us Page 1057 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
The Goofy Brooklyn Nets Design
Now that the NBA lockout is settled and we are assured of continuous basketball until 2010, we can now look forward to the most intriguing franchise move of all: The New Jersey Nets heading to Brooklyn. While some people debate the merits of a new stadium at all, Nets owner Bruce Ratner has skipp...
Those Scary Raiders
The Oakland Raiders. Just that name makes you think of dudes in skull masks, draped in chains, guzzling motor oil and punching their grandmothers in the face. The team added two more malcontents in the offseason: wide receiver Randy Moss — whose Raiders jersey has already become the league's best se...
Those Crazy Titanium Mets
We sometimes suspect that if you told a baseball player that putting a paper clip on each testicle would pull them out of slumps, they'd do it (and maybe even try the nipples too). The latest superstition craze in baseball, according to The New York Times (who would know, we guess), is the orange ...
Look! Singing Baseball Players!
This has been out for a while, but we finally heard it today, so we couldn't let it slip by any longer. Oh Say Can You SING?, an album of covers by baseball players, has been unleashed into the wild. Included are:...
If There Were Anyone To Fire, Someone Would Totally Be Fired
In this week's Sports Illustrated, Michael Silver writes a long-winded piece about the resurgence of women's softball, not just on a collegiate level, but also in the pro realm. He warbles extensively about Jennie Finch's role on the Chicago Bandits, a professional team that played its first game ye...
Royals Somehow Continue To Exist — For Now
According to our calculations, the only two Kansas City Royals fans left on the planet are Rob Neyer and Bill James (who works for the Red Sox now and is therefore divided). This is a shame. The Royals were once one of baseball's prestige franchises and now, writes Baseball Prospectus' Joe Sheehan...
MLB Is Down With The Kids, Dawg
Major League Baseball last weekend hosted the second annual (deep breath) "Little League Urban Initiative Jamboree." There are countless things that are amusing about this. Here are a few:...
Well, Bush Certainly Understands Black People
According to Bloomberg News, the NBA has hired Bush campaign consultant Matthew Dowd to clean up its image and bring in new fans. Dowd, who was Bush's "Chief Strategist" in his successful campaign last November, says he has given the league "some strategic advice," most notably on how to win fans th...
Please Take Soccer Team. I Am Romanian. I Am Hungry.
There once was a man in Romania named Dinel Staicu. (That's him in the photo. We think. We don't speak Romanian.) Dinel had many big dreams; the biggest dream he had was owning a soccer team. (There they call it "football," for some stupid reason.) He bought a team called Universitatea Craiova, an...
Sports Illustrated Keeps Finger On The Web Pulse
Featured Web site in Sports Illustrated's "SI Players" section this week: ManuGinobili.com....
The Vanishing N'Awlins Scene
Legitimate question: Is there any point to having sports teams in New Orleans anymore? The Hornets can't draw any fans after just two years in town, the Saints stink and are hated by the five Louisianans who care and now they're the top candidate for the inevitable NFL move back to Los Angeles. S...
How The Suns Saved The NBA
We'll be honest: On the whole, we're not really big fans of self-proclaimed Best American Writer Neal Pollack. (We've always considered him pretty much schtick in a vacuum.) But we must admit, his newly posted Slate piece on the Phoenix Suns is kind of brillant. A longtime Suns fan, he argues tha...
We're Sorry, But For Wearing Arroyo's Haircut To School, He Deserves Execution, Not Suspension
Student Suspended For Wearing Arroyo Haircut To School [Boston Herald]...
Lousy Closer Spurs T-Shirt Sales
Danny Graves, the firestarter who was designated for assignment by the Reds yesterday, continues to inspire considerable consternation from his supporters and his detractors. Strangely, his biggest boosters seem to be the teammates whose lives he has made miserable all season; Cincy social climbe...
Just Thinking Out Loud Here ...
Major congrats to the Montclair (N.J.) High School softball team, which scored two major upsets to advance to the Essex County finals Saturday night before falling to Caldwell High 1-0 in eight innings. Caitlyn Bishop, you're doing one incredible job as Mary Beth King's heir in the circle. This team...
SI.com: The Web's Pauly Shore
From the things that were a bad idea from the start department: Some poor sucker at SI.com tries an imaginary conversation between Larry David and Nate Newton. Highlight: So? It bothers me. Sitting within a 10-foot radius of this kind of gluttony bothers me. And what I am supposed to do when I'm fin...
SI.com's Fun Advertorials
We'll be honest: We don't know who Rob Stanger is. According to the bio that runs with his new column on SI.com, he is the head teaching pro at the Golf Academy at Mission Hills in Rancho Mirage, Calif., is recognized as a Golf magazine Top Teacher in America in the West Region. How this qualifies h...
Tillman's Parents Blast Military
Pat Tillman's parents blasted the military yesterday for lying to them about the circumstances of their son's death. Tillman, a former strong safety for the Arizona Cardinals, was killed by family fire in Afghanistan in April 2004. "The truth may be painful, but it's the truth," says his mother. "Yo...
SI.com's Tortured Crawl Toward Relevance
Poor SI.com. Two years ago, ESPN.com's Page 2 took them so far by surprise that by the time they realized what had happened, Page 2 had already become stale and boring. (Except for you, Bill! We love you, Bill!) The undignified pant continues with a Sports and Star Wars: The Connection, a sad, tired...
Creator of Batting Helmet Dies From Something Other Than a Head Injury (Obviously)
Charlie Muse, the inventor of the batting helmet, has died. He worked for the Pittsburgh Pirates for 52 years, mostly as the traveling secretary (his assistant was not George Costanza). "The players laughed at the first helmets, called them miner's helmets," Muse said about his invention. "They said...