweet 16 matchup. Because Skyline Chil...

So Close, ESPN Data Team
You usually can't calculate free throw percentages in your head, but 680/1,000 is pretty easy. There are plenty of perfectly reasonable explanations for why this happened—maybe the counting and rate stats update at different speeds?—but still, whoops....

Irish Beers, Ranked
St. Patrick's Day is tough on a civic-minded, humanist boozebag. I love New Year's Eve and Thanksgiving Morning and Arbor Weekend and all the other "amateur hours" that too many self-proclaimed sophisticates haughtily dismiss, but Paddy's Day comes soaked with complications beyond the rivers of glit...

Brutal Hockey Fight Ends With A High Five And A Hug
This is a hockey fight happened in the Ligue Nord-Américaine de Hockey, a semi-pro league that we last checked in on when a guy got his face slashed open by a skate. The fight begins with Joel Theriault and Gaby Roch pummeling the crap out of each other while heavy metal music plays throughout the ...

When England's Greatest Genius Took Over England's Best Team
If there's one sports novel you should read, it's probably The Damned Utd, David Peace's 2006 account of Brian Clough's disastrous 44-day tenure with a Leeds United side that detested him as much as he detested them. On one level it works as a meticulous, if fictional, reconstruction of a crucial pe...

Colorado Avalanche And Imagine Dragons Team Up For Dumb Music Video
Dammit, Avalanche. Making a good hockey hype video is not the hardest thing in the world. All you need is a decently edited highlight reel backed by a song that has, like, drums and guitars and stuff. You can even use a song from a band as insipid and annoying as Imagine Dragons! Any song will work...

Who Was The Best Oscars Host Of The Past 25 Years?
11. James Franco and Anne Hathaway (2011). Always beware of courting the "young," particularly two young people who are basically 50-year-olds in grownup clothing. Franco, stripped of all self-referential schtick, turned into an empty suit with nowhere to hide, and Hathaway's desperate attempts to p...

24 Light Beers, Ranked
Raise your hand if you're even fatter now than you were on New Year's Day. No, your other hand, the one that isn't strangling a donut. Oh, I see. Well, do you have a third hand? Never mind, the tear tracks carved through your powdered-sugar beard are affirmation enough....

Which Rapper Had The Best Athletic Career?
This list is ranked in order of athletic proficiency, not skills on the mic....

Cereals, Ranked
Here is a list of breakfast cereals, in order of deliciousness....

Who Are The Best Dribblers In Champions League? A Ranking, 1 To 160
Dribbling is the most visually striking aspect of soccer. The excitement in the game flows from both nearly and actually made goals, and the beauty from the intricate passing and telekinetic movement of a true team. But from a strictly visual perspective, there is no clearer demonstration of mastery...

Former Soccer Player Sues College Over "Domination" Wrestling Drill
Former Benedictine College soccer player Zach Robertson is suing his former school for a "mandatory" wrestling drill in 2012 that cut his season short....

Secretary Of Education Arne Duncan Owned The All-Star Celebrity Game
United States Secretary of Education Arne Duncan had a double-double in last night's All-Star Celebrity Game. That's a real sentence. He can also feed teammates like Rajon Rondo....