pe Page 1218 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
ESPN Proceeding With World Domination Plans
Big huge story in Business Week this week looking at the challenges facing ESPN Networks and ABC Sports president George Bodenheimer as the network looks for more opportunities to grow. (Because that's what ESPN needs: To be bigger.) The story is a fascinating look at a company — and a leader — th...
Meet The New ESPN Guy: John Skipper
See that guy right there? That's John Skipper, a guy of whom it is very difficult to find a picture online. (A helpful reader sent us this larger one; Mark Shapiro, on the other hand, was smiling and waving everywhere we looked.) Skipper is also the new guy in charge at ESPN. As first reported by ...
Brokeback Mountain Update: Inscrutable Brit Slang Edition
We still can't quite get enough of these still-percolating Peyton Manning-Kenny Chesney rumors. To get you up to speed, British gossip site Popbitch reported that one of the main reasons for the Zellweger-Chesney divorce might have been his "friendship" with Manning. We then uncovered an old quote...
It's A Good Time To Be Bill Simmons
All kinds of news involving Our Boy Bill Simmons, kicked off with a glowing pop culture icon validation from Slate's Bryan Curtis, who writes the "Middlebrow" column for the Web mag, which has featured luminaries like Michael Flatley, Demi Moore and Cirque du Soleil in the past. Curtis has big nic...
About Last Night ...
What you missed while poking the Pillsbury Dough Boy a little too often and a little too vigorously ... • ALDS: Yankees' Mussina does his part to head off disaster that would be an Angels-Padres World Series. • NLDS: Jake Peavy discovers broken rib, Padres discover they're down 0-1 to Cardinals. • A...
Pete Rose Spends His Mondays Alone In Vegas
In response to our Pete Rose item yesterday, a reader sends us this missive from Las Vegas:...
Good Times And Bad Times For Simmons Duo
Our Boy Bill Simmons gets a lot of gruff from old-school sports journalists for being too much of a "fan" and not enough of a "reporter," or, when he does do deign to do interviews, ends up crawling a little too high up the subject's nether regions. We've never really agreed with the former critic...
Pete Rose, Still Around, Still Clueless, Still Doesn't Care
A confession: We can't stand Pete Rose. Ignoring his loutish tendencies in his personal life or his complete lack of understanding of a human being not named Pete Rose — and that includes Pete Rose Jr. — we just can't fathom how anyone could forgive him baseball's one unforgivable sin. Not only sh...
The Definitive Bill Simmons Interview, By Those Who Know Him Best
Well, we covered the 3-2-1 Liftoff! of Our Boy Bill Simmons' Now I Can Die In Peace in our own goofy way, and now, for that whole "perspective" and "intelligent analysis" way, David Scott of Boston Sports Media Watch talks in length with Simmons about his place among the Boston media, his meteoric...
Bad Time To Think Of Peyton
Just an update on our Peyton Manning/Kenny Chesney/Brokeback Mountain item from yesterday: We were doing some searching, and we found this pretty damning story from Chesney, via Anecdotage:...
Peyton Manning Going All Brokeback Mountain On Us?
OK, now this be should be filed under "Complete Random Rumor From Gossip Newsletter That Knows Nothing About American Sports," but the pure notion of it is so hysterical that we can't help but bring it to your attention....
Deadspin Party Crash: Bill Simmons' NYC Book Signing
Last night, at the Riviera Cafe in New York City, Our Boy Bill Simmons launched his worldwide tour to promote the release of his first book, Now I Can Die In Peace. And we — Deadspin editor Will Leitch and "photographer" Lockhart Steele — were there, because the bar serves alcohol and had some Arizo...
Kiper Currently Ranking Him No. 8 Halfback In His Class
That's Bobby Martin, a special teams player for a Toledo high school and focus of a column by SI's Rick Reilly this week. We haven't seen the story yet, but we really hope it's not another of Rick's "participatory journalism" pieces. Just saying....
In The Wake Of Chad
We've always liked Jets fans, if just because they have that unique New York blend of bitter cynicism and unabashed homerism toward their team. They're like the woman who has nothing nice to say about her spoiled younger sister ... but she'll have your throat if you do....
Roger Clemens And His Funny Shirts
More Webshot findings from the ladies of On The DL, and though none are quite as damning as the married Brandon Arroyo housing poor college students on his lap, there's still some pretty fun stuff. Not least of which are creative shirt designs from Phillies outfielder Pat Burrell (whom this blind ...
Bill Simmons Brings It All Back Home
Well, we know why Our Boy Bill Simmons was sans column all week; he was saving it for his new NFL column, which clocks in at a frighteningly healthy 3,200 words. It's the usual Simmons fare; we get guest appearances by The Godfather, Andrew McCarthy and MTV's "Cribs."...
Just A Bunch Of Nerds, Debating Nerdom
We're big fans of Fire Joe Morgan's weekly deconstructions of ESPN analyst Joe Morgan's chats on ESPN.com — even if the chats of late, in the words of Fire Joe Morgan itself, have had "entirely un-Morgan-like reason and coherence" — and, to have some fun themselves, the folks at St. Louis Cardinals ...
About Last Night ...
You entered Harrah's Reno at noon and security deposited you outside on the lawn sometime around 3 a.m. Here's what you missed ... • MLB: Yankees beat Orioles to pry first place from Boston's withered, dead hands. • MLB: Bonds homers again in frenzied race against the arrival of that congressional s...
Combing Through Simmons Reviews
We are about a week and a half away from the release of Bill Simmons' Now I Can Die In Peace — that's an appended title; Bill can't even resist a lengthy footnote in his book's name — and most of the big periodical reviews aren't out yet. (Our Nexis isn't working right, so we can't check the publish...
We Have To Ask ...
Suggested questions for today's ESPN SportsNation chatters ... • Noon. NFL with Scouts, Inc.: Um, we heard that Tom Luginbill is your senior director of scouting. Can he get me a Los Angeles Xtreme jersey? We imagine he has plenty in his closet. • 1 p.m. Football with Mel Kiper: This is a two-part q...