yo Page 798 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

A-Rod, The World's Free Agent
Much talk this morning about Yankees hero of the working man Alex Rodriguez telling a radio station that he is leaning toward playing for the Dominican Republic in the upcoming World Baseball Classic rather than the United States. A-Rod has never, in fact, lived in the Dominican; he was born in Ne...

NFL Roundup: "I Disagree With Your Decision And Shall Protest Thusly"
• It's funny, because if you remember when Guenther Cunningham actually coached the Chiefs, you'd understand that here, he's just giving his unique signal to go for two. • It's like the Chargers suddenly remembered that Marty Schottenheimer's their coach. • Anybody see the new ESPN magazine? (Anyb...

Artest Requests Trade
Saying that he "causes too many problems" in Indiana, Ron Artest has asked Pacers management to trade him. New York is his stated preference....

Is there any chance Vince Young wins this thing?
I really don't see it. The only outside chance Young has is if somehow, Leinart and Bush split the west coast votes, and that the east coast bias is far more powerful than any of us think. Actually, that wouldn't even work. It would have to be a Texas bias, or just an outright west coast hatred....

Julio Franco Cryogenically Signed
What Julio Franco has done, playing professional baseball well into his late 40s, is amazing, astounding, incredible, whatever you want to call it. We salute the elderly when they find things to keep active and useful....

Anna Benson Will Fight For Her Right For Fur
While doing some followup "research" after yesterday's Anna Benson dustup, we came across her official Web site, and, more specifically, her angry "Letter To Peta" found at the bottom of the site's front page. (It's one of them fancy Flash sites, so we can't link you here. Just go there and check ...

Get Your Defunct T-Shirts
We're not much for handicapping — or, for that matter, the Heisman Trophy in general, which lost most of its charm for us when they moved it from the Downtown Athletic Club after September 11 — but we have to say that if you're looking for a potential collector's item, you musn't look much farther...

Anna Benson Is MAKING NEWS!
All right, so yes, she is attractive, though she's starting to veer a little close to that, "OK, we get it, you're hot, please stop it now," territory. Mets wife lady Anna Benson is piping up again, this time to blast the Mets for considering trading her man. The reason for the trade talks, she sa...

Jeremy Shockey, Premature Joculator
For anyone who missed the end of the Giants-Seahawks game yesterday, Giants kicker Jay Feely missed three field goals late to cost the team a victory. (Oh, as mentioned earlier: Daily News: "Sinking Feely." Post: "Feely The Pain.")...

NFL Roundup: Fore!
• Honestly, what more can you say about Bengals wide receiver Chad Johnson? This will almost certainly be a poll later this week, but his "putt the football with the pilon followed by a Tiger Woods fist pump" was, once again, completely inspired. (All it was missing was an awkward high five.) If t...

Blogdom's Best: New York Giants
It might not — yet — have the online fanaticism and cachet of baseball, but the NFL and its fans are starting to catch up in the world of team-devoted blogs. To this end, Deadspin salutes these modem-addled souls and proudly presents Blogdom's Best, given to the most outstanding blog for each NFL ...

20 Years After Theismann And LT
WSJ's The Daily Fix alerted us to anniversary that, like just about everything does anymore, succeeded in making us feel old: Today is the 20th anniversary of Lawrence Taylor's brutal hit on Joe Theismann, breaking his leg and ending his career. (The Washington Post has a fantastic story about thi...

Alex Rodriguez Wins Even MORE Fans!
MLB.com just announced that Yankees third baseman/lipstick model Alex Rodriguez has won the American League MVP award. We salute A-Rod on this "victory."...

Fun With Sparky, The Ice Girls ... And Satan!
We're not saying that the NHL is pulling out all stops to try to bring fans back, but ... well, we'll just let a reader explain what they found in their mailbox the other day....

Our Favorite One: Godzilla Vs. Mothra
We have no idea how we missed this, but AaronGleeman.com directs us to this statement from Time magazine's profile of Yankees outfielder Hideki Matsui in its 2003 Asian Heroes profile:...

The Matt Lawton Story: A Timeline
All right, this is the other self-indulgent post we were talking about earlier. As you've heard — though the story has been oddly muted, we think — Yankees free agent outfielder Matt Lawton was suspended 10 games yesterday for testing positive for steroids. Most people claim to have been shocked b...

"But Boss, They Had Beards! BEARDS, I Say!"
The big news in New York this morning — now that A-Rod has been appropriately chided for that not-really-all-that-nasty gambling business — involves five Muslim football fans who were detained in September at Giants Stadium during the Giants-Saints game. Their mistake? Other than being Muslim, you...

Who Knew About Lawton's Positive Test ... And When?
Since posting our item earlier today about Yankees free agent outfielder Matt Lawton testing postitive for steroids, we've received even further confirmation and now are slowly slipping out of rumor into fact. (UPDATE: Newsday is reporting that MLB will make an announcement about Lawton later toda...

Sources: Lawton Has Tested Positive
We've been hearing the same thing from several different, reliable people today, so, since this is what we do, we decided it was time to print it. Multiple sources tell Deadspin that Yankees outfielder Matt Lawton has tested positive for steroids and is currently entrenched in the appeals process,...

A-Rod ... After Dark!
Oddjack is all over the big story this morning: Yankees lipstick model Alex Rodriguez has been chided by Yankees officials for playing cards in those infamous New York City underground poker rooms everyone's always talking about. Supposedly A-Rod has been playing poker under the cover of darkness ...