story Page 16 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
Transcripts From The Steinbrenner-Vincent Hearing
On July 5-6, 1990, George Steinbrenner appeared before MLB commissioner Fay Vincent to discuss his association with Bronx gambler Howie Spira, who helped Steinbrenner dig up dirt on Yankee outfielder Dave Winfield. MLB later made a transcript of the hearing public. We've re-transcribed excerpts belo...
"I Didn't Really Have To Do, Like, A Ton Of Undercover Digging": Meet The 16-Year-Old Who Scooped Everyone On Ryan Braun's Mishandled Sample
Curt Hogg is a high-school junior who lives in Brown Deer, Wis. On Feb. 14, he wrote a post on his Milwaukee Brewers fan blog, Plushdamentals, reporting that Ryan Braun's PED urine test sample had been mishandled. Yesterday, the rest of the world learned that Hogg's reporting was correct: Braun avoi...
Is Steve Nash A Time Traveler?
When reader Sam sent us some old photos of sports teams, we were intrigued. Old sports photos are cool—especially seeing the uniforms of the day. Yet not being able to place where the photos were taken (or who might be in them) left us guessing....
The Making Of “Homer At The Bat,” The Episode That Conquered Prime Time 20 Years Ago Tonight
On Feb. 20, 1992, more American homes tuned into The Simpsons than they did The Cosby Show or the Winter Olympics from Albertville, France. A foul-mouthed cartoon on a fourth-place network bested the Huxtables and the world's best amateur athletes. Fox over NBC and CBS—its first-ever victory in prim...
50 Years Later, Remembering The Mets' Hopeful, Awful Inaugural Spring Training
The great Robert Lipsyte has a story in today's New York Times remembering the Mets' first spring training, in 1962. Those Mets, as strange as it is to comprehend, were far more hapless than modern iterations—they went 40-120 and inspired a book called Can't Anybody Here Play This Game?—and as such ...
According To New Tapes, Richard Nixon Tried To Screw NFL Fans Forever
It's hard, in 2012, to imagine anyone being upset about Redskins games not airing on local television. Presumably it would be a treat for the long-suffering fans in DC....
You Have Four Days Remaining To Bid On This Leather-Bound & Autographed Copy Of Jerry Sandusky's Book
There are apparently only 250 leather-bound copies of Touched by Jerry Sandusky (and Kip Richeal) in existence, and this one's autographed by Sandusky, Matt Millen, Greg Buttle, Kyle Brady, Lance Mehl, Ed O'Neil and Jack Ham. It comes complete with a certificate of authenticity, which I'm guessing ...
FBI Docs: The Story Of The 6-Foot-8 Redneck Ex-Con Who Terrorized George Steinbrenner With Jet Skis
Ah, Tampa. The balmy breeze. The sandy white beaches of acceptable granularity. The lingering fury of the most dyspeptic owner in baseball history. I speak, of course, of George Steinbrenner. Welcome back for another edition of "The Boss Files," our document-driven retrospective of Steinbrenner's li...
How The Song "Seven Nation Army" Conquered The Sports World
The march toward musical empire began on Oct. 22, 2003, in a bar in Milan, Italy, 4,300 miles away from Detroit. Fans of Club Brugge K.V., in town for their team's group-stage UEFA Champions League clash against European giant A.C. Milan, gathered to knock back some pre-match beers. Over a stereo bl...
FBI Docs: How George Steinbrenner Made An Ass Of The FBI Director
The year was 1989. A group of luminaries had gathered to schmooze aboard the USS Intrepid, the World War II-era aircraft carrier on the west side of Manhattan. Among them: Yankees owner George Steinbrenner and then-FBI director William Sessions. The two men couldn't have been more dissimilar. Steinb...
FBI Docs: The Sad Story Of The FBI Agent Who Was Ordered To Unclog George Steinbrenner's Toilet
On Thursday, we described the FBI's internal investigation into Steinbrenner's curiously close relationship with the bureau's Tampa field office. We will now commence with the presentation of amusements and oddities found in the nearly 700 pages of new Steinbrenner records the FBI turned over to us....
FBI Docs: George Steinbrenner Thought The FBI Was The "Nearest Thing To Perfection"
When we published my October profile of Howie Spira, the gambler who tangled with George Steinbrenner and wound up in prison, I knew the story wasn't over. In the course of my reporting, I'd submitted a few Freedom of Information Act requests to the FBI. These things can take a while for the federal...
Recalling The Time Bennie Blades Pulled A Bazooka Out Of His Car Trunk To Settle A Fight
Here's a nice, terrifying memory from Lomas Brown—the former NFL player who now says things on ESPN for money—regarding his former Detroit teammate Bennie Blades. Brown told Dan Le Batard and Le Batard's father today that Blades was the "craziest teammate" he ever had, and then shared this special...
This Portrait Of Atlanta Falcon Ray Edwards And LaStarya Thompson Better Be Called "Handful Of Ass"
Tipster Mike S. was kind enough to ferret out this glorious piece of artwork on artist Gabe Richesson's website. In proper form, the Edwards/LaStarya study is five-feet wide and four-feet tall. In proper form, it owns the room, as if a vice squeezing your attention tight and showing it who's boss....
The Howie Spira Audio Archive
At nearly every turn in Howie Spira's tangled and antagonistic history, there was a phone call. And on the phone calls, he had his tape recorder. Howie's cassettes captured his rift with Dave Winfield, his conniving with George Steinbrenner, and his turn against Steinbrenner. They captured threats f...
The Last Act Of The Notorious Howie Spira
Howard Spira appeared in the Gawker offices one summer day as if summoned from the beyond, which in some sense he had been. He just stood there, anxiously clutching a black plastic bag, his enormous green eyes sweeping the room. His skin had the hue of a life spent mostly indoors and in poor health....
Howie Spira's Letters
Click in the lower right corner of the image to see it all....
"We Were Packed In Like Sardines": Two Former Customers Review Detroit's Booty Bus
Soon after we learned about the Booty Lounge, the mobile strip club that's been idling near Detroit's Ford Field during every Lions tailgate for the past decade or so, we heard from a few former patrons. And after finding the priceless Yelp review from a former scorned freelancer for the club that y...
The Curse Of Dopey "Curse Of The Bambino" References, And Other Dumb Things About The Red Sox's Stretch Run
Harvey Araton of the New York Times, reporting from Baltimore, sets the new/old standard for witless hackery today:...
SprtsCntr: ESPN Is Writing Tom Brady's Name All Over Its Trapper Keeper
What is ESPN prattling on about right now? We condense your morning SportsCenter to its essence....