w Page 4500 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
Better Know An Umpire: Eric Cooper
Welcome to Better Know An Umpire, an effort to educate ourselves on the human elements who have ultimate decision-making power over some 2,500 Major League Baseball games a year. (All cumulative statistics are through the 2011 season, unless otherwise stated.)...
Phil Mushnick Wrote Something Racist In The <em>New York Post</em>
Here's OG troll Phil Mushnick in today's New York Post, shaking his cane at the scary negroes:...
Ohio State Warns Athletes About Superfan Who's A Convicted Sex Offender
Charles Eric Waugh's Twitter bio describes him as a "Diehard #Buckeye Fan! I bleed Scarlet and Gray till the day I die!" He's been photographed with Ohio State football players, and he's also been known to tweet words of encouragement at them. Routine superfan-type stuff, really. But there's one pr...
<em>The New York Times</em> Asks: Is This When LeBron Finally Beats The Knicks?
I know I've already been beating the drum about this, but honestly, the New York Times sports page is embarrassingly podunk. Here's what the paper had to say about LeBron James and the Miami Heat beating the Knicks last night:...
Junior Seau's Family Will Donate His Brain For Scientific Study
From the moment it was known that Junior Seau had been found dead two days ago with a gunshot wound to the chest, there's been speculation that not only was it a suicide but that Seau killed himself in such a way that it would allows researchers to study his brain for the effects of chronic traumati...
How Not To Write A Cover Letter
We're getting close to graduation time, which means that it's time for America's college students and freeloading grad students to undertake the ultimately fruitless quest of begging corporate America for gainful employment. If you've ever searched for a job, you know what a mortifying experience th...
Texas Continued: How Mike Leach May Have Inspired The New <em>Friday Night Lights</em> Movie
If you watched all five seasons of Friday Night Lights, you know that it ended pretty much perfectly, insofar as any program that almost got canceled numerous times and was bounced from network TV to an obscure satellite-only channel can coherently wrap things up narrative-wise. And yet, from the se...
Jeff Francoeur Tossed Royals Fans A $100 Bill With A Note That Read, "Buy Some Beer On Me"
Three weeks ago, Jeff Francoeur had 20 pizzas sent to fans in a right-field section in Oakland. And last night, at a game in which he was part of the promotion, Francoeur did a little something for the home folks in Kansas City....
The Perfect Comic-Book Movie. <em>The Avengers</em>, Reviewed.
1. The Avengers is a superhero movie so fun, full of so much pure fanboy-wank joy wrapped up in an accessible, relentlessly entertaining package, that I'm not sure anybody needs to make any more comic-book movies; this one might wrap it up. (One suspects they'll still find a way.) Made by and for—bu...
How The Red Sox Goose The Numbers To Maintain Their Sellout Streak
The Boston Red Sox have Major League Baseball's longest streak of consecutive sold out games, at least according to the Boston Red Sox. The Sox claim their mark stands at 723 games, extending back to May 2003, and the notion of it probably strikes most people as somewhat reasonable: The team has enj...
Every U.S. Sports Championship, In Convenient Infographic Form
Our friends at Slate have created a slick infographic that lets you use a sliding bar to see the year-by-year chronology of every championship won in the four major professional sports. Click any given city and a stat box appears listing each championship, when it was won, and the percentage of the ...
Rick Carlisle Was In A Very Bad Place Last Night
A blown charging call that resulted in an Oklahoma City bucket sent Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle off the edge yesterday, and understandably so: the Thunder went to 3-0 in the series against Dallas, nearly ensuring we won't have a repeat NBA champion (which, frankly, was not likely to begin with)...
ESPN VP On Hockey Fandom: "It Doesn't Translate To Television"
We all know that ESPN treats hockey like the unloved child of a bad marriage. But why? Longtime sports media guy Ed Sherman went directly to Vince "Let's get this clown out of here" Doria, ESPN's senior vice president and director of news, and asked him that very question. Doria's response:...
How Bill Simmons Gambled Away His NBA MVP Vote
If you've never seen the film Eight Men Out, by all means rectify that and watch it as soon as possible. It's based on Eliot Asinof's celebrated book about the 1919 Black Sox scandal and directed by John Sayles, who, in a bad-ass bit of self-casting, plays the legendary sportswriter Ring Lardner tha...
LeBron James Can't Believe What Happened To Marc Gasol
A look of shock & disbelief crossed LeBron James's face when he learned he'd been called for a foul late in last night's Knicks-Heat Game Three on what appeared to be a clean block. It didn't matter much, as the Heat won to take a 3-0 lead in the series and essentially put a lock on the Knicks' mad...
These Craigslist Posts That "Predict" Junior Seau's Death Are (Probably) A Sick Hoax
The NFL was rocked yesterday by the death of 12-time Pro Bowl linebacker Junior Seau, whom police believe shot himself in the chest with a handgun. But while the great majority of fans and San Diegans have used the occasion to mourn his passing and remember the better days of a Charger legend, a cou...
Mariano Rivera Diagnosed With Torn ACL, Out For The Season
Speaking with the media after tonight's loss in Kansas City, Yankees manager Joe Girardi announced that closer Mariano Rivera has been diagnosed with a torn ACL and will miss the reminder of the season. ...
Gregor Blanco Fall Down, Go Boom, Still Makes It To Third Base
Gregor Blanco has just 27 stolen bases in some 271 career games, so we wouldn't say that he's necessarily known for his speed on the basepaths....
This Incredible Paralympics Commercial Was Shot In One Take With No Special Effects
Yes, it's a commercial. Yes, it concerns the Paralympics. Yes, it's from Canada. Let no preconceived notions you might have about any of these areas preclude you from watching and being generally astounded by this one-minute ad featuring short-distance runner Alister McQueen. They've also posted a...
Mariano Rivera Had To Be Carted Off The Field With A Possible Knee Injury Sustained During Batting Practice
That's according to numerous reports out of Kansas City, where the Yankees closer slipped on the warning track as he was shagging fly balls before tonight's game against the Royals. According to CBSSports.com, the 42-year-old Rivera had to be carried to the cart by manager Joe Girardi and bullpen c...