us Page 721 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
Three Days Out, The World Cup Stadium In Manaus Is A Disaster
That photo up there is from Arena Amazonia in Manaus. The turf is patchy, sandy, and as acknowledged by the groundskeeper, in no way ready to host soccer, let alone a World Cup match. Too bad, because the crucial opener between England and Italy is on Saturday....
The Incestuous World Of Rock-Star Collaborations, On One Huge Chart
Pop Chart Lab has put together a new print titled "The Charted Connections of Rock," which shows how over 700 artists have collaborated on over 500 projects as an enormous web diagram. It's pretty dense, but useful for "six degrees of separation" games for the musically inclined....
Fan Ridicule Leads Soccer Team To Abandon Logo
Louisville City FC introduced its logo last week, to the outrage and disappointment of fans and designers who called it ugly, amateurish, and quickly demonstrated that they could do better. It took less than a day for the team to admit it screwed up, and announce it would hold a fan contest to pick ...
Can You Guess Which Country Americans Picked To Win The World Cup?
In a World Cup poll, Americans picked their own country to win it all, because of course they did....
Portugal's Eusébio Was As Gifted On The Pitch As He Was Important Off It
From Eduardo Galeano's classic, now available as an ebook. We'll have excerpts throughout the week....
Since They're Down There Anyway, The USMNT Might As Well Win
If we're being pragmatic, just for a second, we have to admit that if one started at the very first World Cup in 1930 and moved forward through history until today, right now, one could only conclude that the United States men's national team has been a complete, unmitigated joke. ...
Court Filing: Drew Rosenhaus Bribed DeSean Jackson
Earlier this year, an NFLPA-appointed arbitrator ruled that DeSean Jackson owes former agent Drew Rosenhaus more than half a million in unpaid loans. Jackson is fighting this in court, and in filings made last week, alleged that Rosenhaus illegally paid him to be his client, a payout that included $...
Visitors To Hell: How Two Minor Leaguers Earned Their Medals Of Honor
The walls were plywood. The ramp was steel. On June 6, 1944, Joe Pinder fought seasickness in a cramped troop carrier, waiting to take his place on Omaha Beach. On March 8, 1945, Jack Lummus grew impatient in an Iwo Jima foxhole, after 36 hours pinned down by sniper fire. Both men had once made a li...
Get Ready To Hate The Caxirola
Brazil's answer to the vuvuzela? Not quite. The "official musical instrument of the 2014 World Cup" is softer—it produces a rattle, not a blare. Another thing in favor of your viewing experience: it's been formally banned from Brazilian stadiums. But that hasn't stopped fans from bringing them in so...
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...
There Was Yet Another Immaculate Inning Pitched Last Night
So this is officially some sort of trend. Last night, Garrett Richards struck out three straight Houston Astros on just nine pitches, tossing the fourth immaculate inning of the season. There has never been more than four such innings tossed in a single season—that number was last reached in 2002—an...
Did The Rangers Hang Dan Girardi Out To Dry?
Work backwards through the sequence preceding nearly any goal, and you'll find one really basic error that led up to it. You didn't have to look very far for last night's winner: A slapstick turnover from Dan Girardi left Justin Williams all alone in front, and just like that—four seconds from whiff...
Jürgen Klinsmann Says U.S. Players Can Have World Cup Sex
It's Jürgen Klinsmann Week, and you have your choice of profiles of the USMNT manager. There's the New Yorker ("Klinsmann is a hippie pseudo-Buddhist flake"), the Times ("Klinsmann plans to make U.S. soccer less American"), the WSJ (Klinsmann wants to make U.S. soccer more American"), and many other...
Jon Singleton Homers In First Career Game, Gets A Gum And Gatorade Bath
Jon Singleton, the Astros' first base prospect with a left-handed swing that was built to launch homers, made his MLB debut last night. Things weren't looking so good at first, as Singleton started the game with two errors and two strikeouts. He made up for the rocky start in the bottom of the 8th i...
Australia Should Probably Just Relax And Enjoy Their Holiday
A couple dozen Australian soccer players will vacation for a couple of weeks this June in Brazil. Here's what you need to know....
Which Two States Combined Would Make The Best Power State?
Time for your letters:...
<em>Groundhog Day</em> Goes Sci-Fi: <em>Edge Of Tomorrow</em>, Reviewed.
1. Edge of Tomorrow is such a terrific idea for a movie that everyone involved seems to be in high spirits, like they all have a little pep in their step knowing they're making a good movie. There's so much junk out there that you can tell when the filmmakers know they've hooked a big one; there's a...