science Page 4 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
How Many Consecutive Pitches Can A Typical Baseball Fan Watch?
As you know, Deadspin has lately been documenting the amazing spectacle of the bored fan, the baseball enthusiast who finds a seat at the yard to be the best possible place to crochet, read the newspaper, play a baseball video game, or what have you....
Country Club Takes Potential Dress Code Modification Very Seriously
A few months ago, the board of governors of the Chester Valley Golf Club considered widening the scope of the club's dress code to include denim. But what kind of ramifications would such a radical change bring? Would the club be plunged into chaos? Perhaps! Such questions left the board of governor...
Do Sleepy Hitters Really Lose Plate Discipline During The MLB Season?
Originally published in Baseball Prospectus....
Why Don't We Let Injured Athletes Use PEDs?
Reliever Ryan Madson missed all of 2012 after Tommy John surgery, but signed with the Angels expecting to be healthy to begin the season. It hasn't happened, and he doesn't seem much closer. So he wonders, "If HGH were legal..."...
The Japanese Version Of <em>Sport Science</em> Is Awesome
We've said before in this space that ESPN's pseudoscientific Sport Science segments are "sneakily awful," but this weekend I happened across something from Japanese national broadcaster NHK that puts ESPN to shame....
Why You're Still A Fan, Despite All The Crap: A Look Inside Your Brain
Adapted from The Secret Lives of Sports Fans: The Science of Sports Obsession....
How An Achilles Tear Affects NBA Players (Or, Why Kobe Is Screwed)
Kobe Bryant, your favorite high-functioning sociopath and mine, tore his Achilles tendon Friday night during a win against the Warriors. We've been hearing about "torn Achilles" for years now, but for most fans, the operational definition of the injury remains ambiguous. You hear a player has torn a...
This Year, Iditarod Mushers Will Be Peeing Themselves Mid-Race With The Help Of Science
The Iditarod kicked off over the weekend, and it'll be more than a week before even the best mushers complete the race. That 1000-mile trek through the Alaskan wilds is tough enough, even without having to take bathroom breaks at rest-stop Hardees or pee off the back of your sled, giggling as the st...
Will Eating Decades-Old Athlete Candy Bars Kill You? A Taste Test
"You're not going to eat it, are you?" the eBay seller asked, after we had completed our purchase. "People have been asking me if they can eat it, and that's probably not a good idea."...
Retired NFL Players Are Depressed And Don't Even Know It: Study
The most striking aspects of the new head-trauma study of former NFL players published in JAMA Neurology are not the formal findings per se. In many ways, those merely quantify and validate suspicions that even casual fans likely hold. The rub is that 40 percent of the retired players that researche...
![A Vote For Roger Clemens Was A Vote For Barry Bonds: The Politics Of The Hall Of Fame Ballot, By The Numbers [UPDATE]](https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/18azwl896gdgujpg.jpg)
A Vote For Roger Clemens Was A Vote For Barry Bonds: The Politics Of The Hall Of Fame Ballot, By The Numbers [UPDATE]
Hall of fame ballots follow their own own internal logic. For instance, regardless of how they feel about steroids, almost all voters agree with both or neither of the following statements:...
Why We Expect Black Football Players To Return From Injury Faster Than White Players
There's an intriguing study published today in the peer-reviewed journal PLOS ONE, called "Racial Bias in Perceptions of Others' Pain." Researchers from the University of Virginia and Northwestern University examined NFL injury reports over two seasons, and noticed something unexpected: black player...
Even If Icing The Kicker Doesn't Work, It's Better Than Never Icing The Kicker
Mike Tomlin iced the kicker twice last night, but with an unfortunate twist: First, he called a timeout on his own kicker, Shaun Suisham, who proceeded to miss a 54-yarder. Then he stopped the Titans' Rob Bironas just as he was about to attempt the game-winning 40-yarder. Bironas waited two minutes ...
Did TBS Crap Out On You During The Playoffs? Blame The Sun.
Ah, the sun. Giver of life. Grower of crops. Sworn enemy of the MLB Playoffs on TBS. For Cardinals fans watching their team begin a championship defense, and for Nationals fans watching their first playoff game ever, yesterday's broadcast was a frustrating one. On multiple occasions, TBS's feed froz...
Science! Proves That Hawk Harrelson Is More Biased Than Every Other AL Broadcaster Combined
Today is probably a good day for the other sports to drop bad news. Maybe announce some NCAA sanctions, or failed steroid tests. Everything non-scabby is completely under the radar, so it would have been lucky timing for the White Sox broadcasting team to be selected as far and away the biggest home...
Mini-Soccer Balls Can Now Be Grown From The Cells Of Pig Bladders
Pig bladders have a long and illustrious history in sports, having made up the inflated innards of the earliest footballs and rugby balls. Now, a scientist named John O'Shea has taken the pig bladder element to a new level, creating what he has dubbed the world's "first bio-engineered football." (He...