ty Page 519 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
Overmatched, Costa Rica Can Still Make It Rough For Everyone Else
Do they have any shot? Not really. But that doesn't mean Costa Rica can't put the fear of God into the Group D favorites for a half or so....
Italy Great; Sky Still Blue
Regardless of how you feel about a shirtless, flexing Mario Balotelli, the luxurious follicles that sprout all around Andrea Pirlo's head, or Lorenzo Insigne's textbook giocatore look of prison-chic with a €1,000 weekly hair budget, Italy do not enter this tournament as a "sexy" team. Somehow, one o...
Forgiving The Club Kid Killer: My Prison Friendship With Michael Alig
After just a few recent minutes in conversation with Michael Alig, we'd fallen right back into the intellectual relationship we'd developed over two prisons and several shared years in the incarcerated world. I always liked him; I'd even forgiven him for when he tried to rat me out. (He did gracious...
Running Coach Fired For Running Boston Marathon
On Wednesday, April 23, Matt Aguero was terminated as the head track and cross country coach of St. Gregory's University in Shawnee, Okla. Unless you keep abreast of internal developments within NAIA sports, you probably missed the news. But hear me out now, because what happened to Aguero will be a...
Which Hockey Leagues Have The Most Fights?
The NHL has a lot more fights than, say, the NFL, but how does it stack up against other levels of hockey competition? To find out, Simon Garnier of Graph Zoo pulled data from the (hilariously '90s) site dropyourgloves.com and put together a neat graphic on "fights per game" across almost 100 active...
Former MLB Player, Manager, And Coach Don Zimmer Dies At 83
Don Zimmer, a presence in MLB who had most recently served as a baseball advisor for the Tampa Bay Rays, has died. He was 83....
Dude With Some Type Of Camera On His Head Gets Robbed At Gunpoint
A South African man recently strapped a camera on his head before heading out for a leisurely bike ride. While on this bike ride, the dude with a camera on his head was held up by three gun-wielding thugs who stole everything he had on him, save for the camera that he had for some reason strapped to...
My Anger Therapy
Here's an excerpt from Bosnian-American writer, MacArthur "genius" fellow, and Howler contributor Aleksandar Hemon's new e-book, The Matters of Life, Death, and More. It'll give you a little taste of how seriously this World Cup debutante nation takes its soccer....
The Stanley Cup Will Come Down To The Best Team Vs. The Best Player
The Rangers and Kings are in the Stanley Cup Final because of depth, since this is not basketball, where a small number of very good or great individual players can drag a team to postseason success. You need top-flight players to win championships in hockey, obviously, but just as necessary are low...
"The Manager," From <em>Soccer In Sun And Shadow</em>
From Eduardo Galeano's classic, now available as an ebook. We'll have excerpts throughout the week....
Dammit, Greece Are Going To Try To Win Ugly Again
Greece has a pretty good domestic league that produces a handful of pretty good players who represent their pretty good national team. In the gauntlet that is European international competition, pretty good usually isn't enough. This year, though, Greece made it through the fire to earn a spot in th...
Vidal Is A Goddamned Tank; Or Why Chile Can Go Far In The World Cup
Chile's most memorable World Cup story is actually how they missed out on the 1990 and 1994 tournaments. Yes, they finished third in 1962 and gave Spain all they could handle in the first knockout round in 2010, but besides those two Cups, they've only gotten out of the group stage once, when they a...
"The Fan," From <em>Soccer In Sun And Shadow</em>
From Eduardo Galeano's classic, now available as an ebook. We'll have excerpts throughout the week....
How Spain Can Ride <em>Tiki-Taka</em> To International Immortality
Off top, we need to acknowledge Spain's unprecedented dominance of international and club soccer over the past decade. Historically, however, Spain has been sort of a laughingstock. To understand the impact of Spain's international failure, you must first understand Spain's great domestic rivalry: R...
Drew Doughty, Freaking Out And Falling Over The Boards Forever
Here's Drew Doughty—your presumptive Conn Smythe winner should the Kings take the Cup—at the moment of the series-winning goal. A couple of bangs on the glass toward the Blackhawks, and a wonderful pratfall over the boards....
For World Cup Glory, Mexico Will Need To Get Their Shit Together
El Tri: the pride of Mexico, the class of CONCACAF (at least historically). In Brazil, they will look to continue their impressive streak of making it out of the group stage in five straight tournaments, despite recent turbulence in the team....
Robbie Keane Blasts "Fucking Stupid Decision" To Play Match On Hot Day
It was 90-plus degrees and humid in Chicago yesterday, and even more unpleasant down on the pitch where the Fire drew the visiting Galaxy 1-1. After the match, L.A. captain Robbie Keane blasted the decision to play in the middle of the afternoon....
The Kings Will Beat You At Their Game, Or Yours
A game can be a classic without being particularly good hockey. We haven't had a conference final Game 7 go to OT in 20 years, so Kings-Blackhawks qualifies as an all-timer just on sheer novelty, but it was ugly at times. Bad goaltending, lax backchecking, freak bounces on questionable ice, and goal...
Just Shirtless Tyrann Mathieu Singin' And Drinkin' Some Rosé
Here we have Cardinals free safety Tyrann Mathieu and Nichols State wide receiver Terry Lucas, Jr. singing and waving around a bottle of some Belaire rosé....
The Thunder Will Want To Forget That Overtime Ever Happened
The Thunder lost to the Spurs 112-107 in overtime and, good lord, was overtime a disaster for Oklahoma City. Look at the tidiness of San Antonio's overtime shot chart, compared to OKC's. Russell Westbrook—who had an otherwise great game, with 34 points, eight assists, seven rebound, and six steals—w...