west Page 54 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Joe West Tries To Explain That Fan Interference Call
The Red Sox took a 3-1 lead in the ALCS by winning Game 4 by two runs. The Astros had a two-run homer wiped out by a truly confounding ruling of fan interference. That’s the math for a call that could be remembered for a very, very long time....

Usain Bolt, Aspiring Soccer Player, Scores Two Goals In His First Start
Usain Bolt’s conversion from track star to soccer player continues apace. In August, Bolt got his first taste of the footy when he came off the bench for Australian team Central Coast Mariners in a friendly match and actually acquitted himself fairly decently. He built on that performance today, mak...

The Last Two Minutes Of The AFL Grand Final Were Thrilling Even If You Don't Know What You're Looking At<em></em>
Here’s two minutes of suspense that can be enjoyed with no context or understanding of Australian rules football. Big boys scrabble for ball. They boot the ball. They boot the ball in between posts. It’s hard not to get riled up by an Australian hollering, “He’s got the most impossible goal,” or by ...

Joe West Was Being Persnickety About Cameras So Bob Brenly Owned Him
Veteran umpire Joe West has been at this a long time, and it seems like he might be suffering some late-season and late-career grouchiness. Over the weekend, he instigated a confrontation with White Sox shortstop Tim Anderson that led to Anderson’s ejection as well as a post-game declaration that “E...

Joe West Gums Up Phillies' Strategy With Textualist Reading Of Foreign Substance Rule
A strange thing happened in the eighth inning of Saturday night’s Cubs-Phillies game. Veteran umpire Joe West, working third base, noticed Phillies reliever Austin Davis pull a notecard out of his back pocket before pitching to Addison Russell, and decided he needed to know more, and brought the gam...

European Soccer Is Loaded With American Kids Ready To Tear Shit Up<em></em>
American wonderteen Christian Pulisic will begin his march to the 2019 Ballon d’Or this weekend when Borussia Dortmund open their Bundesliga season against RB Leipzig. It’s hard to believe that Pulisic is still only 19, since he’s already got two stellar seasons at Dortmund under his belt and is the...

Minnesota Steakhouse Pranks Umpire Joe West With Braille Menu<em></em>
Joe West has been an umpire for 42 years, long enough to have seen pretty much damn near everything there is to see in the sport. Six World Series, nine League Championship Series, eight League Division Series, and three All-Star Games will do that to you. Bet he’s never been owned by a restaurant, ...

The Time Dave McKenna Inspired A Thousand Terrible TV Characters
Our beloved colleague Dave McKenna tells good stories. He’s done a lot of cool shit, met many weird people in weird ways, and had his run-ins with the law. And after selfishly squirreling all his stories away in Slack and our brains for years, we’ve realized we have a societal obligation to share....

They Aren't Your Friends
A good cover letter apparently should open with an anecdote that displays grit and character and perseverance; it should not just come right out and beg for it. Before I had the slightest idea about any of this, I’d lead with a story about interviewing actor and Deadspin commenter Jon Hamm as a most...

The OKC Thunder—Yeah, The <i>Thunder</i>—Now Have The Most Expensive Roster In NBA History
In an NBA offseason already filled with earth-shaking moves from the likes of LeBron James and DeMarcus Cousins, it was 34-year-old journeyman point guard Raymond Felton who truly pushed his team into uncharted territory when he resigned with the Thunder for one year and $2.4 million. On the heels o...

Cal Coach Lindsay Gottlieb Says Southwest Airlines Demanded Proof She Was Her Biracial Son's Mother
Cal women’s basketball coach Lindsay Gottlieb was about to board a plane in Denver with her year-old son Jordan on Monday when she was stopped by a Southwest Airlines employee, who demanded to see proof that she was Jordan’s mother. Even after Gottlieb showed Jordan’s passport, the employee was not ...

Here Is My Super Cool Plan To Save <i>Kevin Can Wait</i>
According to a report from Jezebel (Gizmodo Media Group’s shark blog), hit CBS sitcom Kevin Can Wait has been canceled after two seasons and 48 laugh-packed episodes. This national travesty happened at some point in the last two weeks, but the loyal fan community of “Waiters” is already clamoring fo...

Northwestern—Fucking Northwestern!—Shells Out $270 Million For Fancy Practice Facility
Listen. I get it, really, I do—your football team’s strung together a couple 10-win seasons; you won a few bowl games; you even signed your coach to a shiny 10-year deal. Things are looking up, as they say, and you want to strike while the iron’s hot. But when Northwestern, the most uninteresting te...

The Thunder Were The Ugliest Version Of Themselves In Game 6
The Utah Jazz dispatched the Oklahoma City Thunder Friday night, closing out the first round series with a narrow and vaguely controversial victory on Utah’s home floor behind more stout defense and just enough shot-making from their various role-players. Donovan Mitchell was fantastic, dropping in ...

Russell Westbrook Played Basketball And Stayed Alive
Once the Thunder were down 3-1, the Russell Westbrook obituaries had already begun to roll in; down 25, the eulogizers had probably started dipping their quills back in purple. What we’d already heard many times over was going to be repeated once again, at blaring, self-satisfied volume: You can’t w...

Grim And Gritty Ricky Rubio Has The Thunder On The Ropes
It can be a little disorienting to remind yourself that grim and gritty Ricky Rubio, the veteran point guard of the Utah Jazz, has played exactly the same number of playoff games over the course of his NBA career as Donovan Mitchell has. Rubio, whose transformation from doe-eyed, baby-faced sidekick...

Man City Win Premier League After West Brom Beat Man United
Manchester United came back from two goals down last weekend to prevent Man City from winning the Premier League. It was a memorable 3-2 win in the Manchester derby; it wouldn’t stop City from winning the league, but it was at least a nice moment....

Thunder Announcer Who Said Russell Westbrook Was "Out Of His Cotton-Pickin' Mind" Suspended For One Game
Oklahoma City TV announcer Brian Davis has been suspended by the team for Game 1 of the Thunder’s first-round series against the Jazz after he used the phrase, “out of his cotton-pickin’ mind” to describe Russell Westbrook in the team’s final regular-season game. ...

Thunder Call Out Announcer For Saying Russell Westbrook Was "Out Of His Cotton-Pickin' Mind"
During the second quarter of last night’s game against the Grizzlies, Thunder play-by-play man Brian Davis capped off a big Thunder play by declaring that Russell Westbrook “out of his cotton-pickin’ mind.”...