off Page 231 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Which Sports Subreddits Curse The Most?
Reddit user Niehaus has crunched the numbers, and put together a series of graphs comparing the rate of swearing across team- and sport-specific subreddits. Feel free to use it as a proxy for all sports fans, and considering the Bruins come in No. 1, it's probably pretty damn accurate. [Reddit] ...

Who Are Your Preferred NFL Beat Writers?
Which NFL beat writers do you read and/or follow on Twitter, whether for fantasy-football reasons, specific team news, or for the simple pleasures of NFL writers' often-transcendent bitchiness? As we did with MLB beat writers, we throw the question to you, the readers. ...

Rick Neuheisel Shreds His Way Through A "Stairway To Heaven" Cover
College football TV analyst Rick Neuheisel was on The Dan Patrick Show today, and he closed out his appearance with a special rendition of "Stairway to Heaven," called "Stairway to Playoffs." Neuheisel doesn't even need that TV job with his guitar skills....

NFL Penalties Are Getting Out Of Hand
There's been a lot of talk and writing about the NFL's new emphasis on its officials calling a tighter game, especially their cracking down on passing defense. But we're through two full weeks of preseason games now, long enough to discard anecdotal evidence for hard numbers. And those numbers are s...

Famous Boston Bullpen Cop Gets His Own Bobblehead
The world's most famous bullpen cop, Boston police officer Steve Horgan, was honored tonight at Fenway park with his own bobblehead. Horgan's celebration was immortalized in the iconic photo following David Ortiz's game-tying grand slam in the eighth inning of Game 2 of the ALCS against the Tigers...

Florida State Tops The AP Poll, Which Very Much Still Matters
The Associated Press has released its preseason college football poll, always fun, but maybe carrying a little extra poignancy this year, the first time a national champion will be chosen without the (official) input of polls....

College Playoff Selection Committee Makes Complex Process More Complex
Lost in the avalanche of legal battles against the NCAA is that the first college football playoff is coming this year! The 2014 season's champion will be settled based on a four-team playoff, with the bracket selected by the aptly-titled College Football Playoff Selection Committee. ...

How To Fix The Baseball Hall Of Fame Elections
Admission into the Baseball Hall of Fame has been called baseball's highest honor. Lately, it's also been baseball's most controversial....

The Fittish Guide To Drinking
You drink a variety of things on any given day. Water, sure. Coffee, oh yes. And in the evening, you'll probably have a few beers or shots or what-have-you. Behold, Fittish's guide to everything you're drinking, and how to do it better....

Bryce Harper Hits Walk-Off Home Run After Talk Of Demotion To Minors
Washington asks "should Bryce Harper be sent to the minors?" Bryce Harper answers "this is a very short debate."...

We Missed Your Face, Eli
Send stories, photos, and anything else you might have to [email protected]....

The Scouting Reports Said Greg Maddux Shouldn't Have Been So Awesome
A scouting report of Greg Maddux from 1985, the year before his first call-up, is making the rounds today. It's funny because the scout declared Maddux was "not strong enough to be a starter," and we all know how that turned out. ...

Here's Frank Thomas's Emotional HOF Induction Speech
On the other end of the Hall-of-Fame-Speech spectrum, Frank Thomas gave a pretty touching speech today at the Hall of Fame and spent almost the entire time either crying or fighting off the tears. He spoke fondly of his parents and family and got very emotional when speaking about his father (whic...

The Big Hurt
Send stories, photos, and anything else you might have to [email protected]....

Hall Of Fame Eligibility Rule Change Bones "Poster Boys" Of Steroid Era
As the Baseball Hall of Fame congratulates itself today, let's talk about how it just boned baseball players. Yesterday, it was announced that the eligibility rules had been altered from 15 years, to 10. So, once he becomes eligible, a player has 10 chances to have the magical 75 percent of precious...

There's A Tiny Grammatical Error On Greg Maddux's HOF Plaque
The offending passage is "...3,000 strikeouts and less than 1,000 walks." Grammar wonks will tell you that "less" should be used with things that are uncountable, like volume. "There is less space in my apartment" is a correct usage. "Fewer" should be used with things that are countable. For example...

Greg Maddux Had A Running Gag Where He Insulted A Reporter's Mother
Since he was voted into the Hall of Fame, there's been a bit of a cottage industry of Weirdo Greg Maddux stories and, flood the market, we say; the more Maddux stories the better. Yahoo's Tim Brown has a nice profile of Maddux that you should check out, but we'd like to point out the part where Madd...

Tony La Russa Says Let The Cheats Into Cooperstown (Now That He's There)
Tony La Russa is one of six men who will be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame today. Now that he's got his ticket punched, he thinks all the heavy hitters from the steroid era should be let in—but with an asterisk. ...

John Rocker In Cooperstown, Raffles Night Of Drinking With John Rocker
John Rocker, former Atlanta Braves pitcher and anthropomorphic T-Bone steak, is in Cooperstown this weekend and he's got himself a table set up where he's hawking wares like a white T-shirt with "Speak English" written in "you know, that lettering from the Dropkick Murphys," and maybe a book that ...

Bryant Gumbel Says Smart Things About Tony La Russa And Mark McGwire
We'll take any allies in the war on the war on PEDs, even if that ally is the most self-satisfied broadcaster on television, a man who makes Bob Costas look like Woody Allen. Listen to Bryant Gumbel here. He speaks truth. ...