owl Page 235 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Bud Selig's New, Random Postseason Knows The Soul Of Baseball Better Than You Think
Out of the 22 playoff games in the first two rounds of the MLB playoffs, 12 have featured at least one team on the brink of elimination, and six of those will have been sudden death for both teams. Bud Selig's new postseason format puts a lot more weight on single games, which has led many players, ...

Joba Chamberlain Left Tonight's Game After Getting Nailed By A Flying Bat Shard
Well, here's another odd chapter in the continuing career of Yankees pitcher Joba Chamberlain. Matt Wieters led off the top of the 12th with a soft single to left field, but a shard from his broken bat struck Chamberlain, who was still on the mound, and the Yankees reliever had to leave the game in ...

We're Searching For The Greatest Clip In <em>College Gameday</em> History
Back when I was going to school in the early 1990s, watching College GameDay was one of the highlights of my week. It still remains a rare diamond in the ESPN shitpile, left relatively unchanged since the early days of Chris, Lee, and Kirk (adding Desmond Howard to the mix was bullshit). But the sho...

A Grieving Rex Ryan Believes That If The Jets Make The Super Bowl, Darrelle Revis's Knee Could Be Ready
Which stage of grief is denial? Right, that's Stage 1. On Monday, when a really, really sad Rex Ryan announced that Darrelle Revis had indeed torn his ACL, the Jets coach said he wanted to talk to his star cornerback before putting him on season-ending injured reserve....

The NFL's Replacement Referees Will Not Be Missed, But They Did Entertain Us
Here's a greatest hits compilation that surfaced on YouTube within minutes of the news that the NFL and its referees had come to agreement on a new labor deal. Seeing all these lowlights strung together in one sad clip after another does give an appreciation for the unprecedented levels of suckitu...

Sign Of The Apocalypse
For nearly two decades now, Sports Illustrated has stirred the tea leaves to discern a weekly Sign of the Apocalypse. Deadspin salutes the magazine's ongoing effort to head off the end of times, but declines to quietly cede to SI the scoop on the biggest event in world history....

Kentucky Freshman Misses Dunk In Most Farcical Way Possible
Nerlens Noel is the prized pupil in John Calipari's newest crop of one-year athlete-students. Last night, Noel and a few other Wildcats players swung by the area where hundreds of fans had camped out for tickets to Big Blue Madness. They even played some pickup with a few children, at least until ...

Jeff Kent May Have Torn A Knee Ligament Falling On A Raft In The Opening Minutes Of <em>Survivor</em>
Former MLB second baseman Jeff Kent is no stranger to weird, improbable injuries, having famously claimed he broke his wrist while washing his truck. (Turns out he fell off his motorcycle while he was popping wheelies and the Giants were none too happy.) So of course, it's weirdly fitting that Ken...

Vernon Wells' Full-Speed Header Over The Outfield Wall Was Quite Impressive
Times aren't great for the $154 million Angels, currently four games behind the A's for second place in the AL West. If they're going to make up any ground fast, they're going to need to (a) stop giving up bombs like this Ian Kinsler shot, and (b) keep their left-fielders from doing unnecessary head...

Santonio Holmes Played Call-Your-Own-Fouls On Sunday With The Replacement Refs
Jets wide receiver Santonio Holmes did not do a very good job of getting open against Steelers corner Ike Taylor on Sunday. He had only three catches for 28 yards despite being targeted 11 times. Sometimes Holmes didn't make the catch because he was interfered with. And sometimes he didn't make th...

This Is The Worst Own Goal Ever
It's from last week's Circiuma-America tilt in Brazil's second division. Circiuma keeper Michel Alves makes a pretty nifty save before getting overwhelmed by all sorts of derp. Only thing better might be the announcer's manufactured excitement....

Goalie Can't Make Save, Can Dive Face First Into Goal Post
New York Red Bulls teammates Thierry Henry and Dax McCarty hooked up for a nice goal off an Henry corner kick in the Red Bulls 3-1 win over the Columbus Crew. Poor Crew goalkeeper Andy Gruenebaum made a hell of an effort to stop it, but he came up short....

Josh Beckett Got Thrown Out At First By The Right Fielder
Ah yes, the old 9-3 in the scorecard (or the incongruous "J. Beckett grounded out to right" in the play-by-play)....

The Astros Are Now Hurting Other People With Their Ineptitude
At first, we found the Houston Astros' nightly slapstick routine to be rather endearing, and it was easy to have laugh at their repeated shenanigans. But then, through no fault but their own, the Astros couldn't even run out simple ground balls without one of their own getting hurt....

Vernon Davis Scores Touchdown, Attempts To Dunk On The Goalpost, Fails
Great job, Vernon! You just scored a touchdown to extend your team's lead on the Packers! What are you going to do next?...

Camera Spontaneously Disintegrates While Cameraman Films Interview
Peek-a-boo is not just a fun game for babies. It's also good fun for adults watching some boring rugby interview or whatever when a cameraman disappears as quickly as he pops up on screen when his camera falls apart and he drops it all over the place....

The Hilariously Inept Rockies Let A Run Score On A Throw Back To The Mound
With a runner on third in the second inning of this afternoon's game, Jhoulys Chacin got a little too casual snatching at the return throw from his catcher. He deflected the ball into the precise no-man's-land between the mound and second, and Juan Francisco scampered home with Atlanta's first run...

If You're Going To Miss Your Receiver, You Might As Well Drill An Official In The Head
Allentown (Pa.) Dieruff High School lost by 27 to Pocono Mountain East in its season opener a few nights back. It was the Huskies' 31st consecutive loss, a skid that dates back to the 2008 season finale. Some might look at this play from Friday night and say Dieruff's quarterback badly overthrew h...

Beer And Game Pairing: Hell Or High Watermelon With Bowling Green At Florida
Fruit and beer have an uneasy relationship, much like Gators fans and Florida sucking. Yet here we are, in 2012, and just as I'm watching this unsteady SEC power flail against some team called Bowling Green, I'm also enjoying the seasonal release Hell or High Watermelon by the San Francisco brewery ...

The Rice Marching Band Took Some Halftime Shots At "U$C"
Thanks to Logan who sent in this photo of the Rice MOB (Marching Owl Band)'s performance at halftime of last night's season opener against UCLA. It seems, judging from Twitter, that the entire show was USC-themed—maybe some common ground with their Bruin opponents, or maybe just taking advantage of ...