print Page 3 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Is Jamaica In A Sprinting Recession?
Even before the advent of Usain Bolt, Jamaican men owned the sprinting world. Since 2006, in the 100 meters, they've had no less than six of the top 10 times of the year, peaking at nine of the top 10 when Bolt set his first world record in 2008. But in 2014, Jamaica's best athletes are missing, an...

"Will You Be The Best There Ever Was?" Asked The Naked Woman With A Gun
In April, we brought you the real-life story of Eddie Waitkus , the ballplayer who was shot by a teenage girl. That incident is best known in its fictionalized form, in Bernard Malamud's The Natural, which we've excerpted below from the just-released collection Bernard Malamud: Novels and Stories...

Richard Thompson Muddies Commonwealth Predictions All To Hell
Jamaica, right? That's where the winner of the Commonwealth Games' men's 100 meters should come from. Enter Richard Thompson, of Trinidad and Tobago, who has now cast serious doubt of a Jamaican champion. ...

Freshman Sprinting Phenom Wins NCAAs, Sets World Junior Record
Trayvon Bromell, the 18-year-old freshman from Baylor, had already run a blistering 9.77 seconds (wind-aided) for 100 meters this season. But on Friday, he crushed a field of upperclassmen to win his first national title with a wind-legal 9.97, a time which, pending ratification, will be a 19-and-un...

Someday Belmont: The Making Of A Race Horse
Originally published in the June 1, 1975, edition of New York Newsday. Reprinted here with the author's permission. For more Nack, check out his classic portrait of Secretariat in Sports Illustrated....

USATF Hires Dopers As Coaches, Doesn't See What's The Big Deal
Yes, USA Track & Field will sue your balls off if you mess with The Almighty Swoosh. But taking performance-enhancing drugs? They're much more forgiving. Hell, they'll even give you a job....

Jamaica Falters, U.S. Women Win World Relays 4x100
It always comes down to the baton pass. In 2008, the U.S. men and women were the heavy Olympic favorites in the 4x100 meter relay. Then both teams dropped batons, disqualifying themselves and becoming a worldwide cautionary tale: relays are made by good teams, not great individuals....

British Sprinter: "Your Mom Will Have Lactic In Her Anus"
Major sports stars know to not feed the trolls. England's Richard Kilty, the 2014 World Indoor 60-meter gold medalist, is still coming to grips with his emerging celebrity, most notably by engaging with Twitter accounts that ask rhetorical questions....

College Freshman Runs Wind-Aided 9.77-Second 100 Meters
Baylor freshman Trayvon Bromell crushed the competition this weekend at the Big 12 track & field championships, turning in a ridiculous 9.77 in the 100 meters—albeit with a wind reading that rendered the time ineligible for any records....

Albert Brooks Is Funnier Than You Think
Originally published in the July 1983 issue of Playboy. To read every article the magazine has ever published—from 1953 until today—visit the complete archive at iplayboy.com. For more Playboy, check out PlayboySFW.kinja.com....

The Comedian Who Loved Himself: Martin Mull When He Was Almost Famous
Originally published in New Times, January 1978. Reprinted here with the author's permission. ...

Marcos Ambrose Punches Casey Mears In The Face After Toyota Owners 400
Marcos Ambrose and Casey Mears finished the Toyota Owners 400 in 18th and 19th place, respectively, and swapped some paint on the way there. So, after the race, they duked it out in the garage. Mears attempts to push Ambrose and he responds with a right hook to Mears's face. ...

The Fall Of Kevin Mackey, The NCAA Tournament's Junkie Cinderella
Originally published in the December 1992 edition of GQ. Reprinted with the author's permission. Annotations from the author (as told to Alex Belth) appear throughout the story....

The Unnatural Shooting Of A Baseball Player By A Silly Teenage Honey
Excerpted from Eddie and the Gun Girl, a Kindle Single about the shooting of Eddie Waitkus, the real-life event that's best known as the fictional pivot of Bernard Malamud's The Natural. Annotations by the author appear throughout....

The Masters Its Ownself
Dan Jenkins's His Ownself: A Semi-Memoir was published last week, which is as good an excuse as any to go spelunking through the back pages of one of our finest and funniest sportswriters. Here's a classic from the April 1985 issue of Golf Digest, anthologized in Jenkins's Fairways and Greens. Repri...

When England's Greatest Genius Took Over England's Best Team
If there's one sports novel you should read, it's probably The Damned Utd, David Peace's 2006 account of Brian Clough's disastrous 44-day tenure with a Leeds United side that detested him as much as he detested them. On one level it works as a meticulous, if fictional, reconstruction of a crucial pe...

Magic Act: The Making Of Earvin Johnson, AIDS Saint
Originally published in the February 1993 issue of GQ. Annotations by the author appear throughout. For more, check out E. Jean Carroll's story about NBA groupies, published in 1992 as "Love in the Time of Magic."...

An Emergency In The Snow
Originally published in February 1983 in the Philadelphia Daily News. Reprinted with the author's permission....

NASCAR Season Kicks Off With Pace Car Catching Fire
As if tonight's Sprint Unlimited race at Daytona weren't bad enough (wrecks and mechanical failures have left all of eight cars still on the track), the season-opening exhibition has been delayed further by the pace car catching fire....

The Aftermath Of The Worst Drop In Super Bowl History
Originally published as "Smith hates for it to end like this" in the Jan. 22, 1979, edition of the Miami News. Reprinted here with the author's permission....