si Page 680 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
New Study Says NBA Referees Aren't Racist Anymore
Seven years ago, a couple of economists from Ivy League schools dropped a study on the NBA's head saying that its referees called more fouls against black players than they did against white players. ...
Every NBA Team's Season, In One Chart
Here's a chart by Houston Rockets analyst Ed Kupfer (you might remember him from that NBA strength of schedule chart a while back) that does the simple, useful job of lining up how each NBA team's offense and defense have stacked up to the rest of the league. You aren't going to find too many surpri...
It Really Shouldn't Take That Much Effort To Beat Indiana
Send stories, photos, and anything else you might have to [email protected]....
Get It Right, People: Bobby Knight Didn't Throw A <em>Folding</em> Chair
Despite being one of the most infamous coaching meltdowns in history and either the first or second thing that comes to mind when you hear the name Bobby Knight, there is one crucial aspect of The Incident With The Chair that is consistently misremembered: the type of chair he chucked across the flo...
Who's Your State's Distinctive Musical Artist?
Over on his blog Music Machinery, Paul Lamere has taken an interesting look at the geography of American musical tastes, based on zip code data from a quarter million U.S. music listeners who use a variety of streaming services (online music listeners might not be a perfectly representative sample, ...
Do The Olympics Really Screw The Best NHL Teams?
Since the Nagano Olympics in 1998, NHL players have played Olympic hockey, and NHL coaches have bitched about NHL players playing Olympic hockey. It punishes and best teams, with the best players, they say. But is there any evidence to actually back this up? Well, it's complicated. ...
When Do Umpires Mess Up Balls And Strikes Calls?
Baseball umpires are not immune to psychological biases, and it's an old adage of baseball commentating that strike zones get smaller when there are two strikes, and larger when there are three balls. In their Sloan finalist paper "What Does it Take to Call a Strike? Three Biases in Umpire Decision ...
The FBI Believed Clay/Liston I Was Fixed
There has long been chatter that Clay/Liston II, in which Sonny Liston went down to a phantom punch, wasn't on the up-and-up. But documents obtained by the Washington Times show the FBI suspected that their first fight, in 1964, may have been fixed by the mob....
Klay Thompson Dunk Sends Kyle Singler Stumbling Into Crowd
There are better dunks and worse posterizations than this Thompson-Singler affair, but Singler's exit makes this fantastic. Despite his efforts to remain upright, he stumbles back for what feels like forever, until he runs into the cameraman. It's at this point that he gives in to momentum and just ...
Dominica's Fake Ski Team Scammed The Olympics And The Press
After the opening ceremony, the Olympics were one long ungroomed trail for Gary di Silvestri and Angelica Morrone, the most-publicized husband-and-wife carpetbagging oldies act in cross-country-skiing history....
When Should Managers Pull Their Starting Pitchers?
"A Data-driven Method for In-game Decision Making in MLB" is easily the worst title of the eight Sloan paper finalists, which is a shame, given that it's actually an interesting application of machine learning that's directly related to one of the most important aspects of baseball game management. ...
MLB Bans Home-Plate Collisions, But Not Really
Here is the newly approved (and "experimental" ) Rule 7.13. You need only pay attention to the parts I've bolded....
Mike Trout Has Finally Broken Baseball's Math
For the past few years, Mike Trout has been the biggest steal in sports. He's had two otherworldly seasons, and he's only 22. So on the surface, news that the Angels are trying to lock him up to a six-year deal worth about $150 million makes sense. But it's actually remarkable for how much sense it ...
So, Which Countries Had The Worst Olympics?
After the usual agonizing about who's winning the Olympics—Do you use medal count or gold count? What about something weighted? WHAT ABOUT GDP?—Russia made things relatively easy at the end of the day, seemingly establishing itself as the consensus winner....
NBC Edited Out 38% Of The Closing Ceremony. Here's What You Missed.
It's no secret NBC makes significant edits to its tape-delayed broadcasts of Olympic ceremonies. We've never seen them leave out as much as they did last night, though, in excising more than 50 minutes from an already brisk Sochi closing ceremony; that left U.S. viewers seeing less than 62% of the e...
In Which We Learn Nightmare Bear Is A Snowboarder
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Closing Ceremony Pokes Fun At Opening Ceremony Blunder
Remember this? The Russians gave it an on-purpose reprise today. Clever!...
How To Watch The Sochi Olympics Closing Ceremony Live
Great news, everyone. You no longer have to wait up to 13 hours (we see you, Hawai'i!) to watch the Olympic Winter Games closing ceremony in the United States. NBC is offering a stream starting at 11:00 EST. If your television provider doesn't play nice with Comcast, though, you might need some othe...
NASCAR Drivers, Fans Issue Complaints About "Patriotic" Anthem Rendition
Yesterday's over-the-top performance of "The Star-Spangled Banner" by pro-war, anti-immigrant buttrockers Madison Rising left observers at Daytona International Speedway shaking their heads or outright insulted....