spit Page 9 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Outfielder Carlos Gomez Takes Mound, Pitches Exactly Like Non-Pitcher
The position-player-as-pitcher trend continues piling up numbers at a record pace. Three more position players took the mound Friday night; the total across MLB is now up to 45, by far the most ever for a full season, and it’s still July. One of the recent unfortunate fellows was Rays outfielder Ca...

Too Many Position Players Are Pitching Now
41 position players have pitched in a big-league game this season. By my count, 28 different position players have taken the mound since the start of June. This is too many! A good thing is being spoiled, here....

Wednesday Night Blowouts Produce A Bonanza Of Position Players Taking The Mound
These are truly the dog days of summer. Baseball has slipped into that surreal midseason phase where absolutely nothing seems to matter at any given moment, and the reason to watch is to doze off to the hypnotic lull of half innings breezing by uneventfully. We have hit the part of the year where ev...

D-Backs Catcher Jeff Mathis Pitches, Serves Up A Juicy Homer, Loses
With a depleted bullpen in Sunday’s 16-inning showdown against the Padres, the Diamondbacks turned to backup catcher Jeff Mathis to pitch in a tie game. Seeing a position player pitch is always fun—hey, they’re not supposed to do that!—but it’s not often that they actually determine the outcome of t...

Sky Sports Suspends Jamie Carragher For Rest Of Season After Drive-By Spitting
After video emerged of ex-Liverpool star Jamie Carragher hocking a loogie at the car of a taunting driver and his daughter last weekend, Sky Sports announced that it had suspended Carragher—now one of its pundits—indefinitely while the company investigated the incident. Today, Sky has handed down it...

Sky Sports Suspends Jamie Carragher After He Spits At Heckler And His Daughter
Jamie Carragher, the former Liverpool legend who is now a popular TV commentator, has been suspended by Sky Sports for this video of him spitting in the direction of a 14-year-old girl whose father had been heckling Carragher while the two men were driving....

College Tennis Player Ducks Handshake After Opponent Seems To Spit In Hand
Texas A&M freshman Patrick Kypson is a talented men’s tennis player—he’s among the top 100 performers in the sport on the sixth-ranked team in the nation. He’s also the goober you see hocking a juicy loogie into his own hand in the above photo. ...

You Only Get To Do This If You Win
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Catcher Carlos Ruiz Pitched And Struck Someone Out
Carlos Ruiz had played 1,109 games in his career before Tuesday. The longtime Phillies catcher, now with the Seattle Mariners, had only played two other positions: An inning at third base during extra-inning games with the Phils in 2008 and 2011, and an inning at first earlier this season. Last nigh...

Let Us All Marvel At Andrés<em></em> Blanco’s 70 MPH Fastballs
The Phillies, already the worst team in baseball so far this year, trailed 12-0 in the bottom of the eighth last night. So why not bring in an infielder to pitch? Utility man Andrés Blanco toed the rubber for the first time in the majors....

Referee Barfs, Receives Red Card
Overcome by some kind of stomach bug, or maybe, as the wonderful Scottish commentator supposes, so offended by the poor quality of this weekend’s Dundee-Kilmarnock match, line judge Andrew McWilliam couldn’t resist the urge to puke, and began blowing chunks out there on the pitch. The head ref took ...

The Sub2 Project Takes Credit For Kenenisa Bekele's Near-World Record Marathon<em></em>
Ethiopian Almaz Ayana set a new world record of 29 minutes 17.45 seconds in the women’s 10,000 meters at the Rio Olympics. About a month later, fellow Ethiopian Kenenisa Bekele sped through the streets of Berlin, covering 26.2 miles in 2:03:03. That’s just six seconds shy of the world record, and a ...

The Indians Set A New Franchise Win Streak Record In The Most Difficult Way Possible
For the first time in franchise history, the Cleveland Indians have won 14 consecutive games. And it only took them 19 innings against the Blue Jays to lock down lucky number 14. ...

For One Night, Third-String Catcher Erik Kratz Was The Pirates' Best Pitcher
Pitchers dinging and donging at the plate is old news; let’s honor some position players who can deal from the mound....

Padres Catcher Christian Bethancourt Made The Most Of His Chance To Pitch
The Padres got walloped 16-4 this afternoon by the Mariners, and they lost the first two games of a weird home and away pair of two-game series on opposite ends of the (American) Pacific coast by an aggregate score of 25-7. It only took Seattle five innings to accrue all their runs, which ushered in...

Ravens Cornerback Tray Walker Seriously Injured In Motorcycle Crash (UPDATED)
Baltimore Ravens second-year cornerback Tray Walker is in critical condition after a motorcycle crash, according to a statement from the team:...

Disney Inundates <i>General Hospital</i> Episode With References To New Year's Eve College Football Playoff Games
ESPN says it isn’t worried about viewership for tomorrow’s college football playoff games on New Year’s Eve, but the degree to which TV viewers have been choked to death by promos for the two games—which were played on New Year’s Day last year—has left many never wanting to hear “Auld Lang Syne” eve...

The Bruins Dressed As Minions, Are Your Annoying Nephew's New Favorite Team
The Bruins visited Boston Children’s Hospital today and, in the spirit of Halloween, wore costumes. Everyone loves Minions, right? Your 7-year-old nephew named Zack definitely loves Minions....

Pat Venditte Makes Major League Debut, Gets Outs Using Both Arms
Switch-pitcher Pat Venditte made his big-league debut tonight at Fenway, and pitched a nearly perfect sixth inning—retiring Brock Holt with his left arm, seen above, and then after allowing a single inducing a Mike Napoli double play with his right (which you can watch below)....

Head Of FIFA Corporate Partner Arrested In Ticket-Scalping Sting
It took a few weeks, but we've finally gotten a 2014 World Cup corruption story. Ray Whelan, the chief executive of Match Hospitality, a FIFA corporate partner that sells tickets and hospitality packages for the World Cup, was arrested on Monday as part of a Brazilian investigation into the illega...