sam Page 14 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Arsenal is all grown up
While Arsenal ran Manchester City close for most of the campaign last season, when the chips were down in the spring they got mauled by the Citizens twice, as well as other boneheaded results that eventually left them up the track. It was this version of Arsenal’s first crack at a title challenge, s...

Behold The Skate Men: NHL Eastern Conference Preview
Like the college kids who crash through the side door into a party with a goofy, boozed-up look on their face, here comes the NHL season as a surprise....

This is part of Clayton Kershaw's legacy, too
Clayton Kershaw is the best pitcher of the 21st century. This much isn’t really in dispute. A career 2.48 ERA and 2.82 FIP over 16 years is unimpeachable. There’s three Cy Youngs to go with it, and an MVP in 2014 when he had a 1.77 ERA and a 0.857 WHIP, which is beyond stupid. He probably should hav...

Never play the Bears on a day when a team legend dies. Everyone knows this
Let me take you back to Nov. 7, 1999. ...

It’s going to be a good winter in Buffalo
Obviously, it’s never a good winter in Buffalo. And winter never stops, so I’m told. Anyway, the one thing that can make the time pass in the darkest months on the shores of Lake Erie is a hockey team worth watching. Kids, the Buffalo Sabres will very much be worth watching this season. So the resid...

Here are all the 20+ Wins Seasons, by franchise, in MLB history
Immaculate Grid has been a hit with baseball stat geeks since its launch in April. While the stats puzzle has since expanded to basketball, football, and hockey, it’s still baseball that makes the game what it is. So if you need help filling out your daily grid, give these stats a look....

MLB got what it deserves with its wild-card round
MLB and Rob Manfred don’t really have to care what happens in the wildcard round. Their only aim was to provide more playoff baseball, good or not, because its mere existence netted them more TV cash. So the fact that MLB will get no Game 3s, no interesting storylines, and barely any drama, followin...

Mariners fans probably have some good suggestions on what Jerry Dipoto can do with his 54 percent
One way to definitely not make your fans feel better about a season in which their team’s growth flattened out instead of turning into the juggernaut promised is to tell them that’s the plan all along. But that’s what Seattle Mariners GM Jerry Dipoto felt was the best salve for the sting of the M’s ...

Michael Lewis seems like kind of a jerk
If you’ve been, you know, out in the world this week, you’ve probably heard that Michael Lewis, author of Moneyball, The Blind Side, The Big Short, and numerous other best sellers, has a new book out this week, Going Infinite, about the rise and fall of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX and it’s found...

And now, a national moment of silence: The Twins' playoff-win drought is over
Our long national nightmare is over. The Minnesota Twins won a playoff game....

Baker Mayfield is doing his best Tom Brady (at 45) impression
A season ago, the Philadelphia Eagles eased into the playoffs, and the No. 1 seed, behind Jalen Hurts, a great defense, and a favorable schedule. Their out-of-division matchups were the NFC North, and the AFC South; a combo almost guaranteed to net solid returns for really any organization. I say th...

The Penguins power play will be a doomsday device, just not yet
The Penguins might be the most-watched team in the league this season. When you trade for the reigning Norris Trophy winner, surefire Hall of Famer, and d-man who changed how the position is viewed in Erik Karlsson, to add to your collection of three Hall of Famers already, fans are going to want to...

Here are all the 200+ Strikeout Seasons, by franchise, in MLB history
Immaculate Grid has been a hit with baseball stat geeks since its launch in April. While the stats puzzle has since expanded to basketball, football, hockey, and soccer, it’s still baseball that makes the game what it is. So if you need help filling out your daily grid, give these stats a look:...

Adam Copeland and Jade Cargill kick wrestling free agency into high gear
It is a compliment to AEW’s Wrestledream PPV on Sunday, and to the now-Adam Copeland’s appeal and history, that his arrival in AEW was only one of the biggest, and most memorable moments of the show. That’s how good the show was, perhaps the best AEW has ever run, and a testament to the former Edge’...

No one does goodbyes, or hellos, like baseball
The MLB playoffs start tomorrow, which still gives us a day to reflect on the season gone. MLB more and more would like its fans to focus on only October so they can demean, and hence pay less for, the regular season. But that’s not how the game works, it’s not how baseball fandom works, and there i...

The Commanders shouldn’t lose until they play the Eagles again
What is it about when Washington plays in Philadelphia? They have an even record at Lincoln Financial Field over the last four years and I get that’s not impressive by itself. The Eagles have been one of the NFL’s best teams over the last few seasons and dominant against the NFC. The public meeting ...

Let’s NOT blame Taylor Swift for the Chiefs’ middling play
Women NFL fans everywhere knew the tweet was coming. A superstar female paramour, an NFL player, middling play from his team. We’ve all seen this play before. It was ESPN’s Mike Greenberg who showed up, right on time:...

VAR performs its coup de moron
Whether VAR is still in its teething stages, and this is season five so it’s really debatable whether or not it should still be having growing problems, it will never be able to escape its fatal flaw. And that is it is still administered by humans. So it’s still going to be susceptible to human erro...

Week 4 NFL Takeaways: Tis better to receive
The offensive struggles from the first week of the NFL season feel like they were three months ago instead of three weeks. Points were piled up at a furious pace during the Week 4 slate of games. The Miami Dolphins did not repeat their Week 3, 70-point performance. Instead, Josh Allen played his bes...

And now we get to the question that has plagued society: Can the Minnesota Twins win a playoff game?
Saturday night completed the field for the MLB postseason, and then Sunday sorted out some seeding and matchups. And while most of the questions will be can Atlanta cap off one of the more dominating regular seasons we’ve seen, or Houston turn it on once again in October, or which start will Clayton...