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Tuesday night should’ve been only celebratory for this Texas Rangers fan. It wasn’t
Last night should’ve been pure, unadulterated joy. I haven’t been shy when it comes to the Texas Rangers and writing about my favorite baseball team. It swept the 101-win Orioles and advanced to the American League Championship Series for the first time in a dozen years. I was a sophomore in college...

This is part of Clayton Kershaw's legacy, too
Clayton Kershaw is the best pitcher of the 21st century. This much isn’t really in dispute. A career 2.48 ERA and 2.82 FIP over 16 years is unimpeachable. There’s three Cy Youngs to go with it, and an MVP in 2014 when he had a 1.77 ERA and a 0.857 WHIP, which is beyond stupid. He probably should hav...

Your MLB team is out, so who do you root for?
Playoff baseball is in full swing. As we move closer to crowning a champion, who do you root for if your team has been eliminated? Do you stick with a club in your favorite squad’s league? Support the underdog? Or just watch football or whatever else is on TV? ...

Mariners fans probably have some good suggestions on what Jerry Dipoto can do with his 54 percent
One way to definitely not make your fans feel better about a season in which their team’s growth flattened out instead of turning into the juggernaut promised is to tell them that’s the plan all along. But that’s what Seattle Mariners GM Jerry Dipoto felt was the best salve for the sting of the M’s ...

The Tampa Bay Rays-Texas Rangers series winner will advance to the World Series
Here’s your de facto American League Championship Series. Sorry to those in Baltimore, your luck will run out despite being undervalued the entire season. Postseason baseball is a different juggernaut. The Toronto Blue Jays and Minnesota Twins just don’t have the firepower to keep up. And Houston co...

No one does goodbyes, or hellos, like baseball
The MLB playoffs start tomorrow, which still gives us a day to reflect on the season gone. MLB more and more would like its fans to focus on only October so they can demean, and hence pay less for, the regular season. But that’s not how the game works, it’s not how baseball fandom works, and there i...

Here's who we have winning the National League awards
Now we move on to the National League, where the MVP debate will have writers at each other’s throats for months. It’s Miggy vs. Trout all over again, where the shiny, identifiable accomplishment is pitted against the better overall season without some benchmark to point to. The Cy Young will come d...

And now we get to the question that has plagued society: Can the Minnesota Twins win a playoff game?
Saturday night completed the field for the MLB postseason, and then Sunday sorted out some seeding and matchups. And while most of the questions will be can Atlanta cap off one of the more dominating regular seasons we’ve seen, or Houston turn it on once again in October, or which start will Clayton...

Taylor Swift-Travis Kelce and other high profile athlete-celebrity romances that make you go, 'Hmmm'
Even if you’re famous, having someone to cuddle with at night is still a priority. It’s harder in the public eye to keep who your bedmate is on the down low, and in some cases, wondering how these pairs came together is more interesting than their relationship itself. Have we seen a more notorious a...

This time the Cubs can't blame Billy Goat
Though I no longer belong to the Wrigleyville parish, it doesn’t mean I have any more patience for tired and overused narratives about the Cubs. I do not find “#Cubes” any more entertaining or pertinent than I did when I bled blue. Most, if not all, should have been washed away by the 2016 World Ser...

Kim Mulkey’s willingness to share her recent health scare is good for college sports
On the court, there’s no doubt as to what Kim Mulkey is capable of. She’s one of the best in women’s basketball, college sports, and probably sports in general. That’s why she signed a 10-year, $36-million contract with LSU recently. Off the court, her reluctance to comment on Brittney Griner’s deta...

Travis Kelce is running away with Sportsman of the Year
Sportsman of the year is one of those nebulous awards that checks off boxes by usually honoring a do-gooder, an activist athlete, some stereotypical quarterback, a Finals MVP, Tiger Woods, the fastest man in the world, an American gymnast or some gold medalist in the pool during an Olympic year. ...

Saluting Sean Doolittle, one of the good ones
There’s a fixation in sports media and society at large to focus on the negative. When you’re watching the nightly news, they’ll never lead with how a crossing guard helped hundreds of kids not get hit by a car. It’ll be about the accident up the street. And you can bet they’ll run the tape of somet...

MLB's final 10 days in the American League will be pure chaos
Entering the penultimate weekend of baseball’s regular season, so much is in flux. The calming part is the National League. Every division race is wrapped up and the Wild Card will become a matter of which pair of teams are the odd ones out between the Arizona Diamondbacks, Chicago Cubs, Miami Marli...

Just how far can the Orioles go?
It would be folly to pin too much on just a handful of games, no matter how good the Baltimore Orioles have looked. But then again, October doesn’t really adhere to trends or reason or logic either. When you get to this point in the season and try to look forward, you can throw darts at stardust, an...

Adam Wainwright will be harder to replace in the clubhouse than on the mound
Adam Wainwright represents a lot for St. Louis Cardinals fans. He’s the final player standing from the club’s latest but not-so-recent recent World Series victory, a pitcher who was a mainstay of a consistently good to great staff for almost two decades, and a cornerstone in the clubhouse both on an...
![Shohei Ohtani done for the season, let the sweepstakes begin [Updated]](https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/ada644d1521fd4cc76b93b6c7bfc1af3.jpg)
Shohei Ohtani done for the season, let the sweepstakes begin [Updated]
After a player dons a Los Angeles Angels uniform, it’s easy to picture him in any team’s colors. It’s a mercenary’s stopping ground, a place to get money, live in L.A., and soak up the pro ball lifestyle while not having to worry about winning or expectations. That’s why every coastal elite club sho...

The Houston Astros don’t deserve a first-round bye
With playoff baseball rapidly approaching and the standings nearly complete, this feels like a good time to point out a flaw in the new six-team format (other than increasing the number of games per round). If you’re going to hand out first-round byes, give them to the two best teams in each league....

Maybe the Rangers don't suck anymore? Baseball's most unpredictable team looks great right now
I can’t think of a more apropos recent example of a roller coaster during baseball’s regular season than this year’s Texas Rangers. In the month of August, the Rangers were viewed both as the American League’s leading contender to make the World Series and also had a large swath of their fan base th...

The Atlanta machine just keeps rolling on
While Atlanta fans apparently are pretty touchy about any perceived criticism of their club, even we have to admit there’s something pretty baller about clinching the NL East one day after the Philadelphia Phillies broadcasters were bitching about the bravado Atlanta showed as they were kicking the ...