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What About The Children (And Their Wallets)?
At first the idea sounds nuts, like barbecuing in the nude, or a Madonna concert. But then when you think about it ... why shouldn't kids get paid for playing in the Little League World Series? In a column on MSNBC's sports site today by Bob Cook, our man claims, only somewhat tongue-in-cheek, that ...

Eric Karros Wants You To Know He Finds Erin Andrews Hot
We know it's somewhat of a popular parlor game to rank the attractiveness of female sideline reporters, and it makes a modicum of sense, considering the job of sideline reporter isn't inherently, you know, demanding....

Little League President Will Hold Breath Until Yankees Give Him More Cash
We knew it would be fun having Staten Island as a representative in the Little League World Series, and indeed, they haven't disappointed. First, the team had a, um, colorful game in pool play on Sunday, which ended with a slap. Then today we learn that Staten Island Little League president Bob Jo...

Some More On That Incredibly Large Saudi Arabian Child
As mentioned by MJD over the weekend, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia's Little League all-star team has a 6-foot-8, 256-pound player. That means that if things work out, Aaron Durley could become the tallest major leaguer ever; he should pass Randy Johnson (6-10) sometime around Labor Day, and probably alre...

Very Few Of Those 1.3 Billion Are Good Basketball Players
Team USA got back to their ass-romping ways this morning, beating China by a score of 121-90. Despite the presence of Yao Ming, China's not that good of a team. Really, they're probably the most poorly-equipped team to play the United States; they prefer (an unathletic) man defense, and their guar...

As Far As Wins Go, That Was Pretty Uncomfortable
It's just the first game, and a win's a win, but I'm not going to do any victory dances when we give up 100 points to Puerto Rico, either. Team USA did win by a score of 111-100, but they never really pulled away, they never dominated for a stretch longer than a couple of minutes, and they never rea...

Little League Potty Mouth
I'll be honest with you. I'm not going to watch much of the Little League World Series. All the talk about the purity of baseball at this level, the innocence of youth, the true, raw, uncorrupted emotion... it doesn't do much for me. But thankfully, Deadspin reader BL was watching last night, and ...

Little League Controversy Abounds
There's been a lot of conflict in youth baseball this week. First, there was the incident where a team walked a good hitter to they could get the final out of the game against a cancer survivor. And yesterday, a team had to forfeit a game that would've landed them in the regional finals for the Litt...

Some Things You Hear That You Can't Unhear
We just don't get the French. The fastest-selling song in France, nay, in all of Europe, is Coup de Boule (The Headbutt), which was produced as a "joke" by a couple of music producers in Paris to ease the pain of their country's World Cup loss to Italy. But now France's loss is also our loss, as thi...

Poker Tournament/Carnival Gets Underway
The World Series of Poker main event kicked off last night. About 1/4th of it, anyway. 2,138 players began play, and they played until they were down to 800. Some factoids from Day 1A (days 1B, 1C, and 1D run through Monday):...

Harold Reynolds' Firing: The Smaller Picture
Lost in all of the hubbub over Harold Reynolds being dismissed at ESPN is the fact that he won't be in the broadcast booth for the Little League World Series, breaking a nine-year string. It seems especially cruel to cut Reynolds loose on the eve of the biggest event for pint-sized athletes in the...

Well Worth Losing The World Cup
Want to know why alleged Brazilian superstar Ronaldinho struggled so much during the World Cup? It wasn't the world-class competition, the pressure of the international stage or being hypnotized by teammate Ronaldo's gut. It was orgasms and video games....

More Mascot Nightmare Fuel From Our Friends In Japan
Japan is hosting the World Basketball Championships this year, and you know what that means: confusing cartoon mascots. You'll feel exactly like you've been hit over the head repeatedly with a Pachinko machine after viewing BAD Badtz-Maru — some sort of bad-ass penguin, we're told — and his "frien...

Not The Best Way To Protect Valuables
There's no way of verifying whether or not this is real — our spider senses say no — but even if it's not, it's something we've all been afraid of. A German fan on his way to the World Cup, showing off his tickets to a fellow traveler, has a serious mishap....

The Headbutt That Will Not Die
If you're tired of hearing about the Zidane World Cup headbutt (or, the "Glasgow Handshake," as such a move is more commonly called), well, sorry. Even as you read this, an army of computer nerds are producing animated gifs of the incident at alarming rates. The French have their version of the co...

Wayne Rooney Has A Book
England and Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney has penned an autobiography. And even though he's just 20 years old and doesn't look like the brightest guy around, I find the fact that Rooney has an autobiography way less ridiculous than the fact that Terrell Owens has two. Some tidbits from Wa...

Marco Materazzi Is Not The Worst Guy In Italian Soccer
The gigantic Italian soccer scandal has finally reached a resolution, with the Italian Football Federsation's prosecutor ruling that three clubs, Juventus, Fiorentina, and Lazio, will be demoted from Italian Serie A to Serie B. And another team, AC Milan, will be starting next season with a fiftee...

Hey, Let's Do It Here Next Time
Are you ready to have the World Cup in the United States in four years? It could happen....

The Winner Of The World Cup Pool Speaks
When we launched the Deadspin Pants Party World Cup Pick 'Em Game back in June, we promised a free post for the winner. It turned out it was Alan Fortunate, with his "Enrico Pilazo" entry, scoring 99 points, just edging out E. Shepard's "Snitches Get Stitches" entry. Fortunate actually ended up sixt...

No Idea Where Zidane Might Have Gotten His Temper From
In a time of heated rhetoric, political grandstanding and continued confusion on the facts, we looked forward to an interview with Zinedine Zidane's ailing mother. Perhaps the woman would provide us with some much-need perspective, give everyone a chance to just cool down and realize that it's jus...