park Page 20 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

MLB secretly used two different types of baseballs last season, according to report
Can’t we go six months without a scandal in Major League Baseball? Just six months. That’s all I’m asking for....

Michael Wacha now playing at the park that saw his star-turn, twice
Michael Wacha is trending toward journeyman status as the starting pitcher is now on his fourth team in as many seasons, inking a one-year deal with the Boston Red Sox on Saturday. The interesting aspect isn’t his effect on Boston’s starting rotation, but rather that he’s playing in the park where h...

Corporate names on sports venues are dumb, we have suggestions
Sick of corporate names on your sports stadiums and arenas? So are we. So, let’s fix it, and get the names of all these places right, once and for all. ...

Chef Curry dropped buckets and hurt feelings with his 50-point demolition of the Atlanta Hawks Monday night
Stephen Curry had one of those nights on Monday inside Chase Center against the Atlanta Hawks. You know, one of those nights where you start off hot and just get hotter as the game flows along until you look up and you’ve dropped 50 on fools. Yeah, me neither. But that’s precisely the kind of night ...

Celtics’ struggles less about style of play, more about players
I don’t blame overconfident NBA players for attempting to take over a game when the only people excited for the Austin Rivers experience are opposing fans. I think it’s less, “I got this,” and more “I want to do the fun thing, too.” Who wants to watch someone play video games when you could have the...

Carlton Fisk kept it fair, but Keith Olbermann’s attempt to sell historic ball is foul
This is not about ripping Keith Olbermann. If you want to do that, you can start with “Why I Think Trump Is Finished (And My Work Is Done),” from November 28, 2017, a time at which Trump was far from finished. You can go forward or backward from there, it doesn’t really matter, and he’d admit himsel...

You always want a Laz Diaz show in a League Championship Series, amirite?
I’ll put it right here at the top when discussing the Astros 9-2 win in Game 4 over the Red Sox, because I’ve spent the latter half of my life having Red Sox fans yell at me in some sort of fashion anyway. The non-strike call Laz Diaz came up with on Jason Castro from Nathan Eovaldi’s curve in the n...

Red Sox thumpin’ grand slams at a historic rate
Kyle Schwarber’s second-inning grand slam put the Astros into an early 6-0 deficit that they would never get the chance to overcome, as the Red Sox piled on the homers in Fenway Park during a rowdy ALCS Game 3 on Monday night. The early clout was a morale boost at home — on top of the four runs it d...

The WNBA just finished a legendary season — now they have to address the drama the Atlanta Dream and Phoenix Mercury created
What if I told you that a hometown kid would come home and help deliver a championship to their city — for a franchise that has never won a championship — against the very same team that prevented that hometown team from winning a title seven years ago?...

Sometimes the Hollywood ending works out
Candace Parker and the Chicago Sky did the damn thing, taking the WNBA title in four games with an 80-74 win. They were down 14 at one point in the second half, but roared back through some Allie Quigley threes, some tight defense, and some blown layups from the Mercury, including stalwarts Brittney...

A .500 regular season team is on the doorstep of a title
The Chicago Sky went 16-16 during the regular season, including a 6-10 record at home. It’s also been a month, as of Sunday, since they lost a game in Chicago, and it just so happens that Sunday is the Sky’s next home game, with a chance to win the WNBA title after walloping the Phoenix Mercury, 86-...

There is no escape from the Astros
The longer the Astros stick around, the more baseball fans complain and bring out the tired jokes about their cheating. Maybe more opponents get suspicious, as Chisox pitcher Ryan Tepera did after Game 3. This is obviously the price the Astros have to pay for 2017’s scandal, and the only price they...

At last, Chicago has its own hometown hero to bring title back to that same old place
As big of a sports town as Chicago is, we’ve never really had the hometown kid lead a team to glory. Dick Butkus was about as close as we got, and that was 60 years ago. Isiah Thomas and Dwyane Wade ended up being rivals of Chicago, even though they’re from here. By the time Wade became a Bull, he w...

It’s not the Green Monster’s fault the Yanks lost
Believe it or not, it was actually the Yankees’ fault. Though, if you were on Bombers Twitter last night, you might’ve thought The Green Monster, that renowned 37-foot-high, left-field wall at Fenway, bribed the umpires, stole signs for the Sawx, and ran over Geritt Cole’s hamstring with a Honda Acc...

This year’s Wild-Card Game matchups are the best ever
“Get your popcorn ready,” ...

Open Letter to Patriots Fans: Boo Benedict Brady
To: New England fans...

Sue Bird shouldn’t retire, but WNBA would survive — and thrive — after she's gone
The Phoenix Mercury had just beaten Seattle 85-80 OT in the WNBA playoffs late Sunday afternoon when ESPN’s Holly Rowe brought Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi together on the court for the post-game interview. These two have been teammates and rivals for more than 20 years, and Bird quipped to Rowe that ...

Justin Fields will prove Matt Nagy doesn’t know what he’s doing, and Matt Nagy knows it
It’s a long-held courtesy that you shouldn’t cheer for injuries. This hasn’t always been held up, as anyone in Philadelphia knows. But in general, fans don’t applaud when players leave the field hobbling, even if it ends in a conclusion they most definitely want. Especially when it’s a player on the...

Or just give Robbie Ray the damn Cy Young already…
Slow night for news last night, so we’ll jump around a bit this morning. ...

A salute to Yolanda Griffith and Lauren Jackson, who enter the Hall of Fame this weekend
If you’ve been following the WNBA since it’s first season in 1997, Yolanda Griffith and Lauren Jackson may be two of the stars you remember from the league’s very early incarnations. ...