rules Page 5 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Mom makes MLB catch of the year
Is there anything a mom can’t do? It’s an overused phrase, I know. But it’s pretty true. I’d like to imagine that someone, somewhere, actually has a list of all things the super-moms can do out there. Now, it’s time to add, “mom bare hands foul ball with baby in hand” to the file....

Rookie umpire throws bat, hits José Abreu squarely in knee
I know umpires like to clear bats out of the way when they anticipate a play at the plate, but one would think that they would do so with a little bit of caution....

Remember to touch every base
Yes, if you hit a home run you still need to step on all the bases and, of course, home plate. It’s not a crazy, or even a controversial, rule. But sometimes, even the pros forget....

The Avalanche are granny shifting
It’s hard to think of a series the past few years that has been more anticipated than Avalanche-Golden Knights. Rarely do the two best teams in the NHL meet up before the third round, or more likely at all given the vagaries of hockey. But with the divisional setup this year, it was going to be hard...

How many Tampa Bay Lightning players do you think Tom Brady can name?
It’s no big deal if Tom Brady isn’t familiar with anyone on the team, and he was just glad to agree to serve as the Bolts’ “fan captain” for Saturday’s Game 4 against the Carolina Hurricanes. It’s also hilarious to see the big-time Cameo video energy that Brady brought to the table to fire up the Ta...

It's 1, 2, 3 balls, you're on!
It’s not quite Javier Báez stealing a run for the Cubs by going backward, but Yankees third baseman Gio Urshela also did something you probably haven’t seen before on Friday night in Detroit....

Man U. falls to Villareal in Europa Final after keeper beats keeper finish
Anytime we get keepers taking penalties, we should cherish it. The Europa League Final yesterday was mostly dogshit, as Manchester United couldn’t turn control of the ball for pretty much the entire second half result into a second, winning goal. By the time extra-time rolled around, they had punche...

Why won’t anyone pitch to Yasmani Grandal?
In 2004, the most feared hitter in baseball was Barry Bonds. This mammoth at the plate hit .362 that season and reached base at an incredible .609 clip. That’s a difference of .247, one of the largest ever recorded. In 2021, Yasmani Grandal is hitting .121 with an on-base percentage of .372 — a .251...

Vladimir Putin ‘scores’ eight goals in Russian hockey game
If you think you’ve seen horrendous defense before, you clearly haven’t watched a bunch of guys skate against an authoritarian strongman....

Behold, a fun few moments of instant replay in baseball
Sometimes, instant replay is a real drag. It takes forever to review some minor call that doesn’t make that much of a difference anyway, the flow of the game is broken, and you wonder if we’d be better off without it, even if sometimes bad calls do get corrected, because even though they do, a lot o...

It better be a no-hitter or these doubleheaders don’t count either
Let’s just get down to brass tacks, how much for the ape? Whoops, no not that. Sorry. Got confused. The brass tacks we need to get down to is that the seven-inning doubleheader is dumb. Not as dumb as the extra-inning rule, but dumb. The players seem to like it, and why wouldn’t they? But this is go...

April 23 is officially Tatis day in LA forever, as Fernando Jr. belts 2 HRs on ann’y of pop’s 2-slam game
The odds on this were probably a million to one, but it happened anyway (aka, that’s baseball, Suzyn)....

College football makes change to OT, and it doesn't suck
The NCAA apparently doesn’t want college football games to potentially go to absurd quadruple overtimes anymore, so they made a slight change to the manner in which overtime will be played, starting this year....

Deadspin fixes NBA’s Out-of-Bounds Rule: Reward the defense
NBA basketball. It’s fantastic!...

Joey Votto almost pulled off the incredibly rare unassisted triple play
Carlos Rodón came oh-so-close to a perfect game on Wednesday night, settling instead for a no-hitter after he hit Cleveland catcher Roberto Perez with a pitch in the ninth inning, two outs away from what would have been the first perfecto in the majors since Félix Hernández’s in on August 15, 2012....

Let's see if we can make baseball better by exploiting loopholes in MLB’s rulebook
Major League Baseball’s takeover of the minor leagues has paved the way for the 2021 season to be one of experimentation on the farm, with different rules being tested at different levels in the developmental circuits....

It’s time the NHL did a better job protecting its players
Don’t worry, the NHL can still find a way to show its ass even with the NBA having a showcase event. On the same day that Tom Wilson was suspended for braining Boston’s Brandon Carlo into the boards with a cheap shot, Brad Marchand couldn’t be upstaged. And this is the same Brad Marchand who openly ...

Ravens’ 'spot and choose' overtime idea could revolutionize football
The Ravens are reportedly making a proposal to the NFL to change the overtime rules to a “spot and choose” system under which the winner of the coin toss would get to pick where the ball goes on the field and the other team would decide whether it wants to play offense or defense....

If you miss NFL refs not knowing the rules, the NHL has you covered
The day after the Super Bowl is a comedown for everyone, and probably more so in the midst of a pandemic where (if you’re logical) you’re stuck inside your house. The NHL and NBA seasons are in their dull bridge section, even in this shortened and changed schedule. Spring training is about to begin,...