rei Page 44 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Naomi Osaka was bullied out of the French Open
In 2006, Zach Greinke almost quit baseball. Racked with social anxiety, Greinke told the media he thought, “Why am I putting myself through torture when I didn’t really want to do it? I mean, I enjoyed playing, but everything else that went with it I didn’t.”...

The Penguins tried to game the system and lost big
One of the many catchphrases that Eddie Olczyk has been trying to “fetch” for more than a decade is “Goaltending: If you don’t have it, you got no chance.” Like most of the things Eddie O says, it probably sounds way cooler and more clever in his head. It’s not a play on words, it doesn’t rhyme, it’...

Look at the rim, Bam — you’ve done it plenty of times before
We’ve had two opposite responses this month to the phrase, “If you don’t learn from history, you’re doomed to repeat it.”...

John Cena has to apologize for being right about Taiwan — OK, sure
There’s an old George Carlin bit — I guess they’re all old now (sigh) — about The Big Club. Still rings true today, even though it’s some 25 years old now or more. And while that “Big Club” may not be owned by China, it’s certainly still a slave to the money that China can provide them. Which is jus...

The NFL’s statement on George Floyd proves the league will never care about Black people
In America, there are two types of racism. Type-A is often “tolerated.” It leads to microaggressions, redlining, gerrymandering, and voter suppression. These are the people that will donate money to just causes, but also get uncomfortable when their daughter brings a Black man home. Type-B, on the o...

The Panthers got a finish lesson
It sounds stupid to almost everyone who loosely followed the Panthers-Lightning Game 4 yesterday, considering that the Cats gave up six goals and lost by four. But for most of the game, especially in the first period, Florida kicked the absolute shit out of the Lightning. They relentlessly attacked ...

Five pitchers whose Cy Young-caliber seasons are going unnoticed
Baseball has gone through an entire “repressed Catholic kid going into their freshman year of college”-type transformation over the past several years. With baseball moving ever closer to a “three true outcomes” game, several pitchers have revitalized their careers and several more have just started...

Baseball America’s Top 50 names in college baseball is missing some Sharts and a Hug
Baseball America has ranked this year’s top 50 names in college baseball, and it’s a good list....

Because Florida, Tebow jerseys are selling like hotcakes
Congratulations Jacksonville Jaguars — what I can only assume is a publicity stunt in signing Tim Tebow has proven to be effective for the local Florida Men and Women who are still fawning over the 2007 Heisman trophy-winning quarterback. As of this morning, five of the top-selling items on NFL shop...

Tony La Russa sold out his own player, and for what?
This Tony La Russa sociology experiment on the South Side of Chicago is going exactly as anyone familiar with the White Sox team and La Russa figured it would. And really, the only thing bailing La Russa out is that this roster was so turn-key when he took it over that even the injuries to Luis Robe...

The five most disrespectful dunks in NBA playoff history
It’s getting to be that time when important NBA basketball starts being played....

Let's predict each NFL team's win-loss record!
The NFL season is still four months away, but with the draft, the schedule release, and most of free agency in the rear-view mirror, it’s time to start looking forward to a season with lots of storylines to follow, more games than ever before, and fewer preseason games than ever before (three is sti...

So is there anything actually wrong with the Dodgers?
No. Of course not. What’re you, new?...

Yeah, that Tony La Russa thing is going about as you’d expect
While it was fun to pretend that the forced “Odd Coupling” of a drunk old codger Tony La Russa and one of the flashiest, dynamic young teams in baseball would boil over simply due to culture clashes, that was always a touch unlikely. Certainly, atmospheres within a clubhouse have led to poisonous re...

Are the Minnesota Timberwolves... not that bad?
Sure, you are what your record says you are, but during a COVID-19 pandemic, could we do that in spurts? The Minnesota Timberwolves are 20-44, but they’re 9-8 since March 31 and riding a four-game winning streak into tonight’s home game against the New Orleans Pelicans. ...

Mocking the Mock Draft: First-round scenarios sure to piss everyone off
You all have seen more mock drafts than you can count by now. I get it. I promise you, though, you have not and will not see another that resembles this in any way. With the NFL Draft finally, mercifully starting soon, let’s have a little fun and create the most chaotic mock draft we can think of. M...

DeGrom has been plugged into the matrix, and batters everywhere are doomed
It doesn’t just feel like Jacob deGrom keeps getting better. He somehow really does. And that’s why on Friday night there were MVP chants… for a pitcher… in April....

There’s being a clueless rich white guy, then there’s Mark Davis
While Nancy Pelosi’s awful characterization of the murder of George Floyd as “sacrificing” himself probably cannot be outdone, the sports world had plenty of tone-deaf responses to the Derek Chauvin verdict. Notably, the NHL offered up a nothing burger that didn’t mention race or George Floyd and re...

I know better, but I’m falling for the Canes again
One of the ripple effects of Moneyball, at least one that isn’t primed to destroy a sport from the inside, is that a lot of fans have that one team — the team whose games you watch most outside your own team’s on whatever streaming service you have. The team you’re convinced is doing things in a mor...
