projecting Page 2 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
Infographics: Which NFL Teams Are This Season's Biggest Road Draws?
With the NFL season set to kick off in mere hours, Vivid Seats has released data on which teams are the best and worst road draws–in terms of ticket prices–for the 2013 season. The Broncos come out on top, increasing ticket prices by an average of 53.7 percent when on the road. While Denver has abov...
Maps: How Far Do Americans Live From Their Sports Teams?
I grew up in Bowdoinham, a small town in midcoast Maine. As the crow flies, it's 132 miles from the nearest NBA team, 133 miles from MLB, and 153 miles from the NFL, and so I developed strong rooting interests while pretty much never going to any live games, ever. It all felt very far away from the ...
Is Wladimir Balentien Having The Most Dominant Baseball Season Ever?
Wladimir Balentien, the impeccably named, once-heralded Mariners prospect who hit just .221 in three seasons in the majors before retreating to Japan, is smacking the everloving shit out of baseballs right now. Friday he hit his 52nd home run—three shy of the Nippon Professional Baseball record—and ...
Facebook Data Now Give Us The Best Map Of College Football Fandom
Taking off from its outstanding NFL and college basketball maps, Facebook has compiled county-by-county data on which Top 25 college football teams have the most "likes" across the nation (click here for a larger image). With the usual caveat that many of the counties shown here have very few people...
Infographic: Where Is ESPN The Magazine Hiding Athletes’ Naughty Bits?
The 2013 Body Issue of ESPN The Magazine hit newsstands last Friday, managing its typical trick of publishing sultry near-nudes while simultaneously patting the reader on the back for admiring the athletic form (just like the ancient Greeks!)....
What Do Arrests Data <em>Really</em> Say About NFL Players And Crime?
You can find all kinds of data about all the arrests in the NFL; tracking the alleged criminal behavior of football players has become something of a cottage industry unto itself. The San Diego Union-Tribune has a comprehensive database from 2000 to the present. Reddit user Mario Wolf has some chart...
NBA Finals Elimination Games, Ranked According To Fun
Note: An earlier version of this post was missing two key elimination games – 1988 Game 7 and 1993 Game 6 – which are now included in the rankings....
Infographics: Where Do Pro Basketball Players Come From?
Depending on whom you ask, the hotbed for NBA talent might lie in D.C., Seattle, Prince George's County (Md.), Baton Rouge, or, uh, Slovenia. Thousands of people have played professional basketball—there are a lot of places vying for the crown. So: Where do most players actually come from?...
Does The Majority Party Have An Advantage In Congressional Ballgame?
Tonight, Congress will once again take part in its annual baseball game, an ultra-American tradition that dates back to 1909. The Democrats, led by Louisiana Ace Cedric Richmond, have won the last four, but Republicans have a new weapon in freshman Rep. Ron DeSantis. Both played serious college ball...
Map: Do You Live In IHOP America Or Waffle House America?
America might be a fast-food nation, but at least it's a rich, greasy tapestry of fast food. In-N-Out Burger is the jewel of the West Coast. Massachusetts seems to breed Dunkin' Donuts franchises the way it used to breed Kennedys. Oklahoma and Wyoming are the only states to have both Hardee's and Ca...
Where Do Singers Screw Up The National Anthem?
Earlier this month, before the first game of the Canadian Hockey League's Memorial Cup, singer Alexis Normand joined a long list of people who have brutalized the U.S. national anthem in front of a large, tense crowd....
Here Are The Best States To Be A Transgender High School Athlete
As reported by the Times earlier this month, new legislation in California could make that state the first to legally guarantee the rights of transgender high school athletes. California has already joined a group of more than half a dozen states with school policies that allow transgender athletes ...
Infographic: Is Your State's Highest-Paid Employee A Coach? (Probably)
You may have heard that the highest-paid employee in each state is usually the football coach at the largest state school. This is actually a gross mischaracterization: Sometimes it is the basketball coach....
The QB Class Of 2010 Shows College Loyalty Is A Myth
The knock on professional athletes is that they'll readily abandon their fans for a bigger contract. Not so for college players, who–ostensibly free from financial temptations–supposedly have true connections to their schools. So why can't colleges hold on to their top recruits?...
"Outstanding" Vs. "Explosive": Comparing The NFL Draft Coverage
You may have watched Thursday night's first round of the NFL draft, on either ESPN or the NFL Network. Most of you didn't though, so we got our hands on the the transcripts to let you know what you missed....
Infographic: Where Do NFL Draft Picks Come From?
Tonight, we get to watch the first round of one of the saddest NFL drafts in recent memory, with teams tripping over each other trying to trade down in a weak year. Even in the good years, success in the college game doesn't always translate to the pros, but some regions and conferences have a reput...
Are Men More Likely To Stand On The Subway Than Women?
Welcome to Dataspin, a weekly data visualization of whatever the fuck....
How Many "Subway Series" Have There Been In NCAA History?
Tomorrow, Yale takes on Quinnipiac for the NCAA men's hockey championship. Plenty has been written about the cultural differences between these two programs—for an overview of the rise and fall of Greater New Haven hockey culture, you can read Jack Dickey's excellent piece; for a good look at what Y...
Heat Map: Did The Final Four Pay Off For Atlanta?
Do stadiums really generate revenue for cities? It's a complicated question, but the short answer is: 1) Yeah, some, but 2) Not nearly enough to offset the enormous public costs of these developments. ...