obit Page 10 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Larry Lessig Was Running For President, Now Isn't
Larry Lessig is a Harvard professor, campaign finance reform activist, and attorney; he is not seeking the Democratic nomination to the 2016 presidential election. That last bit is new, as of yesterday: He was seeking the nomination before that—didn’t you know?—and now he is not. Baby shoes, never w...

Your Next Plate Of Meatloaf Is My Treat, Lincoln Chafee
“I have had no scandals,” the ostrich man kept saying. If you angled your head just right, you could hear ... Y’know, in case you had me mixed up with that hiking-the-Appalachian-Trail fella wafting along on the breeze of his breath....

Happy Trails Jim Webb, You Shiny-Eyed Jackanape
Jim Webb ended his presidential campaign yesterday. “Presidential” looks weird in that sentence, doesn’t it? Wait ... he was campaigning for President?...

Walk Into Lake Michigan Forever, Scott Walker
Wisconsin governor Scott Walker has abandoned his campaign for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination. He says he has been “called to lead by helping to clear the field,” but he was polling at around half a percent, which is to say that nobody is calling him to lead a goddamn thing. In a just w...

Obituary: Please Donate To Tom Brady's Ballghazi Defense
Barbara “Gigi” Shippee of Rhode Island passed away at age 74 on Wednesday. In her obituary provided to the Providence Journal, she asked that friends and family help Tom Brady defeat the Ginger Hammer in court....

NFL Hall Of Famer And Former MNF Broadcaster Frank Gifford Dies At 84
NBC News reports that former NFL running back, Monday Night Football announcer, and football Hall of Famer Frank Gifford passed away this morning at the age of 84. Here is the statement that his family released: ...

RIP Ornette Coleman, Who Confounded Most People And Humbled Us All
“There is a law in what I’m playing, but that law is a law that when you get tired of it, you can change it.” So said incomparable musical innovator Ornette Coleman, who died this morning at the age of 85, and while his career was full of these kinds of delightfully cryptic remarks, few unpack his s...

Eduardo Galeano Has Died; Here Are Excerpts From His Classic Soccer Book
Eduardo Galeano, one of the most beloved writers to ever come from Uruguay and Latin America as a whole, has passed away today at the age of 74 after succumbing to cancer. Galeano was famous for writing about politics and history and war and economics. He also brought the same passion and knowledge ...

Anthony Mason Was From The Future
We'll mostly remember Anthony Mason for toughness, the way that we remember the Riley-era Knicks teams on which he made his reputation. Which, fine. He got in fights, on- and off-court; he deployed his elbows and extra-large ass with abandon and occasional malice; he glowered and wheedled and pro...

Hall Of Fame NCAA Basketball Coach Jerry Tarkanian Has Died
According to his son, legendary college basketball coach Jerry Tarkanian has passed away today in a Las Vegas hospital. The 84-year-old had been battling a respiratory infection for the past few days, and various health problems for months....

Mr. Cub Remembers
Ernie Banks, scouted by the legendary Buck O'Neill, and best known as Mr. Cub, died yesterday. We salute him with this column that John Schulian wrote for the Chicago Daily News on Aug. 5, 1977, under the headline "Mr. Cub Remembers."...

The Day John Lennon Was Murdered
Via Cathal Kelly's Twitter feed, dig Jimmy Breslin's column about John Lennon's death:...

The Day the Fairytale Died
The business of writing obituaries may seem, at first glance, a morbid affair. Just think of the title of Gay Talese's 1966 Esquire profile of the New York Timesobituary writer Alden Whitman: "Mr. Bad News." But obituary writing is far from depressing and some of the best non-fiction writing of the ...

The "Average Professional Baseball Player" Who Changed Sportswriting
Jim Brosnan, the pitcher whose book about his 1959 season offered an uncommonly candid look at life within baseball, died last month at the age of 84. In 2007, Brosnan was inducted into the Baseball Reliquary's Shrine of the Eternals. Writer John Schulian gave the following speech on Brosnan's beha...

Superstar Alfredo Di Stéfano, Real Madrid's "Blond Arrow," Has Died
You've heard of Pele and Maradona, most certainly. Today, though, I sing of Alfredo di Stéfano. Di Stéfano, who died today at 88 from a heart attack, was arguably the greatest player never to have played in a World Cup....