The Mourning After Page 2 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
There is no aspect of baseball that MLB won’t make worse for a nickel
We know that MLB owners have no problem making their actual product worse, because it’s cheaper. They’ve expanded the playoffs, making more teams comfortable simply aiming for barely .500. Many teams will use the facade of a rebuild to never actually try, and others will join them to avoid signing a...
Finally, politicians tell a team owner to shove their new arena proposal
The stadium/arena swindle in pro sports has been going on for a couple decades now, but that kind of history couldn’t save Ted Leonsis’s plan for a new arena in Virginia for the Capitals and Wizards. Even with numerous studies and proof that publicly funded arenas or stadiums have no public benefit ...
Everyone’s good enough to lose to Patrick Mahomes
The big takeaway from Sunday night’s Super Bowl is that creep in your DMs might just be The Messiah. But then, that’s not really all that surprising, is it? Given what’s been done in his name lately? ...
Pacers' Tyrese Haliburton throws the ball off the glass in the most mundane way possible
Throwing a basketball off the backboard to yourself is quickly becoming a loophole. The latest NBA player to do it was Tyrese Haliburton, and he didn’t even do it to throw himself an alley-oop. The Indiana Pacers point guard picked up his dribble, almost double dribbled and then threw the ball off t...
Chip Kelly taking a consulting gig is exactly what a near-retiree would do
All the outrage over an old-ish head coach stepping down to take a cushy consulting/coordinating job is a little much. Chip Kelly going from head coach of the UCLA Bruins to running one of the most talented offenses in the country at Ohio State is exactly how I’d want to spend my twilight years if I...
In soccer, yellow mixed with orange now equals . . . blue?
There is a throughline to some joke about a player in the future being shown a blue card and then having an arduous and impatient wait to be released out of a penalty box/sin bin. I’m clearly too mature to make such a joke. ...
An ode to Devin Hester, one of the few things about the Bears you can't mock
I have to sit here throughout the football season, and now even a month afterwards, and read all the other jackasses on this staff say stuff about the Bears. None of them are from here, most of it’s wrong, and even if it’s correct what gives them the right? Everyone’s got a goddamn thought and none ...
Baseball Prospectus' 2024 projections have fan bases losing their minds
It’s easy to tell when there will be leather popping and maple and ash cracking on some distant Florida or Arizona field. No, it’s not the fact that it doesn’t quite get dark at 4 pm anymore. Not even Valentine’s Day or President’s Day. Nope, spring training is always around the corner when the PECO...
And the highest payroll in the AL Central goes to . . . the Kansas City Royals?
If there’s a surer sign that baseball has had a winter of discontent, at least for everyone outside the LA metro area, it’s that the highest payroll in the American League Central belongs to the Kansas City Royals. That’s after they inked star shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. to an 11-year extension that’s ...
Nikita Kucherov exposed NHL All-Star weekend for the farce that it is
There’s a fallacy out there that any All-Star Game is “for the fans.” That idea flew out the window long ago, especially for the NBA and NHL. The All-Star Game is merely a junket for the league’s biggest sponsors to get the chance to hobnob with the game’s top stars, a reward for their support of th...
SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey is more powerful than the NCAA
In any drug kingpin story worth watching, there’s inevitably the scene where a policeman gets threatened or flat-out killed as a warning or retribution. Usually, it precedes and prompts the anti-hero’s downfall. SEC commissioner Greg Sankey more or less sent the NCAA a hand-written note with the nam...
The Orioles finally act like the big boys they are
Good to be an O’s fan these days. We have no idea what kind of owner David Rubenstein will be, and it could be he’s just as interested in the “ballpark village” that John Angelos secured the tax money for before selling up. But his status as “Not An Angelos” will provide Orioles fans with optimism r...
The four NHLers charged with sexual assault have a common thread
It is now official that Carter Hart, Cal Foote, Michael McLeod and Dillon Dube are facing sexual assault charges in London, Ontario for an incident that took place in June of 2018 after an event honoring the 2018 Canadian World Juniors team. Alex Formenton, who plays in Europe, was also charged. All...
Barcelona are truly lost
While Jurgen Klopp stole most of the manager-leaving-at-end-of-season headlines, another of the biggest clubs in the world is losing their manager come May. That would be Barcelona, as Xavi announced he would be leaving his post when this season ends. The difference between the two is that one is le...
Oh, you thought you were different, Lions?
Really thought you’d built something, didn’t you, Detroit Lions? The uniform change, the positivity, the belief, the empty catchphrases, whatever they were. Thought you’d shed that old Honolulu blue-and-silver skin and become something new, something better, didn’t you? Were sure you’d left the deca...
Nathan MacKinnon is doing things to Avalanche fans
Seeing a four-goal game is perhaps the rarest thing a hockey fan can witness in person. It’s not too far off from seeing a no-hitter. I’ve been going to hockey games for 364 years, and I’ve seen one. Steve Thomas vs. the Devils in March of 1990 at Chicago Stadium. I didn’t have to look that up (well...
Adrian Beltre and Joe Mauer are headed to Cooperstown, while Todd Helton snuck in Vincent Adultman style under their jackets
Wading into Baseball Hall of Fame debates is like diving into a pool full of eels, if the eels were up their own ass (personally, not physically, which eels might be able to do). Everyone’s got their own benchmarks, everyone hates your benchmarks, and never the twain shall meet. At the end of the da...
This about sums up the Penguins season
Hockey can be infuriating. In no other sport can you do mostly everything right, but a little chinks in the armor can have an outsized effect if they’re spaced out correctly. Go 0-fer on the power play, or don’t get a save at the right time, or give up the wrong odd-man rush in the gimmick of overti...
The Bills played their role perfectly
Every great dynasty has its one foe that is there simply to be toppled and make that conquering force look all the more mighty. Michael Jordan had the New York Knicks. Tom Brady had Peyton Manning. The New York Yankees had the Boston Red Sox. And then the Red Sox had the Yankees. The Romans kicked a...
Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown need a two-man game
The best duo in the NBA put on a show against the best team in the East on Friday night. Denver’s 102-100 win over Boston snapped the Celtics’ perfect mark at TD Garden this season, and 27-game home-winning streak overall. Nikola Jokić and Jamal Murray combined for 69 points, 20 rebounds and 14 assi...