rafa Page 4 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
They say a good fastball is still the best pitch
It still amazes me how quickly a baseball playoff series, especially one of the seven-game variety, can pivot. ...
MLB needs to explain why Juan Soto is a Gold Glove finalist
A few days ago, Major League Baseball announced its finalists for the Rawlings Gold Glove Awards....
The 10 most proficient cheaters in the history of sports
There are many forms of cheaters in sports, and often the dumbest of them get the press because they’re as close to dumb criminals as one gets — and everybody loves a dumb criminal. The 2000 Spanish Paralympic basketball team that won gold despite only two of the 12 players actually having a mental ...
Rafael Leão is carrying AC Milan, and should punt Cristiano Ronaldo off of Portugal
In a lot of ways, AC Milan mirrors Serie A overall. They’re incredibly fun, and were able to take advantage of Juventus’s slide into the abyss and a blip from Inter to win the Scudetto last year. But how good they actually are, much like the league as a whole, is hard to pin down. Considering that t...
The Favorite
I won’t be alone in saying that Roger Federer was the first winner I consistently cheered for. Part of that was growing up in Chicago, when as a child, being a fan of a consistent winner really wasn’t much of an option (as it is now. And everything turns, turns, turns…). But a sports fan’s natural i...
Your 2022 NFL lead broadcasting booths feature 8 white guys, Tony Romo and an ‘Italian’
If Brian Flores can sue the NFL for its racist hiring practices when it comes to selecting coaches, then Gus Johnson should be allowed to sue television networks for whitewashing the NFL broadcasting booth....
HBO isn’t the only home for a Song of Ice and Fire
You can only hope you’re witnessing history at the moment. You obviously can’t know until the perspective of time kicks in. You tell yourself that this moment or that moment feels different than other ones you think you saw. But does it? Are you just telling yourself that? You can tell yourself anyt...
Oh great, they’re letting humanoids play tennis now
The US Open could’ve fizzled out after Serena Williams and Rafael Nadal lost. Casual fans are conditioned to look for those four names when following a Grand Slam. While we weren’t watching for Williams’ pursuit of her 24th Slam, we were still watching for Serena. The men’s bracket was more of the s...
Relieved to miss the redemption arc we didn’t need
It certainly speaks to the world’s ability to completely turn over and surprise you that Nick Kyrgios was installed as the favorite to win the U.S. Open after he pretty much paddled Danil Medvedev and Francis Tiafoe overturned Rafael Nadal. This is Nick Kyrgios after all, who never needed more than ...
Who needs the NFL after a sports weekend like the one that just passed?
Usually, the best sports weekends happen in October. A few days of dramatic playoff baseball, a good old-fashioned upset Saturday in college football followed by a championship bout, and then a dizzying Redzone Witching Hour on Sunday....
It’s come together for Frances Tiafoe
There’s a pretty common narrative for tennis players, which has been blunted on the men’s side for a while because well, there’s been three guys stopping anyone else from taking the final step. The arc is supposed to be that a player shows up in his late teens or early 20s, flashes some serious game...
Novak Djokovic is stopping Novak Djokovic from playing in the U.S. Open
Update (8/25/22): It ain’t happening, chief....
Dana White upset because people paid attention to something he said
Typical Dana White. He gets asked a question, or is reminded of something that he doesn’t like, and he throws an adult temper tantrum. He yells, curses a mile a minute, and defiantly points his finger like Rafael Palmeiro in front of Congress. All to convince you that he is right because he is the U...
What if the Saudis come for tennis next?
Let’s paint a picture for a moment. It’s two, maybe three years from now. The Saudi Golf League has taken off, gotten its sponsorships and TV deals, and superstar commitments. It’s expanded its tournaments, the majors are now allowing defectors to return, and — all in all, it’s a success....
Get to the net, Taylor Fritz!
American tennis, on the men’s side, has been a desolate wasteland for over 20 years now, pretty much. Since Andy Roddick took the U.S. Open in 2003 and then spent the rest of his career getting clubbed by Roger Federer in the biggest matches of his career, no Yank has taken a major. No Yank has even...
Novak Djokovic only has to slightly turn the knob
It’s getting to the point where whenever Novak Djokovic gets down two sets at a Grand Slam, he’ll be an even bigger favorite than he was at the start of a match. If he isn’t already....
Nick Kyrgios is driving everyone nuts at Wimbledon
No matter where you stand on Nick Kyrgios, it’s impossible to not feel just about everything when watching him. And his run to the quarters (so far) at Wimbledon has been perhaps the most shining example of that in his career. The fact that he’s doing all this before he possibly heads off to prison ...
Sundowning GOATS are playing longer than ever, but a changing of the guard is here
Serena Williams’ 2022 Wimbledon lasted longer than her last appearance at the All-England Club. In 2021, she left in tears after slipping on the court and suffering a hamstring injury.. Not having played in a year, her rustiness was evident in her error-prone play and she was promptly escorted off 7...
No one ever gets the ending they want
It’s hard to imagine that’s how Serena Williams would end her career. There’s always the U.S. Open, where she won her first Grand Slam, where she’s rightly worshiped, where some of her biggest wins have come. And yet, it’s hard to see how the U.S. Open will go much better than Wimbledon, where she l...
Kyrie probably figured out no one wanted his wormhole-brained ass
It was one of the shorter turnarounds in the recent history of NBA free agency becoming the world’s biggest soap opera (the dawn of which is probably “taking my talents to South Beach”). Sometime yesterday, rumors broke that Kyrie Irving and the Nets could see eye-to-eye with Irving heading into a p...