playoffs Page 15 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Your MLB Wild-Card Deathmatch Open Thread
Hey everyone, the playoffs start tonight! We've got two do-or-die games to watch: The Cardinals are taking on the Braves at 5:07 p.m. EDT, and the Orioles are squaring off against the Rangers at 8:37 p.m. EDT. That's like, seven straight hours of baseball....

How The Crazy-Ass AL Division Races Unfolded: Visualizing Momentum
The Athletics and the Yankees clinched their respective division titles on the same day, but the paths they took to get there were very different. The A's budget freight train slammed through a Rangers squad that had sat atop the AL West for over 170 consecutive days, while the Yankees barely edged ...

Bud Selig Hopes It Takes Tiebreaker Games To Decide The Wild Cards
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: The Commish on Melky, the wild cards, and labor peace....

Just How Tight Is The AL Playoff Race?
With three weeks to go in the season, over half of baseball is still in the race. Seventeen teams are within five games of a playoff spot. You might think that's mostly due to the new second wild card, and that's the case in the NL. With all three division leaders comfortable and the Braves safe at...

The Pittsburgh Pirates Will Not Be Ignored
For as sublime and most valuable that Andrew McCutchen's play has been this season, the truly exciting thing about the Pirates is that they're starting to become more than just one star player. To that end, the Pirates—12 games over .500 and with playoff odds standing at 57 percent—are going for it ...

Tonight No One Will Remember Hockey, Not Just Los Angeles
The Los Angeles Kings have had a pretty strange post season. They have completely dominated their opponents throughout each round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs and endeared themselves to an increasingly Twitterized public all the while California has no idea who they are. The Devils meanwhile, are ha...

Tonight LeBron Needs To Eat Some Old Irish Hearts
Bumblederping around the Web today it's surprising to see how many people expect the Celtics to curl up and die quiet in their series against the Heat, which begins tonight. David Steele over at the Sporting News is among the rare authors who believe three future Hall of Famers plus a tripler of dou...

And Now A Picture Of The Worst Custom Heat Jersey Ever Made
In honor of the Heat/Celtics series, this guy has made a video of how to wash your car and clean your ceiling fan with a Paul Pierce jersey. And he did it all while wearing this obnoxious custom-made Big Three jersey....

Jack Edwards: Homer To End All Homers
Last night, NESN's Jack Edwards reminded us that he is still the ultimate homer of the hockey commentating world — hockey's Tommy Heinsohn, if you will. In Game 3 of the Bruins-Canadiens series, Edwards screamed at Montreal's Roman Hamrik to "GET UP!" after he tackled Michael Ryder to the ice. He ...

Your Start Of The National Hockey League Playoffs Open Thread
So, the hockey season that actually matters is about to start, with the Phoenix Kai Oats visiting the Red Wings (Nos. 6 and 3 in the Western Conference respectively) and the Tampa Bay Lightning heading to Pittsburgh for some 4-versus-5 eastside action....

MLS Playoffs To Admit More Good Teams, Bad Teams, Possibly Your Grandmother
Getting into the MLS playoffs this year will be about as difficult as securing admission to the dogshit community college down the road from you. That's because the wise men who run the MLS have decided to let two more crap teams into a playoff system that not only confuses foreign players accustome...

Last Night's Winner: The Case For The BCS In The NFL
Just what was Derek Anderson laughing about? We're just guessing, but maybe it's the fact that his Cardinals, at 3-7, are just two games out of first. Someone's going to win that division, and they might not even be bowl-eligible....

Your "Carl Crawford Salute Says It's Already Over" Tampa Bay/Texas Open Thread
Down 6-0 to the Rangers in the 8th, Carl Crawford swung at the first pitch and grounded out to second. The fans chanted his name anyway since it was probably his last game as a Ray at Tropicana Field....

BREAKING: Jim Mora Fired
Jay Glazer just tweeted the news a couple minutes ago. And Glazer is blissfully never wrong. I've always thought Jim Mora 2 looks like an Eskimo. That's probably a wrong assumption....

What You Need To Know About The NBA's Jaunty Superfan
He's the multi-millionaire (but not quite a billionaire) sporting the cowboy hat on his head and God-knows-what on his torso, and he happens to sit courtside at a terrifyingly astounding number of NBA games, sometimes carrying European models, all the time hobnobbing with the league's superstars. Me...

Gary Bettman Does Not Appreciate Your Octopus-Throwing Antics
A Red Wings fan throwing an octopus on the Columbus Blue Jackets home ice? Sir, this will not stand! (Scuffle ensues — see photo)....

NHL, NBA Playoffs Not Over Yet
How was your weekend? I had no access to the internet (or TV! The horror), but I trust that things around these parts were quiet and uneventful with little or no boat rocking whatsoever....

NBA, NHL Out Of Playoff Spots
This weekend could have been a furious playoff dash to cap off both the pro basketball and hockey seasons, but all the playoffs spots were wrapped up last night, so never mind all that....

Three Presumed Mismatches In NBA Playoffs Tonight
If the 76ers hadn't pulled off that Game 1 upset in Auburn Hills, tonight's NBA Playoff games would have the feel of a night off. The Celtics were terrifying against the Hawks in Game One and seem unlikely to remain so. The Lakers appears well on their way to continuing Allen Iverson's enobling fail...

Jenny Hendrix Loves Jags, Anal
The Jacksonville Jaguars have stormed into the playoffs with a bandwagon that has quickly filled near capacity. Well now they've got something even better going for them. When the Jags take on the Pittsburgh Steelers in the second game of today's wild card double header they'll have a porn star in t...