ow Page 848 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Is <em>USA Today</em>'s Veteran Gambling Guy Buying Twitter Followers?
Remember our old friend Sarah Phillips, the internet huckster and former ESPN columnist? One of her many tricks, we learned, was to buy followers on Twitter—a new scheme for a new era. The more followers you have, the more influence you can claim to have. In a monetized social-media landscape, the T...

Now That Peyton Manning's In Denver, Broncos Receivers Actually Have To Run Routes
Every morning, the fine folks at Sports Radio Interviews sift through the a.m. drive-time chatter to bring you the best interviews with coaches, players, and personalities across the sports landscape. Today: With Tebow gone, Demaryius Thomas can't just improvise every play....

How A Career Ends: Danny Manning, No. 1 NBA Draft Pick In 1988, Savored His Garbage Time In 2003
Tell Me When It's Over is an interview series in which we ask former athletes about the moment they knew their playing days were over. Today, with the NBA draft beginning in a matter of hours: Danny Manning, the No. 1 overall pick in the 1988 draft. ...

Better Know An Umpire: Mark Wegner
Welcome to Better Know An Umpire, an effort to educate ourselves on the human elements who have ultimate decision-making power over some 2,500 Major League Baseball games a year. (All cumulative statistics are through the 2011 season, unless otherwise stated.)...

Clay Buchholz's "Vodka Pool Party" Controversy Says A Hell Of A Lot More About The Boston Media Than It Does About Clay Buchholz
Clay Buchholz went on the disabled list after being hospitalized for intestinal bleeding. After being released from the hospital yesterday, Buchholz showed up at a charity event at Foxwoods casino. This is a big deal, because certain media people are awful....

The First Pick In Tonight's NBA Draft Goes To ... The New Orleans Saints, According To Newspaper
We've heard all that offseason talk about bounties and fines and suspensions, but according to the Chicago Tribune, the Saints have much more pressing, immediate priorities. Taking Anthony Davis at No. 1 is a no-brainer, but they must really be fretting over what to do at No. 10 and No. 46....

Angry Baseball Takes Out Aggression On Umpire Brian Gorman's Face
Not really sure how we should interpret this one. Was it a completely random occurrence? Does Eric Hosmer have some beef with Brian Gorman we don't know about? Or are the balls, after so much atrocious umpiring this season, finally rebelling in a futile effort to regain control of the game they've m...

This At-Bat Captures The Sublime Ridiculousness Of Men's Slow-Pitch Softball
Literally dozens of people came out to ASA Hall of Fame Stadium tonight in Oklahoma City to see the USA Futures defeat the USA National Team in a 38-37 win, decided on a tag out at the plate on the final play. However, the first two outs of the inning came when two players hit home runs, actual fa...

Pitching Prospect Stops Line Drive With Face
Scary moment last night for Gerrit Cole, the No. 1 overall choice in last year's MLB draft. Cole was making just his second start for the Altoona Curve, the Pirates' Double-A affiliate, when what you see in the video above happened in the first inning. Cole somehow finished the inning by facing th...

Even Italy's A Little Racist Toward Mario Balotelli
This cartoon ran in Sunday's Gazzetta dello Sport, Italy's top-selling sports newspaper. It's Balotelli, fresh off the Azzurri triumph over England, climbing Big Ben. (Fun fact: It's officially "Elizabeth Tower" now.) Yes, Balotelli is playing the part of a giant gorilla, and yes, 90 percent of Euro...

Better Know An Umpire: Fieldin Culbreth
Welcome to Better Know An Umpire, an effort to educate ourselves on the human elements who have ultimate decision-making power over some 2,500 Major League Baseball games a year. (All cumulative statistics are through the 2011 season, unless otherwise stated.)...

Raven Wanted To Rent <i>Buffy The Vampire Slayer</i>, And We Didn't Have It In Stock: More Wrestler Run-Ins
Inspired by the saga of "Wrestling Superstar Virgil," pro wrestling's saddest man, we continue with readers' encounters with the titans of the squared circle. If you've had your own run-in with wrestlers past or present, e-mail us, subject line "Virgilbag."...

Youth Hockey Coach Arrested On Charges He Tripped An Opposing Player In The Handshake Line
In a refreshing reminder that it isn't just the United States dealing with the problem of psycho youth sports coaches, a kiddie hockey league coach in Vancouver is in hot water with authorities after allegedly tripping an opposing player in the postgame handshake line, breaking the child's wrist....

An Interview With The Woman Selling Photos Of A Supposedly Masturbating Terrell Owens
Yesterday, TMZ published an item about a woman who had approached them offering to sell some pics of Terrell Owens. Those photos, according to TMZ, were "some VERY graphic images featuring himself ... with himself." Translation: The woman says T.O. was fapping. Here's more:...

Rob Ryan: Colorful Individual
Our favorite stadium reporter Jim Knox was at his best last night during the Tigers-Rangers matchup, locating Cowboys defensive coordinator Rob Ryan enjoying the ballgame. Ryan's choice of multicolored polo sans undershirt is the kind of bold wardrobe choice we've come to expect from the guy who dr...

Manny Gonzalez Submits His Nominee For Worst Blown Call Of The Year
Manny Gonzalez is not an MLB staff umpire, and he had only umped 53 games at the highest level through last season. (He doesn't even have an official profile.) Indeed, he's been bouncing around the minors since the early '90s, and it appears he may never get the permanent call to The Show if he kee...

Better Know An Umpire: Andy Fletcher
Welcome to Better Know An Umpire, an effort to educate ourselves on the human elements who have ultimate decision-making power over some 2,500 Major League Baseball games a year. (All cumulative statistics are through the 2011 season, unless otherwise stated.)...

Dwight Howard Inadvertently Caused All Sorts Of Trouble In Portland
On a January night in Portland, Quincy Wynn pulled up to a crosswalk He was waiting for pedestrians to cross the street so he could make a right turn on red, but he thought one of them was moving too slowly. He yelled at Josiah Kuehl, a 15-year-old high school student walking home from a wrestling t...

Dan O'Brien Has An Olympic Gold Medal, But He Couldn't Talk To Michelle Beadle Without Falling Off His Chair
A 1996 Olympic gold medalist in the decathlon, Dan O'Brien proved he can run, jump, throw, and vault as well as anyone in the world. Sitting is apparently a skill set he's yet to master....

Someone's Trying To Stop The Tim Tebow-Brady Quinn Catfight
Way back in February, when we were still wiping the effluvia of Tebowmania off our jorts, GQ published an oral history of the then-Broncos QB's unlikely season. It was well done, but as so often happens with these things, an entire magazine article was sieved through to find the one hint of controve...