w Page 4651 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

The NFL Player's Existential Dilemma
We're doing a season-long NFL roundtable with our friends at Slate. Check back here each week as a rotating cast of football watchers discusses the weekend's key plays, coaching decisions, and traumatic brain injuries....

John Calipari Overlooks That Louisville Is Also Located In Kentucky, TV Reporter Too Smitten With Him To Notice (CORRECTED)
The outrage in at least one corner of the Bluegrass State today has been over Calipari's comments, beginning at the two-minute mark, in which he seems deliberately not to mention UK's in-state rivalry with Louisville. cn|2 "reporter" Will Mapes, whose station's coverage area includes Louisville, d...

A Homemade Infographic To Help Explain Who Is Still Chasing The Pennant And Who Is Not
Adrian Beltre, who the Boston Red Sox decided not to keep around this year, hit three home runs this afternoon, carrying the Texas Rangers into the American League Championship Series. That's two more homers than any Red Sox third baseman hit in any game this year. Just one of those subtle statistic...

Your Rangers-Rays And Phillies-Cardinals Open Thread
A full slate of the MLB playoffs is just about to get underway, with four games going all afternoon and well into the evening. Up first is Texas-Tampa Bay in Game 4 of the ALDS, with Matt Harrison going against Jeremy Hellickson. At 5 (EDT), Philly's Cole Hamels takes on St. Louis' Jaime Garcia at ...

Self-Hating Red Sox Fans Can Now Buy The Buckner Ball For $1 Million
The ball that went through Bill Buckner's legs in 1986 (and possibly the same one that Bob Stanley threw past Rich Gedman?) will go on eBay this month with a starting price of $1 million. It was formerly owned by Charlie Sheen, so hopefully there is $1 million worth of drugs inside of it. [AP]...

Do Not Fret, Yankees Fans: A.J. Burnett May Have Been A Victim Of Bad Home Run Luck This Year
Sam Miller of the Orange County Register tweeted this last night, and it's kind of amazing. (Ignore his mention of Jered Weaver.) Tonight's scaring-everyone-shitless Yankees starter A.J. Burnett's xFIP (expected Fielding-Independent Pitching) was 3.86 this year. xFIP is on a scale roughly equivalent...

The One Where We're Offered Photos Of A Former Heavyweight Champion Wearing Trashy Lingerie
Welcome back to Deleted Scenes. This space is now reserved for those scuzz-money entrepreneurs who've unsuccessfully tried to sell us prurient information. This is also where we'll run notable emails we've received from some of our readers. All emails are [sic]'d. Enjoy....

Brett Favre Says That "No One Including Brett Favre" Could Have Seen His Career Ending The Way It Did
Every morning, the fine folks at Sports Radio Interviews sift through the a.m. drive-time chatter to bring you the best interviews with coaches, players, and personalities across the sports landscape. Today: Brett Favre reflects on Brett Favre's career....

A Cameraman Wiped Out During Today's Rangers-Rays Game (Updated With Video)
A cameraman wiped out while tracking Adrian Beltre on his trot home after a solo shot in the second inning. We'll have video shortly, of course....

What Curtis Painter And <em>North Dallas Forty</em> Tell Us About The Real NFL
We're doing a season-long NFL roundtable with our friends at Slate. Check back here each week as a rotating cast of football watchers discusses the weekend's key plays, coaching decisions, and traumatic brain injuries....

Torrey Smith Wants You To Know He Wasn't Tim Tebow When He Was In College
Cris Collinsworth mentioned Sunday night that Ravens rookie wide receiver Torrey Smith did not drink or smoke during his time at the University of Maryland. This struck some people as odd, since one wonders what else there is to do in College Park if both booze and cigarettes are removed from the u...

These German Soccer Fans Were Thrown Out Of A Stadium For Having Sex In The Stands (Twice)
Scoreless soccer games can be terribly boring. Like any long car ride, though, there are distractions for the monotony: songs, chants, popcorn, beer, "the wave"—and also, sex in public....

Florida's Dominique Easley Has Giant Metaphor Draped Around His Neck
Unpack this as you will. [Gainesville Sun; related]...

The Best Of Grantland, Now Available In $20 Leather-Bound Edition
If you've been thinking, "Grantland is cool and all, but it would be so much more enjoyable in a $20 leather-bound quarterly published by McSweeney's," then holy shit, you should go work in publishing immediately. Comes complete with a running diary of Hoosiers from you-know-who. [McSweeney's, via O...

Jon Gruden's Bulge Was Showing Before Last Night's Game
Your morning roundup for Oct. 4, the day we learned where we live made us sick. H/T to Chris. Photo via Mocksession. Got any stories or photos for us? Tip your editors....

Here's The Delmon Young Home Run That Gave Detroit A 5-4 Victory
And the freaky-fast Justin Verlander just got through a scoreless eighth. Hope there's a comfortable wall somewhere on 8 Mile, because the Yankees' backs are up against it....

Eric Foster Suffered A Gruesome Ankle Injury In Tonight's Bucs-Colts Game
I think it's safe to say Colts defensive tackle Eric Foster will not play again this season after his right foot got stuck under a teammate as he fell. It's kind of nasty, but you can just watch what happened....

Your Hank Williams Jr.-Free Colts-Buccaneers Open Thread
Do your Monday Night Football nasty, everyone. There are Colts, and there are Buccaneers, and these teams are playing one another on ESPN at 8:30 p.m. EDT. Yes, there is playoff baseball on the television, and perhaps that is more enrapturing, but this is much more fun to gamble on. Plus, Curtis Pai...

A.J. Pierzynski Will Be Irritating You On World Series Broadcasts This Year
Fox Sports announced today, per USA Today, that once-blond nuisance (and current White Sox starting catcher) AJ Pierzynski would join Eric Karros' pompadour and the formerly frosted, still gelled tips of Chris Rose on Fox's World Series pregame and postgame coverage. Yuck. (We presume Jeanne Zelasko...
