rb Page 341 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

James Naismith's Handwritten Notes On The First Basketball Game
These are handwritten notes from James Naismith describing the circumstances of the first game of basketball. They are not newly discovered, they were part of an auction from December 2006, but that does not make them any less fascinating. In all, there are eight pages worth of Naismith's thoughts a...

Not Everybody Loves Derek Jeter, As Evidenced By This Old Man Giving Him The Handwank
The Yankees scraped past the Indians 3-1 last night in Cleveland, extending their AL East lead thanks in part to Derek Jeter's two hits....

Is Robert Griffin III Fast Enough To Run Track In The 2016 Olympics?
Is Robert Griffin III really a "world-class hurdler," as ESPN called him? In this week's Hang Up and Listen, Mike Pesca takes a look at RG3's times from high school and college and finds that, well, maybe it's not an exaggeration....

Mike Birbiglia's <em>Sleepwalk With Me</em> And The Art (And Agony) Of Stand-Up Comedy
I'm in awe of stand-up comics....

Tuesday Night Fights: The Dead Milkmen's Rodney Anonymous Learns Who Kenny Chesney Is From Watching A Concert Brawl
Welcome to Tuesday Night Fights, a weekly celebration and analysis of street-fight videos found on YouTube. Tonight's fisticuffs: "Brawl at Concert 2012." Tonight's commentator: Rodney Anonymous, frontman of The Dead Milkman and semi-regular TNF review artist....

What's ESPN Hiding Under Its Desk?
Yes, that's just a screen grab of Scott Van Pelt, Todd Blackledge, and Kirk Herbstreit on the air last night breaking down something or other about the upcoming college football season. But shift your gaze downward, toward the display ads on the front of the table at which they're sitting. The World...

What's The Deal With Football Players And Barbecue Sauce?
Many ex-athletes have entered the food industry—or, more specifically, the meat industry—and in this week's excerpt from Slate's Hang Up and Listen podcast, Josh Levin ponders the marketing strategies of former NFL players who have come out with their very own barbecue sauce, the ultimate meat acc...

Bryce Harper's Advice To Children: "Losing's Not Fun" And "Be As Sexy As You Can"
Bryce Harper is giving back. He hosted a baseball clinic yesterday, and it turned out to be a pretty big story in the D.C. area. Yeah, yeah, the camp was free for more than 200 children. Right, right, Harper was swell enough to swing by on his day off. OK, OK, Harper presented a giant check to a loc...

TV Report On Texas High School Football Team Wins State Title For Repeating The Same Cliché
As Texas's defending Class 1A, Division I champions, the Mason Punchers are the pride of their central Texas town, population 2,000. But I dunno. I just can't think of the right way to sum up the theme of the Punchers' upcoming season. Maybe someone—the head coach, a couple of players, a reporter—...

How New York's New MLS Stadium Heralds The Return Of The Cosmos
Top-level soccer hasn't been played within New York's city limits since 1976, when the Cosmos packed up for Giants Stadium and took the country's brief love affair with domestic pro soccer with them. The drought might be close to over, as MLS and local politicians seem intent on returning a team to ...

Mark Sanchez Confidence Report
As training camp continues, so does the most important quarterback controversy in the 6,000 year history of the world. We will haphazardly monitor the progress of the Mark Sanchez-Tim Tebow competition....

NBC Confuses Jesse Eisenberg For The Guy He Played In A Movie
Actor Jesse Eisenberg played Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg in a movie. He must have done a really good job, because it seems lots of people think he really is Mark Zuckerberg. ...

Why Isn't Synchronized Trampoline In The Olympics?
Last week we talked about the sports that haven't yet made it to the Olympics. In this week's excerpt from Slate's podcast Hang Up and Listen, Josh Levin makes the case for synchronized trampoline—another contender—to join the ranks of Olympic events. Especially if it saves the participants from a...

Grand Quarterback Pronouncements Based On A Few Preseason Drives
There were six less-than-meaningless games across the NFL last night, twelve chances for fans and media to judge and project their quarterbacks over an entire season based solely on a quarter of half-speed action. That's the entire point of preseason football—unrealistic expectations take wing....

Hop On Back Of The Bobby Petrino Apology Tour, Which Begins Today
It's been just under four months since Arkansas fired Bobby Petrino for hiring his young girlfriend to an athletics department position, paying her extra under the table, and lying about it. Four months is barely enough time to break in a new hairstyle, but, naturally, Petrino has found the time to ...

France Stunned Spain With A Handball Quarterfinal Buzzer-Beater
Handball's been a bit of a breakout sport for American audiences, though today's quarterfinal between reigning gold medalist France and Spain wasn't aired live in the U.S.. That's a shame, because it was a battle befitting the two pan-sport rivals, one finally seized by the Gauls when William Acc...

Chris Kluwe Revels In Watching Ladies Kick The Snot Out Of A "Jizz-Gargling Brosef"
Welcome to Tuesday Night Fights, a weekly celebration and analysis of street-fight videos found on YouTube. Tonight's fisticuffs: "Girls Whoop Dude Ass." Tonight's commentator: friend of Deadspin and Minnesota Vikings punter Chris Kluwe....

Learn All About The World Games, The Haven For Rejected Olympic Sports
The Olympics are often considered a great showcase for sports that really don't get any recognition in everyday life—like gymnastics. But what about the sports that don't even make the Olympics? When do Tchoukball and Fistball (which is the actual name of an actual sport) get to show the world wha...

Was This Disgraceful Olympic Boxing Match Fixed?
Knockdowns are exceedingly rare in Olympic boxing. Japan’s Satoshi Shimizu knocked down Azerbaijan’s Magomed Abdulhamidov five times in the third and final round of their bantamweight bout yesterday. And yet, the judges scored the round in favor of the one who spent more time on the canvas than on ...

Gregor Blanco's Diving Catches Are Becoming Even More Impressive
This is getting to be old hat for San Francisco Giants fans. First, Blanco became a folk hero in SF for saving Matt Cain's perfecto with an incredible late-game diving catch. Blanco put forth a more impressive version of that feat Wednesday night, with less inherent drama but way more bodily extens...