out Page 108 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

What's Wrong With Baseball?
Over at the New Yorker, Ben McGrath has a brief, characteristically thoughtful essay up about a question that people have been asking basically for as long as the game has been played but which, lately, seems to actually have something to it: What's wrong with baseball?...

A Kevin Sumlin Offense Is A Thing Of Alarming Beauty
Football is back. You can tell because Kevin Sumlin is wrecking shit....

Jesus Montero Heckled By Scout, Throws Ice Cream Sandwich At Him
Jesus Montero was a can't-miss catching prospect who appears to be missing, badly, and an incident last night during a minor league rehab appearance in which he tried to fight a scout who had been heckling him is probably not going to speed his trip back to the majors. It's a pretty incredible story...

Welcome To The Gradual Unfucking Of College Football
Every year, right around this time, I cobble together a Hater's Guide to the Top 25 teams in college football. And it contains pretty much everything you would expect in any boilerplate piece of college football trolling: Notre Dame is full of haughty dipshits; Alabama fans are crazy redneck muta...

"You're Gay?" Michael Sam Asked The Writer, And Then The Mask Dropped
Earlier today, we republished a profile of Michael Sam that originally appeared in Out Magazine. Within the story, there is a moment when Sam realizes that the reporter he's talking to—grudgingly—is gay. The mask drops, and you can almost feel his relief radiating off the page. From the story:...

Keith Olbermann Will Return To <em>SportsCenter</em>
According to a release from ESPN, big changes are in store for Keith Olbermann. Not only is his show being rescued from its ever-changing late-night time slot, but Keith himself will return to the SportsCenter anchor desk for the first time since 1997....

Sam Agonistes: A Gay NFLer Negotiates A Straight Man's World
Originally published in slightly different form in the August issue of Out Magazine. Reprinted here with permission....

Restaurant Removes Bacon Sign, Ignites Culture War
This is it, folks. This just might be it. Your love of bacon will bring you to ruin, our ancestors said, but did we listen? Did we heed? No we did not. And now: Here we are, careening bacon-scented over the precipice of disaster. "My grandfather was alive in 2014," they will say, huddled fu...

South Korea Wins LLWS; Teams Bro Down In Handshake Line
South Korea beat Chicago's Jackie Robinson West in the Little League World Series Championship 8-4 today. It featured a pretty solid bat flip from Dong Wan Sin (above) and also a really cool bit of sportsmanship after the game (below). ...

Josh Ho-Sang Whips Around For A Beautiful Shootout Goal
From the same Toronto camp where Jordan Subban scored on older brother Malcolm in a shootout competition, Islanders prospect Josh Ho-Sang produced this gem. Josh Ho-Sang is fun....

A Compilation Of People Fucking Up The Ice Bucket Challenge
My thoughts on the ice bucket challenge are complicated and not worth going into here. My thoughts on people falling down, bashing themselves over the head, and otherwise harming and embarrassing themselves are much simpler: I am staunchly pro-slapstick. ...

32 Paragraphs About 32 Teams: A Thinking Fan's Guide To The NFL Season
The following is excerpted from the team chapters of the always-excellent Football Outsiders Almanac. Buy it here....

Korean Little Leaguers Get In On The Bat-Flipping Party
Bat flips for everyone! These are two little leaguers for the South Korea team bat-flipping their asses off against Puerto Rico today. The first one is a little more about the hands than bat flip, but the second one is textbook. They both happen to be on outs, but that doesn't matter, one of the all...

South Korea's Biggest Royals Fan Finally Goes To Kansas City
Sung Woo Lee was born and raised in South Korea, and yet the poor guy somehow got roped into cheering for the Kansas City Royals. He's followed the team for something like two decades now but he has never visited the United States. This week, thanks to a group of nice fans, Sung Woo is getting an am...

Trout Vs. Kershaw Settled By Replay Review
The first Mike Trout-Clayton Kershaw showdown finally went down tonight and it ended up being a pretty great baseball play all around. It was also subject to a replay review before the ultimate outcome was certain, which was kind of anticlimactic. ...

Trout Vs. Kershaw, Round 1, Visualized
Tonight is the first time Mike Trout and Clayton Kershaw will face each other. ESPN Stats & Info has a nice breakdown of the matchup, full of telling details to watch for, like this: ...

South Carolina Gamecocks Self-Report Rule-Breaking Cookie Cakes To NCAA
The latest example of unnecessary self-flagellation for the NCAA's satisfaction comes from South Carolina. The Gamecocks reported 22 minor violations of NCAA rules, and the dumbest by far involves the football team and cookie cakes....

Stretch For Power: Sergey Kovalev's Krusher Workout
Sergey Kovalev, the WBO light heavyweight champion of the world, flew into New York last Friday from his training camp in Florida and took a car directly to the Russian part of Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn. He was heading to the Underground Boxing gym, which is on the third floor of a building just next...